Humbled by the Humble

Even as I write this blog, I continue to be amazed by how much of an impression my visit to the Middle East made on me, and how much of an impact it has had on my way of thinking.

Every morning, I am reminded of my brothers and sisters when I look at my nightstand, atop which stands a polished granite cross that was given to me by one of the churches we visited as we left. It was as though they were saying, “Please do not forget us.”

Every time I see that cross, I am reminded to pray. And every time I think about the generosity of my brothers and sisters and the hospitality they showed me out of their great poverty, I weep.

Their example has set the standard for me, and by the grace of God, I will never be the same.

Arrival

Our very first morning, we were immediately thrown into the fray when a Muslim from our apartment complex visited us, seeking medical care and advice. Our team spent a good hour with him talking and giving him a free medical exam.

After that time, he confessed something that choked up even our translator: “I swear by Allah that you are better people than Muslims, because you have mercy in your hearts.”

When a devout Muslim swears by the name of Allah, whatever he is about to say comes from the heart. Our friend could have been killed for his words. But he saw something in us that made him say the unthinkable. God is moving in his heart. Pray for him.

For the rest of the trip, he greeted us with a warm smile, and at the end of the week when we departed, a wave wouldn’t suffice: we exchanged hugs. And this dear man will continue to meet with our local missionary and will continue to hear the gospel long after we are gone.

At the end of the day, it’s hard to argue with the love of God. The Islamic faith has copied many things from Christianity, but they cannot duplicate our love.

”By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

When our Muslim friend left, we traveled to a local market to pick up a few sets of local clothing, which I knew would be a bazaar trip. (Yes that just happened… moving on.)

The roads in our city are insane, not quite Nigeria insane, but cars literally litter the road, and maneuvering and finding a parking spot is a full time job. We pulled up in front of some cars, and our local missionary informed us that we’d just leave the keys with the people standing there in case someone needed to move.

My jaw hit the floor. “Is this really the way things go down here?” I wondered.

Actually, as it turns out, he knew the nearby shopkeepers who are men of God who are active in sharing their faith with their Muslim neighbors. So while it wasn’t quite as crazy as I first thought, the whole exchange was intriguing, to say the least.

Walking the streets is not like walking the streets in Nigeria or Central America. Nobody even turned to gawk or stare at us, which happens more or less non-stop in all the other countries I’ve visited. It was only when I pulled my camera out that I started to receive some looks.

And it was when I had my camera out that I found out something else interesting. The people here love posing for photos.

Visitation

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
Galatians 6:9-10

We spent the rest of the trip putting on medical clinics and visiting churches to minister to the people and to encourage our brothers and sisters who suffer intense persecution.

As we got out of the car to put on our first medical clinic, the local missionary confessed that he was afraid of what might happen in the neighborhood we were visiting. We ducked into a small side alley and soon found ourselves surrounded by poor people from the local neighborhood, mostly Christians.

Initially, I was hesitant to take photos until the local missionary encouraged me to start documenting the visit. I pulled out the camera and was instantly swarmed by the local children, who loved having their photos taken. And as I spent time laughing and talking to them in broken English, I began to hear their stories.

The standard of living between the average Muslim and the average Christian is incredibly different. The man in the photo above can’t even find a job as a janitor to provide for his family. Many of those I first thought to be children were actually 16-18 years old. They are incredibly small for their age and they look like they are only 10-12 because they are malnourished and their families are unable to find work.

But if there were any jealousy or bitterness with us, I never caught even the slightest hint. Instead, everyone I spoke with welcomed us warmly. Despite the language barrier, I felt like I was with family. And indeed I was, because the family of God crosses every cultural and language barrier. Truly the Lamb of God purchased men from every tribe, tongue, and race, that we may serve Him shoulder to shoulder.

After our medical clinic and time with the people, they led us into their nightly church service, where we were honored as heroes with rose garlands and a standing ovation from the congregation. And I remember thinking, “You are the heroes. Who am I? I came here one week and you have to live through persecution your whole lives. I’m not the hero here.”

In fact, the first church we visited had just finished putting up a wall around the church building, so that it would take two bombs, rather than one to kill the people.

I was so incredibly humbled that I still break down when I consider what they did for us. Because after they had honored us in their church service, they took us inside and fed us out of their poverty. No doubt, the money we brought for the church more than covered their hospitality, but the missionary explained that even if we did not, they would have gone hungry that night, preferring to feed us instead.

The love of Christ that I experienced among my persecuted brethren defied explanation. One of the churches was so poor that they took up an offering to make sure we were fed a good meal.

This is humbling.

But even more humbling was when I told my newfound friends and brothers that I would pray for them. They responded by explaining that they already pray for us in the States every day.

The persecuted are praying for us? That’s convicting.

