Description
A NEW Opportunity in Ontario
Ontario’s produce farming and greenhouse sector is robust. Canada’s greenhouses alone produce over 660,000 metric tonnes of vegetables with 69% of this total volume coming from the province of Ontario. (1) Official documentation reports that 20,000 migrant workers come from foreign countries to work on these farms every year. (2) This annual migration of employees provides unique outreach opportunities to share the gospel.
Christian Aid Ministries Canada is developing a new program to reach these people. The Migrant Harvest Worker Program was launched in early 2021 initially by supporting a Spanish-speaking evangelist to preach the gospel on farm properties or community gathering places. 7000 Bibles were ordered for distribution. Our Hispanic contact is accountable to and affiliated with a local conservative Anabaptist church. He consistently reports that the foreign workers – primarily men – are lonely and hungry for the truth of the God’s Word. Permission is granted from the farm and greenhouse owners to come onto the premises after hours or on the weekend, and a gospel message is preached to the attentive listeners. Many men are responding to the good news of salvation and making decisions to be obedient disciples of Jesus Christ. Bibles are distributed to new believers for spiritual nourishment. We also give the gift of a Bible to interested people as a means of evangelism.
We are discovering that some of these workers come from spiritually dark regions of Mexico and other Central American nations. It is our desire to disciple new believers and establish them in Biblical doctrine so that when they return to their own homeland, they will be witnesses of the gospel to their home communities. Christian Aid Ministries Canada is working to establish formal training based on the model of our Biblical Discipleship Centres program.
(1) Statistics Canada 2019, Table 32-10-0456-01
(2) OHCOW – Migrant Farm Worker Program
