Thursday, April 12, 2012

Taking Root


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.”

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