Remember Ambassadors

Praise the Lord, Remember’s second annual fundraising was a success!  A lot of people put a lot of work into every little detail of the evening, but the Lord was glorified, and the persecuted church was blessed both by the donations and the increased awareness and prayer support generated that evening.

How true it is that our suffering brothers and sisters in Christ are not forsaken - they have the passion and prayer of these people, and so many more, working on their behalf.

Most of the presentation was in video form, so stay tuned for links to those videos!

Remember Board Chairman Curtis Bostic shared about his trip to China.

Remember Board member Tim Bunn shared his eyewitness account of persecution’s aftermath in Orissa, India.

Remember Board member Rick Jackson shared Remember’s ongoing vision and plan to minister in Sudan.

The Remember team arrived back in Charleston on Monday night at 11:30pm, after nearly 24 hours of travel. Looking back on the trip to Jordan, it is a joy to see what we were able to accomplish, from operating a clinic, to making new contacts, to fellowshipping with our fellow believers. The trip was a great success—and that is a result of the power of your prayers. In addition to the ministry that we were blessed to do, we wait in eager expectation to see all the blessings that have not yet come to fruition as a result of this trip!

We had three days of medical clinics, and our doctors were able to see around 80 patients, primarily Iraqi refugees with little access to doctors and medications. We packed medications with us, thanks to generous donations made by our sponsors, and those medications were used to meet the needs of those our doctors saw. What was left – thousands of dollars of worth of medications – was donated to local Christian clinics.

But the real ministry we did is not reflected in these numbers, but in the individual lives of those who were blessed.

One elderly lady was so grateful for what we were done for her that she clung to Lori, our nurse who was doing her medical charts, and started crying “Habibi, Habibi,” which translates as “beloved.” The grateful thanks of so many are impossible to duplicate in writing, but it was, and is, touching to see how much of an impact we made on each others lives and what we each can gained from this trip.

The success of this trip was made possible by the prayers of the saints, and by the interworking of the Body of Christ. While in Jordan, we worked with a variety of other ministries, each of which played a different, vital, part in the blessing. I can’t help but be excited when I think of how this working of the Body as a whole will lead to future ministry potential; the Body working to serve the Body – that’s what we are all about.

Have you ever wondered how a person can stand for his faith in Jesus Christ in the face of persecution?  I wonder that every time I read suffering for the cause of Christ, of horrific torture, of agonizing martyrdom.  How can these men and women, even these children, forsake literally everything in this life and embrace the pain of being a Christian?

That question was running through my mind all weekend, as we remembered Christ's unimaginable sufferings and celebrated His glorious resurrection.  Christ is certainly the example of fortitude in persecution; his full humanity felt the agony of every lash, every thorn, and every nail.  He felt the rough cross re-open the wounds on His back as its weight shoved Him into the stones of the street.  Why?  Why would He do that?

He suffered so that we could follow Him.  Our following must start in the streets to Golgotha, as we take up our own crosses.  (Matthew 16:24)  But our following does not end there, even though we follow Him to death!  Death is merely the beginning; when we follow Christ we follow Him to eternal glory.  The power of Easter is the power of salvation, but it is more than that–it is the power to follow through the pain that leads to the glory.

I will admit that I am grateful I have not had to face torture, imprisonment, or death in order to stand for Jesus Christ.  But I have seen those that have, those that have found and exercised the power of Easter.  If that day ever comes for me, that day when taking up my cross means facing the ultimate sacrifice, I pray that I will turn to the power of Easter.

He is risen!

I tend to go about things backwards from time to time. For instance, you would think that if you have a big idea, you use eloquence to express that big idea. That would be the forward way of going about writing. Once in a while, though, in doing my writing, I'll stumble on a big idea because I'm trying to be eloquent.

I did that the other day, writing my latest Weekly Reminder. In pondering what Christmas really means to believers worldwide, I said, "But the peace they know is eternal, a peace between God and man, the limitless void between sin and holiness bridged by a bloodstained cross."

And I have been thinking about that ever since.  It's not that I haven't thought about the incarnation before; it's that I never tried to compare it to human suffering.

We cannot understand the incarnation because we have never known perfection.  Even those of us living in the most free nation on earth have never come close–we live in a fallen world, surrounded by fallen people, always seeing evidence of the sin nature that enfolds us.  The closest that I have come experiencing the incarnation is in traveling from the U.S. to the third world.  It's a poor example, but it is the essence of the matter.  Going from freedom, comfort, and convenience to oppression and poverty is a tiny picture of going from Heaven to earth.

