Stefan politely encouraged me to blog. I came accross something I wrote two years ago. Since then our involvement in India increased. It still is a tremendous priviledge to learn from the men you are about to meet.
The difference between hearing about and the experience of the same thing, is like the difference between smell and taste. It is why I believe in experiental learning and why I am convinced that the Lord wants to create a wineskin to disciple people in a context of exposure. However, I did not thought it will hit me personally as hard as it did in India.
I did not engage in the e-mail conversations about the persecutions in India. It sounded far off; like we have kind of missed it in China.
Upon arrival at the orphanage we picked up the exitement among the kids and workers that their leaders, Dr Thomas and his son will be preaching on Sunday. The son were just released from prison and therefore the kids broke their fast! It was like stepping into a storybook.
As their leaders spoke, the kids were silent. Attentive.
I thought: The old man have seasoned authority.
The son is a strong leader. There words
challenged us. We drank it in. We needed
the challenge of possibility to live holy lives.
The old man took a young boy on his lap.
With tears he thanked the children for there
prayers. "Children" he said and paused.
"Children, listen to me."
You could hear a speld drop.
"The greatest thing you could
do with your lives,
is to die as a martyr for Christ."
He pitched it right there.
No change-of-voice shallow talk,
no watered down lions den story.
Like a true grandfather he spoke to them
with love and intimacy. I felt like standing in
the doorway, listening. The words burnt into
my soul and I was one of them, sitting in a dusty
and dirty hall, looking Jesus in the eye and battle:
Lord am I truly willing? You know me?
I have the desire to follow the true, suffering and risen Lord. The one Paul followed when he called out: "O that I might know Christ...
My think-I-know-it, arrogant Western mindset has once again been shattered and I too have become what I believe this should be; a journey for seekers.