Fishers of Man

Our Team, the Coverage Guys, went to kukup, a fishing village recently. Not to fish but it was part of our team-time during our recent coverage consultation, which we held once a year to further explore what else we can do or need to do in order that ALL will be given an opportunity to hear who Jesus is!

I ask the Lord how else I can motivate my team, veterans of the ministry, almost all have been with Campus Crusade for at least 15-25 years. Most of the time it will surely take more than just words to get the team going. People who had "spend all night and not caught a fish" needs special motivation that only God can do. Then something happened. God's doing!

I went out to buy some fishing line and hook to try our luck on fishing. But when we came back, the tide has subsided and we have to wait for the next high tide in order to fish. And it was a long wait. The tide didn't come in until it was pass 12 midnight. By about 11pm everyone was ready for bed and no one will stay up to try to fish. It was liken to a fail battle. No more interest.

But Timothy wasn't about to give up. He let his line fly and started where no one else would do. He patiently threw his line, waited, pull it a little, waited and drew his line back to check if the bait was still there. Threw it back in and waited patiently again and I join him to try my hands on fishing without a fishing rod.

After a short while Timothy caught a 10 inches fish and we were very excited, but we had to sleep so that we could continue with the meeting the next day. I went to bed by 1 am and Timothy lasted till 2 am.

We got up early the next morning and guess what? The line we left in the sea had fish on it and there was a big 16 inches salt water cat fish and a smaller one. Except that the line was stuck to some rocks due to low tide and we were not able to pull the fish out. Then even at breakfast, Timothy was very quick to finish and walk off, carrying a pole with him as he attempted to try to get the stuck line off and to pull the fish out. He failed, but he didn't give up. He came back and took with him now a long rubber hose. Not only that, his keen interest drew the attention of the rest and soon, a few other fellows went to assist him. They actually lower Timothy down to the muddy shore and Timothy pull out the stuck line and the other staff pull it up...Nice.. 2 fishes... then they started pulling Timothy back up. Now this is most challenging. 1 guy and 4 girls trying to pull Timothy up on a rubber hose. They manage to, but not without causing much injuries on Timothy's leg. Deep cuts, bleeding..painful, I supposed, but everyone was excited.We caught the fish.

That determination was exactly what the team needed as motivation to faithfully continue toiling till all have heard! The excitement of finally catching the fishes is truly a hope we can all look forward to. Jesus promised He will make us fishers of man. We must keep going even through the dark night, when we hardly sees result. He promise we will be fishers of man! The incident was God's way to motivate my team and it was powerful.