Our sweet friend Ruth made it safely back from Austria and had such a marvelous, marvelous time. Thank you so much for remembering her and praying for her. The stories that she has had a chance to tell have been so, so sweet and have made me think a lot about what God has been talking to me and our family about... so, I thought I would share two of her favorite stories. Ruth, please correct me if I misrepresent anything!!!
Story [#1] - They had a lot of "share" time on the trip - as there were people from all over the world there at Haus Edelweiss. One lady told them of a time last year at the school where she walked passed a room where a man was singing a hymn as loud as he could. I don't think it was odd that he was singing as they were about to being a worship time, but that he was all alone and singing at the top of his lungs, for awhile, did make the lady a little curious, and perhaps a little embarrassed for him. UNTIL, later that day she had the chance to talk to him and he explained that it was the FIRST time in his entire life that he could actually sing out loud to his Maker because in his country he would be prosecuted for doing so. MAN!!! Do we have it easy here or what? That just give me chills and HOW SWEET to hear a man singing directly to God - I wish I could have heard that. Don't you know God was saying - a joyful noise - THAT is what I'm talking about!!!
Story [#2] - Two foreign ladies (I cannot for the life of me remember what country they were from but I do know that Christianity was FAR from taught there) were on a very long train ride (I think they were traveling a couple countries away) and they happen to pick up a Bible and started to read it. They read and read and read and felt convicted that this Jesus was the real thing. They talked about it and realized that they knew NO ONE that was a Christ follower and therefore didn't know of anyone to talk to about "this Jesus". So, they decided to pray that God would provide that for them in their destination city. A few days passed and God spoke to one of the ladies in a dream and mentioned a street name and a number... Sure enough, they went there and guess what? It was a Christian church at that address. HOWEVER, the even cooler part was that this church, because of prosecution, CHANGED THEIR ADDRESS EVERY DAY!!! How cool is our God???
To be honest, I have never felt like I was called for Mission work - never felt led to go to a third world country. However, in order to be able to have a realistic view of how "good" we have it here - and to be able to hear worship songs sung in another's native tongue - and to hear how God is moving mightily in the places where his Name is never spoken - and to be able to teach my children about it - it just may need to happen at some point. I sometimes forget the BIGNESS of God - He is speaking to people in EVERY tribe and in EVERY tongue - not just to the people within my circle of influence. I'm so grateful for that...
3 comments:
WOW! Such stories. We, in America, have so much to be thankful for.
Tomorrow I will be singing at the top of my lungs, thankful that this man can sing and that I can sing.
wish i could come hang out with your teenage babysitter and hear the stories. thank you for posting that. again i am reminded of how blessed we are to live here where we can still go to church without fear, talk to our neighbors about spiritual things without fear of being reported to the authorities, have meetings of a spiritual nature in our home without the fear of being discovered, even go shopping at a CHRISTIAN bookstore! what a priviledge that we take for granted. wanna go on a mission trip together? the boys could pool resources and keep the kids together somewhere!!! =0)
You can go to Kaz with me someday. Living in another country even for 10 short (well, not so short) weeks has changed my life forever. I plan to talk about it in a post one of these days....this is national adoption month....probably soon. I highly recommend it and I know we will try to do family mission trips as often as possible as that truly is how I know that Jesus loves the little children, ALL the children of the world. Life changing I tell ya! are we still on for tomorrow or another day? Karen
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