Okay,
for many of you, as you read this blog post title, you’re already thinking
dollars and cents ~ $$$ ~ or, as is our case here in Belgium, euros and cents ~ €€€
.
But today I need to talk about the many ways support (finances and prayers!) works in the life
of a missionary.
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| Our Bible study materials |
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I’m
writing this as I participate in a mini retreat, a short 24 hours where we, a
group of nine people who are connected to each other through our local church,
AIPC., went away to a convent (a
Catholic retreat center for women) for the weekend. We were nine people, representing five broad areas of the
world: (North America, Africa, Europe, Middle East and Central Asia). We used any of five languages, and we
gave ourselves permission to speak, pray, sing and laugh in the language of
your heart. And wow, it was
powerful! Some of us sat through one session not understanding a word of the
teaching, but then that teaching session wasn’t designed for us but rather for
the new believers. And that’s the
name that the retreat center gave to our group for the weekend, the “new
Christians”. How powerful it was
to sit alongside our sisters and pray for the Holy Spirit to work in their
lives, and to pray in anticipation of the fruit that will be born in their
lives and in future generations as they will get the chance to live out what
they learned in our twenty-four hours together.
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| Read your Bible, Pray every day in Dutch |
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| No, I'm not having a baby....just singing about reading your Bible and praying every day! |
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| A teachable moment ~ I taught in English with translation ~ worked really well! |
I
think, in the end, that this whole retreat was just for Sonie (not her real
name). She was the youngest in our
“AIPC sister’s conference” (that’s the name that my co-leader gave to our
weekend). She is also the youngest in her faith and journey with Christ. She’s a first year university student,
getting ready for her exams this week, yet found the time to break from her
studies to be with us. And she
just kept asking questions ~ needing to have things explained, and she kept us
laughing. I loved her
questions: “is it a sin to be a
model in Europe if I’m following Jesus?”….a very valid question for a 20 year
old young woman from the Middle East who is drop dead gorgeous and walks in the
tension of honoring the traditions from her homeland while living in modern
secular Europe as a new follower of Jesus. The “big sisters” were teasing her
about her limited ability to read the teaching materials in her mother language,
which, by the way, she speaks fluently.
But when you’ve moved from your homeland as a young child, have done all
of your studies in Dutch and English, I was so proud of her as she shared “I
only read my Bible in our language”.
At least the Bible is clear enough for her to understand in her first language ~ thank you
Jesus!
What
I walked away with from this important weekend….well, there were a couple
thoughts for me…
a. Jesus speaks to all peoples in all
languages. He’s still real and
relevant to our generations today.
b. What amazing things can happen in the
lives of new believers if there are mature believers who are willing to
sacrifice some time and money in order to bring people together to worship, to
study together, and to play together.
c. We’re all in this together! This is the motto of Gary Walter, the
current president of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). He’s been saying this for years already, we’re all in this
together. And I really sensed that
this weekend, as we benefited from funding, the $$$ that got
converted locally into €€€ so that these 6 new Christians could be
encouraged and strengthened in their journey with Jesus the Messiah. I am especially thankful to the Women’s
Ministry of the ECC and to those who gave sacrificially to the FOWM appeal for
refugees, which helped pay for our meals, our lodging, our transport. Our fun together….that was free! And priceless at the same time!
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| Our clay sculptures...mine represented the 9 women who participated, whose lives were all covered with the cross. The heart is obvious...and the little balls represented the blowing bubbles that were in the gift bags ~ part of the fun! |
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| Of course, when you have a real artist in the group, this is the kind of sculpture that shows up around the table....Holy Spirit descending like a dove ~ |
