We often like to think that God smiles when we love and do as He does. But it seems that God often chooses to smile when we don't necessarily do anything. The book of Esther is one such example. God used common people who even broke his rules to bring glory to himself.
As many of you know I have spent the last few days in the Czech Republic. A country that was overshadowed by communism for a long time and is still feeling its effects.
Many of the people still have a hard time seeing and understanding God's love, but things are changing. I was able to see some of the changes while here.
The first few days I was here, I spent time in the city of Prague. Our team stayed in a large house with a Ukrainian family. Only the father spoke fluent English, but I grew to be friends with all of them. They were so beautiful and God is truly using them. You can tell they love Jesus just by how they treat each other. The father, Slavic, brought his family to Prague so that he could get his Doctorate in Biblical studies and plans to go back to the Ukraine to continue spreading the gospel there. He and his wife became Christians before the Bible was legal in the Ukraine.
On Saturday our team left for a little place called Protovone about 3 hours outside of the city to "set up camp." We were relieved to find out that there were several very talented teens who would be helping us run the camp. Many of them, although not from Czech, could speak the language and had been to the camp before. Chris and Cathy, the youth leaders were the ones who had organized the camp from this side of the world and led our group while we were there. Their passion for the kids and Jesus and their love for each other and their own two children was pretty catchy.
The children arrived on Sunday – about 65 of them. Their passport countries were anywhere from Korea, Australia, the US, the UK, and any other European country you could think of. We had some Czech kids who did not speak a lot of English and some Koreans who came to better their language skills. I was assigned four 14yr old girls. In Europe, the counselors are not required and sometimes not permitted to stay with the kids at night, but there was plenty of time in between to hang with the kids. I decided to let my girls come to me on their own time and God allowed me to spend quality time with each of them during the week. Being fourteen they were pretty independent and wanted to spend time with their friends. It took a little bit to show them I knew how to have fun, hah. After a few times of playing crazy games with them and nights of pulling pranks I think they came to trust me a little better.
One of the things I enjoyed watching during the week was how many of the children went out of their way to help each other. Those who knew Czech were happy to help the Czechs understand what was going on. Not all of the Czechs knew Jesus and were all given Bibles and taught how to maneuver through them. By the end of the week many of them were asking tough questions about Christianity. Seeds were definitely planted.
God's smile shined through my roommate Klara, a Czech girl who had only been a Christian for about a year. She was one of the most happy people I have ever met and her passion for the gospel and teaching the Czechs about Jesus was inspiring.
I cannot say that I know of anyone who became a Christian, but I know that a lot of the kids came to understand the gospel a lot better. I had a lot of cool conversations with the kids who did know Jesus already and we were able to encourage each other. Some kids were dealing with painful situations and I had some neat opportunities to listen to their stories. These talks were hard, because what I did in such a small time was limited, but thankfully we have a big God who is the Ultimate Healer.
Interestingly enough we studied the book of Esther, a book not often preached upon in church, yet such a good illustration of how God uses broken and ordinary people to do his will. A lot of conversations that I had with my girls stemmed from this idea. We talked a lot about how we cannot earn God's favor, but how He gives it to us freely. If we as Christians remember this, our life can lived in freer, and a more joyful way. We can love him out of love, instead of Guilt. My 14 year olds (whose parents were all in ministry careers) had come to the camp tired of having to prove that they were Christians to everyone and they were tired of feeling guilt when they came short of being a "perfect Christian". Hopefully they went away knowing how to better live in the freedom of God's forgiveness and Hope.
Thank you all for praying for me. God blessed me so much while in the Czech Republic. Thank you also for providing financially so that I could go in the first place.
May you see God's smile this week in a whole new way.
2 comments:
Heidi: It's amazing how we can go into any culture and in the hearts of the people is that God-shaped vacuum ready to be filled only by Father Himself; nothing else will satisfy except Him and that's the way He meant it to be for our good and His glory over His children. The truth sets us free and it seemed like you saw many people were in need of it, even pastors and christian workers. Truth is a person and when we seek truth as a a doctrine or an it, it will never come alive to us. We live our lives that close to it and don't realize that we are not hitting the mark on how our lives are to be lived and have burnout. We must only look to Him and who He is and be directed by it and not results, feelings, and what's happening in our lives because He has so much more for us, an unbounded and vast minute by minute relationship with Him. He will take us here, there, as He directs, just like the Holy Spirit. When we listen to His voice and obey what He tells us to do, that's when life comes alive and walking with Him is an adventure to be anticipated. Thanks for sharing your life with us. Have you had a chance to read the book I gave you? Love, Aunt Cathy
Thanks Aunty Cathy. I always love to hear what you have to share. I haven't started your book, but I am about to finish the shack . . . doing a lot of thinking :)
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