Trip Report: Vocational School, Part 2
Today we wrapped up our ministry to the persecuted church. While our medical staff slaved over medical charts and boxes of medications, the rest of us had the amazing chance to simply fellowship with the children.
In culmination of our ministry, the children at the Vocational School presented us with a short musical program. They sang a song that was unfamiliar to me in tune, but I recognized the words immediately:
By the rivers of Babylon, where we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
For there they that carried us away required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
Psalm 137:1-4
At the time that these words were penned, the children of Israel were in the midst of horrible persecution, perhaps the worst they, as a nation, experienced. They were in the midst of a strange land, having been conquered by another race and nation entirely. They had nowhere to go, nowhere to turn, and had only the memory of their holy places in Zion.
Hearing these children sing the words of the children of Israel broke my heart, for they are in the same situation. They are everything but a conquered people–only not for their sin, but for their faith. They are in a strange land, trapped in a refugee camp within the borders of a nation that despises them.
And yet, as Psalm 137 turns to God for help and hope, these children have turned their eyes upwards. It is easy to see why our Savior made childlike faith a prerequisite of entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, as these orphans demonstrate their simple trust in every act of their day-to-day lives. And their joy is a wonder to behold, as bright smiles and brighter eyes blessed the hearts of every member of our team. They are singing the Lord's songs in a strange land, and glorifying God in the midst of suffering and poverty.
When I had the chance to say a few words to the children at their program, I told them in all sincerity that they have helped us to know God more fully. Their stories and their lives have given us a fuller understanding of the Father's love, and I am certain from what I have seen that we have given each of these lives a dose of hope and encouragement in their own spiritual walks.
That is the Body of Christ at work.