Have you read Ellen G. White’s dream about picking whortleberries? Call them blueberries or huckleberries, if you like. But please read “Gathering the Fruit” in Gospel Workers, beginning on page 328 and excerpted below. This dream points out common mistakes in sharing our faith. It shows where the “berries” are. I have seen this plan bear fruit in my church. Let me tell you about our blueberry evangelist.
Julie was a farm girl. She lived on 160 acres and loved to partner with God in raising animals, vegetables and fruit. She loved blueberries. She picked the wild ones from a nearby hillside every year. Her husband said they were actually farkleberries. In any case, she harvested them, ate them and shared them.
Looking to share her faith and witness in the community, Julie was excited when she found Mrs. White’s berry story. She would share it in church as a witnessing theme. She would blanket the building with little posters, encouraging church members to pick God’s abundant harvest.
A Dream
In a dream given me September 29, 1886, I was walking with a large company who were looking for berries. There were many young men and women in the company who were to help in gathering the fruit. We seemed to be in a city, for there was very little vacant ground; but around the city there were open fields, beautiful groves, and cultivated gardens. A large wagon laden with provisions for our company went before us. {GW92 328.2}
Soon the wagon halted, and the party scattered in every direction to look for fruit. All around the wagon were both high and low bushes, bearing large, beautiful whortleberries; but the company were all looking too far away to see them. I began to gather the fruit near by, but very carefully, for fear of picking the green berries, which were so mingled with the ripe fruit that I could pick only one or two berries from a cluster. {GW92 328.3}, emphasis supplied.
Julie executed her plan. She read the story to her congregation, and put little signs--“Pick the blueberries!”--on the bulletin boards, even on the bathroom mirrors. She was fairly enthusiastic about the theme. There was some eye-rolling but no significant upsurge in outreach activities. Most ignored her brilliant presentation and eventually the signs disappeared.
Time passed, and an evangelist was enlisted to hold meetings in our church. All members were encouraged to invite their friends and neighbors. Well, you might guess how that went. A few church members showed up, and very few guests. We had done due diligence, of course. We bulk-mailed fliers to the entire community. But whom could we invite personally? Our neighbors and coworkers seemed uninterested in such things.
Some of the nice large berries had fallen to the ground, and were half consumed by worms and insects. “O!” thought I, “if this field had only been entered before, all this precious fruit might have been saved. But it is too late now. I will, however, pick these from the ground, and see if there is any good in them. Even if the whole berry is spoiled, I can at least show the brethren what they might have found if they had not been too late. {GW92 328.4}, emphasis supplied.
Before the first prophecy meeting, I walked by the kitchen, where several ladies busily prepared snacks for the fellowship time to follow the meeting. A friendly-looking woman I didn’t know was helping Julie at the sink. She looked pleased to be there and seemed right at home. I introduced myself.
Imagine that! Trisha, our guest, was Julie’s neighbor, a dairy farmer living a mere mile away from her and about 10 minutes from our place. Was she interested in Bible prophecy? I sent up silent prayers.
Just then two or three of the party came sauntering around where I was. They were chatting, and seemed to be much occupied with each other’s company. Seeing me, they said, “We have looked everywhere, and can find no fruit.” They looked with astonishment at the quantity I had. I said, “There are more to be gathered from these bushes.” They began picking, but soon stopped, saying, “It is not fair for us to pick here; you found this spot, and the fruit is yours.” But I replied, “That makes no difference. Gather wherever you can find anything. This is God’s field, and these are his berries; it is your privilege to pick them.” {GW92 329.1}, emphasis supplied.
Julie, our Blueberry Evangelist, began knocking on doors for Jesus
One day Julie had decided to knock on doors in her neighborhood. She would pray and look for people to invite to church. She loved to do that, going “two by two” just as Jesus instructed in Mark 6:7. Her husband was busy so she took blueberry plants instead. She had just planted some, along with a large orchard, and would sell the surplus. She prayed and ventured out, trusting God’s Spirit to go before her.
Knock, knock, knock, down the road she went. “Hello, I’m your neighbor just down the road. Would you like to buy some blueberry plants?”
“Of course I would. I’ll buy some of your blueberries,” Trisha responded. She was eager to try new things, and glad to help Julie find homes for her extra plants.
Trisha answered the door with a smile
As things go in the country, the ladies started chatting. “What church do you go to?” asked Trisha.
“I’m a Seventh-day Adventist,” replied our blueberry evangelist.
“Oh,” the blueberry customer replied. “Y’all go to church on the Sabbath. That’s biblical. Saturday is the Sabbath.”
