Okay, and thank you very, very much for that introduction, and you are right. Our history goes way back, and it's so wonderful. I tell you, we were just kids. And as kids, we wanted to serve the Lord. In fact, I was saved with Bob Jones in 1957, and I I just heard Dr. Bob Jr. say that, you know, Nicodemus was a religious man but lost, and I saw myself as one like that. And, you know, I'm from the West Coast, Oregon, and Diane's from Washington State, and we didn't know about this Southern culture of an invitation for people to go forward. I thank God that there's an invitation to Him with five stanzas, because it took the fifth stanza for me to finally jerk myself out of that seat and go down the front. And I'll tell you what, when somebody opened Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith, not of yourself. It's a gift of God, not of works. I'll tell you what, I believed it and trusted, and God changed my life. And it's like I told Pastor tonight that I began, I was reading my Bible, but now that you know the author of a book, it's different, isn't it? And I'd read and he'd speak to me. When he said, go, I said, well, he must be speaking to me. So I need to go. And go where? Well, we came up to East Flat Rock first. And I tell you what, we learned some important things. Diane, if she were here tonight, she would share with you how that as a young girl. She had two older brothers, and she was the only girl in the family, and she was the baby. And so she had no other, you know, no kids in the family. And so she didn't know really too much on how to work with kids. When they said, now, Marv, you'll be coming to Grace Baptist, and you'll be working with the young people from 8 to 28. We thought, well, we better divide this thing in the middle. Diane, you take the little kids, and I'll take the older kids, and we'll see how it works. Well, I got some good experience working with young people, and she began working with children, and children, she found out what children, you know. she can work with children. They like her, and she likes them, and we learned some good lessons that prepared us for a mission field right here at your church. So, thank you so much for investing in our lives. Diane felt bad that she couldn't come with me tonight, but hopefully she's going to—let's pray for her that she'll be well enough to come, if not Saturday, at least on Sunday, and be able to I keep thinking in Portuguese, and it just about comes out, you know. And by the way, if I start speaking in Portuguese, Bill, will you just... I'll interpret. Okay, there you go. You'll interpret. Okay, good. You know, after 50 years of preaching in Portuguese, every time you get in the pulpit, it's Portuguese, right? And so that's the thing that's going to come out. And sometimes I have a little lull, because the Portuguese word came in, and I think, oh, wait, they're not going to understand what that means, and I have to translate it. Okay. We have a little bit of fruit from our ministry, you know. We have children in Brazil serving God there. And Nathan, my son Nathan, is one. And this family right here, you know, the Evans, is one of the results of them. And tomorrow night we'll have another result. So, indirect results, you know, of you guys are, you know. Tomorrow night he'll be a Brazilian. And a Brazilian was here in Greenville, and when he heard that we were going to be having a missionary conference up here, he asked if he could. I said, yeah, come on. And so maybe he'll be able to share a little bit on how God reached into his life in Brazil, and as a result of you folks praying for Marvin, Diane, Frey, and obviously their kids, Nathan and Diane, and how God has worked marvelously over the years. wonderful to be able to see how God can work and save people and get churches going and churches. I'll be sharing a little bit, maybe more about that as we go through tonight. So tonight I'd like to speak to you—this subject is great, the great harvest, you know. The harvest field is great. And I'll tell you what, we're going to be talking about the Great Harvest Field tonight, and this week, and these days, and I know each other missionary. Who are the other missionaries in here, by the way? Let me see them. Okay, yeah, there's, okay, there, there, okay, yeah, there, okay, yeah, back there, okay. The other missionaries are going to be sharing, and I think a lot of it's going to be about the same passages. But I'd like to share with you tonight a little bit about the book of Jonah. Now, you've read the book of Jonah. It's an Old Testament. What? Jonah, Old Testament? That's a missionary challenge? Yes, and you're going to see how the book of Jonah, tonight, in four little chapters, really. Now, I preach a lot in Jonah, and Jonah, God's servant, and, you know, chapter 1, Jonah, as God's servant, he was running from God in chapter 1, wasn't he? But then in chapter 2, he was running to God after the whale experience. And then in chapter 