Yet perhaps there may be something worse than suffering persecution. Perhaps they pray for us because it is we, not they who are truly missing out on the power of knowing Christ and the privilege of sharing in His sufferings. Could it be that they have found Jesus’s words to be true?

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Suffering, Hope, and Joy

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”
Psalm 116:15

On one of our last visits, we visited a church in a neighboring city. We parked next to a small square where worn walls and abandoned looking buildings surrounded a dusty basin and upturned cart. The cart and the scene intrigued me, so I began taking photos. Five short minutes later, we learned from the pastor that short months earlier, three of our brothers were shot down in that very square.

Little did I know that as I was taking photos, I was standing on holy ground.

And yet in that very church that experienced death, the worship was alive and vibrant, the response to the preaching ecstatic, the fellowship encouraging, and a new Muslim convert worshipped alongside the widow of one of the men killed.

Only the blood of Christ can take men and women who were enemies and turn them into family. Pray for the families of those men who lost their lives for Christ, and pray also for their persecutors, because our response to their evil must be one of good. Just as the apostle Paul wrote,

“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse...
Do not repay anyone evil for evil...
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

We will never conquer our enemies with the weapons of this world, we can only conquer them through the love of Christ and the gospel, His Holy Word.

Conclusion

It seems as though this mission trip backfired: I was more blessed than those I visited. And yet, our visit was an incredible encouragement to our brothers and sisters everywhere we went, and they went out of their way to tell us so. The fact that we care enough to travel so far just to stand with them and encourage them in their ministry is a massive blessing for them.

Ministry in the Middle East is difficult. Those who are already Christian suffer intense persecution and prejudice. Meanwhile, the Muslim who leaves the faith can not only be killed by his family, he can also be tried and executed by the state for leaving Islam. Under such circumstances it would be impossible for man to bring change, but be encouraged, God is still saving Muslims even under these very difficult circumstances.

So pray for the peace of the Middle East. Pray for the leaders of the Middle East (just and unjust alike) and the millions of lost souls who will never know God’s love unless someone risks it all to tell them. And most importantly, pray for our brothers and sisters.

Intercepted and Redirected

For those of you who only read the blog post a few weeks back, I was intercepted by providence on my way to Nigeria. Our passports and everything arrived just in time for the trip, quite literally one week before my departure. It seemed as though everything had lined up for our trip.

We received the passports and since the rest of the team was in Boston, I quickly sent all the passports out to Boston the same day. What I didn’t know is that I’d sent all the passports, including my own. I realized this a few days later when I was searching for it. But it was no big deal, it was still a week before the trip and my passport was only a quick priority mail away.

One of the men going on the trip shipped my passport back and I eagerly tracked it. And then something strange happened. It never got delivered. I went back and checked my e-mail and quickly realized that the man had written down my address one digit off. I went to work tracking it down but it was too late, our postman had marked the package “Return to Sender”. I found this out the day I was flying out. My bags were packed, but the only reason I went to the airport that day was to cancel my flight.

Yet the Lord taught me many things back in the states that I would not have learned in Nigeria (besides of course humility – or humiliation, take your pick).

Mid Asia

Fast forward several weeks and I’m sitting here writing this in a ten story apartment overlooking a city that sprawls as far as the eye can see.

I didn’t think I would be here on this trip either, for when we arrived at the airport, our flight was an hour and a half late leaving, which meant that we would probably miss our connecting flight.

We got on the plane, searching through our options. If we had any hope of making it, we would have to sprint the entire length of the terminal, reach the gate, notify them to switch our bags, and board, all in a matter of fifteen minutes or less. Simple right?

As soon as our plane landed in Washington D.C., I sprinted out the front door, ignoring the people around me who said there was no way I could make it. I knew differently. And I was right.. well, sort-of. I got to the gate just in time to see our plane before it left. I watched in disbelief as the plane left thinking, “Not again.”

Fortunately, because the flight delay was the airline’s fault, they put us up in a nice hotel nearby while we waited for our flight the following night. But when we arrived at the front desk, we realized that our bag full of medical equipment was missing. Missing that bag would cripple our ministry.

So back we went to the airport, sprinting down the halls in search of the lost bag. As I was running outside in the chilly night air, I remember thinking about how insane the whole adventure was, especially since we had not even left the United States. By God’s grace the police had picked up the bag and we were able to retrieve it from them with no other problem.

Missing the flight put our trip one and a half days late.

But now we are here. It was God’s purpose that I missed Nigeria, and it is God’s providence that I am here typing this.

This country is nothing short of amazing. I have a great burden for the thousands of lost we encounter when we walk the crowded city streets. The people here are much warmer to our presence than I expected. Indeed, I was pleasantly shocked when one of the shopkeepers we visited embraced me warmly before I left. And as my love for these people deepens, the question that keeps coming to mind is “Who will tell them the good news?” They are wandering without hope and without God like sheep without a Shepherd. I want to see them to see salvation and to know Christ more than my words here can express. This trip will not soon be lost on me.

