Ok actually…two monks walk into a cafe.
Does that sound like a cheesy start to a lame joke?
Well it's not. It's what happened…
(Rewind a couple weeks)
I'm sitting in a cafe when two Buddhist monks walk in the door. In broken english, one of them says something about a friend telling him to come see us. "Follow me. We cannot talk here," he says.
What would any good racer do? I grab my nearest friend and we follow the monks. Why not?
We walk around the monestary talking for a long time. What does this monk want with us? Trying to squeeze the subject of religion and Jesus in somehow…we keep walking. Then he throws us for a spin, he wants to learn more about Jesus and he knows we can teach him.
(For the sake of the story/confidentiality, let's call our new friend Isaac.)
Isaac had heard about Jesus one year ago from an American girl that he had approached to try to learn english. (Little did he know what he was really going to learn!) Despite being a monk for most of his life, he almost immediately accepted what she had to say as truth. He has spent the past year trying to study the Bible in secret. When he has to go pray to Buddha, he says he actually prays in English to the one true God.
He had a problem though and that is why he needed us. "I need someone to help me understand more. I want to learn more." I think my friend and I almost jumped out of our shoes. "WE WILL DO IT!"
This invitation has sparked one of my biggest adventures of the Race. Not only does Isaac have us climbing mountains and taking trips to the grassland in order to talk about Jesus and worship, he is helping me learn what Jesus has commanded me to do with my life.
This blog could have really been titled, "Lessons In Discipleship." (However, I decided the current one was WAY more interesting.) Because that is what this month has been…ONE.GIANT.LESSON.
Discipleship. It's what Jesus commands us to do. "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." Matthew 28:19-20a
Our very first contact in the DR was very passionate about discipleship. He told me that in order to fully disciple someone it would take 26,280 hours + some, IF we are following Jesus' model. Jesus spent three years with his disciples (24 hours per day x 365 days x 3 years) and the + some is because I'm not Jesus, so it would take even longer for me to get the job done.
Discipling Isaac has been so rewarding. It's been exciting to see him grow and ask questions that are inevitably going to lead him closer to his Savior. It's incredible to see his face when he understands truth. It's beautiful when he sings praise to his Lord from the top of the mountains and proclaims it over the city where he lives.
However, this process has not come without disappointment and challenges on both ends.
We want so badly to see Isaac break off the chains of fear that keep him from starting a new life in Christ. He knows no other skill and has no other way of making a living. He has been a monk his entire life, what would he do with himself if he left the monestary? It breaks my heart to see him tear up, because he feels like there is no way out.
Isaac doesn't understand why, as Christians, we fail people. He's been hurt by a lot of people traveling through, giving him bites of Jesus and moving on their way.
We struggle with our flesh to be sacrificial of our time and even money. I love discipleship, I DO! But my time is no longer mine. The conversations i want to have are no longer mine to have. I need to pour as much as I can into this one person in such a small amount of time and it gets tiring. (I'm not complaing by no means. I'm just being honest…it can truly only be done out of the strength the Lord has given us this month.)
Isaac struggles with believing that Jesus can touch the hard hearts of other Buddhists around him. What is the point of sharing, if they will not believe?
It's been a huge growing process for us all!
Our team would love YOU to join with us in prayer. I would love to see at least 25 people commit to praying for Isaac (daily, weekly, put him on your prayer lists at church…whatever).
"The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." James 5:16b
Pray for Isaac:
1. Pray an Old Testament would be given to him. (It is hard to find here and there are a lot of questions he has that the OT would help answer.)
2. Pray God will send a long term discipler to him. Someone that can spend the 26,280 + hours with him.
3. Pray God gives him the strength to endure hardship or persecution that may come his way from being a believer in such a hard place.
4. Pray God breaks the chains of fear in his life, so he can bodly step into a new life with Christ, spiritually and physically.
5. Pray God uses the voice of this man to proclaim his name through this country, in order to bring many to the Lord.