3, he was running with God, wasn't he? But in chapter 4, he's running ahead of God. Now, that's a good sermon, if you want to preach that one. But that's not going to be our message tonight. Also, about the prophet. In chapter 1, we see Jonah the prophet in his disobedience. But then we see in chapter 2 is preservation. And then in chapter 3, the proclamation of the prophet. And then finally in chapter 4, the correction, you know, of the prophet. Or we could preach Jonah. We see Jonah and the storm in chapter 1. Then we see Jonah and the fish in chapter 2. Chapter 3, Jonah and the city. And chapter 4, Jonah and the Lord, and his relationship with the Lord as the Lord dealt with him. Or we could say, too, God's man. And God's man, Jonah is God's man, we see in chapter 1. He's fleeing from God in chapter 1. He's running away. He's going in the opposite direction. God called him to go this way, and he's going that way. So, then we got God's man praying to God in chapter 2 from the whale's belly, you know. And then we have in chapter 3, God speaking for God. And then God's man learning from God in chapter 4. Good preaching, but that's not what we're going to be touching on tonight. God prepared in chapter 1 a storm. And He prepared a fish, too. He prepared two things, a storm and a fish. And then in chapter 2, He's preparing a missionary. Ah, in the belly of the whale, he's preparing a missionary. And then we see in chapter 3, he's preparing a city. And in chapter 4, three instruments of discipline. There was a gourd, and there was a worm, and there was a wind. how God dealt with us. So there's a lot we can learn from that book, isn't there? A lot we can learn even today, all great preaching, but what we're going to see today is that great harvest that was really on the heart of the Lord as He was trying to get a servant to go and meet that need of that great harvest back in those days. God saw the need of a great city. The great city of Nineveh, the great city there where he wanted Jonah to go to, God saw an enormous city in chapter 1. Chapter 2, He saw a needy city. Chapter 3, He saw a kneeling city. Chapter 4, He saw a neglected city. And so we've got that to think about tonight. Let's take your book of Jonah and read chapter 1 verse, let's read chapter 1 verse 1 and 2, Jonah 1 and 2. Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up. before me. Let us pray. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for the privilege of being a part of Your great harvest. The world is a great harvest. And You've given us the privilege to be able to pray for missionaries, and to give towards missionary efforts, and to be able to send missionaries around the world And this great love of the harvest has been spread even into our hearts. So we thank You, Lord, so much for that. I pray that You'll speak to us tonight as we see the needs, even today, where we ask it in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. So in chapter 1, I'd like you to notice tonight that God saw an enormous city. As I was preparing to go to Brazil, I noticed that most people thought about Brazil as being a jungle, and that if you're going to be missionary in Brazil, you've got to go to the Amazon jungle, and that's about all they knew about Brazil. It's a big jungle, and there's a big river, the Amazon River. and everything. But we didn't know too much about the cities where people lived. We'll talk a little bit more about that. So, we're seeing here in the book of Jonah that God saw an enormous city in chapter 1. So, look at 1, 2, and he said, "...go to Nineveh, that great city." So even in those days, this city of Nineveh was a great city. And then in chapter 3, verse 2, we have another little phrase that says, "...that great city." to verse 3, that great city. And then in chapter 3, verse 3, he talks about the exceeding great city of three days' journey. And I think he meant three days' journey across it. The city of Sao Paulo, I think, is about 50 miles across, and you couldn't make it in three days by walking. In fact, almost sometimes with our traffic jams, it'd take you three days to drive across it. And then we have in chapter 4, verse 11, the conclusion of the book, and once again he says, that great city. Four times, in four chapters, he mentioned a great city. And, of course, in the city is where people live. So God has always been concerned about people, about souls, about numbers. In the Old Testament then, so we have We have these needs that we see all through. We'll notice the Abrahamic promise in Genesis 14, "...I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, and as the stars of the sky." It was a promise of the Lord. He talks about the growth of the world. And Solomon echoed God's heart when He… the dedication of Solomon's temple and Solomon's prayer at that time. And when He said that all the people of the earth may know thy name. And so He got a vision about the need of people. Then as we go on to the New