On
Easter Sunday, instead of the usual hellos, some followers of Jesus greet each
other like this:
“He
is risen!”
“He
is risen indeed!”
I
could use that reminder, not just on Easter but on all the days and weeks which
come after. Like Jesus’ followers who walked miles by his side without
recognizing him or hid in locked rooms, unable to believe he might have risen,
my belief grows slowly. It wilts and then spurts upward at uneven intervals,
but still—something has taken root.
With me,
enjoy the following story taken from this week’s W4W Bible study. It is from a
partner of Lifewater International working in a country where, for security
reasons, names and details are withheld.
Image courtesy of Carleton Garden
“Easter
is always significant in the life of believers, but it was particularly
significant for me in 2010. About 6 months earlier, at the start of the
project, we had hired a woman I will refer to as Sara. Sara has an 8th grade
education, is of the ethnic group considered lowest on the totem pole here, and
is very poor. She is 26 years old, has been married for 10 years and is the
mother of 2 precious girls. She is also an incredibly gifted learner with a
zeal for life and a vision for change in this country.
“Because
of Sara’s struggles to survive in this place, she had a bit of a shell around
her when she first joined us …. We began to build relationship slowly and,
although she never seemed particularly comfortable with “religious”
conversations, we felt Easter was going to be an open door for us to share more
freely.
“As
Easter approached, we introduced the idea of an Easter party for the women at
our office. We prepared and prayed and hoped they would come. That morning,
after celebrating with other expats in a sunrise service, we received Sara and
her daughters as well as other female co-workers into our home for an Easter
celebration. We talked about various traditions surrounding the holiday, played
games with the children, ate good food and enjoyed each other’s company, but
the best part came when we got to share the story of Easter. We first shared it
in word and then I was able to sing them a song in their own language that
tells the whole story. We prayed together in Jesus’ name.
“There
was no immediate response to the story, and nobody has decided they want to
follow Him yet. But it was a seed. As we work side by side, day by day, these
women hear Truth. I listened to Sara and another of our hygiene trainers
training another woman the other day. They described the first lesson they give
the woman and explained, “We tell them how women are important and valued
because God created them.” A piece of Truth they’ve heard and are now telling
others in a country where there is otherwise little evidence of the worth of
women. My prayer is that the seeds will take root, and I hang on to the promise
that His Word does not return void.”
No comments:
Post a Comment