Vision of Judea Harvest

Louis Blom Director

The strategic process of Judea Harvest enables the satellites to implement a holistic ministry in order to complete the great commission in its own area. Tents are an extremely cost effective and a mobile way in Africa to penetrate the previously disadvantaged.

The strategic process starts with prayer mobilization followed by evangelism training. A comprehensive discipleship program is then implemented to teach and disciple all new believers. A Church Planting strategy is implemented to work towards saturation church planting. A comprehensive community development plan is implemented in every satellite, addressing needs such as:  

HIV/AIDS, AIDS Orphans, food for the hungry, clothes for the poor, pre-schools and microeconomic projects.

A strong coordination system is implemented by the Judea Harvest Team. Regional Coordinators as well as Satellite Coordinators are being empowered to strategically coordinate the implementation of the vision.

It is our submission that the church is a major role-player in creating the right climate for sustainable peace, stability and development in Southern Africa.

According to Johnstone in Operation World, the 11 countries of Southern Africa had a total population of 118 million people in 2000, and now stand at 137 million. The economy of Africa has stagnated for the last 40 years and therefore the people of Africa remained behind their global counterparts in the development race of this world. Africa is plagued by many problems like HIV/AIDS, poverty, corruption even in governments, civil wars, natural disasters like draught and floods, political instability and many other diseases like malaria and cholera. We believe that the church has the answer for many of Africa 's problems. Although 48% of all African people profess to be Christian, most are just nominal Christians. The traditional African religion with all its demonic activities still has a major influence on the African people. Churches and individual Christians should take ownership for what is happening in their respective communities. Evangelism and discipleship will act as a catalyst against crime and sin in the community.

Our challenge is to unite the existing resources and efforts within the communities with other local and national role players in a partnership to address the needs on ground level. The contribution of each role player may differ from funding, training, socio-economic upliftment, job creation and physical structures. Judea Harvest has already successfully facilitated partnerships with International Organizations like Walk Thru the Bible (Dr Bruce Wilkinson), DAWN (Dr Steve Steel), Every Home for Christ (Cor Reyneke) and Harvest Evangelism (Ed Silvoso). Judea Harvest is a non-profit organization with a Head Office in Kempton Park that operates from rented offices. The entity functions in faith and solely depends on gifts and donations. The phenomenal results achieved in the past three years, can only be ascribed to the unmerited favor of GOD.

Strategy of Judea Harvest

Our strategy is to mobilize the church into the harvest fields and to equip its leaders. The following modus operandi is being followed in the network of satellites:
1. Equipping leaders to implement a united prayer strategy
2. Evangelism training on all levels
3. Discipleship training for all new converts
4. Equipping church planters for saturation church planting
5. Equipping church leaders for church and community development
  
We implement a strategic process in all our satellites. 
This strategic process enables the satellite to have a holistic ministry approach in the efforts to complete the great commission in its own area. This strategic process starts with a comprehensive prayer strategy in order to change the prevalent spiritual climate. The second step in the process is to train Evangelists at all levels in order to create a wave of evangelism throughout the community. The third step in the process is to implement a discipleship strategy in order to be able to disciple and teach all new converts. The forth step in the process is to train Church Planters and implement a saturation church planting strategy. The final step in the process is to equip leaders to engage in the battle against community destroyers like poverty, HIV/AIDS, violence and other evils in order to create a better future for the people.  

Following is a brief description of this process:  

Prayer strategy:

We have planted more that 6 000 rock structure prayer altars where people physically pack prayer stones representing their requests, followed by intercession and praise.We have also taken hands with other prayer ministries to provide us with relevant prayer training and projects. A 24-7 prayer watch is being established in tents forming part of a global prayer initiative. We have developed prayer maps through GPS technology research projects with our partners DAWN, to provide intercessors information to stimulate informed intercession, through an intercession network.

Evangelism Strategy:

We have compiled a training manual that equips every believer to be a witness (House Evangelist) for Christ according to the Acts 1:8 model. The hope to bring in the harvest lies in the mass releasing of labourers. We have also developed a nine months correspondence course in power evangelism for those who have the calling to become Evangelists. This is an in-service training course, utilizing the material of Reinhardt Bonke, equipping Evangelists while they function in their calling.

Discipleship Strategy:

We have taken hands with World Teach (Dr Bruce Wilkinson) to equip our leaders to implement a discipleship training program. Each tent receives the following material: A God's Answer to HIV/Aids Video and workbooks and a Prayer of Jabez Video and workbooks. Courses like Foundations of Faith, Spiritual Breakthroughs, Marriage, Leadership and Teaching Skills are also being made available to our satellites. The goal is that every tent hosts one teaching crusade once a month, teaching at least 200 people a relevant course.

Church Planting Strategy:

We have discovered that church planting is a natural result of the activities of Judea Harvest. Our vision is to saturate our communities with churches. Each satellite determines a strategy to strengthen small churches and to plant new churches in the areas not served by churches. Judea Harvest tents to satellites to implement this strategy. We have put together a nine months correspondence course in leadership and church planting. This course is also ~in-service-training for the church planter. This training is presented in co-operation with Auckland Park Theological Seminary, accredited by Rand Afrikaans University (RAU). Furthermore we are currently implementing the Purpose Driven concept to ensure the planting of balanced and healthy churches.

The Evangelist

Dancing during a tent meeting in Africa ^ Enlarge

We believe that God is restoring the ministry of the Evangelist as His chosen tool to bring in His harvest. From the birth of Judea Harvest, this was one of the core functions. The evangelist must again take his/her place in the five-fold ministry of the church. The Pastor must realise the New Testament Evangelist is his best friend and the Evangelist must realise the Pastor is his best friend. Where this concept is accepted, we will see glorious moves of the Holy Spirit and awesome breakthroughs.
Training for house evangelists, street, and tent evangelists is provided.

Tents are used for:   Evangelism,   Intersession,   Discipleship, Church planting, Development

Prayer point altars

A vital link in this wave of evangelism is the establishment of special prayer altars, which are focal points for taking prayer to the people, making prayer a tangible and practical force in people’s lives and inspiring people to direct their prayers towards meeting the needs within their own areas and communities.  

Over 6,000 such prayer points or altars have been established in squatter camps, on farms, in cities and even in neighboring countries.

Judea Harvest believes that this wave of evangelism is part of the divine plan for God’s end time, directed by the power of the Holy Spirit. It has also emphasized the significance of the ministry of the ordinary local Evangelist.  

“We have immense faith in the calling of God’s end time harvesters. Judea Harvest, indeed, has only one major prayer: “Lord of the Harvest. Send out workers to gather Your harvest.”