Testament, we find this burden that God gave Jonah continues in the New Testament, and we have passages that talk about, and they were added to them in Acts 2, verse 41. And it talks about how the people, they were multiplied in chapter 6, verse 1 and 7. And then the Word of God grew in Acts 6 and 7, multiplied, so he's interested in seeing this world reached. How that people come to know the Lord, come to know this wonderful God, the Creator of the earth. So, God's always been concerned about the lost, and He's still concerned about the lost today. Now, we do know that the United States of America North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, seems to be growing into a larger mission field as the days go by, doesn't it? The world seems to be getting worse. And so we know how God feels about this as He looks upon these enormous cities that we have today. He looks upon it, and He knows that those people, like He said about Nineveh, they are sinning against Me, and they need to hear the message of how they can be pardoned from that sin. The Old Testament, we talk about the cities of Enoch, and Babel, and Babylon, and Samaria, and Jerusalem. We see cities mentioned as we go through the New Testament, the city of Jerusalem, the city of Antioch, and Tarsus, and Rome, and Athens, and Ephesus, and Corinth. and Colossae, and Philippi, and Thessalonica, and Iconium, Derbe, Lystra, Berea. So the cities, those are the names of cities that we find. So God is still, even in the New Testament, concerned about cities. And in the future, we see a new Jerusalem. A real biggie. Now, let's get used to the idea of cities, because there's even going to be a big one after we go to meet the Lord. So God loves the city. there is, that is where precious, needy souls are to be found. So if you're going to go to Brazil, don't think necessarily about just going to the Amazon and reaching Indians, you know. We Americans know so little about this great country of Brazil, especially about people and how many people are in our cities and things such as that. And I don't know if you remember João Batista, who came and studied here. He was a young person that got saved in one of our churches down there. God worked in his heart, called him to preach. And he came to Bob Jones University. And as he was at Bob Jones, he talked to people about, oh, one day a guy came up and said, oh, you're a Brazilian. And he was telling me, because I asked him, I said, Jerome, what about these Americans? Do they know about Brazil? He said, no, they don't know anything about Brazil. They ask me such dumb questions. A dumb question deserves a dumb answer, right? So this one kid came up and says, oh, you're from Brazil. Where do you live? And he said, dumb question, dumb answer. We live in trees. He swallowed it. Oh, you live in trees. Oh, and that as if they're so dumb, they don't know how to build a little ladder with steps to get up in the tree. He said, well, how do you get up on the tree? And he said, elevators. Oh, boy, I'll tell you what. In fact, you know, they think we speak Spanish down there. Is that right? We speak Spanish in Brazil? No. Oh, yeah, some of you guys know. Yeah, okay. Most people think we speak Spanish down there anyway, so they don't know too much about it. And what they probably don't know is we have one of the largest cities in the world. When you take the city of Sao Paulo, add it with the 28 other major cities in the greater Sao Paulo area, like greater LA, greater New York, you've got other cities. Add those cities all together, 25 million people. a lot of souls, growing at about 1,500 people a day. If we could start a fundamental Bible preaching, Baptist Church of 1,500, every day we would still never catch up of the years we wasted behind. Can you see the need of the cities today? The city of Sao Paulo needs missionary. Here's one right here. Oh, this is another. Praise God. I tell you, my son caught the vision from his dad. He's been preaching along with his dad and his mom and brothers and sisters, and so a few are catching the vision of the great cities of South America, and especially the great city of Sao Paulo. God loves the cities, and so God's concerned about the cities today. And we're actually in a population explosion. It's a worldwide trend where many cities are growing. People are moving out of the country, and I guess they're getting mobilized in the country. Everything's done by Internet anyway. I think most of the farm work is done by machines that are run by Who knows what what is it? Yeah, and so people are not they're leaving the country and they're going into the cities and that's worldwide in the New Mexico in Mexico Tokyo New York London Moscow Paris you take all the great cities and they're all growing very very fast the immigration is from the rural to the urban and so Back in 1964, when we felt God calling us to go to Brazil, there were 25% of the population urban, and 75 was rural. And today it