What does harvest mean to you?

Coming from a technology culture where corporations produce everything from my computer to the food I eat at dinner every night, sometimes causes me to miss out on the significance of words like “harvest” in Jesus’ teachings.

When you say the word harvest in Cambodia everyone knows what you are talking about. Harvest time is one of the most important seasons of the year for the entire country. Every November life in Cambodia revolves around the rice harvest. The word for food in Cambodia is actually “bai” which means rice. So when you are talking about food it always revolves around rice (breakfast, lunch and dinner). When an entire culture revolves around an event you can’t help but take notice and think about it’s significance and meaning.

Harvested rice on the roadside

Cambodia is a beautiful green country during rainy season. If you travel in any direction in any part of the country you will see endless fields of beautiful green rice. When the rain stops in October everything changes. The rice begins to mature and you can feel the anticipation. In many areas of the country this year the flooding caused widespread anxiety as people were worried the rice crop would be destroyed. You see, everyone gets the staple of their entire years food supply all during this one season. Rice is harvested, dried and stored to be used all year.

Everyone is involved in one way or another. Even the young people in the cities travel to their home province to help with the rice harvest. Our IT specialist, Panha, came in on Monday and was acting tired. I asked him why he was moving so slow. He is young and energetic, but that day he said he was really sore from cutting the rice stalks in the province all weekend. Young people like Panha have good jobs, but their parents often depend on their help during the harvest to produce the income and food they will need for the rest of the year. The young people of course get their share of the rice and bring it back with them. You can see mats of rice drying in the sun on sidewalks and roadsides all over the city of 2 million people in Phnom Penh.

Rice drying in the sun

Rice being thrashed

 We were travelling in the province (countryside) last week and I was able to observe how the harvest works. There are thousands of small plots (1 to 4 acres) one right beside the other each owned by a different person or family. The fields are a beautiful green. One day a field will turn from green to a beautiful gold (I think Jesus used the word white when He talked about it). The entire family will wade out in knee deep water to their field and in a matter of a couple of hours cut the entire crop and haul it by hand to the nearest road or water buffalo cart path. The stalks are dried and fed to the cattle and the heads are thrashed and the rice grains are separated and dried for storage. Everything is used. A good rice crop means a prosperous and healthy year ahead.

Entire family in Takeo province who accepted Christ.
Pictured with ministry team and church pastor. 

This week we were in the Takeo province during rice harvest. I couldn’t help but draw a parallel between the rice harvest and the harvest we were seeing as a result of four years of work in the Seeds of Hope program. The project staff and ministry team had been working with villages teaching agriculture techniques, animal husbandry and providing seed projects of chickens, pigs and cattle. Our WASH program had also been drilling wells to provide clean, safe drinking water. During that four years the field staff, ministry team and local church had also been sowing seeds of love and the message of Christ. I know seeds, water and harvest may seem cliché to some, but when you are living it, it isn’t a flippant saying. It is a reality. As the ministry team and church pastor travelled in these villages, visiting with families we were literally seeing a harvest. Just like in the book of Acts we would see entire families make decisions for Christ. As the Seeds of Hope and WASH projects were coming to a close, the church was seeing a corresponding harvest.

What does "harvest" really mean to you?

This made me ask some questions. Does my life revolve around a preparation and anticipation for the harvest? Do I and my church understand our future relies on the harvest? Does our culture revolve around it? Are we waiting with sickle sharpened in hand as a family ready to go to work when the field turns golden?

“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.” John 4:35 ESV