I think it’s right where the Lord wanted me to be. After arriving at the park, I told my team to give me a little time. I left the group, walked to the beach, and prayed. I thanked the Lord for my weakness and prayed that he would be my strength through the night. We had some decent conversations as it rained off and on until around 1:00 AM. Then Fred arrived. Fred is a 53 year old Aborigine who has a smoking and alcohol addiction and some memory issues too. He asked us probably 70 times (not exaggerating) if we had cigarette paper or a lighter. He was drunk when we met him but sobered up throughout the night. We were with him from 1:00-8:00.
He was a tough man to love. He blamed the Europeans/Christians for coming to Australia to take the land away from the Aborigines and for persecuting them. He would often say that he hated us and that he hated Christ. He also was carrying an incredible amount of guilt for causing brain damage to his grandson after he beat him while he was drunk. He blamed Christ for that too. We loved him as much as we could. It was hard to be patient with him, and we were fighting fatigue all night. However, the Lord was able to use us well to show Fred the love of Christ.
I am also going to tell this story not to give credit to myself but as an example of one of the ways that Christ has been working on me. About a week ago, the Lord brought to my attention that I’m not a generous and giving person in many ways. I give reluctantly, give the minimum, place too much sentimental value on material possessions, or make excuses to justify why I am choosing not to give more. It’s just like God to bring something like that to my attention and then give me an opportunity to respond. In the middle of the night, Fred talked about how cold he was getting. One of my teammates, Alycia, offered him her rain jacket to keep. I was blown away. We only carry what we really need on the World Race, and a rain jacket is important to have and not that easy to replace. I kept thinking that there was no way that I could do that. Well, Fred forgot about her jacket at that time but came up to me about an hour later telling me how cold he was. He asked me if he could have my jacket. Again, just like God to present me with an opportunity. It’s his jacket now. All I could think about was the passage in Matthew 25 where it talks about feeding, housing, and clothing the least of these and that action being the same as feeding, housing, and clothing Christ. Even though he was a very difficult man to love and said some incredibly harsh things to us, we were loving Christ as we loved him.
Thank you, Lord, for teaching me that lesson. Also, it made me think of many of you and your generosity and cheerful giving as you have financially supported me on this trip. Thank you to all of you for giving in the name of Christ!
