Last night I read through a rather lengthy email from a missionary family detailing their hasty exit from the area where they had been serving when Covid first reared its ugly head and the world came to a screeching halt.
I sat there at our kitchen counter in the comfort of our home, finishing a nice dinner of turkey, wild rice and veggies. The air conditioner had done a fine job keeping our home cool as the Midwest experienced temperatures in the low 80’s yesterday and we had to switch from heat to cool so we wouldn’t roast inside our four walls.
Due to some family needs, the missionaries said goodbye knowing they would not be returning. Their email shared pictures and stories of the friends they left behind. Some of them had relied on this couple for income and support. They tried to set in place for them other means to make a living, but the odds stacked against their friends in a country on the other side of this globe is hard under the best of circumstances.
One of the men who this missionary father called his best friend is a single dad because of tribal issues that took his wife away from their home. It would seem hatred of people who are from different groups runs deep amongst all of us on planet earth.
One photograph showed him teaching Bible to a crowd of little faces gathered on a dirt floor and leaning against one another as they were obviously engaged in what he had to say. His face was alive and full of passion.
I felt pretty small and petty sitting there bemoaning what I have “lost” during this pandemic. I thought of all the people around the world who have nothing and yet have everything because they have Jesus.
I thought of how glibly we say we love Jesus and….fill in the blank of the t-shirt from any number of shops online.
And I thought how poor we really are when we have room for anything else beyond Him.
Surely you know of a family or two today who have left all that was familiar behind to go and share the Gospel. Take a minute and thank God for them. Think on what this pandemic has done to their ministry and to the people they were called to serve and say a prayer.
Say a prayer for them and then say a prayer for what we can do to not only support them but set aside our addiction to our comfort and our rights and really be filled with love for Jesus that cannot be shut down or shut up no matter what comes our way <3
