Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Living as Sheep Among Wolves

Today we learned about working in a country where there is persecution and it was sobering, I can't really think of another word that describes it. We were taught how to make sure that they suffer persecution only for the "Son's" sake, and not because they are associated with us or items that we gave them. We heard awful stories of what can go wrong, even with the best intentions, if you are not cautious in your dealings with people in these countries. He shared about how in one country he brought in medicine, food and supplies to a group of people and when their leaders found out they cut off the ears of all the men and were abusive to all of the women, he was mortified (can you even imagine?) and talked about how the enemy can use experiences like that to guilt you into silence. That would definitley be a hard one to overcome! Also, we were reminded that persecution for the believer is to be expected especially if you listen to the Son's words and look into the work of the men in Acts. It is such a foreign concept to us Americans.

They also recommended a book called the Heavenly Man by Brother Yun, it is an excellent book on the persecution of our family members. But they also mentioned that people where he is from are now upset with him because he named some names and revealed things in the book that have caused the persecution to increase! Yikes! It is so complexand twisted that it boggles the mind.

One last thing, this man has just finished interviewing about 600 family members in these closed countries and in one country that is extremely isolated the members there wondered if Americans had gotten to hear about the Son yet......can you believe that? They had been praying for other countries and were concerned about us, amazing! Sometimes I wonder how far our beliefs are off and completely affected by our culture, especially when you realize what so many in our family are having to endure to follow the CEO, it truly costs them everything. I mean we have people having a cow if the sermon isn't over by noon!! Good grief!! What wimps we can be!

I urge you to ponder these things, I have so much more to share regarding their take on the Matthew 2 Christmas passage....it will blow your mind. I guaruntee you have never thought of that story like this, it glaringly shows the differences in their lives and ours. Thanks for taking the time to read.
Oh, tomorrow is Shot day #2, please pray that all will go well.

2 comments:

4littleindians said...

you all are amazing! I am so excited reading your experience. God bless you! We miss you guys.

Zimms Zoo said...

Hey I was just catching up on your blog again. Wow!! You guys are so busy. I have enjoyed reading it all.