is a little over 85% urban and 15% rural. So that's the trend of the days. Latin America, 85% of the people of Latin America today live in cities. They don't live out in the jungle where they're swinging from the trees, you know, like Tarzan. And Brazil has 12 cities of over a million, some of the million, 2 million, 3 million, 10 million, 15 million and up. So the world, the harvest truly is great and needy. It's a needy plate and the need only grows as the days go by. In the world, one quarter of a million people migrate to cities, they say, every day. Wow, they're going to the city. East Flat Rock growing? A little bit, huh? A little bit. But I imagine there are still people here and even East Flat Rock that need the gospel. By the year 2015, they said that there will be 500 cities of a million or more. five hundred cities of a million or more. Thirty cities, then, are over ten million people. And so we've got a world that's moving to the city. That's one of the things that God was trying to get this Old Testament Christian to see, go to the city of Nineveh. It needs the gospel. So God saw then, not in these cities, he saw needy cities. In 1-2, if we find chapter 1, verse 2, "...for their wickedness is come up before me." So the Lord sees what goes on in the city. And, you know, it seems like people are closer together, and as sinners get closer together, what happens? Sin grows. And that's maybe one of the reasons our world is getting farther and farther away from God every day that goes by. So Jesus saw the needy cities, And that's what makes it a great harvest field. In Matthew 9, 36, and when he saw the multitudes of Jerusalem, and Capernaum, Tyre, and Sidon, he was moved with compassion, the Bible says. When He saw the multitudes of the cities, He was moved with compassion. And I think that's the thing that should happen to our heart. We need to be moved to compassion as we see the needs of these cities. In His second year of ministry, Jesus moved from Nazareth to Capernaum. Nazareth, a little quiet town. Capernaum was a crossroads. More people were there. And I thought, as I looked at that, I said, oh, I can see why he, you know, he thought, oh, I need to be reaching more people. So he moved to Capernaum. And in the context of the cities, Jesus said in Matthew 9, 37, the harvest truly is great. But the labors are few. So the labors, and he said, will you send forth labors and pray that the Lord of the harvest will send forth labors into his harvest. That was Jesus's prayer request. Have we heard his prayer requests? God, send forth labors into his harvest. they need to hear the Gospel. They need to hear the good news of the Gospel. So have you listened to Jesus' prayer request next prayer meeting night, as well as each one of our own needs in our own prayer request. So, Sao Paulo is a needy city. I'll never forget the first time I went downtown Sao Paulo after arriving there. And I'd heard and read a lot about the city and how great it was, but when I saw the masses and I saw how many people were all over the place, I just about, you know, fell over and I could say, oh God, send more laborers to this great city. The spiritual needs are great in Brazil. The spiritual needs, like they say in Matthew 9, 36, and they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep that had no shepherd. And that's kind of the way the Lord said they have, these people are spiritually needy, like sheep that have no shepherd. They're just wandering all over the place. There's all kinds of people preaching, and they don't hear the gospel. Many times they become religious without knowing the Lord. And so, Spiritism is one of our fastest growing religions in Brazil, all different kinds of names. They say that about 80-85% of the Brazilians say they're Roman Catholics, at least by name. They were born into a Roman Catholic family. They may go there at weddings and Christmases and things such as that, but they're not born again, and many times have never heard the message of the gospel. The New Age movement is making great strides among the educated in the cities. And so, we see that there's all kinds of cults then also have gone down there. There's the Mormons are there in great numbers. They're all over the place. They have beautiful buildings of nice big family emphases. The Orientals are there with their huge luxurious temples and buildings, elaborate programs. But what's really ruined the harvest field in the last few years is the health, wealth, prosperity. You want to become rich? Come to my church, and we'll pray for you. Just put a small little offering in the plate, yeah, a hundred bucks or something like that, and God will double it down the road. I went by one church not too long ago, and I saw written on the front of the church, buy your lot in heaven now while it's only $35,000. And that money goes into the preacher's pocket. You know, and so they're selling lots in heaven. You know, if you want to get rich, just