“And he said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the
Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’” – Luke 10:2
This verse is no less true of Tibet than it is of any other field. The problem is that there is a great
harvest to be brought in and that there are few to do the job. The solution is that we must pray, and it is by prayer that laborers will be sent out.
The Harvest is Plentiful
The population of Central Tibet (Ü-Tsang) is 3,648,100 (2020 census)1 and the believers in that
region only number in the handfuls. With the number of believers totaling less than 0.001% in that vast land, should we not pray that the Lord of the Harvest would also send his people to
this place to set up the banner of Jesus in that place?
When asking a Tibetan how many of his people are devoted to their religion, the response was,
“all of them.” This estimation is believable as traveling through Tibetan regions reveals prayer flags
fluttering in the wind, winging the prayers of the people toward heaven, the prayer wheels of the
temples are in constant motion, and the places and monuments considered holy are rarely seen without worshipers attending to their rituals.
If those that sit in the shadow of darkness are to see a great light, then laborers must be sent. If
they are to believe the gospel that can set them free and bring them back to God, then someone must
preach to them. And if they are to be released from the power of Satan to serve the living and true God, then someone will have to go to them.
There are not yet enough established believers of their own number to do the work, so some
must come from the outside to help them reach Tibet for Christ. Those sent will not likely come from
places far away from them, but from those along their borders where the gospel has taken root and
brought forth fruit. But if they go, they will go because they have been sent, and they will be sent
because the Lord of the Harvest has been asked to send them out. This is His way.
The Laborers are Few
The laborers are few for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is hard to go. Tibet is inaccessible on
several levels. Geographically it is hard to reach. Politically, it is hard to receive permission to be there.
And spiritually, there is much opposition for those who would be sent out.
Secondly, laborers are few because the few who are called to go are poorly equipped. Those who
God has called and blessed for this ministry are a people who hunger for the Word of God themselves
and need to be, like Apollos “instructed in the way of God more perfectly” so that they can be effective
to persuade the people of the truth of the gospel. So, they wait.
Thirdly, the laborers are few because they lack the means to go. Some of us, if our hearts are
stirred to pray, could also be stirred to support those that would go. Many of those whom God has
blessed for this ministry are among the world’s poorest and live hand to mouth. To go and preach the
gospel would require some of them to leave their families destitute. So they are hindered in going and
the laborers remain few.
Therefore, Pray Earnestly
In Matthew chapter 9, Jesus gives this same statement and command after seeing the crowds
and being “moved with compassion” (KJV). And being moved with compassion, he tells his disciples to
pray. Before He tells them to “go,” He tells them to pray. Before He tells them to “preach” or to “heal,”
He tells them to pray. The scriptures teach us, that “first of all… prayers…”2 should be made before
anything else is done. Oswald Chambers, as recorded in the much-read devotional My Utmost for His
Highest, said,
“Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer is the greater work.”3
James Fraser, CIM missionary among the Lisu of Yunnan province in China similarly said,
“I used to think that prayer should have the first place and teaching the second. I now feel it would be truer to give prayer the first, second, and third places, and teaching the fourth.”4
We should not fall into the trap of thinking that prayer is a small way to be involved in the ministry of another, but rather, by prayer we
labor with Christ and become co-laborers with those in the ministry. Paul often made requests for prayer
from the churches and told them “You also must help us by prayer.”5 Prayer is a great work and the
beginning of all breakthroughs.
If people will sense the burden to go, if they will be equipped to go, if the laborers will be sent
out, it will be the result of earnest prayer. And so I urge you, pray for Tibet!
Footnotes
- 2020 China census – https://www.reuters.com/article/china-society-census-takeaways-idUSL4N2MY2I6/ ↩︎
- 1 Timothy 2:1 ↩︎
- My Utmost for His Highest, October 17, Greater Works ↩︎
- Eileen Crossman, Mountain Rain (CLC Publications, 2001) ↩︎
- 2 Corinthians 1:11 ↩︎
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