Serving in the Far North, within the 60/70 Window, requires patience since relationships take time.  Here are some words of encouragement from leadership to a weary family...

You folks seem to have the idea that we, the board, feel you have been incompetent and ineffective. I have never heard that expressed, not ever; I think perhaps it has sprung from the fact that you have not had a harvest; and so in your own thinking, you have a feeling of inadequacy as a result. The board doesn't feel that way, neither do I. 

You see we feel it is like this: Some have a ministry of sowing the seed, which has been your work and we know it has been on some hard ground, some of it very stony.  However, some of the seed must have fallen into the deep fertile soil and will someday spring up to a real harvest. We, humanly, would love to have heard of many souls saved there, but obviously this has not been the Lord's way for you. We can but sow the Word; the Lord does the rest. 

Many things hamper the soil's productivity in nature; storms, too much moisture, too dry, the blight of ruinous insects, molds, diseases; more things than I know about.  Similar things happen to the seed as it is written where Jesus tells of the sower and the seed. The devil could snatch the seed away; the cold winds and rains of tradition could chill the soil so that the seed must lay dormant for awhile; but where it has fallen into good soil, the seed never rots like the farmer's seed; this seed lives forever.   When the right condition exists, then it brings forth salvation.

Let's pray for the latent seed to spring forth under the warmth of the Holy Spirit into a real harvest of souls. God is able. Let's be found faithful in praying to this end; to water the seed with our tears and plead with the Lord for those precious souls is indeed a privilege.

These timeless words of encouragement written in 1963 by Vince Joy still ring true for us today.

The struggles when this outreach first began are many of the same struggles we still face. And it is the same God that we serve. Join us in praying for those whom God loves and endeavors to reach through us. May we all be found faithful.

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