From the Laborers of Your Field

God, we were Your gardeners
We brought forth our best tools
Most righteous deeds but filthy rags
How could you use such fools?

God, we were Your gardeners
Bound to see what You would do
We tilled the ground and planted seeds
But Father, nothing grew.

God, we were Your gardeners
Watered these people with our tears
Our hearts were shattered, seeds still scattered
Who knew deep roots took years?

God, we were Your gardeners
This ground is hard as clay
With hope we trust, in faith we must
Rejoice, share, teach & pray.

God, we were Your gardeners
Wanting to bring you flowers & bouquets
Instead we'll lift these empty hands
Accept, dear Lord, our praise.

-Meghan
City Talk English Team
Thailand

A Jewel in Southeast Asia

One of the first days on this new island, we were excited to go out and explore. Surrounded by beauty we were ready to see all that God would do. We headed out to find people. Ten minutes into our walk we happened across a barber shop where a few women sat in front smiling and calling to us. This was enough of an invitation for us to go over and chat with them. 

I spoke with the different women about their lives, looking but struggling to find an open door to share the gospel. Just as I began to think we should give up and move on, our translator encouraged me to keep asking questions. Praise God that I did not walk away in those moments! Eventually one of the women *Jewel ended up sharing that she had Christian relatives who had taken her to church a few times and had told her about the story of Jesus. Not only had she heard but her heart would break every time she heard the story of Christ crucified and would cry. She said that each time she heard this story it broke her heart but her Christian family told her to remain in her own religion, Islam. As we began to go deeper we asked if we could go to her house to continue talking.

As we sat in her house which consisted of “kitchen”, bedroom and bathroom all in one room, we discussed more about all that Christ’s crucifixion means for us. She agreed that this story is true and she fully believed. We asked her if she knew all that this meant, that following Christ means turning from sins, and other idols and accepting Jesus as our Lord. After going through all that this meant, we led her in prayer asking for forgiveness of sin, confessing that Jesus is Lord who died and was resurrected to pay for our sins. 

We studied John 1 with Jewel two times after she accepted Christ. She had already downloaded the Bible App on her phone, and was experiencing push back from her Muslim community who were suspicious of us visiting at her house. She stood firm in her new faith, seeming not to be afraid of confrontation. We went through the 10 Commandments in Exodus, explained prayer, the importance of reading scripture, worship and sharing her faith. When we visited her the second time she said she had been reading every day in John and felt a peace she couldn’t explain. It was the most encouraging experience of our trip out. Pray for Jewel and her family as they grow in their new faith!

-Jenna 
Ex & Ev Team
Southeast Asia

The End of the Beginning (The End of Me)

My time as an active member of Nehemiah Teams is running short. As of July 31, 9:01 P.M. (CST), I will no longer be on my short-term mission trip. Orientation. Travel. Ministry. Breaks. Debrief. It will all be over. There will be many friends who I may not see again until we all get to Heaven.

The thing is, I am excited to taken my first step into obeying God’s Great Commission. Once our debrief is over, everyone will go their own separate ways, and I will too.

However, at least for me, I am not going back to being the same Christian Townson. Right before we left the Philippines, another Nehemiah Teamer asked me, “So describe your summer in two sentences.” I went with my gut reaction. This is what I said.

“I learned how to die to myself.”

The old me loved and tried to glorify God in everything he did, but his earthly goals sometimes took precedence over God’s will. He was looking for ways to improve HIS life, HIS situation, and to accomplish HIS goals. Even though this was not done with malicious intent, my mindset became an obstacle in the way of seeing what God wanted me to do and how He wanted to use me.

At the beginning of the summer, Psalm 37:4 was my favorite verse. “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” I still love that verse, but after this summer, I think that Acts 20:24 fills my heart with a greater joy than any other verse I have read up to this point in my life.

I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me- the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.

My life is worth nothing if I am not living for God and telling others about His love and His mercy, and how Much it is worth to follow Jesus and live life on purpose for the Lord.

