Whether you live in the US or not, Ron Hutchcraft with Hutchcraft Ministries says if you know Christ, you are like the shepherds in Luke chapter 2. These ordinary people were entrusted with a glorious message to tell others, against all human odds. 

“If we were alive at that time, we couldn’t think of a more unlikely choice for angels to entrust their message to [than] shepherds,” Hutchcraft says. Shepherds were lowly and sometimes of questionable character. The ones in the gospel accounts were working “third shift” jobs.

Yet God chose them to be the first witnesses to the birth of Jesus!

“Who are the primary messengers of the gospel [today]? It’s not the people that would be perceived as professional ‘God salesmen,’ like it’s their job. It’s the machinist and it’s the teacher, the mom, the cancer survivor, the golfer, the soccer player,” Hutchcraft points out. “It’s the everyday person who’s in the best position, just like the shepherds.”

The parallels go further. The message the shepherds heard of “good news of great joy for all people” is meant for every person in your life today too!

“The message of our faith is summed up by the angel making the birth announcement with these words: “For to you is born this day a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord,’ or ‘Christ the Lord,’” says Hutchcraft.

(Stock image courtesy of drabbitod via Pixabay)

“The reason it’s such good news [comes from] three things that our message says about Jesus: First, we have a Savior for our sin. Then … we have a Messiah for what’s broken in our life. [Third,] we have a Lord for the things that we are afraid of. Boy, that is good news!”

Hutchcraft says the shepherds’ story was their superpower. They ran to find baby Jesus and His family in the stable, and then they spread the news about what they had seen. “And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them,” Luke 2:18 says.

Your story with Jesus is meant to reach people too. So what might you do even today? 

“What a great thing to know that this message is supposed to be for all the people, [which] means that every person we know deserves a chance to hear this,” Hutchcraft says. 

“How life-changing it is for us to look in the mirror and say, ‘I am someone’s chance. Yes, I’m ordinary, imperfect, sometimes my life is messy’ — think about the shepherds! — ‘but I am the one who’s in their life.

“I have Jesus by one hand, and I have some lost people by the other hand, and God has put me in a position to be the one to bring them together.’ That’s great news this Christmas, because your life really, really matters.”

Header image is a stock image courtesy of Dan Kiefer via Unsplash.

Like the Charlie Brown Christmas special, Christmas is a time when you hear about Jesus everywhere. When you’re out shopping, there’s a Christmas song about Jesus on the radio. When you turn on the TV, there’s Linus sharing the Christmas story.

Ron Hutchcraft of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries says Christmas is the perfect time to naturally bring up the Gospel.

(Photo courtesy of Sergé via Flickr under Creative Commons: https://goo.gl/Pz7L9u)

“Most of us don’t realize that Christmastime is harvest time…. Have you ever thought about this? The busiest time of the year — which is the Christmas season — also happens to be the very best time for you to talk to somebody you have been praying for, someone you want in heaven with you. [It’s] your very best time to talk to them about Jesus. This is a time when hearts are softer toward Jesus, more natural toward Jesus, and where the subject to bring him up is really not that difficult.”

It can be easy sometimes throughout the year to put sharing the Gospel as secondary to everything else in our day-to-day activities. But fulfilling the Great Commission isn’t just for career missionaries. Hutchcraft encourages it’s a task for every ordinary believer.

“The people who got that Great Commission first were shepherds. You can’t get any more ordinary than shepherds! They weren’t even allowed in the temple in those days. They were thought to be such undesirables but they were the first to carry the message.”

He says, “You’ve got a chance to tell your whole story and what the word ‘savior’ means to you. And literally, it means rescuer…. You can share with them how the Savior that was announced that day has become yours personally. And if you tell it as part of your personal hope story, nobody can argue with how he has changed your life.”

A high-stakes mission

As Hutchcraft points out, the stakes are high in the Great Commission. Every day, more people die without ever having a chance to hear the Gospel.

“On our website, we have an eternity counter running right now…. It is indicating how many people have gone into eternity since Thanksgiving morning. And we know this: that 150,000 of our fellow humans will go into eternity today — heaven or hell. They will be in heaven or hell before the end of today.

