Moving the Needle 

Thank you for your prayers a few weeks ago for the people we might come into contact with on our flights back to Thailand. One divine appointment was with an Iranian immigrant named Reza. As we got talking, I realized Reza was estranged to his American wife because of her mental illness. He still supported her and had the full care for their daughter. He seemed like caring individual. By the  quiet way he spoke, I realized the inflammatory rhetoric animating the recent news cycles and the tension in the Persian Gulf between the US and Iran had put my new friend on guard. I could empathize with Reza after my own experience as a minority in a foreign country.

It was mid October 2001. Alberta and I were living in Manila and serving as pastoral care workers for Bethany's Asia region. The world was still reeling from the 9/11 attacks and the US's response - bombing Afghanistan. The State Department put out a warning against all non-essential travel to Indonesia, a nation with 180 million Muslims. Alberta and I decided my trip to visit a Christian worker in Papua - constituted essential travel so I was off. 

When I boarded my flight in Jakarta for Papua, I realized that I, like Reza, was the only one different from everyone else. Just as many might identify Reza with his country of origin's politics, I then felt the icy stares of the Indonesians who were probably identifying me with America's politics. I felt a moment of panic followed by the calming presence of God. 

Reza and I found common ground in the attitudes of love and kindness. He didn't believe in God so much as in beauty and kindness. Jesus is the Creator and Author of beauty and is the greatest example of loving kindness this world has ever known. Paul's witness in Acts 17:23 came to mind - his sharing with the lost there on Mar's Hill that one of their objects of worship was inscribed "to the unknown god" and he wanted to explain more clearly to them who that God was. In the same way, I shared with Reza that he too could find this beauty and kindness in the life of Jesus. It was only an hour flight, but I believe God moved the needle in Reza's search for the Kind Beautiful One. Sometimes we are, by the Spirit's leading, to plant, other times to water knowing that it is God who brings to life the miracle of Salvation. Let's pray that God will put others in Reza's path and bring him to the end of his search for the Way, the Truth and the Life. 

Prayer Requests: 

1. Pray for Alberta's studies ramping up at the end of this month. This is her last course. The end of the tunnel is in sight. 😃
2. We have some challenging cases we are both working on right now. Pray for us that we would have God's wisdom in the counsel we bring to these situations.
3. Pray for Krista as her summer term finishes up and she moves into her last year of school. 

Serving Christ with You, Steve and Alberta