Stories from the Field

December 2004

Small Ad Leads to Precision Harvest

“Eric”* lives in a huge Central Asian city. One day, he noticed a small ad in his newspaper offering a book about the life of Christ. He called a number to inquire about the book. “I read it without resting,” Eric said. After reading the book, he rushed to tell his friends and even loaned the book to them. “We found peace,” he said. He and his friends began meeting on weekends to discuss Jesus and His teachings. In 2003, more than 1,850 others like Eric requested the small book that contained the books of Luke, Acts and Romans. “Less than 2,000 may seem like a drop in the bucket in this city of 15 million,” the Southern Baptist worker said. “But we know that these seeds were sown in soil that He has already softened and prepared beforehand. And even though the field is huge and these seeds seem so small, [God], the precision harvester Himself, continues to plant His church even here, and it will grow.”

* Name changed for security reasons.