Only one day back.

Only one day back in the USA and God has answered a prayer such that if he continues to answer in this way, it could prove to be a very fruitful time for the Kingdom. Just an hour before we left for the airport in Beirut, I gathered the family together to read the Word and to pray. We were embarking on a four month adventure in America called “home assignment” and I wanted the children to understand that this wasn’t just a vacation. Yes, it would be fun to see family and friends, but let’s not forget that God was sending us back for his own purposes. I asked God to use us for his kingdom while we are in America. I asked God to give us opportunities for the gospel. I asked God to make us “missionaries to America” during our time back.

Only one day back and God gave us our first missionary opportunity. Wanting to get a head start on the process of renewing our passports, I took the family to the pharmacy to get our passport photos taken. The woman behind the counter asked us where we were going and we explained that we live and minister in Lebanon. After we had finished shopping and our photos were ready, Christie took the children to the car while I checked out. The woman behind the counter began asking me questions about what Lebanon is like. “What do you do in Lebanon?” “How do you like it there?” “Is there much crime there?” Upon this question I could tell that she wasn’t only interested in what we do but that she seemed to be going somewhere specific with her questions. I answered briefly about how we feel relatively safe from violent crimes in Lebanon but that the threat of war and internal conflict looming overhead adds a different kind of concern to one’s daily life. Then I shut up and sensed it was time to listen.

Almost immediately she turned the conversation in another direction and began to explain to me how only a month and a half ago her four-year-old grandson had been “tortured” and killed by her son’s ex-wife’s boy-friend. It had been in all the news...  http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2010/06/couple_accused_in_death_of_dom.html   ...which we had missed completely being out of the country. She also told me she has started leading a campaign to pass stricter laws requiring people, neighbors, anybody who is a happenstance witness to such brutalities to be held responsible to report the possibility of domestic violence. 


Listening to her story I tried not to look like a deer caught in the headlights. At first, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Then again, I quickly reasoned, Scripture testifies to us that nothing should surprise us regarding what totally depraved sinful man is capable of. By his grace the Lord quickly reminded me of who I am in Christ and how that very fact meant that I had a responsibility to be a good steward with that moment with this hurting woman whom God had set before me.

This broken, rather youngish, grandmother’s heart was raw with pain and devastation and somehow she held it together day by day just to get her job done behind the photo counter at the pharmacy. My own heart was deeply touched. But what could I do? I had to do or say something to begin to point her to Jesus. So, I asked her to write her name, her son’s name, and her deceased grandson’s name down on the back of my receipt and I promised that I would pray for them. Noticing that the pharmacy manager was more and more frequently glancing worriedly at us, presumably over the nature of our conversation, I determined that this was only to be step one and more could be done at a later time. We would inevitably need to come back to this pharmacy throughout our stay and perhaps we could prepare something to give to this woman; a Bible, a book, a resource to point her to Jesus if she didn’t already have an orientation toward him. Maybe my wife could invite her for coffee sometime. God knows.

Whatever we do, it will require some deep sacrifice and I pray God will give us grace and strength not to let this responsibility for the gospel get swept under the carpet because it demands us to go through some kind of inconvenience. Showing the love of Jesus always does. Timothy Keller writes in his Reason For God:

In the real world of relationships it is impossible to love people with a problem or a need without, in some sense, sharing or even changing places with them. All real life-changing love involves some form of this kind of exchange…It requires very little of you to love a person who is pulled together and happy. (Reason For God pg. 201)

And this is the reason for Jesus. God loved this way. God saw us, sinners who could not atone for our own sin, who were bound for self-destruction and judgment, and He shared in everything human, apart from sin, and even changed places with us when he came in the person of Jesus Christ. May God give us the grace and courage to demonstrate love toward others the way He demonstrated his love for us. Please pray for Lisa and her son in their grief. Please pray that their pursuit of justice, which is a good thing, does not become for them a pursuit of revenge out of hearts consumed with bitterness, which is not a good thing. Please pray that we will find ways to help put their hands in the hand of Jesus who will make all things right in the end. Finally, please look at the world around you and do not become numb to the guy behind the counter, the voice on the other end of the line, or the teenager with an attitude. People are hurting everywhere. We have no idea what's hiding inside. People everywhere need Christ. If you know Him then you are a missionary to just such people wherever God has you right now.