by Rev. Casey Southerland
PMU Field Director, Cincinnati, OH
the Missions Banner, Aug/Sept 2022: Print edition
In Matthew’s gospel he records a scene where Jesus was teaching, preaching, and, “healing every sickness and every disease among the people” (9:35). In that scene, we are told that Jesus was, “moved with compassion” (9:36). The fact that Jesus had compassion will come as no surprise to anyone who has been saved by His magnificent grace. It is the context of Jesus’ compassion which Matthew records for us that makes this striking—Jesus saw the multitudes of physically lame and spiritually lost people as those who were, “weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” (Mt. 9:36). These lost sheep represented a plentiful harvest that was in need of laborers. Jesus’ instruction to His disciples is not what you might expect. His instruction was to bring a request before the Lord of the Harvest to pray for laborers.
I am sure you can look around the town in which you live and see much the same thing—multitudes of lost souls, weary and scattered. PMU invites you to join us in praying for laborers. Some have already been sent and are laboring faithfully in the fields. Some have not yet been identified, let alone equipped and sent. But the fields are white unto harvest. May the Lord provide shepherds to gather and serve those sheep who would hear the voice of the Great Shepherd.
In support of our fieldwork for the Lord of the harvest, the PMU Council met August 3rd to ensure the laborers could continue working in His fields and that we are in a good position to receive new laborers and help them get to work as He provides. We are grateful to have Dr. Kevin Backus serve as the PMU President for another year. Serving with him on the Executive Committee are Rev. James S. Blizzard (VP), Rev. John Dyck (Secretary), Rev. Jim Huff (Treasurer) and Drs. Jason Hutchinson and Len Pine (Members at Large).
The Annual Council Meeting provided a special opportunity to hear from nearly all of our missionaries in-person. We heard from our laborers in foreign fields as Rev. Doug Leaman reported on his work in Brazil and also received a much-anticipated update on the work in Myanmar. We heard from each of our US-based laborers on their work in California (Baldwin), Minnesota (Liu), Ohio (Waeber) and New York (Douma). While Rev. Baldwin will no longer be serving as a PMU missionary, we are grateful for his 13 combined years of service with PMU on both the foreign and home mission fields. We commend the Baldwins to your ongoing, prayerful support as they remain faithful in the call to serve God’s flock in Weed, California.
PMU also asks that you continue in praying for all of our laborers at home and abroad in their various ministries and social and political contexts. We ask that you pray for new laborers to be called, equipped and sent to the fields of the Lord’s harvest. Conversations with people trying to discern their calling by the Lord are happening all the time. We routinely hear from men and women who have varying levels of clarity about their calling and who are in various stages of preparation. Today is a great day to pray for tomorrow’s laborers!
