Before we came on the race, we asked God to burden our hearts with a problem that we would see throughout the world. We assumed that he would narrow issues down for us, highlighting a specific problem that he was calling us to help bring to light. As he normally does, he answered us in a different way than we expected by showing us more and more darkness.
These are just a few things that we have seen firsthand throughout the last 11 months. It’s dark. It’s sad. It’s depressing. BUT…
We found that the more we looked into the darkness, accepted being uncomfortable in it, and allowed our hearts to break over sin that pains God daily, the more light we found.
One of the most beautiful night skies I have ever seen was at the refugee camp in Lesvos. This part of the island could be pitch black when there were no lights turned on at night. At first, I was extremely uncomfortable with the darkness. As a child, I always had a nightlight and even as an adult, I still have times that I have to give myself a mental pep talk to walk through a dark area even if I know I will be safe. However, I came to love the nights at the refugee camp when the generator would stop working. At first my heart would skip a beat, I’d look around blindly, and momentarily forget how to do whatever I was working on. Then my eyes would adjust, I would realize that everything was carrying on as normal, and that a sense of peace would actually settle over the camp when the harsh lights were off. The best part about standing in the darkness was looking up and seeing the stars. The more we looked into the night sky, the brighter the stars shined and the more we could see.
Little did I know that God would teach me so much through that moment. We did not have many updates from South Africa and Zimbabwe mostly because Internet was a struggle, but it was also partially because we encountered so much darkness, we weren’t even sure what to think sometimes. Zimbabwe was by far one of the darkest countries I have ever visited. This mostly stems from the corrupt government that has ravaged the country. While there, our team was responsible for a program called “Unsung Heroes”. This allowed us to follow the Holy Spirit’s lead to find missionaries and Christian organizations for future world racers to come work with and support. As we looked through the darkness of Zimbabwe, we found so many stars shining brightly for Christ!
In each and every country we have had been blessed to meet people who have steadfastly lived their life for God, no matter what else goes on around them.
Sometimes it was huge acts of faith and courage that made people shine, and other times it was simply steadfastly living for God in their day by day activities. Last month in Cambodia we were so blessed to teach life purpose statements, public speaking, elementary education and scriptural studies to an entire college of students who are bringing light to Cambodia through their education and faith in God.
We live in a dark and fallen world. Just in the 11 months we have been gone, we are saddened by news of evil almost every time we see the news. But as Satan would like, the media focuses mainly on the darkness, dividing nations and pointing fingers. So today, we want to focus on the stars. These people have been huge blessings for us and hundreds of other people.
Counter clockwise from the top left – The Vegel family: joyfully leading a church in Serbia; The Burke family: sharing Christ’s love through their hostel in Zimbabwe; Father Christoforos: working for justice for refugees in Greece; The Grays and Emmanuel: led our squad to give our best in caring for refugees in Greece; COC Thailand: a wonderful organization saving many lives and bringing people to Christ; Students from the International Theological College and Seminary in Cambodia; The Gerhart family: missionaries serving in Zimbabwe who were a huge encouragement to us
When I showed Matt this collage, he immediately started tearing up and said, “Those are so many people who do such good for Christ all in one picture!” And that’s not even all of them! So to all of the people we partnered with this last year, we want to say THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts. If you are feeling like your light is barely flickering, we hope to encourage you to remember that we’re praying for you and our fellowship with other believers helps us to shine brighter together, rather than alone. What if our Facebook newsfeed were covered with pictures of people reflecting Christ rather than sharing darkness?
Today I challenge you to honor someone who radiates Christ by posting a picture of them and the reason they are #starsinthedarkness. Let’s stop getting distracted by Satan’s work and focus on putting our energy into coming together as the kingdom of God so that his glory will outshine all else!
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” Isaiah 60:1-3
