Brothers

Elias joined Joy, our beloved director of Adoption Ministry YWAM, on her excursion to Ethiopia, four months after our adoption of Emmaus and Ezra.  Joy invited him then, because she and he knew that the events surrounding the meeting of and departing from his siblings' birthmothers, would rip his heart to threads, yet he too, longed to see their country.  As became evident, during his adventures with Joy, preserving any piece of the fragile heart of a compassionate lover of people is impossible.  The heart of man, when brimming with love for those whom Jesus asks us to care, will be crushed and strewn, as seeds on fertile soil, to produce an eternal harvest of joy.  The crushing is brutal, but the light of love shines from the follower who sacrifices self.

Transporting babies, visiting orphanages and meeting the brave men and women who step into the gap for vulnerable children, moved Elias deeply.  One of many miracles during his travels was the saving of a newborn found in a jungle area, alone and helpless, still attached to the placenta.  How they and we grieved for the mother, who must have believed this was the only way out of her hopeless situation.  (That baby boy was eventually adopted!  Hope overcame.)

One of the most significant interactions of the two weeks of Elias' journey took place in a coffee shop.  Elias met David, a Sudanese man with a smile as bright as the morning sun.  His invitation to chat could not be refused and his mesmerizing life story, will never be forgotten by any of us.  Elias related to us that the machete marks across David's arms, back and face were profound.  David described the day his wife and family were killed brutally through genocide.  He explained that his escape was miraculous.  When Elias asked if David would ever marry again, the jovial man laughed, 'My wife is with Jesus in heaven, and someday it will be my greatest joy to meet them there, but until then, I wait, as her husband on earth.'  To find such commitment, delight and freedom in one who'd suffered so much, can only be described as otherworldly, and is a product of his faith and trust in the Sovereign God.

When I consider our brothers and sisters in Syria, Turkey, Iraq and throughout the Middle East today, who are facing genocide, I feel paralyzed.  The spreading of the Ebola virus in many countries in Africa overwhelms me.  When I think of many of you, living in countries where the fragile balance between good and evil seems to be tipping dangerously towards ultimate destruction for all humanity, I anguish.  It is then that I remember David, whose name means Beloved.

When our close friend Pastor Paul Schroeder threw a ball of yarn across the church, asking each member to hold a fingertip of thread, then continue tossing, an intricate web quickly formed.  Beloveds, that is who we are, an intricate community, designed to love sacrificially, united under our mighty Savior.  We are light bearers, connected across the globe.  With many threads of story and life woven between us, we call with a united voice to the One who Is the Great I Am!  He is here, He is willing and He asks us to turn our hearts and lives to Him.  No man can rescue us from ourselves, man's inhumanity to man is sourced from Satan himself, but the battle is the Lord's.  Come Lord Jesus...and while we wait, we love with hearts surrendered, pray without ceasing, encourage the faint of heart and love fearlessly, as brothers and sisters do!