It has been quite a while since I posted on this blog. I apologize, and offer only that I have not been idleJ.
Last week I heard a story from a friend of mine. He is a preacher in a small church of 50 people in Orange County, and is a very humble man. He just returned from a teaching trip (he holds a doctoral degree in ministry) to Bangkok (where I taught with him last year). But this year, after leaving Bangkok, he flew to Rwanda and taught appx. 65 ministers from churches in rural areas across that war-ravaged country. He told me of living for two weeks in conditions that would probably have caused me to be put into a hospital. He told me of teaching men who were hungry to know the Bible and be able to teach it themselves, and yet were so new to the faith that many still relied on spiritism and shamanism; and practiced polygamy and widespread sexual immorality. He told me who much he wanted to return to the U.S. every day because of how difficult his two-week assignment was.
And he told me how God used him.
I will try to tell the story correctly, so I will be sparing in the details to insure I don’t drift into inaccuracy.
My friend was invited to preach in a local church (they speak a rudimentary English, so he was able to function without a translator) on the Sunday between the weeks he was teaching. Of course he accepted.
He was taken to where the church met to learn that he would be preaching to a group of appx. 6000—not all of whom were Christians.
He knew that the service would be different from what he was used to, but he didn’t realize it would last 5 ½ hours. During the first few hours it was very hot, and he was drinking a lot of water to hydrate.
You guessed it.
Half way through the service he turned to the missionary who had arranged this trip and said “I have to go the bathroom”. The missionary was shocked and dismayed, but my friend insisted it was a necessity.
The missionary looked around and motioned to a woman in the congregation, who then came over and spoke briefly to the missionary in hushed tones. She looked at my friend, who was then told to follow her. He followed for a while and then finally asked, “where are we going”? “To my house” she said. “Why”? he asked. “Because I have a toilet” she said. Apparently that was a rarity. He asked how far her house was and she replied it would take them about 20 min. to walk there. At this he stopped and said “No, that’s not necessary. Show me where everyone else goes to the bathroom”.
She looked on him with horror and said “No! You can’t go there!” But he insisted, and she took him to a place a few minutes from the meeting area where a wall was surrounded by bushes. He went over to the wall (for obvious reasons) only to find that the ground was literally covered with human waste—he wasn’t able to walk to the wall without walking in it. This created a problem since he now had a substance on his shoes that didn’t fit the picture of a man about to preach in their worship service. He wiped his shoes on the grass and weeds until he felt they would be ok, all the time thinking about the poverty his listeners lived with.
After re-entering the service and finally be told it was time for him to preach, my friend took the hand held microphone that was hooked to a car battery and stood up. He asked a small boy to come to the front, asking him his name and how old he was. Then he told him a story about when he was small—a 6 year old boy living in a war torn country that had traditionally worshipped many Gods and spirits. His family was poor and he went hungry for so long he lost his sight. His parents, Christians, prayed that God would provide so that their family would survive, and through a Christian relative living in the U.S. they did. Money arrived from the U.S. Not a lot, but enough to provide food for the time being.
He told them that God had saved him from hunger, and as he ate, his sight returned. He told them how the President of his country (South Korea) decided that they must turn to God to turn the country around, and opened the country to thousands of missionary schools, which provided the basis for the educational base of the current South Korean economy. He told them that, as a starving and war-ravaged country they had to turn to the One True God to be saved, even in this life, and they did.
Then my friend looked at the massive crowd and simply told them: “You are like we were—suffering from war and poverty, unable to take care of your children. You worship many gods and spirits, but you must turn to the One True God and he will respond.” He invited anyone who wished to do that to come forward, and to his surprise (and that of every other leader present) half of the people there did so.
After that service he tried to take a nap, but was interrupted by a knock on the door of the room he had been given. It was the missionary who arranged his visit saying “Get dressed and come with me.” My friend pled fatigue, but to no avail so he got dressed and asked where they were going. As they drove to the larger city he was told “We are going to the University of Rwanda and you are going to preach the same sermon there.” This had been set up in the few moments he had tried to rest. When they got to the city, a platform and sound system had been set up at the University and word was being circulated that someone was coming to preach. Students, people from the city, people from the churches all came out—an estimated crowd of 20,000 people.
My friend was scared to death. Remember he preaches to a church of 50. But he shared the same story and the same invitation—and was met with the same result—about half the massive crowd coming forward to make a decision to follow the One True God. My friend is home now, resting, trying to “catch up” with work at the church, and preparing to return for a 3 week trip to Rwanda and Uganda this fall to tell the same story to people all over those countries.
This isn’t something you have heard of, nor will you, from the news. It isn’t the kind of thing that happens to most of us. But it did happen—it is happening. I wonder why. I wonder if it isn’t because, as terrified of this “adventure” as my friend was (we were praying for him months before he left, that he would be able to handle the conditions in Rwanda and be safe), he was willing to go. He told them the truth, simply and straightforward, and because of that God used him in an amazing way.
So, the question begs to be asked: What will God do with you and me if we are willing to step out of our comfort and simply and truthfully serve the One True God?
in Christ,
Randy Christian, D.Min.
Senior Minister
North Orange Christian Church
1001 E. Lincoln Ave.
Orange, CA 92865
714-998-3181 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 714-998-3181 end_of_the_skype_highlighting