Truthfully, this was one of the greatest summers of my life. If I could have stayed for a few more months, I would have taken them up on that offer. The most satisfied I am with my life is when I am glorifying God, telling others about His Good News and seeing them understand what that means. Also, being with other followers of Jesus with World Christian mindset rejuvenated my passion for cross-cultural missions. I do not know what role God is going to put me in for long-term missions, so I’m just gonna go until God tells me to stop.

Please pray for every Nehemiah Team member to take the Great Commission seriously as we leave Nehemiah Teams. I love Nehemiah Teams as much as anyone, but the world will not be won to Christ with short-term missions. We need mobilizers and goers to take on the challenge of spreading Jesus’s name to the ends of the Earth. 

Pray for any national partner/supervisor/cross-cultural worker who we have left. They needed us for a reason, so pray that we were effective enough and laid a foundation for them to reap the harvest.

Pray for every Christian in the world, including you, the person reading this article. How are you participating in God’s Great Commission? Are you doing anything? The Great Commission is for EVERYONE, not for a select few.

I want to thank everyone who helped me on my journey to Nehemiah Teams 2019. I want to specifically thank my parents and brother for being supportive and constantly encouraging me to love the Lord more than them. I know that’s hard, but there will be people in Heaven because my team went this summer.

So, this isn’t THE end. It’s just the end of the beginning...the end of me.

-Christian
Tropical Harvester Team (Journey)
Philippines

Bush Missionary: Good Bye!

What an amazing group of people. We had to say goodbye to these people who we love and have become family. This team gave so much and worked extremely hard for the past two months with us in Kaabong. They are humble servants and their love for the unreached and our KJ people is contagious. We sure will miss them and their amazing attitudes. Nehemiah Teams is awesome and I would highly recommend them to anybody who needs more information. A shout out to Laekan for recommending and working it all out for them to get here. We absolutely love these guys and their hearts!

-Selvin & Laurel
Field Supervisor, Bush Supervisor
Uganda

Bush Missionary team ready to travel

Butuan City area teams: Good Bye!

A great way to say good-bye to friends & national partners.... share a huge pizza! 
Pray for our national partners as some will be returning to the areas where we worked this summer to follow up on new believers. 

-Tropical Harvesters Teams
Island Ministry Team
Butuan City, Philippines

Life on Purpose

Being back at our home base for the last two days of our trip seemed like the end, but the Father had a plan. I had been forming a good relationship with one of the cousins, *Nelly, who lives in this city.

We had become very close over the few weeks. I was trying to share with her, but she would lead the conversation quickly away. As I left to go out for our second trip, my heart hurt knowing that she does not believe. The day I came back, expecting my work here to be done, our supervisor asked me if I wanted to try and meet up with Nelly. I agreed it would be a good idea, though my heart was weary from the long-time of work in the weeks before.

The Father was beginning to teach me something in the middle of this that is so vital to the walk the Father has called each of His children to.

I began to pray for our conversation and later that day we went out to get coffee. At the end of the day we began to talk about the dark magic. She told me about many of her family members who were affected by the dark magic including a curse that was put on one of her grandmother’s friends and her grandmother had to make a sacrifice so that the dark magic would leave. I took this opportunity to share about the greatest sacrifice ever made.

She quickly lead the conversation away. 

We returned to the house without more conversation about the Good News. I was discouraged as I walked back into our home, but I trusted that the Lord was working. Again, I thought that this would be the last opportunity for truth, but the Father was working in ways I could not see.

The next day, Nelly and I ate breakfast together and the Spirit provided an opportunity for me to share my testimony and to listen to her about a lot of the trauma of her past. She listened intently as I shared and though she still did not believe, something seemed to shift in our conversation. Pray for Nelly that she would believe.

I was not ready to share and I felt so empty and unprepared, but the Lord provided the way into the conversation and the means to share. He taught me that we hold the greatest news that means life or death so we must not go on in silence. We must go to the nations so that the family will grow even when it means being emptied daily. We must always be ready to share and rely on the Father for strength to walk in it. 

-Tali 
Ex & Ev Team
Southeast Asia

Hide & Seek/Nurse 2 Nurse: Good Bye!

And they're off!!! The end of an awesome summer of ministry. 

-Robin, local supervisor
Hide & Seek Team
Nurse 2 Nurse Team
Southeast Asia