There are 3,004,832,000 unreached people in the world. Take a moment to visualise three billion people who may have never heard of the name Jesus, and even if some did, they would have no community of Christians to tell them who exactly Jesus is. It’s difficult to imagine, isn’t it? Jesus’ words in Matthew 9:37 resonate: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few”.

What should our response to this be? Jesus continues in Matthew 9:38 “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Have you ever thought that you may be the answer to Jesus’ prayer request?  That you could be a harvest-worker, reaping the ripe harvest fields of people in God’s world?

This question was posed at the EU Graduates Fund annual “Plunge” conference, a conference for students and graduates who are interested in taking the plunge to pursue vocational ministry. Rowan Kemp explored the biblical basis of word-based ministry and how we should serve in the freedom God has given us, but with costly sacrifice. Strand-groups and one-to-one meetings with EU staff provided opportunity for attendees to ask questions and receive guidance on taking their next step towards vocational ministry.

Claire Bird graduated from Sydney University in 2012 and during her time in the EU she had started to think about how she might serve as a vocational minister in God’s church overseas. Reflecting on her time at Plunge, Claire said, “[At Plunge] the biggest push forward for me was just realising that I should stop sitting tight and waiting for a sign from God, but actually just take a step forward, acknowledging that it is big and scary, but that God has got it under control.” Claire is now looking into visiting a missionary family in Mexico to get a feel for the overseas mission-field.

Would you join in praying for Jesus’ prayer request? Please pray that the Lord of the harvest might raise up workers from the EU and beyond to work as labourers in his ripe harvest field.