“Yes, that’s right!” affirmed Julie, now thrilled from head to boots. They kept chatting, and Julie learned Trisha’s husband was a Baptist and they attended locally.
….But soon I seemed to be alone again. Every little while I heard talking and laughing at the wagon. I called out to those who were there, “What are you doing?” They answered, “We could not find any berries, and as we were tired and hungry, we thought we would come to the wagon and take a lunch. After we have rested awhile, we will go out again.”...My small pail was soon full of berries, and I took them to the wagon. Said I, “This is the nicest fruit that I ever picked, and I gathered it near by, while you have wearied yourselves by searching at a distance without success.” {GW92 329.2}, emphasis supplied.
The newly-purchased blueberry plants went into the ground, with Julie’s proffered assistance, and a friendship began to blossom. Julie was amazed to hear how Trisha had found the Sabbath truth in an old book she borrowed from the Baptist church library.
This venerable book caught Trisha’s eye in her Baptist church library
The hardbound volume was was first published in 1888 and Trisha had discovered a first edition copy, fairly intact. Such an old book must be special, she was sure. So she took it home and read it. Kept it, too. Her church library shut down just after she borrowed the book so it became hers. As she read, the seventh-day Sabbath and many other Bible truths were sown in her heart.
“Everything just made sense in that book, and it was amazing how things went together as I read it,” Trisha recalled. When Trisha was invited to accompany Julie to the Bible prophecy meetings sometime later she was eager to go. There she heard the same teachings she had already read in The Great Controversy. Can you guess what happened next?
I visited my homebound neighbor one Sabbath afternoon. “I heard Trisha left the Baptists and joined your church,” she said. News travels fast on our highway.
“Yes,” I answered. “Trisha was baptized just recently and she is precious.” My neighbor knew the Sabbath truth also, but had not taken her stand for it.
….“Brethren, ….Your success or failure depends upon the way you take hold of the work. There are berries here; for I have found them. Some of you have been searching the low bushes in vain, others have found a few berries; but the high bushes have been passed by, simply because you did not expect to find fruit on them. You see that the fruit which I have gathered is large and ripe. In a little while other berries will ripen, and we can go over the bushes again. This is the way in which I was taught to gather fruit. If you had searched near the wagon, you might have found fruit as well as I.” {GW92 330.2}, emphasis supplied.
“It was a God thing, I’m sure of it, that brought Julie to my door with those plants,” said Trisha. “I needed her and she needed me.” Sadly, as Trisha put down roots in God’s remnant church, Julie’s health began to decline and Trisha took her under her wing.
Trisha’s caring heart considered her own flesh-and-blood, too. Family members needed to know God’s end-time messages. Where could she begin? She began by regularly attending her new church home and participating wholeheartedly. She introduced her husband and friends to her new church family.
Trisha went online. She found life-changing health programs. She tweaked her menus away from porcine favorites toward plant-rich dishes. She found testimonies on Audioverse.org she could share with her unchurched daughter who is raising two kids alone. “Wow!” was the texted response after one video was devoured.
Car payments led Trisha to seek a job in town where she took a stand for the Sabbath. When coworkers asked questions, she pointed them to Scripture and invited them to visit her church. One did.
The in-laws came for a visit. Trisha found a way to share her faith and to offer the “best book on the life of Christ”, The Desire of Ages, which would surely bless, rather transform, their Pentecostal experience.
A widowed friend spends many weekends on Trisha’s farm. She learned to respect the Sabbath when Trisha broke it to help her load some animals and took a sudden, tremendous tumble. Trisha sensed God’s providence in the painful reminder of His day of rest.
As her sore back healed, Trisha recommitted herself to the full 24 hours of Sabbath blessings. Secular labor was relegated more firmly to the previous six days. Trisha planned Sabbath afternoon nature excursions to enjoy with her husband and her friend who, in God’s providence, was getting curious about the Sabbath School lessons and streamed church programs Trisha was so devoted to.
Trisha has not read Mrs. White’s blueberry dream yet, but she is surely following its principles. I believe she will harvest some ripe berries soon, if she is faithful. Will you? Will I?
...At last I said, “You must hereafter work with more zeal and earnestness, and with an altogether different object in view, or your labors will never be successful. By working in the right way, you will teach the younger workers that such matters as eating and recreation are of minor importance….You should be diligent, first to pick the berries nearest you, and then to search for those farther away; after that you can return and work near by again, and thus you will be successful.”—MS. {GW92 331.1}, emphasis supplied.
Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest (Matthew 9:37-38).
Holly Joers writes from rural Arkansas, where her blueberries are now in bloom, and the Lord of the harvest nudges her to action.