this is the church. this is love.
“beep-beep, beep-beep” ahhh it’s so early. why are you beeping phone? stop it. crap, it’s a new text. “hey ryan, we need to help some friends.” ahhh but it’s 6:34am. i don’t do mornings. wake up, wake up. “yeah of course, i’ll be ready in 20.”
i wasn’t ready for what God was going to do with me that day. A week previous, Jeff shared a story of a Korean family that had moved here a few years back to plant a church. Last August, while the pastor was returning home from picking up a team from the airport, their vehicle was stopped by a car jacker. When he refused to give up his vehicle the man shot him 7 times. 7 times… In a moment, in an instance, everything changed. A husband, father and pastor of a church, gone. His wife, two girls and church, devastated. Grace was left to raise her two girls and sustain the church they had planted all by herself. God. Why?
These were our friends and we were going to be help them. Last week God randomly had Jeff meet them. He learned that over the past year, their home had been robbed numerous times. They even had a breakin while they were home. Enough was enough. We were not going to let this continue on. He told them to start packing cause we were gonne move them to a place that is safe.
Jeff, myself and a few others went and picked up a huge flat bed truck (used for hauling lumber) and spent all morning loading up their boxes and moving them to their new apartment. In the afternoon we went and moved desks and trash at the church. This was no easy work. Matter of fact it was miserable. It was so hot and i was dripping sweat all over the place. My sun burn, intense. It was a rough day. I remember praying, “God, you’ve got to be my strength today.” He did.
As the day came to an end, Jeff and I talked about how easy it would have been for her to give up. Her husband was murdered. She is a widow. She has nothing here in the Philippines. Why not go home to Korea and let people pamper her and care for her? God put us in her life to love her. To care for the widow in her distress. We just might have been exactly what she needed to keep going. God might have made our paths cross at this exact time, at this exact moment, for far beyond anything we could ever imagine…
Although Grace’s English was choppy, her gratitude was written all over her face. She was now going to be able to raise her girls without having to worry about their safety. As we left she passed out envelopes to everyone that helped that day. Inside the envelope was 70 pesos (about 1.65 usd). The tears just started to flow out of my eyes. I couldn’t contain them. The widow that has nothing, continues to give everything. She continues to smile and be filled with this crazy joy. It seems impossible, that doesn’t really make sense, but it’s God. That’s why…
God’s story of love continues in spite of tragedy and in the midst of heartbreak. He continues to be good. Romans 8 says that, “in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” When things don’t make sense, we get the opportunity to trust that God remains good. What happened that day, was the Bible coming to life. It was God’s love being shown through his people to his people.
Ryan
The following sunday, I got the opportunity to lead their entire church service. By entire service, I mean everything: worship, greeting, prayer, sermon, the whole thing. ha I guess there is a first time for everything…
