Month of Missions Devotional – Day One, Thursday, February 1

Topic: Heart for the Harvest

Text: John 4:34

We all need a heart for the harvest like our Lord and Master. His goal was to finish the harvest. The harvest became His meat (food, strength and nourishment). For us to have and maintain a heart for the harvest like our Lord and master we must:

  1. Own the harvest: Owners take serious responsibility. Owners would do anything, pay any price, go to any length to get the harvest home. I know it because I practice farming. Harvest time is a crucial time for the farmer. You can’t ignore the harvest. You can’t suspend the harvest. It is a top priority. Food and pleasure may wait but not the harvest. Our hearts cannot be on the harvest unless we see the harvest as our own.
  2. We need to remind ourselves the extent of the harvest. It doesn’t matter how much and far we have reached, the question is what is left undone.
  3. We need to know the enemies of the harvest: In the harvest of crops and grains, we have the wind, fire, late rains and thieves as enemies. Other faiths and occult groups are competing for the same harvest fields we are sent to. On the other hand, wars, terrorism and crises are killing and destroying lives and properties in the fields Christ has commanded us to go to.
  4. Reward is coming: The Master says in Rev. 22:12 “Behold I come quickly; and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be.” Our labour shall be rewarded by the master Himself. We live to work and we must work now while the sun shines.

Prayer:

  • Ask the Lord to make you own the harvest.

Rev David Kanda

National Chairman, NEMA & General Overseer, Harvesters for Christ Ministries, Kaduna

Translation of Discipleship Essential Manual into Hausa

As part of our commitment to make discipleship resources available in Northern Nigeria, we are translating the Discipleship Essential Manual into Hausa. This initiative is done in collaboration with TWR Canada and indigenous Hausas from Kano as translators. We translated 7 modules; Recorded 31 Radio Programs; 415 Pages of DE Lesson Essentials, Leader’s Guide and Study Guide.

A mission leader has made commitment to air the TWR Hausa version audio on a renowned radio station in Northern Nigeria.

NEMA Month of Missions 2023

NEMA exists primarily to serve mission organisations in Nigeria. In 2023, we touched based with all registered member agencies. Many of them were supported and encouraged in their various activities of reaching the unreached. Some other services rendered to NEMA member agencies include:

Connecting member agencies to target people groups and communities. Mobilising missionaries for some member agencies. Connecting member agencies to churches and other ministries for partnership purposes. Organisational development consultancy was carried out for eight member agencies. This is towards helping member agencies address their structural and governance issues which are vital to their operations.

NEMAs’ 28days Prayer Bulletin for the UPGs in Nigeria

Through the generous donations of friends, partners and member agencies, we were able to support at least one hundred and fifty missionaries in 2023. About fifty missionaries were also connected to some sort of regular support. We also intervened as the Lord provides for missionaries having health challenges, those needing accommodation, missionary children education support etc.

We supported special mission outreaches with fund, resources such as Bibles, Audio Bibles, Audio-visuals and print Discipleship materials, clothing, food as well as facilitating the movement of missionaries to outreach locations.

 

The Virtual Missionary

The Gospel has always been the solution to the chaos among men. It is the provision of God to save and redeem men from eternal damnation and restoration of the world. The Gospel is the power of God unto Salvation both to the Jews and the Gentiles! Romans 1: 16.
With about 7.9 billion people on earth and over 2.3 billion of them who have not heard about Jesus, met a believer or understood the Gospel enough to make decision for Jesus, our world. is desperately in need of the Gospel! Unfortunately, most of these people are not only deprived of the Gospel, they are also shielded from accessing the Gospel either by Government restrictions, physical inaccessibility, violence or outright resistance.
However, during Jesus time on earth, he used different means to preach the Gospel. Most of these means were relevant to his audience and easily understood by his listeners. Likewise, during the Apostles time, the Gospel was given to all men and bore much fruits irrespective of location, religion, bias or affiliation. When Jesus was going up to heaven, he commanded his Disciples to make Disciples of all Nations (Matthew 28:19,20) and just after a few decades, the testimony was that the Gospel was bringing forth fruit in all the world! (Colossians 1:5,6). In fact, the people of the world did acknowledge that they were everywhere with the Gospel (Acts 21:27,28).
So how did they do it?
In 1Corinthians 9:18-23 Paul gave an insight. He said he took advantage of every available means to present the Gospel to everyone in every place in the context and form they would understand. To the Jews, he preached the Gospel from the Torah and the Prophets (Acts 13:15- 41), to the Greeks in Athens, he preached to them from their poetic writings and the objects of their worship (Acts 17: 23 -28). Evidently, the early Christians reached their world in spite of the resistance and oppositions because they took advantage of all creative means available!