Harvest of Talents put into Jesus hands to reach a world of people

 

[October 30, 2019] 

On the fourth Saturday of October every year, Lincoln Christian Church is transformed into a Harvest of Talents to fight world hunger. This year the 36th annual event took place on Saturday, October 26th.

No matter what the talent or skill: prayer, original artwork, baking, canning, gardening, hospitality, recycling, running, cleaning, also in eating, building, or playing golf, etc., God will bless the offerings to help feed hungry people because even the smallest gift put in the hands of the Master changes everything dramatically.

Ron Otto, preaching minister at Lincoln Christian Church, reminded the congregation of one such offering, in the Bible, given by a little boy with a small lunch. While he held the basket, it was just a lunch but when the lunch was given to the Master something miraculous happened. There are only two miracles repeated in all four Gospels of the Bible: The Resurrection story and the feeding of the 5,000. This isn’t a small private miracle like Jesus often does. This is a moment when Jesus is putting Himself on display for thousands to see. Those who hated Jesus the most during His ministry never denied the miracles. They credited His power to Satan, they criticized Him for doing miracles on the wrong day, and they paid a guard to lie about His miracles, but they never denied that miracles were happening.

Jesus crossed over the Sea of Galilee and on the other side a large crowd was waiting for Him. Those waiting were there because they knew Jesus would heal the sick.

Since there was a crowd, Jesus started preaching. According to Matthew (14:13-21), Mark (6:30-44), Luke (9:10-17), and John (6:1-15) Jesus started preaching in the early morning and was still preaching in the late afternoon. The disciples noticed that the crowd was starting to get restless and they chose one disciple to tell Jesus that it was time to stop so people could go get something to eat. Jesus told the disciples to feed the people.

In the meantime, a disciple feels a tug on his coat and a little boy offers his lunch. John (6:8-9) tells it this way, “Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, ‘Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?’ About 5,000 men were there, but the crowd was much larger.

Jesus took the loaf, and everyone ate as much as they wanted, He did the same with the fish. When everyone had eaten, the disciples picked up 12 baskets of leftovers so nothing would go to waste. This was not a trick or gimmick; it was a full-blown miracle.

Many of us can relate to this little guy; what we bring to Jesus seems so small. People in garages and kitchens and workshops putting together a small craft not to give to the church or to the Harvest of Talents committee, but to put in the hands of Jesus. Jesus can multiply our small offerings in amazing ways.

Our country sends billions of dollars in relief to other countries each year and it doesn’t make a dent in the needs of the world.

On Sunday morning, Pat Snyder presented a check to International Disaster Emergency Services of Noblesville, IN in the amount of $100,043.69 with these words, “The mission of the Harvest of Talents is to provide both spiritual and physical food to those who are hungry and hurting in our world in Jesus name.” IDES will feed hungry people while sharing the embrace of Jesus Christ and that is what is going to change our world.

The total donated to I.D.E.S. over the last 36 years is $2,440,496.66. David Stine, Director of Operations, IDES, shared, “We have a great vision of taking care of starving people all around the world and reaching them with the love of Christ. And, that’s what it’s all about: people being fed, and lives being changed.”

[Lisa Ramlow]