“By the time Christmas rolls around, it will be well over five million people who have gone into eternity. So our task as God’s people is to — in some way, with our talents, with our work, with our gifts, whatever — to somehow help put the Gospel within the reach of more people.”

That’s why, over at Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, they are all about sharing the Good News. “We are proclaiming the Gospel by radio…in Mandarin and English and Spanish and Hindi and on our way to the fifth most spoken language in the world as God provides even this Christmas season. And that’s why we’re using every online tool that we possibly can.”

Hutchcraft says they are witnessing a great harvest for the Kingdom of God! “Four out of 10 people who watch one of our Gospel videos from across the country and around the world are indicating they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ through their phone, through their computer. It’s amazing.”

In addition to radio and online evangelism, Ron Hutchcraft Ministries supports indigenous Native American outreach through On Eagles’ Wings.

This Advent season, you can donate to Ron Hutchcraft Ministries and your gift will be doubled by a matching donor. Click here to give a matched gift!

“Every single dollar that will be given to that matching gift will be used to accelerate the spread of the Gospel. It won’t be used to turn on the lights here. It will be used to get the Gospel within the reach of more people, either through radio, internet, or Native Americans reaching Native Americans as only they can. Up to an up to a total of $125,000, your gift will be matched, doubled. There’s no better time.”

A Christmas gift for Jesus

So, this Christmas as you tick off your list of gifts for family, friends, and loved ones, Hutchcraft encourages Christians to be thinking about the gift Jesus would want this Christmas.

“I can tell you, I’ve got Christmas lists from all my grandkids. If I had a Christmas list from Jesus, I know what he would say. He would say, ‘Bring somebody home to me that I died for. This is why I came.’ Let’s think about a gift to him. And the only gifts he wants are the lives he gave his life for. You know some of those [people]. If you’re ever going to share Jesus, do it this time of the year when he came and when he very well might come into the life of someone that you know and love.”

“It would be easy to be really busy and for it to be all about buying gifts and getting to the mall and running through the internet to try to find what you want to get for somebody and all about parties and church activities — and miss the best moment of the year to tell about your Jesus.

As you prepare to share and prepare to give, the best way to prepare is through prayer.

“Start praying right now that God will open doors, natural opportunities for you to bring up Jesus this Christmas season. There should be more of them than usual. Number two, pray that God will open their heart. And number three, pray that you will open your mouth and that God will give you the words and the tone and the timing and the approach to effectively share what he’s done for you and what he could do for them because of what he did on that cross.

“It’s Christmas time. It’s time to tell about Jesus.”

Check back next week as we talk with Ron Hutchcraft about how specifically to share Christ with your own family members this Christmas.

(Photo courtesy of Bess Brownlee/AIM)

Lesotho (MNN/AIM) — “Two thirds of active missionaries are married couples. Another third are single women. The rest are single men.”

This is not exactly a statistic, per se. It’s a sentiment, and sometimes a joke, expressed by mission leaders and recruiters, according to Africa Inland Mission (AIM).

The real statistic is this: For AIM and other similar organizations, somewhere between 80 and 85 percent of all single missionaries are women. For every 10 singles sent, only 2 are men.

The disparity is great enough that there’s a noticeable gap on many mission fields. The men are missing, and a cadre of single women has taken up the work, sometimes doing jobs that a male presence would be better suited to.

AIM ministers in Lesotho to the shepherd community. They are currently putting together of team of about 8 men to live among the shepherds of Lesotho for two years, adopting a simple and difficult lifestyle.

Lesotho’s shepherds tend their employer’s flocks of sheep and goats for weeks on end at the highlands. They spend their nights in simple rock shelters, keeping warm with thick blankets by their campfires. It’s a thankless job and isolated job, which means relationships are intense and close. It’s a great setting to share the Gospel and hopefully develop relationships for discipling.

This mission opportunity will be part of AIM’s two-year Training In Ministry Outreach (TIMO). Learn more from AIM’s video feature on the Lesotho shepherds: Set Apart. You can also click here to let AIM know you’re interested.

