This blog is not meant to be a guilt trip so no need to pack
your bags. You know, as I draw closer to the close of the craziest, longest,
life-changing year of my life I keep coming back to the same question. “What
now?” I have lived in 8 countries so far and will have lived in 11 by the end.
I have left some countries without looking back and have left some asking God
when I will return. In all of it, good and bad, my heart is marked. Each place
leaves a little of itself with me. Whether it is the beauty of a country
unknown to all but its people or the children unseen by all the people of their
country, they stay with me. I want to stay with them.
The only problem is….there is only one me.
My mother is property sold for cows. My father pays for a
night someone’s daughter or son at the bar. My brother sleeps on the streets
with a heart full of hurts. My sister sells her body to take care of her
family.
What do I do? I want to be with them all. I want to fight
for them all. But I can’t do it all.
It is in these moments that Jesus’ words come to mind to
pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers because the
harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
I want someone to see the worth God has given my mother. I
want someone to help my father find his way back to true satisfaction. I want
my brother to know that our Father cares about the anguish of his soul.
Finally, I want my sister to know that her body is not a tool for man but a
beautiful temple created in the image of her Creator.
But how will this happen if no one goes and if no one goes,
how will they be told. If they are not told then they will not know and because
they do not know, there isn’t even hope for something better. If there is nothing
better… well then why am I preaching Christ?
But, as it is written, “How beautiful upon the mountains are
the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news
of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to [the world] ‘[Our] God
reigns.'”
God has graciously allowed me to bring good news to the
poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the
captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. I hope to do
that as long as I’m able. I just pray that I’m not alone as I do it.
