Twelve years ago, we bought a farm in Fiji. Buoyed by the dream of community development and discipleship, we stepped out in faith, taking a loan from my mom to buy an old sugar cane farm with a dilapidated tin house. 

After digging out the rat nests and getting the guest house ready, it was time to get started on the farm. We had to pick all of the rocks out of the field before we could even plow. It wasn’t easy! We next learned how to plant, fertilize, water... and wait for the harvest. 

At the same time, we were visiting our Indian neighbors of other faiths. We were running kids’ programs. We were looking for spiritual fruit in the community, just as we waited for fruit at the farm. Again, it wasn’t easy. Neighbors tried to burn the farm down. Someone poured water in the tractor’s gas tank. They sprayed our honeybees with insect killer to steal the honey. Our dogs were poisoned. 

We planted acres of papaya trees, painstakingly watered them, and then lost them to a cyclone just before harvest. 

Honestly? We often felt like giving up. Supporting churches back home were asking for numbers. How many conversions? How many souls had been saved per dollar invested in our work? We felt like failures as we reported the conversions we could count on one hand. Some churches dropped us.  

It was at that time my husband asked a visiting intern to paint this verse on a sign and hang it up at the farm: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Gal 6:9) 

“Someone’s got to pick up the rocks,” he said, thinking about all the work we had to do at the farm just to get ready to plow. Some days it felt like all we were doing was picking up rocks. We weren’t even planting much! And yet, that work prepared the hearts of those around us. Little by little, we began to see favor in the community. The rocks gave way to plowed earth, and our planting gave way to fruit. And, maybe we’ve prepared the soil for the next wave of God’s power at work in our community.  

Perseverance is important on the field. Maybe some of us are just plain stubborn. But God rewards this act of “not giving up” in His perfect time. It’s not up to us to provide the harvest, it’s up to Him. We may not have the impressive numbers that some overseas workers can boast, but each name written in eternity matters to God, and these people matter to us. 

Don’t give up. Do the thing that God has put in front of you to do. Whether you’re picking up rocks or harvesting fruit, it’s all in God’s time and in God’s hands!