“Taking time to build relationships, be in people’s lives, and understand a culture, is much harder than clicking a button,” a woman missionary to Africa shares with AIM. “I don’t know a lot of young people who would be willing to walk into a situation like this. This is really hard. Discipleship requires real relationships, commitment, and sacrifice.”

But Mike Delorenzo with AIM says in situations like these, men are more needed than ever. “Indeed much of mission work is nurturing. As we’ve seen, discipleship requires relationships and even relationships need nurturing. But these same relationships require a degree of risk, boldness, and, most importantly, some common ground to be built upon. It’s difficult, if not impossible, for young women to minister to men in most cross-cultural contexts. Consequently, for many of the countless men in Africa who need to hear the Word and learn to be followers of Christ, only another man can show them the way.”

It may be true that missions asks more of men, but as Driscol pounds out from his pulpit in a sermon about Biblical manhood, “Real men are not looking for the path of least resistance, but the path of the greatest glory to God.”

Ultimately, Delorenzo says, “Yes, it may be harder for [men]. Harder to cut through the lies and the apathy. Harder to raise money in a self-reliant society. Harder to enter into relationally-driven cross-cultural situations. Harder to find your ministry in your vocation. But the gospel needs men. The Christian life is a battle, so much so that the Bible calls us to put on armor. And the mission field is a battle field, where a man’s strengths and passions are called upon to be spent for the greatest cause creation has ever known: the cause of Christ and His redemptive work to save this world—and I mean really save this world. It takes courage—courage to step out of your slumber and into the fray. It takes humility—to be willing to fail or at least be deemed a failure by your peers. And it takes strength—more than you know, but not more than God will give you.”

Pray for the formation of this team.

Luke 4:8-15 reads:

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them,

"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

Why was heaven's glory revealed to a bunch of nobodies in the middle of nowhere? Shepherds were despised and unwanted. If God chose to reveal His glory first to them, then He was making an important statement: no one is too low, too insignificant, too unimportant, too powerless, too forgotten, or too anything for God to love.

This is part of the mindset behind a new Africa Inland Mission project to Lesotho's shepherds.
Lesotho's shepherds spend weeks at a time in the highlands, tending their employer's flocks of sheep and goats. Kept warm by heavy blankets and dung-fueled fires, they spend their nights in simple rock shelters. It's a thankless job, and one that keeps people isolated, which means relationships are intense and close.

Africa Inland Mission is trusting God to bring together a team of eight single young men to live among Lesotho's shepherds.

The team, part of AIM's TIMO (Training In Ministry Outreach) Program, will share in the shepherd's lives and seek to introduce them to Christ. "I believe that the shepherd community of Lesotho offers extraordinary opportunities for incarnational witness," says AIM missionary John Barry, who has served among them. "While conditions are difficult, and the population density very low, relationships [among shepherds] are intense. I think this offers the perfect opportunity for genuine discipleship."

Learn more about Lesotho's shepherd community and AIM's heart to reach them in their Featured Video: Set Apart.

Lesotho is currently facing what Africa Inland Mission is calling a "dire farming crisis." Each time it rains, the water seems to erode away more of the land, pushing soil down into gullies and creating worse and worse conditions for farming. Land, a normal form of inheritance in Lesotho, is falling further and further from workability.

Not only is the land suffering from natural causes, but it has also been deprived of caring human touch. AIM missionaries report that farming is seen as a lowly profession in Lesotho, so the land is often approached with destructive behavior rather than with tender care.

Based on the belief that God Himself was the first farmer (i.e. the Garden of Eden), AIM missionary August Basson has made strides to overturn this farming dilemma. He has begun preaching on God's relationship to farming, ensuring people that "the way we view ourselves has an effect on how we deal with the land, and it all goes back to our right relationship with the Creator."

With a program Basson calls "Farming God's Way," people's perceptions of farming are changing, and better farming methods are being implemented. As people begin to understand how God sees them, they are learning stewardship, and, more importantly, are being transformed by the Truth.

