Not sure what was going on with blogger this morning, but it would not let me post. Seems to be working now. Jake has his thought for the week done, so I will post it today:
Excerpt from the book A Hole In Our Gospel: by Richard Stearns (President of World Vision)
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” - Romans 10:14-15
We had traveled for hours up the Mekong River in a wooden boat. Our purpose was to visit a pastor of a small house church, a man named Roth Ourng. Pastor Ourng was a small man with a big smile. He eagerly bade us to climb the stairs to his small bamboo house on stilts. Pastor Ourng’s day job was rice farming, but he also pastured a small church of eighty-three members that he had started a few years back. His congregation met in his tiny home each Sunday morning to worship.
As we sat with Pastor Ourng, we talked about his community, his congregation, and farming. He was eager to know about churches in the United States and whether we had Bible commentaries and study guides that helped us understand scripture. His only book was a Bible in the Khmer language, a treasure to him. “But,” he said, “this is a difficult book, and I would love to have other books to help me understand it.” I realized that in comparison, I lived in a nation literally drowning in Christian books, commentaries, and resources.
Pastor Ourng showed us the handmade two-stringed musical instrument that served as his church’s “orchestra.” For a wedding or special celebration, he said, his church would send runners in two different directions to two different churches, thirty miles in each direction, to borrow their guitars. Then the next day they would run them back. This made me think of my own church’s million-dollar pipe organ.
After a while I asked him, “Pastor, living in a country that is more than 90 percent Buddhist, how did you come to be a Christian?” The story he told me was confirmation of the power of the whole gospel in action.
“Five years ago, “he said, “World Vision came to our community and began to work. I was suspicious of these outsiders to our community and was convinced that they had their own hidden agenda. You see, in Cambodia, since the genocide by the Khmer Rouge, we are always distrustful of strangers. But these people from World Vision [also Cambodians] set up a TB clinic to care for those suffering from TB. They improved the schools our children attended, and they taught better agricultural methods to the farmers to improve our yields. But I was still suspicious and even angry, convinced that they were up to no good. Why would these strangers help us? I thought."
“One day I decided to confront them, and I went to the World Vision leader and demanded to know why they were here. His answer took me by surprise. He said, ‘We are followers of Jesus Christ, and we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are here to show you that God loves you.’"
“I said in response, ‘Who is this Jesus Christ that you talk about?’"
“The man went and got me this Bible that you see here today and gave it to me. He told me that everything about Jesus was in this book. That night I went home and read the book of Genesis. I was truly amazed because in this Genesis I met the God I had wondered about all of my life. I met here the God who created heaven and earth, the Maker of the universe. The next morning I ran back and told him what I had read but said that I still did not know this Jesus he talks about. He told me he would take me to the city to meet with a Christian pastor that would explain these things to me. Some weeks later he took me and friend to meet the pastor. He opened his Bible and read to us many passages about Jesus and explained the good news of salvation. At the end, he asked if we wanted to become disciples of Jesus and commit our lives to Him. We both said yes and that day committed to follow Christ as our Savior.”
I was overwhelmed by this man’s story. His encounter with Christ began with Christians who came to serve the poor – nursing the sick, educating the children, and helping increase food for the hungry. So compelling was this service that it provoked questions in the mind of a curious man: Why are you here? Why are you helping us? The answer to these questions was the gospel, the good news.
“Pastor, that is a wonderful story,” I said. “Now, what about the eighty-three people who worship at your church; how did they come to follow Jesus?”
“I was so excited to learn about Jesus,” he said, “that I had to share this good news with everyone I knew. These eighty-three, they are my little flock.’"
Wow. There, in a bamboo house in Cambodia, I heard echoes of the Great Commission: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). And I knew I had just witnessed the whole gospel – in action.
Have a great week!!
Jake
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