Thursday, July 26, 2012

Chaos and Sovereign Grace, Sahel Update


    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