AIM is also working among another marginalized group in Lesotho: shepherds. AIM has been creating schools for shepherds in Lesotho for the past ten years, which has resulted not only in the education of many boys, but in the salvation of some.

AIM missionary John Barry sees the shepherds of Lesotho as a ministry ripe with potential–not just for the shepherds to be ministered to, but for the shepherds to do the actual ministering. He acknowledges that God, the Good Shepherd, has a heart for shepherds, and hopes to see Him use these men to spread the Gospel through oral Bible stories as they wander across the country.

God is doing great things in these marginalized groups in Lesotho. Pray that the farmers would be blessed by their hard work and that they would understand the benefits of living God's way. Pray that the shepherds would respond to the message of Jesus Christ and would be inspired to be, as Barry puts it, "shepherds of men."

Shepherds Ministries, a ministry directed toward developmentally disabled adults, has had a handbell choir for the last 30 years. The choir performs frequently, raising awareness and funds for Shepherds, while sharing the love of Christ.

"The handbell choir is part of an enduring spiritual commitment at Shepherds Ministries, providing the opportunity for a talented team of our individuals to share their faith and to minister to churches and groups all over the country," reads the first few lines of a Shepherds video of the handbell choir.

The choir itself is a two-way street, blessing those who hear it, as well as providing an opportunity for residents to step out of their comfort zone and to create something beautiful.

"It took a lot of courage to bring me in and get to know other people," says Shepherds resident, Rebekah Marvel. Marvel joined the handbell choir this year, and after getting over her fear of joining, she has had a wonderful time playing for and with other people. She was on a recent tour to Florida.

The nine-member group took two days to drive out to Florida to perform several times for various churches, schools and retirement homes. While there, the team was able to stay with families from different churches, providing another opportunity for them to raise awareness of Shepherds unique ministry. The results of these stays and the many performances were great.

"People have been very responsive," says Brooke Compton, new director of the handbell choir. "They actually get to hear testimonies from the residents, so they actually see what these residents do."

This is important for the well-being of Shepherds residents, but it is also one of the major fund raising efforts for the ministry. Above all, however, residents in the choir use it as a platform to share the love of Christ.

"[Audiences] see the joy of the Lord in these people, and they see that everything they do is for the Lord. Residents wake up and make their bed because it's something God's given them the ability to do," says Compton.

The Shepherds Ministries Handbell Choir tours frequently and all over the United States. For a complete tour schedule, click here, and find a performance near you. To schedule a performance, e-mail Brooke Compton at bcompton@shepherdsministries.org.

In the U.S., thousands of individuals often go without hearing
the Gospel, and it is not because they do not have access to a church. Instead,
it is because Christians do not know how to share with them.

These people are individuals living with Down syndrome.

"We definitely see this population as one the largest
unreached people groups in the U.S., there being so many people with Down
syndrome and so many families touched–400,000 individuals and
families," said Paul Von Tobel, Spiritual Life Director at Shepherds Ministries.

Many do not share Christ with individuals with Down
syndrome because of the common misconception that they will not be able to understand.
However, Von Tobel said, aside from the most severe cases, most can acknowledge
Christ's sacrifice and accept Him as their Savior.

"There's a lot of confusion about how to
share the Gospel with this population, how to really make the Gospel presentation
simple enough and clear enough that it'll makes sense to them and lead them to the Lord. We want to help the church with sharing the Gospel
with these folks," said Von Tobel.

One way Shepherds encourage Christians to do this is to "support these
individuals to reach their full potential," Von Tobel said, speaking of those
with Down syndrome and other disabilities.

Currently, Shepherds is developing a LifeCoach program to
do just that. Through this program, individuals with disabilities will be
paired with an individual who wants to help and become more aware of Down
syndrome. This individual becomes a spiritual mentor for the person with Down, helping them draw closer to Christ and  deepen their faith.

To learn more about LifeCoach and how to get involved,
click here.

You can also visit shepherdsministries.org to learn more
about their ministries and find out how you can become involved.

