A Little Too Close To Home?
I love being a ministry child. And I absolutely love getting to know people from literally all over the world. I know people from every continent on earth, minus Antartica of course, and from every world region. But of course this comes at a price. One of those is what I am going to talk about.
Knowing people and being invested in their life story comes at a cost. You are in their life story through the good and the bad. Their hurts and sorrows become, in a way, your hurts and sorrows. And it's no different loving and being friends with people from all over the world. You hear things about their countries and to you it hits home so hard. You hear about what their families are going through for various reasons and you feel it too. To a lot of Americans hearing about ISIS and natural disasters are just news happening in some other country. You may feel sorry for these people, but there is no personal connection. No burden to carry because it hits home for you because you have connections to that place you have never been to and these people you have never met.
Recently ISIS captured the 150 Assyrian Christians we had a student here who is from that area. His brother narrowly escaped the area before ISIS got there. That was hard to hear and made the capturing of those Christians even harder to hear about. It made my heart so heavy.
A couple of weeks ago another Syrian student posted that ISIS had finally made it to his home town. All the while an Iraqi student was summoned home where his city is under the control of ISIS currently. Everything with ISIS in these countries is so hard to hear about. I have personal connections to these places. I want peace in their countries so bad. I want them to be able to live in peace or to even be able to go back home to begin with.
This morning I woke up to the news, personally delivered, that Nepal had been hit with an earthquake. Kathmandu, where a dear friend is from, is partly in ruins. Over 1000 people have lost their lives so far. Praise God that this dear friend's parents are safe. But to be honest right now my heart is aching and burdened for my friend and her country.
So many times this year I have cried because of these things. How I long for all of this to just go away. Would I change my situation? No. It gives me such an awareness and heart for the world. I love these people so much that I would not change knowing them for anything. I just hope that I can bring light to them and their situations.
Please be praying with me for these specific situations.
I will you leave you with Psalm 46.
Knowing people and being invested in their life story comes at a cost. You are in their life story through the good and the bad. Their hurts and sorrows become, in a way, your hurts and sorrows. And it's no different loving and being friends with people from all over the world. You hear things about their countries and to you it hits home so hard. You hear about what their families are going through for various reasons and you feel it too. To a lot of Americans hearing about ISIS and natural disasters are just news happening in some other country. You may feel sorry for these people, but there is no personal connection. No burden to carry because it hits home for you because you have connections to that place you have never been to and these people you have never met.
Recently ISIS captured the 150 Assyrian Christians we had a student here who is from that area. His brother narrowly escaped the area before ISIS got there. That was hard to hear and made the capturing of those Christians even harder to hear about. It made my heart so heavy.
A couple of weeks ago another Syrian student posted that ISIS had finally made it to his home town. All the while an Iraqi student was summoned home where his city is under the control of ISIS currently. Everything with ISIS in these countries is so hard to hear about. I have personal connections to these places. I want peace in their countries so bad. I want them to be able to live in peace or to even be able to go back home to begin with.
This morning I woke up to the news, personally delivered, that Nepal had been hit with an earthquake. Kathmandu, where a dear friend is from, is partly in ruins. Over 1000 people have lost their lives so far. Praise God that this dear friend's parents are safe. But to be honest right now my heart is aching and burdened for my friend and her country.
So many times this year I have cried because of these things. How I long for all of this to just go away. Would I change my situation? No. It gives me such an awareness and heart for the world. I love these people so much that I would not change knowing them for anything. I just hope that I can bring light to them and their situations.
Please be praying with me for these specific situations.
I will you leave you with Psalm 46.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth.He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
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