Workers for the Harvest

Have you met Annie Buckles? I can remember the first day that I did.

It was February of 2018, and Annie came into our office in Oakmont, PA, with her resume in hand and passion in her eyes. On that day, Annie and I had scheduled to meet for one hour to talk about her future and her potential working with SEAPC. In those years, I was shocked that people would show up wanting to work for a prayer and missions ministry as wild as this one. God was expanding and blessing the ministry. We had received a vision from Him to witness a world connected through prayer that brings Christ-based change to those in need.

In true fashion to any organization submitted to prayer-birthed vision, God was packing our lives with new friends, resources, and genuine enthusiasm. SEAPC was growing fast, and we needed workers in every aspect of our vision and calling. The international leadership of the ministry, including our US team, was jumping on airplanes every week to follow hard after the leading of the Lord. A buzz of hope and promise was filling our tank each day to see the impossible come to pass among the nations.

Annie walked in on that day as the embodiment of a prayer answered.

\”Lord of the harvest, please send workers!\”

She did not say much. She did not need to. The resume read of a life of service among the least, a heart to see people come to know Jesus Christ, and a track record of excellence. But her eyes spoke of much more. They welled up with tears (as they do still today) when she spoke about what Jesus had done in her life.  Annie had prayed and was called by God to preach His gospel in the nations.

By 2018, I had learned through many trials, heartache, and failed attempts to hire \”workers\” that the eyes of one called by God look very different than that of those seeking to fulfill their own interests. I had sent workers into ministry platforms based on their skills, abilities, and talents and had paid a heavy price. My dear friends and elders in those nations, who had already learned these lessons through their own leadings, graciously received the folks that I would send, bending their lives to accommodate and somehow make a way for them. Thank God many of those workers found their callings while on the field of work, but several others endured great loss and frustration.

Now here was Annie.

\”Jesus loves you. Everyone else has a perfect plan for your life, Annie,\” I shared, almost hoping that she would reveal to me any unspoken agenda, angle, or misaligned reason for her desire to serve God through SEAPC. \”I believe that God has brought me here, and I want to do anything I can to serve Him,\” she replied. Ha! I had heard that one before, I thought. \”Ok, let\’s start with a short-term trip to Cambodia.\”

She went. I went, too, and watched to see if God\’s work within her would perform itself among the people. Without fear, apprehension, or doubt, Annie ministered. After that trip, I invited Annie to submit to a long-term missions training program with the SEAPC USA team. She confirmed in prayer that she was to do so and that she had heard from God to give her life to Cambodia—specifically to the vision of Banteay Meanchey Arise (BC Arise).

BC Arise was on the rise. The Cambodian government had just expanded this work to bring Christ-centered education in science, math, and English to 126,000 public school students from 488 public schools in Banteay Meanchey province. In the first month of Annie\’s training program, BC Arise was averaging 82 students praying to receive Jesus per day in those schools.

Scaling up for a harvest like this required rapid decision making, complete trust in calling/purpose/vision/team, and of course, WORKERS! After completing the training, Annie moved to Cambodia. She began by serving the multitude of short-term missions teams flooding into the harvest from Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, and America. Annie was a natural at this! The skills and talents laid out in her resume proved promising as she managed the logistical quagmire of short-term missionaries. However, the calling from God demanded a much larger platform. We soon transitioned Annie to support the BC Arise Waterdrop program created and led by a fellow worker, Jenni Taylor (who, by the way, was used by God to do the impossible and who remains a real deal hero in my book). Annie took to it, building bridges between foreign workers and the local team. The local team struggled at first with confidence. They could not imagine themselves being used by God in this capacity, but Annie stood with them, letting God\’s word and prayer flow from her calling and into their lives.

She spent the next two years helping a 20-member team grow to 50—hustling from school to school, zig-zagging through the muddy roads on the backs of mopeds to get her local spirit-filled Cambodian teaching team to the students awaiting their lessons. Often, when I would visit Cambodia and ride with the team along those roads, I would look out on the rice fields and think back to my father, who prayer walked that province in faith in 1994. Those same fields held the last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge. They were, in fact, the actual killing fields Pol Pot used to murder tens of thousands who he thought may rebel against him. Now those roads once used to deliver man unto death had become roads that carried life and hope to the next generation. My friend Annie made sure the carriers of truth got on the mopeds and went to work.

She stood in the gap for two years, and now she has come home to us again! The fruit of her obedience is changing a nation. The team she helped to raise up is multiplying and carrying forward the work. No, she was not alone in this. God sent dozens of workers to join her side in the journey. God knows that life is a team sport. When I think about the \”workers\” we need for the harvest ahead of us, I think of Annie Buckles.

God, send us more workers today! Please, if you love Jesus and want to serve Him with your life, want purpose and a place to perform a deep calling from God, and want to do something meaningful, righteous, and true, ask Jesus to speak to you now and do whatever He says to you.

If what He says includes Cambodia, then, by all means, come and see me, visit our office, and get to know Annie Buckles. She will be there to greet you and tell you the things you need to know before you go.

PRAY

Pray for the BC Arise national missionary team as they deliver, teach, and follow up with Water Drop online English training. They are sowing the Word of God into 150,000 students daily.

GIVE

The monthly budget for BC Arise is $11,200. Please prayerfully consider supporting one or more of the national missionaries for $300/per month. 

GO

SEAPC currently serves BC Arise in the education platform from a Christ-centered approach. Join the team and serve directly through providing training in English, technical, nursing, and agricultural sciences.