Epic Story

This past week has been rather enjoyable. Our team, which has been rather dispersed over the last month finally came back together over the past five days. Ellen, Mark, and Jennifer all returned after two and three weeks collectively in Nepal, our newest team member, Shannon, arrived from the US to begin her one year commitment on Thursday, and this whole week a friend from Malaysia has been with us as well. It is good to have everyone around again. But that’s just an aside for the real purpose of this post…

I received a couple applications for potential candidates for the ServLife Hope Fund this week, and their stories captivated me unlike any I’d heard before. I’ll only share one of the stories for brevity’s sake, but both were great. So one of the families was a fishing family. When the Tsunami hit the husband and older son were out to sea fishing, and the wife was apparently right along the shore, holding her seven month old baby. When that unforgettable wave came the husband & older son were thrown from their ship as it was destroyed by the force, and were left to float on a mattress in the open water with a large python that somehow ended up on there for four hours until a rescue boat came and found them. The wife, on shore, was washed away in the wave clutching her baby with all the strength she could muster against the strength of nature. She rode the wave for nearly a half mile through her village where the wave destroyed 80% of the infrastructure. She was hit with chairs, tables, even cars & motorbikes went surfing with her that day. She managed to survive, despite the unbelievable odds against her, but at the last minute, something she could only describe as “large” hit her in the back and shook her baby loose from her grasp. She couldn’t hold on, and her baby wasn’t to be seen for two days until the water receded from her village, revealing the horrible truth she has only barely been able to deal with over the last 18 months. Everyone she knows has asked her why she couldn’t just hold on. Everyone except her husband that is, who has been there for her through it all. She’s survived not just the wave, but the deep depression that followed the loss of her baby, and is now starting to attend the church a friend of mine pastors. She said that of all the organizations that came to help, only the Christians are left. She said there must be something about these people worth exploring if they’re the only ones left. She may not be a Christian yet, but it’s obvious that God has been at work in this family for a long time already…he sought all of us first, and we but responded to his grace.

We’ve all got stories. Perhaps you don’t think they captivate the way this family’s does, but we’ve all got an opportunity to speak truth into someone’s life. It wasn’t the Christian’s eloquent preaching, or the Christian’s fancy churches that attracted her to them, but their selflessness, their incarnation, and their love. Those are qualities we can all embody if we will only stick an arm out to help. Would you join me in this epic story of redemption? Wherever we are, whatever we do, let’s join hands & work as one in our countries, our neighborhoods, our offices, and our houses!