We made the decision to do missionary work rather abruptly. Our pastor, Rev. Lynn Hyatt at First Baptist Church of Callahan, Florida, announced that they needed people to visit Kenya for a medical missionary trip.

We did not know why, but we looked at each other and said, “We are going there”. We now realize that God was calling us to attend. We saw ourselves as nothing special, nothing and nobodies with unusual histories of life’s trouble. God saw us as his tool to serve.

One thing, we believe, is taken for granted more than anything else in our lives is the invitation that God has given us through Jesus Christ and the opportunities to share the good news. Even as we struggle in remaining faithful in our pursuit of Him, He has remained faithful in pursuing us by reminding us of our desperate need for Him. This time with the Pokot was that reminder for us.

Since our trip our view about life and our experience has changed significantly. We believe that the will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you. We had no fear. To get something you never had, you have to do something you’ve never done before, so we ran to the adventure.

When God takes something from your life, He is not punishing you, but opening your life to receive something better; He will provide you the strengthening experience required making you strong to support the job. That is how we now view our history and life.

We are honored to have been chosen for such an important task. We will never tell ourselves we are too old or unworthy again.

We cannot help but think that God is calling us stronger now than ever before in our relationships with Him; that there are many in this world who have yet to hear the Truth about the God who created them and who loves them and desires a personal relationship with them. We were blessed with the opportunity to take God’s Truth, Jesus Christ, to the Pokot tribe.

We feel that this experience has enriched our lives beyond our wildest dreams and strengthened our relationship with each other and God. Both of us served in a different capacity.

Donald on the evangelism team and I on the medical team. It is disheartening to us, coming from a place with so much focus on health care, that there are places with such a great lack of the simplest treatments.

We found this experience both challenging and enlightening to our ability as senior adults to still serve the Lord and spread the good news of salvation. We are so grateful to have shared this experience together.

Coming home on the plane, we were weary and told ourselves that we were just too old for this. Before we arrived back in the USA, we said, “Let’s sign up for next year”. Now we hope to remain healthy and make this an annual vacation time. It is hard to express in words the internal enlightening that has occurred to both of us but we feel our lives have changed forever and we will never be the same two people who left this small town to serve again. He has made us anew.

There was spiritual warfare to each of us prior to the trip and more when we returned home. As our great team leader, Rev. Doug Hodges told us when we discussed this with him prior to the trip, “I know I am doing something that displeases the evil one, and I find that encouraging”. We now view his efforts as encouragement to continue in this pursuit. Thank you for allowing us to share this with you. We feel like we “paid it forward”, our blessings from above. To us, that is what Acts 1:8, which our church has adopted, is all about.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… How will you and your family celebrate the season?

Why do we celebrate the season? For some, it is about being with family. For others, it is about exchanging gifts.

While we are bombarded with carols and advertisements of the newest gadgets, please don’t overlook the celebration of Christ’s birth.

It was this divine birth that led to the guiltless and sufficient death that now grants us the opportunity of salvation through faith. It is this message of hope that Harvesters and our ministry partners seeks to share with those who have not heard during this season and all others.

Many thanks to those of you who faithfully support Harvesters with your prayers and finances. As you consider your final contributions for this year, remember that only gifts postmarked or otherwise delivered by December 31 qualify for a tax deduction for the current calendar year.

Warmest wishes to you and yours during this blessed timed of year. Click here for giving opportunities

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

An American missionary and North Carolina native, who was known around the world as a legend in his own time, went to meet his Lord and Savior on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at Christian Ministries Hospice near his home in Georgia.

Less than two weeks before he died, Rev. Harold J. Stevens, 85, of Griffin, had taken a turn for the worse, but his health gradually improved in the following days. Why? He told family and friends that he believed it was because he had unfinished business.

And what was that business? At one time or another, Harold had witnessed to everyone in his neighborhood, but one couple remained heavy on his heart. The man apparently didn’t respond, but God extended Harold’s life long enough for him to share Jesus Christ with the wife – his neighbor.

Witnessing at every available opportunity was something that Harold Stevens was driven to do. Even in the confines of a jet airliner cruising 39,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean en route to Africa, Harold shared the love of Jesus with his seatmates, and he frequently managed to engage the plane’s captain in a discussion that quickly moved from flying an aircraft to meeting the Lord in the sky.

Harold was born Sept. 20, 1921 in Wayne County, NC, son of the late Rex Stevens and the late Bertie Jinnette Stevens. Harold was still in his twenties when he and his new bride embarked on an African adventure that would underscore his life’s work.