sell lots in heaven. People fall for that. Yes, they fall for it. They want a new car. They want a new house. They want to be able to have things, and especially a third world nation like Brazil, where they earn maybe a third of what the average American would make at the same profession or job. they fall for things such as that. So they're a needy city. a very needy, needy city. The morals of the society, they break the Ten Commandments. There are ideas that have come down from them, like about marriage. You know, the wife is to do the dishes and, you know, fix the food and everything. But the Roman Catholic churches told them that marital relationships are only for procreation. So the man has to go out and get his other, you know, experiences outside of the married life. And what does that do to the family? Completely breaks it up, and so they're broken up, and very, very few strong families. One of the most wonderful things about preaching the Word of God in Brazil has been to see families restored. husbands and wives beginning to learn how to love each other, how to make a sacrificial love. Like Jesus said, you know, husbands, love your wives like Jesus did, giving Himself sacrifice. And I'll tell you what, families are changed. And when a man is home loving his wife, the mom of the kids, they see how it, and I'll tell you what, it changes families, and it changes churches, and it's a wonderful thing to see. But it's a great need, great, great need in Brazil. So God loves the cities of the world, and He still loves them today. And that's where the great harvest field is. Jonah's revival, We had in chapter 3, verse 1 through 5, we see a revival time of Jonah, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly. Oh, chapter 4, wait a minute, chapter 3. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it, preaching as I bid thee. And Jonah rose and went unto Nineveh. He went. Now, Nineveh was an exceeding great city, and Jonah rose and went. After that, you know, after that whale belly experience, I guess he said, I better go. And he went, and it was a needy city. And what we find here was that God gave him a second chance, you know, in chapter 3, verse 1. him a second chance. First time he said no, and he went the opposite direction. And then it said in chapter 3, verse 2 and 3, that he preached to Nineveh. And the message of judgment was confrontation to those people, but they believed God. They believed, and their lives were changed. And like Abraham believed God, and it was countered to him for righteousness. He didn't preach the Roman roads, but he preached the message about God and how He pardons. And then the Ninevites repented in chapter 3, verse 10, and then God showed mercy. to them. And we see then how God works in these needy cities. Our vision is to reach the city of Sao Paulo, to make an impact upon the city, put Fundamental Baptist Churches on Main Street where they can be seen and where people can come and hear the Word of God, be saved, and be part of a good Bible-preaching church. So, God has given us over the years a fantastic opportunity in the great city of Sao Paulo. And I think the last time I was here, I probably shared with you a lot of things about this Esperança, or Hope Baptist Church, a fantastic church that God's using. How, until today, and their missionary program, they're supporting at about, let me see, I'll have to translate this into American dollars. about $75 or $100 per missionary family, maybe a little bit more than that, between $100 and $150 per missionary family, 37 missionary families, Brazilian missionary families. going around the world, to Africa, Mozambique, because they speak Portuguese there, and going to other countries, and then into our own country that needs new churches. And that's fantastic to see. Plus, they're putting another amount aside to build new churches in the great city of Sao Paulo. That's our vision, the city of Sao Paulo. So that's costing more every year that goes by. So every month, they're putting in Actually, it's about 20% of their total income goes to home missions. As I figured it up the other day, I think it looked to me like about $25,000 a month, translated into dollars, a month to missions. Amen? Sending missionaries out, seeing young men respond to the call, and going into the ministry, and some into other countries. So that's the great, wonderful thing. We use ten principles in the twelve churches we were able to get started down there. Ten of these churches are still going strong with their own national pastors. and their own missionary programs. But we used basically ten principles as missionary principles in these new churches. And let me just go over them quickly. We don't have time to go over them in detail. But the first one was unceasing prayer. Ever heard of pray for the phrase? in the fray. Pray for the frays. And we need to pray. And they're praying for their missionaries. We're praying for our missionaries. And