Vox Lucens

When I read the ongoing news of violence and destruction from India, the emotion I feel is heartbreak.  When I hear about the suffering in cities like Mosul, I can’t help but feel sorrow.  These events, and so many others like them, are examples of the evil present in this world.  I would imagine that you have felt the same.

But that perspective is not the only one available.  Some Hindu leaders in India, for instance, are holding up the Orissa violence as a model of what a state should be.  “We will make our district like Orissa,” they have pledged.  That horrifying violence, the destruction and slaughter, is their idea of what constitutes good.

I should not be surprised, I suppose, that this perspective is alive and well - without it, there would be no persecution! - but seeing it displayed in such brazen prominence is a wake up call.  Evil is alive and well, and there are those that are so deceived as to think that it is their calling to persecute our brothers and sisters in Christ.

But truth does not depend on our perspectives, and as we minister and pray we can do so in the confidence that we are serving the God of that truth.  Let us pray with that confidence against the evil that pervades this world of ours.

[Cross-posted.]

So bloggish infotainment has been few and far between on this venue of late.  I have an excuse: I took the Banquet Boat down the event planning equivalent of the River Styx to the Gates of Exhaustion.  And now I’m paddling upstream to get to some sense of normality.

We had in the vicinity of 700 at the banquet, and everything went well, praise the Lord.  The reports coming in continue to be positive, for which I am grateful.  I’m also just grateful that it’s over.

For those that could not be there in person, my friend Kelly took pictures of the event.  You can see the whole photo album here, but here are some highlights.

Today’s Weekly Reminder.

*****

            We have been talking a lot about aftermath lately.  The news has been abuzz with it – the aftermath of Hurricane Ike in Texas, for instance, the aftermath of the political party conventions, the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Georgia.  And we’ve been talking about aftermath in The Weekly Reminder, especially relating to the violence that started in Orissa, India, weeks ago and has now spread throughout the country.

            But sometimes the aftermath gets forgotten – lost in the shuffle of more current tragedy.  Our minds tend to move on, forgetting those that are left behind as a result of tragedy.  Even now, for instance, in Orissa, though the ruins of the churches torched by Hindu ultra-fundamentalists have barely cooled, the news outlets have moved on.

            Though the nature of the news is to move on to “new” and “exciting” tragedies, the nature of our prayers should not be – and neither should our ministry.  The very heart of Remember’s work is in the aftermath, reaching out to the widows and orphans of martyrs, those left behind, living their day-to-day lives in quiet suffering as a result of the tragedy of persecution.  The life of Sadia, the widow of a martyred Sudanese pastor, is not newsworthy, as she washes clothes and windows to singlehandedly support her family.  But ministering to her touches the heart of God.

            It is no coincidence that in the aftermath there is hope.  The word “aftermath” is actually an agricultural term, meaning a second-growth crop – though the first growth of the hay has been chopped off or plowed under, it is not dead.  “Aftermath” literally means that it grows up again!

            Though churches and homes in India lie in smoldering ruins, though Sadia and uncounted others like her live their lives in sorrow, though believers all over the world are targeted for untold suffering, the Spirit that gives life is still present in these chopped off, plowed under Christians.

            And the aftermath is coming!

[And other such grammatical idiosyncratic anomalies...am I the only one disturbed by phrases like "Acting Thailand's Prime Minister" (from the AP) and "Author and Pastor Rick Warren of the book 'A Purpose Driven Life'..." (from a radio ad)?  Say them out loud if you don't see what I mean.]

All this just to say that it’s really tough to describe what we do in one leading sentence for a press release.   We are a local non-profit…we are also an international non-profit…but are we a local international non-profit?

I apologize for the lightness of blog posting of late.  I would offer excuses, but it’s the same excuse I always give - life’s crazy.  I like it that way, generally, but sometimes it gets a little out of hand…

Last week, “Generations with Vision” radio host Kevin Swanson was gracious enough to feature me in an interview on his daily program.  It’s running today - talking about recent news out of Orissa, Remember’s growing work, and a few recommendations on how churches, families, and individuals can truly “remember them that are in bonds.”

Listen Here! 

I must admit, one of my least favorite parts about missions trips is trying to summarize them for others. There is so much emotion, so much passion, so many stories in each one that words just don’t cut it.

So when I take the time to really try to get some of the passion out in words, it may bear repeating…

From today’s Weekly Reminder:

***
Anyone who has done an international trip knows what I’m talking about when I say that flying for dozens of hours at a stretch can be brutally painful. And yet, in looking back on a missions trip, it never ceases to amaze me that all of those hours can be made worth it by just a single moment of ministry.

We had many of those moments over the last week and a half in Jordan. Now, back in the States, I have time to look back on them and marvel. There were the moments spent in fellowship with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, the moments watching our doctors at work and seeing the joy and relief in the eyes of those they served, and the moments of watching God-ordained doors open.

But the moment that keeps sticking out to me was one that was completely unexpected. The Iraqi church service was coming to an end, but just before dismissal, the pastor said that there was a man in the church that was sick, and had asked for prayers from the elders. As the elders gathered at the front, the pastor motioned to me and the Remember doctors to join them in laying hands and praying. Our team had considered James 5:14-15 in our team prayer times, and the chance to follow this command was a joy:

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

We joined them, and as we bowed our heads to join in Scriptural supplication, the pastor turned and asked me to lead in the prayer. I don’t know that I have ever felt more inadequate, surrounded by men and women who are forced to live brutally real faith on a daily basis, but pray I did, and when my English prayer was done an elder prayed in Arabic. As we agreed together in intercession – agreeing in spirit while our ears could not understand the words – it was impossible to miss the presence of the Spirit of God.

I prayed without knowing what condition I was praying for, and found out only afterwards that the young man had a couple of psychological disorders – afflictions that require a miracle to heal. Good thing that we serve the Great Physician, the God of miracles!

If that time around the altar in a small Iraqi church would have been the only “moment” on this trip, it would have been worth all of the hours of travel, excruciating though they were. And really, what a picture of prayer that is! Prayer is not easy; it is long hours of sometimes excruciating pain – but oh, how worth it. Even if just one request out of a hundred is miraculously answered, how worth it those hours would be

And we don’t serve a God who answers one prayer out of a hundred. Our God answers ever single one.

I wish you could have been with us, prayer warrior, on this trip, around that young man, in the presence of the Spirit. But even if you cannot see the answers to your prayers, know that they are so very real.