That Christ was willing to cross that incomprehensible gap is the essence of Christmas.  But it doesn't end there…

If Christmas were just about Christ bridging the earth/Heaven gap, it would ring hollow.  It would be a miracle without a meaning.  But this sacrifice is the source of salvation, in bridging the second gap, the gap between sin and holiness.

That is the void mankind faces.  It is the void we cannot cross.  It is the insurmountable gap that we must attempt to jump anyway, facing certain doom as we fall short of even seeing our target.

That gap, bridged by the bloodstained cross of a Christ who came from Heaven to earth, is why I celebrate this year.

Merry Christmas!

"Hallelujah.  In the name of God the Father and the Holy Spirit.  My heart rejoice because of God's love, that he was able to meet both white and black together and are united in the love of Jesus Christ.  I am very happy that I can shake hands with my brothers who are in white skin, and I wan to ask the Lord to continue to bless you so that your ministry will expand more and always be continue to follow God's steps."

These words were brought to us by one of the Sudanese widows we talked to today.  Though the main focus of this trip has been the building project I have mentioned before, Remember is always on the lookout for people to help, and we arranged a meeting with 9 widows from one local congregation.  We asked them to briefly share their stories, and to share prayer requests with the church in the United States.

One after another they came,  but they refused to be limited to prayer requests.  As they told us of their suffering and loss, they offered up their thanksgiving and praises to the God that giveth–and taketh away.  No trace of bitterness was anywhere to be found, not in the woman that is not only a widow, but is also a diabetic; not in the woman who pulled aside her head covering to reveal a massive goiter on her neck; not in the others who spoke of stomach troubles and even deafness.

Instead, their praises rang out.  As they stood, beginning their testimonies by saying "Hallelujah," those waiting their turn would echo with a simple, but vibrant, "Amen."  One praised by simply thanking God that He had allowed her to survive to this day.  Another shared that, though they miss many meals, God was ever faithful to keep them from going an entire day without eating.

These beautiful testimonies are but a drop in the bucket.  One generous church in North Carolina donated enough gifts for 185 widows, and the church leaders did not bat an eye when they said they could make sure it was distributed.  And this is but one city in a country awash in suffering.

What sweet incense their praises must be to the father of the fatherless and the husband of the widow.

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this…

The whole team, representing three partnering organizations (L-R): Gabe Waddell (Remember), Edgar Feghaly (Remember/MAP), Sam Stricklin (MAP), Mark Searcy (Remember), Will Halker (Operation Renewed Hope), Marshall Hamilton (MAP) 

They have not been released just yet, so keep these South Korean believers in your prayers, but praise God that the door is being opened for their release!  (Read the previous Ambassadors post on the hostage situation here.)

Read the CNN story.

***UPDATE*** 

12 of the hostages have been released.  Praise the Lord!

This release raises some interesting questions, though–questions that are very important for all Christians to think about.  The South Korean government has promised to ban all Christian mission work in Afghanistan to obtain the release of the hostages, among other things.

These men and women knew the risk before they left.  Some commentators have made the argument that they were foolish to go to such a dangerous place as Afghanistan.  Certainly, if they took the risk lightly, or if they failed to use wisdom in their preparations, I would agree, but otherwise that argument rings hollow.  Missions work would be virtually non-existent if we only went to "safe" places–goodness, even inner city evangelism would have to stop.  As Christians, we are called to take certain risks to fulfill our calling to take the gospel to the lost, and to minister to those in need.

What about those that died?  Should we look back, in the 20/20 vision of hindsight, and say that their trip was a mistake?  The sorrow of their families must be intense, and their death is a tragedy, but seeing only the tragedy is forgetting eternity.  The history of missions is full of stories of tragedy; the story of Jim Elliott comes immediately to my mind.  He and two other promising, bright, smart young men were killed trying to reach out to the Auca Indians in South America, and though I cannot speak for them, I bet they would do it all again.  Their sacrifice was not foolish; as Jim Elliott himself said, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

And what about those that have lived?  What a praise, that they escaped the temporal tragedy.  But at what cost?

I am grateful I did not have to make the tough decisions that the South Korean government has made.  They were given no good option, and I do not mean to try to place myself above them.  But as Christians, we must think these things through in light of eternity.  What is the eternal value of ministry?  If the risk is worth taking, then the sacrifice is worth making.

Our brothers and sisters overseas face these risks and make these sacrifices daily, not because they choose the risk, but because they choose Christ.  We don't face that persecution.  We have it easy.  But will we take the risk, and make the sacrifice, if we are called to do so?