prayer is the thing that makes it happen. Then we use teamwork. We use Brazilians with Americans to team up together. There are ten names that Paul, of people that went with Paul, And as I look at other people that at one time or another were in Apostle Paul's missionary team, I found thirty-six names, Luke, and Barnabas, and Silas, and Timothy, and Titus, and Aquila, and Priscilla, etc., etc. And what did that bring? It bring multiple gifts together, different abilities together, so each one could work in his area, an area of strength, strong points, and therefore more efficient. It emphasized ministry. Not one man, not just Omar Frey, the founder of this church. No, it was important that church established much faster. I remember when we were in, I think in the fifth church or something like that, and there were 10 on the team. 10 on the team, and there were four first-time visitors on a Sunday morning, and I noticed that each one, excuse me, there were more than four first-time, there were I think about 10 or 12 first-time, and each one had brought one. And so you could see how this guy's living over here, this guy's living over there, and over there, and each one working together. And that church was built up, I think we were there about a year and a half, two years, and we were able to leave that church with a national pastor full time. And I think basically because of teamwork. Then to go to the major cities, that's where the people are, like we've already said, and then get a good location where people can get to you, the best location possible. That was a good principle, and make it accessible and visible. And then make adequate facilities so you've got room to have a Sunday school, room to work with young people, a room to work with children. And then aim for the middle class, and then you have a continuous evangelism, all kinds of evangelistic outreaches, daily vacation Bible schools, eight-day evangelistic campaigns, not just three days, eight-day campaigns. soul winning training, special days on Mother's Day, Father's Day, Children's Day, Christmas, Easter, people many times will accept an invitation to those special services and come and be saved, special activities. Brazilians hear about brownies. Oh, a brownie. And when they taste brownies, ha, ha, ha, ha, boy, that's good. So my wife, you know, is going to come and teach you gals how to do brownies. And bring her neighbors along who wants to learn how to do brownies, she gets saved. And there it is. You can use about anything to get people to know the Lord. Indoor soccer, Christmas Day mail-outs, letters, computers, Sunday noon meal at church, after church. So, people, you know, there you have to go a long ways to get home. You might not get home for an hour or two. So, we have, you know, an evangelistic meal. And someone sits down and gives that first-time visitor who was able to come to that meal the gospel. And many have been saved that way. So, there's a lot of ways to do it. But strong, continuous evangelism. Then, of course, you have to have a good, strong follow-up program. We have a Bible Academy there that did a lot of follow-up. And then you have leadership training, train those teachers. The very first meeting I have as a founder, church founder, I tell them, I said, If I look at my watch, look at the calendar, and I'm going to have to go home on furlough, I say, okay, two years from now, you folks are going to be the deacons. You folks are going to be the Sunday school teachers. You folks are going to be the people doing this work. And so, let's get started today. And we work to that end. And sometimes they'll say, yeah, it may have happened in the last church, but it's not going to happen here. Ah, after about a year, they begin to say, maybe it can happen, because they're learning and getting the joy of serving God in their church. And that is very important. And then, of course, starting new churches. And those new churches doing the same thing and having a missionary program. And so what happens? One seed explodes. Thousands of people are saved today, and thousands are receiving the gospel every week because of the money you folks have sent and the prayers you folks have given in the great country of Brazil. Amen? Okay, good. Then finally, let's get to our final point here, is that God saw a neglected city. Jonah's attitude about that, you know, when he saw people getting saved and changing, he didn't like it. Those people, you know, as you look back on it historically, most likely Jonah probably had a brother, sister, family that were killed by these people. There were hearts that were just politically against. And so that's why he was angry, because God showed mercy to these people, chapter 4, verse 1. God showed mercy on them, and he didn't want to go there in chapter 1, verse 3. He didn't want to go there at all. He didn't want to be there, so he went out of the city, the Bible says. He went out of that city, and then he wanted