In his book, Spiritual
Warfare, Timothy Warner says regarding the crucifixion of Christ, “God used
that event to demonstrate that He is able to take the worst Satan can do and
turn it into victory. The Cross was supposed to be a victory for Satan and a
defeat for God.” Instead, as Paul
states in Colossians 2:15, “having disarmed the powers and authorities, [God]
made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
To put it plainly, nothing this week has gone according to
our plan.
Monday, Olivia and I were going to ride out to see a
different village with Emily*, the career missionary who serves there. Alas, it had rained too much Sunday
night and Monday morning for us to drive anywhere.
Tuesday through Friday nights, we were planning to show the Jesus film in our village. We had all the equipment, including a
brand new generator and large projector screen. The first night was a success despite a few technical
difficulties during setup. Though
they were outnumbered by bugs and frogs, there was a good crowd of around
70 people who came out and watched the film.
The next night, Olivia and I set up all the equipment
ourselves, as Cameron was feeling sickly and stayed in the hut to rest. This went off without a hitch, and the
crowd numbered around seventy again.
All was going just fine…until about halfway through the movie, at which
point the generator died.
No attempt
to restart the engine would work, so the forty-or-so people who were really
devoted to seeing the end of the film crowded around the portable DVD player we
had been using.
Early the following morning, Emily brought the instruction
manual and toolkit out to the bush to help us with the generator, but still no
problem or solution could be found.
She took it back into town and we went back to bed. A few hours later, however, we saw her
again when she came to pick up Cameron, whose stomach was feeling even worse
than the night before.
They left
us with Cameron’s portable DVD player to show the movie in our compound that
night, a list of numbers to call in case of emergency, and instructions to be
back home by 6:30 on Friday evening.
For the first time all summer, we were completely on our own!
Thursday afternoon proceeded as usual: Olivia and I went out
together and then split apart to go share the Good News in various
compounds. We were set up and
ready to play the film on Cameron’s portable DVD player at around 7:45 that
night. We turned it on…and it
turned itself off. Though it was
supposed to be fully charged, the battery died within seconds. At that point, there was only a handful
of kids from our compound gathered for the show, so we simply pulled out some
Fulfulde worship music and sat with them.
Then a woman that neither of us recognized came up, asking about the
video. We apologetically explained
that the battery on the player had no charge and that there would be no video
that night. She told us that she
had come alone from a village beyond “B” to see the film, so we quickly saw the
opportunity to share the Gospel with her, even if it was not in the form she
was expecting. It worked out beautifully
that we got to share the Good News tracks with her and several of the kids who
had been sitting with us before!
Friday was fairly routine as well – as much as anything is
ever routine in the bush. It was
the first day of Ramadan, the month of fasting observed by followers of
Islam. (We actually did not
realize that it had started until after we had given one of our friends some
food which she held in her hand, refusing to eat! Oops!) Islam
teaches that the Qur’an was first revealed to Muhammad during the month of
Ramadan.
During this time, in
addition to fasting, many devote themselves more fully to the practices of
Islam such as offering up more prayers to Allah, reading more of the Qur’an,
showing more kindness to one another and increasing their almsgiving. As a result of the fasting, many of the
people literally sit around all day, not wanting to exert energy and cause any
extra hunger or thirst. This
creates a good environment for us to go visiting and sharing the Gospel!
After doing just that for most of the
day, we left the village and headed back home. Sadly, Cameron was feeling no better when we got back.
Saturday morning, we got up early to ride into “M” with
Emily to get her oil changed, go shopping and to the bank, and eat lunch and
use the wireless Internet at the Guest House in town. The sky was eerily dark where we were driving to, but we
continued. As it turns out, a
pretty significant storm was blowing, so that eliminated the chances of getting
Emily’s oil changed, which would have to be done outside. There was also a problem at the bank
and a meeting in session in the Guest House restaurant. It looked like we would get to
accomplish about a fourth of the things on our to-do list for the day.
However, after a lot of extra driving
around, the bank’s issues were resolved, and the Guest House let us into one of
their extra rooms to sit and order.
We would have gotten to actually eat there too if it hadn’t worked out
perfectly that the English-speaking doctor that all the missionaries go to was
in town and willing to see Cameron as soon as possible! We got our food to go, and she got an
overall clean bill of health with a prescription to help her tummy.
So the lesson we learned this week is that even when things
don’t go according to our plan, God
has a plan that will not fail and will not lead to anything less than His name
being glorified and our needs being met.
And even those things that appear to be “a victory for Satan and a
defeat for God,” the Lord will turn into an overwhelming triumph for
Himself!
*Career missionary’s name has been changed for security
purposes