Seated next to Josh, a friend and squad-mate, flying over the Mediterranean, I listened to him recount his past 2 weeks of mission work. Josh had showed the love of Christ to one child in particular. The letter he received from this little boy said, “Please don’t leave. I love you.”
What can one say?
I thought of Hibba, the teenage girl I taught to surf. Did she feel the same way after only 3 days together? More questions came.
Why do we bother loving these kids if I’m going to leave? What difference can 15 people make in an orphanage over 2 weeks? My initial answers were, “I don’t know” and “not much.”
However, for some reason, Josh and I began discussing the importance of poetry. Josh stated, “Poetry is important because it captures the ‘moments of gold in a bronze world’.”
This sentiment shook my soul. And I realized why we loved these kids.
It started with a statement by C.S. Lewis I had read years ago, “You have never talked to a mere mortal… But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors and everlasting splendors.”
I realized that we, H Squad, had given these “immortal” children a moment of gold in a bronze world. Our love, Christ’s love, will be an everlasting splendor to these children.
So why do we have to leave? We leave because we will never be able to love these children the way Christ can love them. If we do not leave and do not break their hearts, they will never go seeking Christ’s perfect love to satisfy the hole in their souls. To stay and cause a child to depend on your love, potentially depriving them of Christ’s love, would be the true travesty (Mark 9:42).
Most importantly, we leave these children behind for the same Jesus left his disciples, so that these children can seek and receive something better – something they will not find in Islam. This is why we must break a child’s heart.
“… I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away. Unless I go away, the advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him.” – John 16:7
God will fulfill his promises. He sent us to be Christ to these children. Now, we must leave and have faith that God will send “the advocate.” As our squad mentor Chris Scott says, “God’s a big boy. He can handle it.”
Last Photo of the Surf Crew All Together
