November's Message

Harvest time and Thanksgiving are upon us.

My strongest harvest memory comes from my days as a missionary in Zimbabwe. Every year, the church

would celebrate Harvest Sunday, a day that celebrated the harvest and functioned as Stewardship Sunday. Most church members were farmers who would bring in their cattle, goats, chickens, turkeys, and sacks and sacks of grain and vegetables to be dedicated to God’s work through the church. On Harvest Sunday the church was a zoo – literally!

Church leaders would receive each offering, the congregation responding with thanks and praise to God. The service went on a long time. Those who were not farmers would make monetary gifts and financial pledges (sound familiar?). One year, somebody gave a motorcycle. Later, the livestock and produce would be sold, with the money put in the church treasury to pay expenses in the year ahead. Harvest Sunday was a day of great joy and celebration.

Church members in Zimbabwe were not rich by the usual definition of the word, but they were rich in gratitude and generosity – something on full display Harvest Sunday. A farmer  We are a family of Christians raising children in Christian faith. who only had five head of cattle might give one. Another member with twenty chickens might give half of them for God’s work. A worshipper with a half-ton maize harvest might give twenty per cent of it in gratitude for God’s goodness. Amazing!

People in the developing world live closer to the earth than most of us do. Most are farmers who know that life depends on trusting God to provide enough (but not too much) rain at just the right time. The unwavering faith of Christians in Africa compels them to give sacrificially to God’s work in and through the church.

However, they don’t give out of a sense of duty, but of joy. Because they know too well how fragile and fleeting life is, African Christians welcome every opportunity to give God thanks for everything, never missing a chance to attend church, sing and dance with energy, and listen with eager ears to the Word and its interpretation. Then, on days like Harvest Sunday, they give as generously as possible. Why? Because God is good, and life is therefore worth living with joy, joy, and more joy.

As someone once said, “Man, that’s livin’!”