Time to be honest,
real with lessons and challenges–the nitty-gritty good stuff that’s FUN to read
and is not-so-fun to write.
In Uganda I wrote
about how I came into Africa loathing
door-to-door evangelism, but that month the harvest was so abundant and
plentiful. It made door-to-door thrilling because I got to see the fruit of
other people’s labor. This month I am one of the laborers, one of the
sowers; the fields here in Tanzania are not
exactly white with harvest. In fact, we are often received the same way a
door-to-door evangelist is perceived in the States (not positively, not openly,
rarely patiently, but humored simply because we are trying). Until a few days ago, I had gotten to a point where I just
didn’t really feel like sharing the Word of God with people. I was happy to live love, and I was happy to let my
actions speak louder than words, which is GOOD.* BUT. When someone straight up
asks you for a word of encouragement from the Lord, I should be fighting others
for the opportunity to share the sweetness and goodness of His voice. I have
not exactly been that little vessel of verbal joy lately.
Then I got a reality-check-in-the-face.
Hope shared our team’s prayer requests with the church going into next month,
and I suddenly realized what a PRIVILEGE I’ve had to have so many opportunities
every single day of my life to verbally share the Word of God. Next month that
will not be an option.
For our squad’s month
ten, each team prayed into where the Lord would have them go in Southeast Asia.
Our team feels very strongly that we are being called to a closed country– a
nation where speaking the word of God can land you in prison for the rest of
your life, a place where even showing your Bible in public can end in equally
harsh punishment.
Next month, the words
on the page that have sustained me when I have been unable to hear the voice of
the Lord are not going to be an option, except from the private comforts of my
pillow. Next month, our team will not be able to gather on a sidewalk, bow our
heads, silence the outside world and tune into the voice of the Lord for
guidance. We’ll have to do it with our heads held high and our eyes on ever
alert, our posture subdued. Laying hands on the sick for healing on the streets
will have to cease, while the prayers meditated silently in our hearts as we
walk, and relying on the love that can be conveyed with eye contact.
But even in these
challenges, I see such incredible opportunities to live the Gospel the way Christ has called us to. My life will
testify to the Love of the Savior I have come to know so intimately. I will be
in a situation where I will have no other “testimony tool� than to live set
apart, to let Love be in my eyes, in my thoughts, in my heart, in my posture,
even in the choice words that I can speak. It will be a month where my head
knowledge of “we are called to partner with the Lord in praying while His
Spirit does the moving and changing of hearts� will be put into practice. Perchance now,
though, my train-of-thought about knowing
God outside of the Bible makes more sense. In this next exciting season I
cannot wait to report back just how much more of Him I have come to know by
simply not having the option of being in the Word when I choose.
So. As we head into
our last two weeks in Africa, I am going to JUMP on the opportunities to USE MY
VOICE to share God’s love. I am going to boldly love with the words He gives
me, and I am going to see that sharing the Gospel is a privilege.
*1 John 3:17-18: But
if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his
heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in
truth.
