Strengths

The importance of working together was recently confirmed to me when I attended a conference in Thailand.  The point of the conference was for people working in Islmic parts of Asia to consult together over strengths and methodologies of doing our job.  Two things really struck me at the meeting.  The first was a reminder of a verse similar to the one on my card “The harvest is plentifully but the workers are few, ask the Lord of the harvest to send worker”.  Often when I read that I get struck on the request and miss the simple statement of fact.  God has said that “the harvest is ready”.  We believe that He is sending a few of us down south to an unreached part of the province.  He is sending us as his workers to this new place and we have to go believing that He has a harvest there, ripe and ready for the picking.  Pray that He will lead us to it.

The second lesson I learned can be summed up on the simple statement: “love is our greatest apologetic”.  I seem to spend a lot of my time trying to fit in out here; learning to cook, dress and act like a YOU.  We study the areas that Islm affects with in the YOU’s daily lives and try to come up with suitably compelling arguments for the gospel.  But the selfless love of Christ is so radically different than this culture.  That instead of asking how I can fit in, I need to ask how I can show His love in such a counter cultural way that it will grab my friend’s attention.  Pray that we will find practical ways to love those in the city He is sending us.