People in the first century were no different than people are in the twenty-first century. Everyone needs the Lord! When Jesus saw the multitudes of people “weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd,” He was “moved with compassion for 
them” (Matt. 9:36). He told His disciples that people everywhere needed the Great Shepherd, and then He told them to pray. Pay attention to this.
“Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (9:38). Now, notice what happened five verses later–“These twelve Jesus sent out…” (10:5). They were to pray for God to send out His workers to those who were lost, and then Jesus turned around and sent out His workers “to the lost” (10:5-6). This was an answer to their prayer!
And so it is today. We need to pray that God will send out laborers, and then we need to be the answer that prayer ourselves, realizing that we ourselves have been sent out!