Tonight we visited a group of believers who have all lost friends and family due to Muslim persecution. Their hospitality and friendliness is unparalleled, though they are suffering in incredible poverty. Many of them are unable to get even a simple job because they are Christian.

My burden is growing as I learn to love these people more and more. Pray for them – that God would save them and that God would also protect our brothers and sisters who face grave danger daily for their faith. I read this yesterday in the Psalms:

“Yet for Your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
Psalm 44:22

Pray that our brothers and sisters would not grow bitter toward their Muslim oppressors, but that they would continue to speak the truth in love, in the hopes that many will be saved.

In Christ,

- Paul

September 2011 - Summary of Ministry

This is my first attempt at this in a long time. I keep swearing I'll get disciplined about this, and I have the best of intentions with this. Still, if I were you, I'd expect the next update sometime in 2015.

I am incredibly humbled that the Lord has been using me like He has. Where can I start?

 

Personally:

I am incredibly blessed to be surrounded by a great number of friends who have been challenging me to share the gospel here in the states. God has provided at least one opportunity every week since I got back from El Salvador to share the gospel with strangers and friends alike. It is an incredibly good thing to be fulfilling the great commission of Jesus Christ. The joy I've found in obedience to the Lord's command is inexpressibly wonderful. I hope and pray that the Lord is driving each one of you towards this end as well. There is no greater pleasure to be had on this earth than serving our King and loving the lost.

 

Summer Missions in El Salvador and Honduras:

This past summer, we spent a month in El Salvador and Honduras building a house for the widow of Miguel, a dear brother in Christ. The widow's plight was incredible, she was raising her five young children alone and in the squalor of a tiny mud hut with a dirt floor. But because of our construction efforts, she is now raising her children in a sturdy concrete structure. And because the team of people who came down was so large, we had the opportunity to preach the gospel door to door and house to house throughout the village while the construction continued. It was an interesting challenge being the primary translator on many of the house visits, but the Lord somehow enabled me time and time again to translate His words clearly in Spanish. God is incredibly faithful, because my Spanish still needs quite a bit of work. (As in, a complete overhaul, but who's counting?)

 

International Student Ministry:

With the end of the summer and the beginning of school, the international student ministry is once again in full swing. Earlier this month, I found myself sitting down to lunch around a table laughing and talking with people from four different countries: Saudi Arabia, Syria, Brazil, and Germany. And as a result of that lunch, the Lord has graciously allowed a dialogue to continue with the young men from Syria and Saudi Arabia.

 

Today, the student from Saudi Arabia requested that we meet just one more time before I leave for Nigeria. Note that his hunger for friendship and for a discussion of faith is so great that he is the one asking me if there is room in my schedule.

 

Truly the fields are ripe for harvest in the international student ministry. The students are starved for friendship and family so much so that a Muslim will go out of his way to meet with a Christian who has continually preached the gospel to him.

 

Every time we meet, our discussion turns to matters of faith, and we have not had a discussion shorter than two hours. Every discussion we end up discussing the Holy Scriptures and getting into deep conversations about the truths of the Bible.

 

Please pray for my friend, that God would bring him to a knowledge of his truth.

 

Nigeria:

Tomorrow, I will also be leaving for Nigeria for twelve days. I am excited about the prospects of continuing my ministry in a country that has completely captured my heart. Yes, the food is terrible and the climate is hot, but the Lord has given me an incredible heart for the Nigerian people and their desperate need for both physical and spiritual help. This trip, we will be training up godly men in all of the new churches that have sprung up as a result of the ministry. Two of the three churches are in Muslim communities. One of the communities has completely turned to Jesus Christ, and the other is in the process of receiving the message. Please pray that the Lord continues to show the ministry incredible favor and that He continues to protect his church there.

 

In addition, we will also continue to meet the physical needs of the poorest of the poor and to orphans. Check out the video below for a summary of our work in Nigeria:

 

 

When I return, I hope to bring back more stories of how God is working in the hearts of the people of Nigeria. I have never been so excited about a trip as I have for this one, and I have no idea if it just my external circumstances or if the Lord is planning to use us for something powerful this time. In any case, please pray that we would be bold in sharing the gospel and that God would give us the right words of compassion and truth to share with the people we encounter.

 

I apologize as I have only written a short account of the things that are going on, but I have yet to even begin packing for my trip (and it's already 1:00 AM). I don't think I'm going to sleep tonight.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions about how you can personally get involved in the ministry.

 

Psalm 44:6-8

I put no trust in my bow,

   my sword does not bring me victory;

but You give us victory over our enemies,

   You put our adversaries to shame.

In God we make our boast all day long,

   and we will praise your name forever.

Grace and peace to you all,

Paul