A man of prayer, Harold was “consumed about others,” said Rev. Chuck Chambers, pastor of Woolsey Baptist Church, where the celebration of Harold’s life was held on Friday, April 20 at 3 p.m. “He had an eternal perspective,” the pastor said. Dozens of friends, before and after the funeral, along with his daughter, Becky, referred to him as a “spiritual giant.”

In the late 1930s, Harold’s ambition was to be a football coach, but God had other plans. He served in the South Pacific, and as World War II ended, Harold’s ship, the USS Vestal, was deployed to the coast of China where American sailors helped millions of Chinese refugees.

He observed the spiritual darkness that encompasses people and nations that don’t know Jesus, and that’s where Harold heard God’s calling to the mission field. After his discharge from the U.S. Navy, he returned home from the war and graduated from Columbia International University (formerly Columbia Bible College) in Columbia, SC, and was ordained as a Baptist minister.

He and Josephine were married eight days after his graduation in 1948. They sailed for South Africa in March 1949 and began a ministry to the Zulu people through the South Africa General Mission. Before they returned to the United States 27 years later, Harold had flown his single-engine, tail-hook airplane in all the African countries south of the Congo.

Several years ago, Harold wrote the book, “God’s Bush Pilot,” which describes his exploits on the mission field.

In 1998, the executive director of The Gideons International in South Africa told Fred Hughes, who is presently chairman of the Harvesters board of directors, that Gideons who make scripture distributions among the Zulu people continue to hear stories about a white man from America who, many years ago, came to South Africa and piloted an airplane, and told them about Jesus.

Upon his return to the U.S., Harold served with CNEC and Pioneers Missions, and then served more than two decades with Harvesters International. When he died, Harold was one of 12 members of the board of directors. When Harvesters was founded three decades ago, the organization’s mission statement reflected Harold’s vision to reach the unreached through the training and assisting of national missionaries.

About three years ago, Harold turned over the reigns of leadership as director of Harvesters to his hand-picked successor, Ed Hirshman. Hirshman described Harold as “totally surrendered, and separated by God for one purpose,” to proclaim the Gospel.

According to Hirshman, when he met Harold, “The Lord gave me a father figure, a disciple maker and a mentor.” Harold Stevens missed very few opportunities to witness for his Lord. One such story involved a wealthy Texas oilman whose life was transformed after meeting Harold in Zululand. Harold asked the Texan to read the Gospel of John in one sitting.

“That’s God’s love letter to mankind,” Harold told the man. When the oilman died, Harold preached his funeral in Texas, and then had the opportunity to win a dozen of the oilman’s friends – all millionaires – to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

“Here’s the point,” said Hughes, “it’s not just a story.” For Harold, “It was a way of life.”

Hughes described Harold as “called,” and driven by a “single purpose,” to tell others about Christ. Hughes said Harold was bold in his witnessing, and, most importantly, his life had produced “lasting fruit.”

While focusing on the national missionary initiative, Harold challenged everyone to exercise the Great Commission, “to go and make disciples,” said Hirshman, “not converts to our way of thinking or our denominations.”

Harold wanted people to “not just go to church,” but to “be the church,” Hirshman added.

Nearly two decades ago, Harvesters partnered with Julius Murgor, the second member of the Pokot tribe in Western Kenya to accept Christ. Murgor is now director of national ministries among the Pokot.

Today, more than half of this tribe of about one million nomadic herdsmen has been reached with the Gospel. “Harold’s focus on supporting and equipping the national missionary initiative speaks for itself today,” stated Hirshman. “With us is Pastor Julius Murgor, a product of what Harold has poured his life into. God has used Julius in a tremendous way and as a result, over 26,000 have been saved and baptized.”

Murgor, who has been visiting supporting churches in the U.S. since March, was able to be at the celebration service in Georgia where he offered a special prayer.

Added Hirshman, the impact of Harold and Josephine’s ministry isn’t limited to South Africa, or Kenya. It reaches around the world. Harold’s survivors include his wife of 56 years, Josephine M. Stevens of Griffin; daughter and son-in-law, Becky Stevens-Grobbelaar and Christo Grobbelaar, also of Griffin; son, Bob Stevens of Cullowhee, NC; nephews, Bobby Crawford, John Crawford, and Jay Howell, and nieces, Judy Porter and Treva Howell.

He was a former member of the Woolsey Baptist Church and was currently a member of Orchard Hill First Baptist Church, pastored by Rev. Bill Johnson.

A committal service was held on Monday, April 23 at 10 a.m. in the Falling Creek Baptist Church in Grantham, NC. Interment followed in the church cemetery. The family has requested that memorial donations be made to Harvesters International Missions.

By: Fred Hughes