to die first before going into the city. In verse 3, he'd rather die than to go into that city. Maybe he was afraid he would be killed if he went into the city. But then God taught him some lessons, the lesson of the gourd, shadow over his head. Even when we're running from Him as a servant, God has mercy on us, and gave him a little shelter from that sun. And then I sent a worm, and then that east wind. Preachers aren't always doing the right thing at the right way, are we? Now, we're sinners, saved by grace, just like everybody, and have potential failures. And so God has to deal with us, too, as He deals with each one of us. And that's what He was doing with Jonah there. God is more interested in the lost people of the city than in our comfort. He's more interested in the lost people of that city. And so we need to get out of our comfort zone and catch the vision of the lost in the city that God was trying to give to him. So what's our attitude about the neglected cities? We need to love those people and get the burden and the love of God's heart into our heart. Try to see it from His point of view, from the eternity point of view. But you know, people don't like to go to cities. People don't like to go, you know, East Flat Rock's a nice little town and you don't have these great big cities with all this, you know, thievery and stuff that goes on. Most missionaries that go to Brazil don't want to go to the cities. You don't want to go to the big city. You don't want to go to Sao Paulo. We were mentally conditioned that it was a, you know, missionary jungle is where you go. But because of the pollution, because of the dirty water, because of sometimes no water, because of air pollution, because of dust and sounds and polluted horns, and radios, the dogs, the noise and everything. So that's one reason people don't like big cities. They don't like to go because of the traffic. They were told me that there's over a thousand new cars come onto the streets of Sao Paulo every day. The third world nation, they're beginning to make a little bit better, and most more people are being able to get automobiles. And so when the city was built, they were built with very few, I mean, buses, okay, but very few people had cars. And so more and more people are having cars today. So you have traffic jams, 200 mile traffic jams. Have you ever heard of that, 200 mile traffic jams? I read that, I forget where it was in some newspaper here in the United States. Sao Paulo, 200 mile traffic jam today. Okay, land's very expensive. That's another thing that happens. And hard to get place to maybe to meet with your people. Crime, stolen cars. You have to have bars on your windows. You have to have thieves in the street. Dangerous, and so that's why people don't want to go. Different reasons maybe than Jonah, but Let's love the city, that great harvest place, like the Lord loved, and go. Now, I'd like to see what your response is to this missionary challenge. I would like to see if you are a missionary today, raise your hand. If you are already a missionary, okay, we already saw them. You're a missionary, a pastor, or a missionary, a pastor, full-time. You're in the ministry full-time. Okay, I saw your hands go up there. Now, do you know that God would have you on the mission field, and you're on your way, and you think you're preparing to be a missionary? Let me see your hands. Anybody like that? Okay, great. Good one. At least, at least one. But maybe this question is the best one. Are you willing to go? If you felt that God would call you to go to a great needy area, are you willing to get up and go? Let's see those hands. You're not going, you're not there, but you're good. Good, I see some young hands up there. I see some older gray-haired hands and the gray-haired with hands. Good, good hands, praise the Lord. That's the important thing. Jonah said, no, I don't want to go. And he went down to get a boat to go the other direction. And God had to say, ah, come on, come back. I need you. Hope you don't run from Him, but you'll run with Him. And if He wants you to go, He will prepare and He will support you. He will get your needs. He will give you souls. And it will be a wonderful, wonderful experience. Amen. Let's close in a word of prayer. Thank you, Lord Jesus, so much for sharing with us through your word, the burden for the lost. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be able to reach people for the gospel. I pray, O Lord Jesus, that You'll bless these, especially the ones that said that they're willing to go, and maybe not going yet, but that You'll prepare these people. Show them, Lord, an open door, a place where You'd have them to serve in this needy, needy, great harvest field, the world. And we pray that You'll use this missionary conference, Lord, to speak to people from East Flat Rock to go. and to be the missionary messenger that you would have them to be. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.