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They're Counting on Us
Posted by
Ruthie Hankins
,
09 November 2012
·
1166 views
I received some news this week that challenged me to take a hard look at how I pray, specifically for our international workers and the places they serve. Do I really believe that their ability to stay on the field and their physical, emotional and spiritual health depend on MY prayers? Do my prayers REALLY make a difference in breaking through the spiritual darkness they experience all around them? If I believe this, do I ACT like I believe it?
In the next 18 months, how I honestly answer these questions will hit close to home. The young lady who has worked at the desk next to mine for the last 2 years will head to Indonesia as an international intern. A former student and his wife have just been appointed as IWs to serve in Thailand. A young man who was a "dorm brother" to my daughters will be sent with his wife and 4 kids to a country I can't even mention in print. And my oldest daughter and her husband will go to France as international apprentices.
Touristy pictures of these places look beautiful. National Geographic tells me about all the interesting cultural experiences I can have there. The Amazing Race shows contestants spending a day or 2 in each place and saying they "wouldn't trade the experience for anything" (except maybe the million dollar prize). But these things don't give me the insight of what it is like to live day in and day out in a place where, at best, less than 6% of the population is Evangelical (and that figure is for Indonesia, not France--in the U.S.it's 29%).
It is going to be HARD for these, my friends and family, to go to places where they will struggle to communicate in the local language, frequently make cultural blunders, live in villages and neighborhoods where they may be some of just a handful of true Christ-followers while trying to keep a joyful attitude and share the love of Jesus with people who constantly reject them or think they are foolish for believing in Him.
Yet, they are committed to sticking it out because Jesus has called them to it. And they are counting on me to help them keep that commitment by asking the Father to empower and encourage them. They are counting on all of us--in their churches, small groups, Sunday School classes, Facebook networks--who also claim to follow Jesus.
So, who is counting on you?
In the next 18 months, how I honestly answer these questions will hit close to home. The young lady who has worked at the desk next to mine for the last 2 years will head to Indonesia as an international intern. A former student and his wife have just been appointed as IWs to serve in Thailand. A young man who was a "dorm brother" to my daughters will be sent with his wife and 4 kids to a country I can't even mention in print. And my oldest daughter and her husband will go to France as international apprentices.
Touristy pictures of these places look beautiful. National Geographic tells me about all the interesting cultural experiences I can have there. The Amazing Race shows contestants spending a day or 2 in each place and saying they "wouldn't trade the experience for anything" (except maybe the million dollar prize). But these things don't give me the insight of what it is like to live day in and day out in a place where, at best, less than 6% of the population is Evangelical (and that figure is for Indonesia, not France--in the U.S.it's 29%).
It is going to be HARD for these, my friends and family, to go to places where they will struggle to communicate in the local language, frequently make cultural blunders, live in villages and neighborhoods where they may be some of just a handful of true Christ-followers while trying to keep a joyful attitude and share the love of Jesus with people who constantly reject them or think they are foolish for believing in Him.
Yet, they are committed to sticking it out because Jesus has called them to it. And they are counting on me to help them keep that commitment by asking the Father to empower and encourage them. They are counting on all of us--in their churches, small groups, Sunday School classes, Facebook networks--who also claim to follow Jesus.
So, who is counting on you?
- Julie Daube, Kent Copley, Don Sappington and 1 other like this
