Flashback: It’s Nepal. I’m starving. I’m out of team food money for the next couple days and I’m not feeling well. I’m exhausted from traveling and I’m feeling a bit irritable and spiritually attacked but trying to pray through it.
Bless! A friend offered to split a chicken wrap with me for dinner so we walked down the road a block or so to order it. It smells amazing and OH. MY. IT IS SO BIG. We turn to walk back to our hostel and boom!
A child about 6 years old comes at me full force, rags for clothes, dirt on his face, whining like a newborn who had just been beaten and scratching at me to get to our wrap.
WHAT IS HAPPENING?!
I attempt to get the child off of me and pass the wrap to my friend. The child continues to scratch his way to my face without realizing I’m not holding the wrap any more.
OH MY GOODNESS. This is the end.
Once the child recognizes I am not holding it, he moves over to jump at my friend. Then, an older man starts laughing and yelling at the child to stop and suddenly there is no child.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?
Flashback #2: This image has stuck with me in my mind. I asked many of my squad mates what they would have done and most of them answered with some type of response that demanded justice for what just happened, but not one person said they would have given the child the wrap. What would Jesus have done?
A few weeks ago, we did a discussion bible study (DBS) on Luke 6:27-38 and the memory of this event came to mind again.
“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
Present day: One of my teammates paid 1,000 tenge for a bottle of water that cost 500 and didn’t receive her change. The checkout lady denied my teammate gave 1,000. Now she was completely out of food money for the next couple days. Just having done this DBS a week ago, my teammate was frustrated but decided to let it go, which was a big step for her in her walk with the Lord.
I had a desire to give her double the amount she had before (2,000), but when I checked my wallet I didn’t have the exact amount… the smallest I had was 5,000 tenge. After praying about it, I felt God telling me to give it to her so I put it in her purse while she was sleeping.
The next morning we were headed to church when she discovered the 5,000 came from me. The message that day was on Jesus feeding the 5,000.
The preacher mentioned how this specific story is mentioned in all 4 gospels… indirectly mentioned in the book of acts as well.
He talks about how human reaction focuses on the problem, but we have been enabled by God and a person of faith will DO anyways- even when it doesn’t make sense.
Then he mentions the meaning for numbers in the Bible:
1 = God
2 = Division
5 = Death
I didn’t know it, but my teammate felt convicted and ended up putting the entire 5,000 in the offering.
The next day, another teammate felt God nudging her to bless my teammate with 20,000 tenge without knowing about the 5,000 I have previously given her and what she did with it.
***
This is an amazing story of how God is working on our hearts in Kazakhstan and teaching us lessons in faith and obedience. It doesn’t have to be money, but in this case God multiplied just as he did when he fed the 5,000. It didn’t make any sense why all three of us handed over money like we did, but God always knows and even the significance of the number 5,000 was a lesson in that we are all dead to selfishness and our fleshly selves, and made new in Christ.
