Ripe Unto Harvest

“Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest?’ I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” John 4:35, NIV.

Roy and Doris Burson are IMB missionaries who have been working with prison inmates in Thailand for more than six years. They provide correspondence Bible study materials, and Roy visits the prisons and conducts worship services and Bible studies. On occasion the Bursons receive encouraging letters from prisoners they have met through their ministry. Here is an example of the type of letter they receive.

Dear Father Roy and Mama Doris,

I have been in prison for 13 years. Several months ago I asked you to pray with me for my wife and three sons. I recently learned that my wife and children in Ghana have come to know Christ. Thank you for sharing Jesus with me and for praying for my family. I see the prisons as an over ripening harvest field…

With gratitude,
Samuel*

God’s message of hope is clearly being heard and received in the bleak prisons of Thailand. Samuel is right; it is an over ripe harvest field.

*Name changed for the privacy of the local believer.

Pray that:

God will continue to call prisoners in Thailand to saving faith.

God will call out workers to share the gospel in the Thai prisons.

Pacific Rim is a region of the International Mission Board, SBC.