Uncommon Equations

How is it possible that 4 = 400,000? In every country around the world math is usually the same. I say that loosely knowing that many of us have experienced times when money or time or distance or weight seemed to be different to us than it did to others. Somehow in the deep recesses of my mind I remember hearing detail assignments of the next few weeks of my life and yet when I look at it now, the math has changed.

About 2 years ago the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association came to India and hosted a program called My Hope India. Their strategy was to train home cell group leaders who would invite neighbor families into their home for a meal and to watch and discuss one of the televised Billy Graham movies that was airing on local T.V. Recruiting about 250 coordinators who trained about 4-5,000 trainers who in turn trained about 500,000 cell leaders who turned around and invited friends and neighbors to be a part of the outreach. It was hugely successful. (Please understand that most of this information is from those deep recesses of my mind which can be prone to mistake)

As the success of this project grew and as the cell leaders began asking for other ways to reach out and continue this type of ministry Book of Hope realized the possibilities of reaching out to thousands of children through the same method.

So I'm drafted to go to India. Our job seems simple enough. Step in to take advantage of an already existing network and train a few hundred people to be trainers of cell group leaders. Let's see how this program works and get it rolling for an Easter launch. Then we'll reload and really push a big Christmas outreach. Wait a second, Easter is only a few weeks at the most away. Which is why we got here a lot earlier than we originally expected. Somehow days and calendars are different here as well.

I guess the next obstacle comes when you realize that all of the volunteers are not all in the same city in India. So during the next seven days we'll be traveling to six different cities and training over 1200 people. These people will turn around and train the cell leaders who will each invite about 10 kids into their homes for an Easter viewing of the GodMan animated movie. This is a 50 minute film set in an Indian context explaining the life story of Christ. It will be aired on National Television with the cell leaders there to distribute the Book of Hope to the children who attend their homes.

So how does 4 equal 400,000? When you consider that one is the number of our team here to do the trainings and the other number is the goal for cell leaders we're hoping to have trained by Easter. Now even if this number is only 100 or 200 thousand trained, if each of them invite 10 kids the potential to reach around 1 to 2 million children is possible. Yet when you realize India's population of children is around 450 million you quickly realize you're in an unending race to complete a task that only God can accomplish.

I apologize for the inconvenience of the numbers and amounts I've thrown in this post, but for some reason, in the deep recesses of my mind I keep telling myself this is all possible. Keeping me balanced is the knowledge there are people like you praying and supporting us. Even more comforting is knowing there is a God looking down on every one of the children who are waiting to hear about His love and purpose for their lives.

Thanks for reading...

Everything and nothing

A man sits down across from me, his name might make you laugh and think it’s more of a pet’s name than anything else. Knowing this man and his history however makes me think he could probably harm me in multiple ways that I don’t want to think of.

Our 3 ½ hour trip through the winding Andes Mountains was made even more memorable as this Ex-government intelligence officer told me his story. Stories filled with three-day hikes through mountains, friends and coworkers being assassinated, spending 3 weeks with an opposing military force only to find out they were protecting him from a corrupt portion of his own forces. Hearing of his journeys of passing completely unnoticed through multiple checkpoints and seeing his wife killed as someone made a fourth attempt on his life. I think about my life and how the problems and difficulties I’ve faced have paled in comparison to his.

I look over the table at this man whose integrity has kept him out of work because he takes no part or exposes corruption. He trusts that God will bring him work as he needs it and God will provide for him and his two sons. As I see him sitting across from me his glasses are mere inches off the book he scans and has been reading for the past thirty minutes.

What words of life does he find in his Bible? He studies it so intently. What verses mean so much more to him than they do to me? What phrases and promises bring peace and comfort into a man’s life who’s given everything for his country, only to have just about everything taken away? What would I be willing to give or to die for? Does the man sitting across the table count those things as a loss? Or does he realize that he has nothing, so he can have everything?

Has he realized something that I have not? When he awakes in the morning does he wonder whether he will finish the day? Does he trust that his life is in the hands of a creator who is fashioning and preparing him for even greater days? Do I live that same way?

His fingers lead the way to the passages, and his eyes stay fixed… I realize now he’s rereading the passage the preacher spoke from tonight. He’s looking back at the words that have probably sustained him through weeks and years of desperation. It’s not a fancy Bible, no fancy notes or commentaries, but to this man, it’s everything. It’s the words of truth and life that have and will bring him everything he needs. This is everything to him, without Christ in his life it's nothing. What is it to me?

