Go to the Ripe Fields First! by J Gehman

Go to the Ripe Fields First! by J Gehman

This book is about harvest. The harvest metaphor in the New Testament originated with Jesus. He talked about harvest a lot, using illustrations from the agrarian culture of which he was a part. Seeds, soil, sunshine, rain, predators, weeds, harvests, and etc. became the analogies Jesus used to illustrate people's hunger for God. In short, when it came to their response, Jesus said some people are ripe (i.e. open and receptive) and others are not (i.e. indifferent or even hostile). Go to the Ripe Fields First develops and explores this harvest idea. Using examples of real harvests from around the world -China, Guatemala, India, Korea, Sri Lanka and more - where thousands, sometimes millions of people have given their allegiance to Jesus Christ, this book explores both the theology of harvest (what the Bible says about the subject) and the sociological implications (what causes people to become receptive or remain resistant to the Christian message). Go to the Ripe Fields First explores the spiritual (prayer and witness) and the natural (war, racism, natural disasters, poverty) influences that lead people to become hungry for God, and makes a case for gracious but unapologetic focus on them.

Doug Gehman grew up in the Mennonite community of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. After high school he traveled west to Goshen, Indiana for college (the first in his family to go to college) and met his wife, Beth Ann, in the church he attended in the community. They were married in April 1976 and soon felt God's call to overseas missionary service. Doug and Beth first went to Asia in 1978 as itinerant missionary evangelists. In 1984 they pioneered their own ministry and began conducting open-air crusades all over Sri Lanka and Thailand. In 1987, after observing a high degree of receptivity in one people group, they targeted the Indian Tamils who work on the tea estates in Sri Lanka's hill country. Over the next eight years they helped plant 35 churches among these estate Tamils and won several thousand to Christ. In the years following, the national leaders with whom they worked, planted an additional 60 churches in neighboring regions. This church planting movement eventually grew to nearly 100 churches with 35,000 members. Doug attended Goshen College and Fuller Theological Seminary, and earned Master's and Doctorate degrees in Missions at Liberty Christian University in Pensacola, Florida. Doug now serves as the President and Director of Globe International, a non-denominational missionary sending agency in Pensacola. Doug and Beth have ministered in over 50 nations. They have four children and eight grandchildren. Books and works by Doug Gehman include: -Go to the Ripe Fields First! Focusing Outreach on Receptive People -The Treasure of the River Kwai (youth, fiction) -The Journey - a Modern Adaption of Jesus' Prodigal Son Story (a musical stage production) -White Picket Fences (a story about growing up Mennonite)

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780976516804
ISBN 10	0976516802
Title	Go to the Ripe Fields First!
Author	J Gehman
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Globe Publishing
Year published	2012-02-07
Number of pages	76
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.