A New Semester, A Bigger Harvest Field

The semester is approaching really fast.  To think that classes will start in 2 weeks makes you wonder where the summer went.  I am anticipating this time a little differently than those who will be going back to classes.  I am not concerned about textbooks, commuting, or any of those other typical back to school issues.  These issues don't even compare to the issue that is tearing at my heart.  For those of you wondering, not even my fund raising holds a candle to the issue at hand.  True, getting funded is important and needed to do the ministry God has called me to at AU. 

However, the real issue at hand, the issue that fuels me to tackle this mountain called fund raising, is the issue of the eternal condition of the students walking onto AU's campus.  In just 2 weeks over 2,000 students will walk back onto AU's campus.  These students are coming to make new friend, catch up with old friends,

pursue a degree to end in a career, explore some of the greatest questions of our generation, etc... They have the near future on their minds, some even have a 10 year plan.  But most of these students don't have an eternal plan.  Some of these students don't think that there is anything after this life, some may think if you are good you'll make it some form of "heaven".  Some don't even think that there is a hope that they can find comfort in on this side of heaven, let alone after this life.  These students are searching for something to fill that desire to have meaning, be made whole, & to be a part of something greater than them.  These students are searching and I want to be on campus to point them down the right road.

I ache to lead them to Jesus.  To show them his love and compassion.  To teach them that nothing of this world can fill their desires but they can be filled and healed through Jesus.  I don't want to let a single student leave that campus without hearing about Jesus.  Each student's life could be transformed by a single conversation or encounter with a living witness for Christ.  But that is 2,000 students.  That is 2,000 conversations.  That is 2,000 interactions with a witness for Christ.  Each year more and more students attend AU, and that means there are that many more students who need to have a relationship with Jesus.  The work isn't done until the trumpets sounds and we are called home to glory.  AU is a harvest field, but the workers need to be there to work it.  I'm so thankful that even as I wait to start on campus, the IV chapter is established enough to still do what they can to share the gospel.  But this need, these students that need to know Jesus, make me not content until I can be on campus to do outreach too.

I saw a quote on a bulletin board at church the other day.  The gist of it was that the one thing that we will never be able to do again once we are in heaven is share the gospel.  So we need to work until the Master comes back.  That means sharing the gospel at AU to each of the students.  That means reaching out to those who are hurt and broken and need to know that there is hope.  That means I need to be able to get to work soon.  There is a song by Brandon Heath that reminds me how important it is to keep working in the harvest field, to continue to reach out to the lost and broken.  The chorus is my prayer to all of us, not just for me to be able to do my work on campus:

For all that we've grown
How could we forget
Those who don't know
Or just don't know yet
Let's harvest this field
From sunrise to sunset
The Master is coming
We are not done yet

I pray that I will never forget that there is still work to be done at AU.  As students come year after year to AU, I pray that I don't forget how great the need is to go and tell others about the hope we have found in Christ.  That is why I feel the urgency and the ache to be on campus; I want to be able to harvest the field from sunrise to sunset.  I need to get on campus soon, because the work is not done for me yet at AU.  Let us not forget those who don't know yet.