"Are the things you're living for worth Christ dying for?"
- epitaph of Leonard Ravenhill

Almost Forgot

I took a moment to stop and try and remember my password as I logged in to create this post. The last post here was from November 2nd. Now almost two months later I look back at the countries and places I've been since then.

This is just a simple Merry Christmas wish to all of you. Hoping that time with family and friends is well spent. Don't eat too much, don't drink and drive, give someone a hug, be nice and go on a mission's trip this next year. Who knows what might happen.

Merry Christmas and have a safe and Happy New Year.

Seeing you work

Knowing that time is somewhat relative in certain parts of the world, and knowing we had to be back to our guest house before 6pm or the nuns would lock the door and give us all a switching and send us to bed without dinner; we decided to start the film at 4pm. This gave us about two hours to finish the fifty minute film and still be able to tear down and make the 20 minute drive.

We set-up the screen and projector around 2:30pm and of course our van full of American kids drew the expected crowd of people who I still haven’t figured out where they must be going, but they always stop and just stare. I guess wherever they were going wasn’t that important anyway.

So we tell the crowd that at 4pm we’ll start the film, they scatter to run home or on their way. The van takes the team back to the guesthouse and I am left with two nationals at the empty church to wait for the crowds. I suppose I didn’t know what to expect really, the church sat empty, quiet and still during the next moments. I had a few minutes to read so I got out my most recent book and began reading again about the “call” to missions that some people must have and others must not.

It always bugged me hearing people say they were called to one place or the other, I remember hearing all sorts of missionaries and people saying they received the call of God to missions when they were whatever age. I don’t discount that or doubt that it’s probably happened. Maybe I just feel left out sometimes that I’ve never experienced something like that. Did I miss the phone call? Maybe I haven’t checked my email recently. Or maybe it’s that the call comes, but there’s too many other voices that drown out His voice.

Then I continued reading about how missions is somewhat unevenly balanced. There are hundreds of churches and missionaries in lots of countries, except where they are needed the most. We send groups and teams to all sorts of countries that already have established churches and heavy populations of Christians. The goal of missions should be to bring in new cultures and people groups to worshipping God. Missions exists in the world today because worship of Him does not. What am I doing today that will bring about Christ’s return to the earth?

So at about ten ‘til four I looked out again across the empty room, I guess we’ll be missing dinner tonight if we’re going to have to wait for people to show up. I suppose even if just a few people come, that’s who God wanted to be there.

Then I looked out through the barred glassless windows, and here they came. Just a handful at first, the school kids came running barefooted along the dusty road; it’s that same red dirt that I’ve been trying desperately to scrub out of my t-shirts. They came running towards the church some carrying schoolbooks and some Books of Hope. A few stood at the door, the pastor waved them in and they raced for the front seats. That’s not bad I thought, we’ve got about thirty kids who’ll be… then more came, and more, and more. The boys all wearing tan shirts, the girls all wearing blue dresses, all school uniforms. Their teachers had not only dismissed them a little early, they had also accompanied many of them to the church. The room soon began to fill with noise and smells and sights of hundreds of children’s faces and feet and hands and the empty quiet of the church was replaced by a joyful expectancy of the unknown. Their eyes locked onto the big white screen in front of them as the images flashed.

I watched God work tonight, I saw Him fill a room full to overflowing, I saw Him bring kids and adults to the windows of the church to watch a film about the greatest love story ever written. I saw children shocked at how Jesus was treated; I heard them cheer when the tomb was found empty. Over 1200 people were at the church tonight, over 1200 kids were told in their language that God loves them and can be their father. I watched God work.

This evening I watched the sunset over the Rwanda countryside. It blazed its reds, oranges and yellows across the deepening blue sky. Clouds showed off their form under the colors. I sat and realized that it will never set on this day again, ever. The sun will only rise once a day and set once that same day, never to happen again. During those twelve hours what did I do with my time? Did I value the moments I was able to tell the children that they are valued and loved? Did I make the most of every moment? Did I answer the “call” to missions and follow God’s leading?

I want to go where there is no guarantee of success. I want to make a trail where there is none, I want to see God work where our human means fail. I want to learn to not even try my own ways, but to trust to His. I want to see You work.


Thanks for reading.