"During the course of the year…we saw some
serious rededications of their lives to Christ," said Bruce Henne, a
teacher at Shepherds College. "We saw also some embrace Christ for the
first time and really ask Him to be their Savior."

Henne notes more interest from students in God's
Word and an independent pursuit of Him in Scripture.

"They wanna do it right, and they have a sincerity
that comes through," Henne says. "I think it's convincing to others,
and God is in it. It's just a wonderful thing to see the enthusiasm of the
people here and be part of the project here."

One of Shepherds' principles is to provide an
opportunity for students to discover their Creator and the purpose He has
designed for their life. Biblical classes feature Word-centered teaching and practical day-to-day application. Weekly chapel services and meetings with
a personal mentor are part of the college's spiritual program; church
attendance and participation are also encouraged.

Student outreach is yielding fruit. Henne describes
one student's heart for acquaintances in his hometown's police and fire
department. This student prays for his friends' needs and salvation.  

"He's heartfelt about these things; he really
cares for their spiritual well-being. He himself does
share the Gospel with other people"

The abilities of developmentally-challenged people
are often underestimated. Ask God to give them courage and boldness to
overcome these stereotypes.

"Sometimes we may sell people short, and that's
a mistake," explains Henne. "Some of them have been beaten
down and ridiculed in the past."

Pray for these students as they overcome these
barriers and find a place in society. Ask God to draw closer to students as
they draw near to Him. Pray also for spiritual growth to continue.

Clicking here to learn more about Shepherds
Ministries or to support Shepherds financially.

The program director of Shepherd's Enterprises Allan Castelli says, "Two supporters of our ministry came to us and said that they had a product that they had invented and patented, and they wanted to give it over to us to produce and sell to support the ministry."

Castelli describes the products. "The first is a mini-camera handle called the Clic-Stic. And the second one is an EZ Carry. It carries dry wall panels. It's small and portable and fits in your pocket."

The Clic-Stic was designed to help people hold on to today's smaller cameras. The EZ Carry was designed to help a person carry a piece of dry wall by himself.

Castelli says these products are already helping their work. "The products [have been produced] just a few short years now and they're starting to sell and it's interesting to see how that's taking off."

The production of the products are done by 92 developmentally disabled residents and workers at Shepherd's. Castelli says, "We want them to be independent. And, these are the types of things that help them do that."

As they're able to share their story about the inventions and as they work with their retailers, he says, "Whether we're working with a plastics company, or a packaging company, we are not ashamed of the Gospel, and we will share the Gospel with anyone willing to listen. And to be honest with you, the residents do it better than even the staff. So if we can get people on campus, they're going to hear the Gospel."

If you'd like to purchase one or both of these products, click here.

Shepherds College is a new program this year, and it currently has two areas of occupational training: culinary arts and horticulture. The college has six students right now, who have excitedly jumped head-first into these programs. In Year Two of the three-year program, they will choose whether they want to focus on horticulture or culinary arts.

"We definitely don't want to push either horticulture or culinary arts onto somebody, but we're looking for the Lord's leading in their lives to help them make that choice," says Owen Lackey, who leads the horticulture program at Shepherds.

So far, students are discovering that they really enjoy both areas of study. The leader of the culinary arts program, Allan Castelli, says the college has increased creativity greatly and allowed students to develop skills that they may never have been willing to pursue.

The goal at Shepherds College is to prepare young adults with Life Skills, Vocational Training and Practicum experience. Their guiding principle is that each individual is "designed by God on purpose and for a purpose." 

"Our goal is to really develop men and women who have integrity and are
able to reach others with the Gospel by their work ethic," says
Castelli. 

Hopes are high as many working residents are already exemplary models of Christ at their jobs. "We have people in the community now who work at McDonald's or work at Marriott hotels, and they're a testimony," says Castelli. "They've worked 20-something years, and day in day out, they're faithful; they're great team members. Many times I've had managers come to me and say, ‘You got any more? We need this kind of employee.'"

Pray that the students of Shepherds College would discover more of their abilities through these programs and would have the joy of employment and of sharing the Gospel as employees.

If you would like to learn more about Shepherds College and the students there, click here.