He Promised Never to Leave Me Alone

After a breakfast of porridge, toast and chai, I was introduced to Adrienne Thompson and her aid, Caroline, of the Parker Foundation in Richmond, VA. This family foundation funds projects for Christian ministry, mostly international. The young (25-ish) women do the traveling for the foundation to scope out worthy projects. New Theological College here has been awarded some funds and they have come to interview deans and faculty for the home office. Possibly you will see an article in Christianity Today this season including their findings entitled: “What It Means to Be a Counter-cultural Christian in Today’s World.” Each culture (including the USA) needs voices to speak truth for God to the power structures of government and education. The women are staying here but a day before heading off to Hyderabad and other India locations to gather information.

In the Chapel sermon, a senior student chose the text I Peter 1:1-9, explaining how our trials refine us to reflect the glory of God in our lives. I thought of our dear friends Barry Noonan and Patrick and Katie, in the loss of wife/mother Maryann this week to cancer. What sorrow must be theirs as they undergo this trial. While we prayed for her healing more than once, she has now experienced the final healing that God effects when He calls us to himself. But broken hearts result, often crying out, “Why. Why now?” The hymn this morning was an old one, set to Indian rhythms: He Promised Never to Leave Me Alone. This is a hope to comfort and sustain us in sore trials.

I find it illuminating to be in another context like this away from home. There I can fool myself that the world is safe place to call home. But this world is often at war with goodness and justice and shalom. Here I am face to face with poverty of goods and of spirit, for the battle of good and evil is obvious. Reports come daily from graduates who are in the danger of battle as they bring good news to people not always welcoming. We hear of persecutions and threats. We know that the worldwide community of faith is, as always, under siege.

And yet there is joy and thankfulness everywhere evident. I am always learning from brothers and sisters here.

Yesterday at my evening session, Dr. M.T. Cherian agreed to lecture on Hindu ethics. Masterfully he had the students interacting and laughing while he drove home the concepts of karma and dharma: find your assigned place in life (according to caste) and do your duty without fail for god and god alone, not your own desires. Then you may rise in the next re-birth and eventually achieve moksha—liberation. Your life now is exactly what you have created by your past, reaping what you have sown. A brilliant example of good pedagogy.

And to top off my amazement, my housemate, Dave Walker, shared over breakfast with the women visiting for the day some of his experiences. He is a former pastor who has gone into mission work on his own. Traveling to places all over the world, he preaches mostly to the common people, wins converts, starts churches, trains leaders in a few small Bible schools he sets up. What he has accomplished is astounding. One man making a difference. He is away from home about 36 weeks a year with his wife’s encouragement. (Sounds suspicious to me. Yet he says they have a great marriage, having raised 5 boys now adults. He now has the first girl in the line for several generations – a granddaughter 5 months old in Detroit.)

When speaking in a public hall in a city near Calcutta the police came in to arrest him, since it is against India law for foreigners to proselytize. He stood up to the officer, who was drunk, and the Lord gave him the right words so he was not charged. A church started there and is going to this day. Another time he was in prison for 9 months in India. In yet another location he was brought to the police station where the charge man took his passport and visa and was adamant about prosecuting him. But almost miraculously the man had a sudden change of heart and said, “It’s OK, you can preach here. But I am assigning an officer to protect you because there is a mob growing that wants to kill you!” Another time in Nigeria he got word of some who wanted to harm him. The brothers, not having a basket or a wall to lower him over (see Acts 9:23-25), smuggled him to safety. Dave now has work ongoing in Malawi, Rwanda, Brazil, India, Nigeria and I forget where else.

Dave is so self-deprecating and humble. I had no idea for four days that I was sleeping every night next to a giant for God.

Dave told me that when he was pastoring, missionaries coming to his church would say we appreciate your funds but we really ask your prayers. “O sure,” he would think, “that’s good PR.” But when he got out on the battlefield he realized that while funds are a blessing, the prayers are a matter of life and death.

So it is that each of us, stumbling as we do, add a little to the kingdom work as we strive to be faithful to the small tasks assigned to us. I am little more humble than when I left Haverhill last week. I am certain I have a long way to go on that score.

"He promised never to leave me alone."

You can take that two ways. Both apply to me today.