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April 12, 2003 The Word of the Lord... What a promise! All we have to do is seek the Lord with our whole heart, and he will be "found" by us. Well, that should solve a few of life's problems!! If I would just follow this newfound formula, I will have found the answer. I was talking to a young woman last night about a book she is reading that suggests asking "What would Jesus do?" before making any decisions. I have also read about the prayer of Jabez in boldly asking for God's blessings. We had a good conversation, but our conclusion was that although all of these things are wonderful, and maybe necessary, parts of our seeking God, the bottom line is that relationships are messy, and there is no formula. If we can reduce our search for God to a formula, then we have no more need of HIM. We need only to follow the formula, and I don't believe that is what he has in mind for us when he says "Seek me with all your heart." We have wonderful commands, rules, and guidelines in Scripture. But the bottom line of it all is that when it comes down to the heart of the matter, we need to be seeking HIM, not just his blessings, not just his regulations for behavior, but HIM. Now, if I can just get THAT boiled down into a formula, I will make lots of money and you won't have to send me anymore because I'll be able to support myself on the mission field. :):):) The truth is, I believe, God does not want us seeking a formula, but HIM. This passage in Jeremiah is very familiar to me and I know it is familiar to many of my good friends in the States. It seems like every time I read it, it has something new to say. I think it is interesting that even though God is talking about US seeking HIM, he starts off with "I know the plans I have for you.....THEN you will call upon me and come and pray to me..." He KNOWS the plans he has for us, and they are good plans, and he knows that in response we will THEN seek him... I don't know about you, but for me this passage has so much freedom and comfort. God is the initiator, and I am able to rest and trust him even as I seek to serve him, know him, follow him.... even as I seek HIM. I wrote last summer about a 11 year old boy from Cusco named Julian who was lost on the streets of Lima. He became separated from his family during a vacation and ended up in one of the institutions in Lima for street kids. Initially the workers at the center called our missionaries in Cusco, since the boy said he was from Cusco, and gave them information about the family to see if they could be located. Our missionaries searched and found the family, but when they contacted the center with this news, for some unknown reason the workers said that the boy would be better off with them and they refused to allow our missionaries to have contact with him. He was never aware that his family was found and that they knew of his whereabouts. All of this led to a flurry of activity in which the family prepared to travel to Lima to claim their child, and the missionaries along with office staff even considered seeking legal action to retrieve this child for his family. Before the family left, our missionaries received news that Julian had run away from the center and his whereabouts were unknown. This has been a heartbreaking story for many in Cusco. For over a year, no one has know where Julian was, if he was ok, alive or dead. His father died last summer, and our missionaries helped the family with the funeral and costs. His mother is now critically ill and doctors say she will not live much longer. Last month, Julian turned up at his home. Apparently a Peruvian woman and her husband found him in the streets of Lima and believed his story, so they brought him home, fed him, clothed him, and bought him a bus ticket to Cusco. They sent him with a letter that said "we know someone has been praying for this little boy...". Although there is much sadness in this story, that he was not able to see his Father again, that his mother will not live much longer, and that we have no idea what kinds of things he experienced on the street in Lima, we REJOICE that God has brought him home, and that through all of this his family has developed relationships with our missionaries and been to our church. I was privileged to meet Julian and his sisters last week over lunch at the Beck's house. I didn't want to overwhelm him, but I kept looking at his smiling face and thinking how incredible it was to see this boy I had heard so much about over the last year. Thank you to all who prayed for this child. There are many more like him. Another young man from one of the institutions in Lima turned up at the Becks' house 2 weeks ago. Apparently he arrived in Cusco on a bus early in the morning, and with a photo of the Becks' family, began asking around to see if anyone knew where they lived. Someone pointed him to the San Jeronimo church, where he encountered the elder who is in charge of our church in Santa Monica, who then brought him to the Beckshouse. It has been a joyful reunion for all of the missionaries in Cusco. Now, here is the part about the reality of the situation. We do not yet have a process in place for kids at risk who need a physical place to stay. We are very much in the planning stage of how we want our ministry to kids at risk to look. We believe very much in covenant families and the right of every child to have a parent, parents, or a parent figure in their lives to teach, guide, and love them. This has to be balance out with the reality that there are more kids at risk than there are healthy Christian families to take them in. This is an area in which I will ask you to join us in praying that God will show us what he wants for this ministry. I am not yet ready to put this young man's name in print... we know that he has robbed, lied, and used drugs in the past, and we need to be realistic about our work with him. Yet, he has expressed a desire to live a changed life. He told us that he left Lima because the people he knew who claimed to be Christians didn't live what they said they believed, and that he felt the only real love he had known apart from his grandmother was that of our Cusco missionaries. He has accepted Christ, and has joyfully taken the initiative to participate in our church, worship, and bible studies. Our team leader has received permission from a Peruvian family in the mother church for him to live with them. Plans are up in the air right now, as HIS grandmother in Lima is sick and close to death, so our missionaries here talked to him about some options, and decided to give him a round trip bus ticket back to Lima to visit her, to think through his decision to join us in Cusco, and to say his goodbyes (if necessary) to his friends there for some closure. If he chooses to use the rest of the round trip ticket to return to Cusco at the beginning of May, we will know that he has taken the first step toward making a commitment to invest in his own life. We are willing to invest in his life, but he must also be willing to invest in his life. Not just to receive handouts, but to truly show that he wants change in his life. Please pray for this young man (20 years old), even though you don't know his name, God knows his name. Those two stories took up more space than I had planned. I hope you have read and pondered them. The work here is God's work. Pray that his will give us wisdom and direction as we seek HIM. Another interesting conclusion to last night's dinner conversation is that WE will never change a person's heart. Only God has the power to change a person's heart. We can love them, lecture them, help them; give them rules, suggestions, discipline.... But only God has the power to truly change a human heart. That should bring us GREAT comfort as we seek to minister to those in need (including ourselves). God will do it... yes, we are called to love, work, and obey, and we are called to SEEK HIM.... But HE will do it. Pray with us that HE will be doing his work here. (PS - I recently had to go through the process of rebuilding my computer from the ground up and may have missed some emails in the process. If you have written and I haven't returned your email, that is most likely why, and I will ask you to write again!).
Laura Deadwyler |