Hey guys!!
Thanks for hoping over here from our Pt.1 blog to hear an amazing story of the body of Christ working together. I (Matt) am going to share with you the story of my friend from Finland.
The story does not start with me though. The more and more I encounter the kingdom of God, the more and more I realize that the story never starts with me. Even if we as believers are the first person to ever share the Good News of Jesus with someone, in order to even get to that moment so many things have to align. God is the Alpha and Omega, and He is so gracious to let us partner with Him in the middle! But back to the story…
Almost a month before we even arrived in the Philippines, a 17 year-old young man from Finland named Panu made his home at Kids International Ministry. He landed with the plans to stay for around 6 months with the last 2 months of his stay being an internship for his final stage of what we would call “High School.” Panu found KIM online by just searching for ways to help people and was drawn to the Philippines because of his love for boxing and his desire to train and fight. His arrival was a great alignment of all his dreams and season of life coming together. Around the same time, God sent a 21 year-old college student from California named Sak to KIM for a little over a 6 week stay. Sak is a really strong believer who is studying philosophy and political science at Cal Baptist University and was really seeking ways to serve and better share his faith. He and Panu connected instantly. By the time we came on the scene, it was easy to see that the two were attached at the hip. They were staying together in a small room with space enough for 6 in a guys only room. When our team arrived (due to the shear amount to people that were staying at the base) Kalyn and I did not know if we were going to stay in our own room together or not. We found out that the first few days the we would be together and then there would be almost a week where we would stay separately before coming back together. I was going to stay in the small room with the guys.
The first night I walked in to the room, I was laying on the top bunk and was watching Sak walk through a talk with Panu on the scientific existence of God. Let me stop here and tell you that Panu is the most questioning and inquisitive young man that I have ever met. As I watched and listened to the questions being asked, I felt God remind me that this is the reason I was in the room. God has gifted me to be able to break things down simply and this was the perfect time to walk in His gifting to me. So, I waited for the right time to offer some of the answers God has shown me to the tough questions. Then the floodgates opened. One question got answered and then the next was interjected just as if Panu had a list of questions stored up for years. Sak and I partnered to provide some clarity through the lens and truth of Jesus. Sak was so great at building a relationship (even reading the Bible with him before we arrived) and God used me as a momentary mouthpiece. Hours later, the 3 of us were reading from the Bible and discussing stories and truth. For days this continued when we were in the room at night. A few nights later I got moved down the hall to be with Kalyn again, but that same day Panu asked for us to all to meet again that night.
This time we sat together and as the questions rolled in I knew something was different. The questions that were being asked were very unique and relatively unanswerable. For example, “How do we know how old the planets are?” and other questions that not even scientists are able to answer. The Spirit showed me in that moment and prompted me to challenge him because he was just asking questions at this point out of fear and need for justification. He was confronted with the REAL truth of Jesus and he knew that it was real but he wanted to ask crazy questions that he knew were unanswerable so that he could tell himself that it might not all be real after all if there are no answers to whatever he asked. When I presented that thought to him he smiled, laughed, and sat back. I followed with, “Something is holding you back. What is it?” He sat in silence for nearly ten minutes contemplating and responded, “I don’t know.” A few moments later, Sak was able to lead him into a genuine commitment to follow Christ!
It was so special to see how God used both Sak and I in our giftings to build the kingdom. It was even crazier to find out later that Panu had actually attended a Christian camp when he was little younger because a friend would always invite him, but once they stopped being friends he stopped going. This is so rare as Evangelical Christianity is not so common in Finland. See, even though my part in Panu’s story didn’t start with me, it didn’t start with Sak either. God had been pursuing Panu his whole life and used us to step in and illuminate him to that truth.
In the weeks after his commitment, before us leaving, Panu and I got to spend a lot of time together playing ping pong, swimming, or going on adventures, playing racing games at the mall, and talking about Jesus. I miss him already!
Today, even now, as the body of Christ lets rise up and take our place. We don’t have to be the whole body like we so often try to be. Just be the finger or the toe. Be the elbow or the knee. Without you taking your place and walking in freedom and your calling, the body is not complete. The world is ready for you to accept God’s invitation to partner with Him in exactly how he has gifted you. Do not compare, but prepare to be used!
I only have one picture of us and it is actually a screenshot of Panu practicing dodging punches from me late one night. 🙂
P.S. We are in Chile waiting for our final flight to Argentina for those of you who are following our wild travel days! 🙂
