i wanted to share with you something that my wife wrote in our last newsletter that just went out the other day:

This weekend I noticed the alarm that has been ringing for a while as God reawakened within me the passion for ministry with such a simple, yet powerful act.

After attending service at the Shorewood campus of Community Christian Church, Aaron and I made our way into the foyer where I was approached by a woman who said she thought we had met before. I told her it was my first time here and she let out a relieved sigh telling me that she was new as well. We struck up a conversation about life and family when she began to tell me that she was getting ready to go back to Cambodia to visit her family. Being from Cambodia her family is entirely Buddhist and doesn’t understand why she cannot serve both Jesus and their gods. She began to tell me of the hardships she has endured with her family since becoming a Christian, like why she cannot and will not participate in some of their most sacred ceremonies and rituals. As she continued her eyes welled up with tears as she began to explain how she couldn’t particpate in the traditional Buddhist ceremony and incantations for her mothers burial. She has basically been shunned and shamed by her family for Jesus. I have never met anyone in my life that has given up more for Jesus (her entire family) than this woman has.

Aaron and I prayed with her for her trip, that she would be able to be Jesus to her family and that through her they would come to understand and know Him as well. We hugged and I told her I would see her in a month when we return. I look forward to seeing her again, to hearing about her journey and how God worked in and through her among her family and her culture.

In such a simple act, God has shown that He still works through me even while I am in a holding pattern. I may look towards the future and dwell on the details of uncertainty, but He is placing people in my path right now who need to know Him and the silent alarm is still ringing “Wake up O sleeper, arise from your slumber” and this time I’m ready to respond.

~Tracy

i reiterrate what tracy said, i’ve never met anyone who has given up more for Jesus than this woman has. i guess sometimes i take for granted the culture that i grew up in, i take for granted the supportive and loving family that i am surrounded by that raised me to know and love Jesus… the list could go on. i’m not sure that we in america truly understand the plight of many of our brothers and sisters around the world and the deep devotion and love that they have for Jesus. i want to hear their stories, i want to sit at their feet and learn from them, and i want to wake up from my slumber that has separated me from the worldwide church.

Related posts:

1. Would Focus on the Family correct Jesus?
2. preaching Jesus.
3. jesus.
4. ‘you’d think they just saw jesus!’
5. the book of daniel.

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