It’s month 8, which means there is three more countries to go. This is also the hardest month of the race I’ve had. Last month was full of construction, and the most spiritual warfare I’ve ever dealt with. It was an emotionally exhausting month. Then my ministry this month has been 6-7 hours of construction and weekends full of ministry all day long.
This weekend I felt a wave of stress about so many things come over me. I wanted to cry and just be alone with Jesus. Then my Team Leader asked me to preach at church….that’s the last thing I felt like I could handle.
To make matters worse one of my squad mates had their laptop, iPad and go pro stolen by the boys with are discipling this month. My team was in another city doing ministry wen we go this call. It left us all devastated because the boy who was accused was one we felt close to.
All of this was going on in my mind when I woke Sunday morning. I had no clue what to preach on, because all I wanted to do was cry. When I realized my host was making the accused boy breakfast, because he had run to her house for help. Instead of taking off the boy came for help. My host showed him such love and grace. Then my host got a phone call that the person who had my squad mates stuff lived right down the road.
She asked me to walk with her to get the stuff, and on the way back she immediately forgave the boy. She praised God the whole walk back. I was amazed at God’s divine intervention in the moment. More emotions came over me and I could not hold myself together.
At the beginning of the service I wept from all that I was feeling. God started putting all of my World Race ministry hosts in my mind. He began showing how hard their lives are, and how a life with Him is that hard. I began to cry even more, because that is the life I want. He also told me to preach for the boy who was accused of stealing. Then God showed me Luke 21. He showed me two kinds of people in that passage. The first kind is the people who rebuked Jesus, when they once praised Him. The second kind is the criminal who saw Jesus and wanted Him.
He told me the first kind of people are those who see Jesus’ life and refuse to believe that God would call us to live a life like that. A life full of pain, sacrifice, and betrayal. A life where you would die alone and your closest friends do not even stick up for you. Peter who once praised Jesus denied him three times. How much hurt must have Jesus felt?
The second kind the group of people who see Jesus’ life and want it. They see God’s glory in dying to the flesh, and living through Him. They look at Jesus and see that poverty, not having a home, family, or friends is worth it. They know that when they go to heaven and see all the seeds they planted on earth in heaven and see God’s throne they will scream worth it. With every step they will say worth it, worth it, worth it!
I preached these words as God gave them to me. I cried during it, because it was hard. But the boy accused of stealing accepted Christ!!! I gained a brother in Christ. God showed me in that moment that He is worth it. Being away from family, living in harsh conditions, eating food that’s not to my liking, doing manual labor….it’s all WORTH IT!! Lord, I would do manual labor everyday if it meant I gained more brothers and sisters in Christ.
I don’t know what will happen to the boy who was accused, but I do know I will see him in heaven. I know God has him, God is faithful. When we cry out to our Father He listens. And all our pain is WORTH IT!!
