Preparing for the Harvest in Egypt
Danger and Opportunity
On one of my four ministry trips to the Middle East last year, my wife, Jan, and I had the privilege of providing Mission to Children’s Character Solutions training to a group of intelligent and motivated students who were in their final years of university or had recently graduated. Most were Egyptian, some were Jordanian, and we met in Lebanon. What a special group they were!
As might be expected, it was also a time punctuated with spiritual warfare. Only in heaven will we finally know the spiritual battles fought as darkness tried to quench the Light shining in and through God’s children serving Him around the world.
On one occasion a female student was suddenly gripped by a seizure and then a coma that had all of us—including the medical doctor in charge of the students—wondering if we would lose her. That crisis became a call to prayer. We stopped all training and turned the crisis into an opportunity for deeply serious and whole-hearted prayer. God answered, she recovered, and she joined us later that week to finish the course. May those students never forget that crisis, their prayers, their tears, their unity—and God’s response.
We concluded our time with them by asking for written feedback. One student expressed appreciation for the opportunity to learn and understand the concept of “crisis.” In our seminars we explain that the Chinese formed the character (symbol) meaning “crisis” by combining two other characters into a compound word. The first word is “danger”—an appropriate way to describe a crisis. The second word may surprise you: It is “opportunity.”
Put together, they convey the concept that crisis is not only a time of danger but a time of opportunity.
Those students experienced the danger and opportunity in crisis as their sister’s seizure brought them together in an exceptionally moving time of prayer. They are doubtless seeing and perhaps experiencing danger in the current crisis impacting the Middle East. Will they be part of the opportunity to let their light so shine that others will see it and glorify God? That is the prayer of my heart.
We watched in awe as God opened door after door last year for Mission to Children’s Character Solutions in the Middle East. It left us: (a) overwhelmed that He was giving us such a privilege and (b) sobered that He was giving us such a responsibility.
Our worshipful part of this mission—yours and mine—is to pray sincerely and give selflessly.
Daniel 11:32b says, “…the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.” May we know our God, be strong, and carry out great exploits for Him.
How is God challenging you today to trust Him through a crisis?
