Pastor Steve Hayes thought he had retired after 30 years of preaching, but has ended up re-energized.
Hayes and his wife Marianna, a Ladoga native, returned to Crawfordsville four years ago from Mattoon, Illinois to be closer to their children.
Hayes took a part-time job at Wabash College in security. It has since turned into full-time job and he volunteers as the chaplain for the Little Giant football team.
Little did Hayes know the job at Wabash would become the means to lead and help 30 churches in the Philippines. Previously, Hayes had been on four mission trips to the Philippines and fell in love with those churches he helped plant and build and the people who led them.
“I felt I had to do something to help,” Hayes said. “I prayed and the Lord put Travis Sheets from Frankfort Indiana on my heart. We had been on a few mission trips together. Travis and Gina Sheets had successfully founded Hope In The Harvest International. I called and was surprised to find Travis had the same prompting. After many discussions with the Thomas family and the board of directors of HITHI, we made the decision to step out in faith.”
Founded by Ed Thomas, who died in February, World Mission Builders started building churches around the world in 1975 and was committed to putting permanence in missions. This was done by recruiting believers in foreign countries who had a desire to serve in ministry. To accomplish this, World Mission Builders paid to send them to Bible College in their own country. Four years of room and board, books, and tuition were provided. Upon graduation, the individual then signed a two-year commitment contract to start a new church, understanding that the church must be self-supporting at the end of two years, as financial support from World Mission Builders ended at that time.
World Mission Builders then constructed a church building and gave it to the congregation “free and clear” with the only request being that they take good care to maintain it. These congregations were then asked to help others and the cycle has become self-perpetuating. More than 10 churches are now successfully and independently operating in the Philippines.
In September, five Hope In The Harvest board members traveled to the Philippines and visited three provinces, churches and church camps. A meeting was conducted with 22 native pastor leaders representing seven provinces and the decision was made to assimilate this ministry into Hope In The Harvest International. HITHMI was founded in 2012 to extend the gospel using agriculture education. HITHMI operates the only collegiate ran Agriculture Research Center in Liberia, where HITHMI has a team of 18 paid Liberians who demonstrate row crop, fruits, vegetables, greenhouse operation, livestock, and fish farming on five acres on the campus of Liberia International Christian College. The food insecurity in the Philippines is 46.5%.
“It is our vision to continue World Mission Builders program adding Farming God’s Way into existing churches and all new church plants,” Hayes said. “The average Philipino earns less than $10 a day. They are industrious but simply lack the resources, skills and land for productive agriculture. Our expansion into the Philippines is a huge step of faith, as we are all unpaid volunteers with total dependance on God for our finances. We have no administrative costs. One hundred percent of donations goes to the ministry.”
The group’s immediate goals are to extend a needed roof for Jacelyn Church of Christ; to rebuild Mountain View Church of Christ and the parsonage damaged due to a typhon; to rebuild the meeting hall at the Leyte Campground, destroyed in a typhon; to build a new church and demonstration garden on purchased land at Loom, Bohol; to plant and teach Farming God’s Way at Cebu Chrsitian Bible College; and to offer short-term mission trips and internships to the Philippines and Liberia.
Please consider makeing a gift to Hope In The Harvest. Give at www.hopeintheharvest.org. There are various levels of giving, including monthly and annual options or donors may give to a scholarship or building funds.
Contact Steve Hayes by phone at 217-294-1700; email paststevehayes@msn.com or find him on Facebook.
