Several weeks have gone by since the last report, and a lot of things have happened. I thank Jesus Yeshua for all of the wonderful learning opportunities. The reality of how important love is continues to be a focal point. In all things, at all times, especially with fellow believers, we are to love one another. 1 Corinthians 13:1 makes it pretty clear. If I speak in tongues of men or of Angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. As our obedience to the Lord and impact for the Kingdom continues to grow, so do the challenges. With each challenge that we successfully demonstrated love, the Lord gives us another opportunity. We are astounded how quickly we move from one situation to another. We have the choice to get stuck in a causality loop, or to move forward and honor The Lord. When our actions match up with the Word of God in a situation, the Almighty will turn the page to the next lesson. As we continue to grow from lesson to lesson, it has become increasingly more crucial that the love of Christ always prevails.
Even in difficult situations, our thoughts and actions concerning others should always maintain Biblical guidelines. Only when we stay in the light will the Lord continue to have more light shine through us. Any excuses or justifications that we make diminish the wattage that can flow through us. 1 John 1;5-7 NIV, this is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin. The day in which we live requires a great amount of diligence in seeking after Jesus every hour on the hour.
I want to tell you how awesome God is. We had some blankets and food stolen from one of our pastor training houses. On the surface, this may seem like an unfortunate event. However, during Tony’s visit to the police station, God had other plans. Had it not been for the theft of these items there would have been no need to be at the police station. Come to find out, a baby had been found in the jungle. The little boy had been there for three days. Ants were biting the baby and eating the umbilical cord. Some young boys that were passing by heard some noise, and thought it was cat or kitten. They retrieved the baby and it ended up in the police authority. The police also located the mother and were going to charge her with a crime. Her imprisonment would have been for 15 years. I do not know all of the details, but somehow Tony got involved.
Tony actually was involved in the court case. The judge was very intrigued by what Echo is doing. Because of our interest in helping the mother and baby, the judge allowed the mother to have six months before her sentence to breastfeed. Praise Jesus he also reduced her sentence from 15 years to nine months. We now have a bed setup for her at the mission house. All this happened because we had blankets that were stolen. Instead of being bummed out about the theft, we rejoice in God allowing us to be involved with the mother and child. We also had another visitor at the Malawi training facility. Jonathan from South Africa came for a visit. The difficulty in explaining exactly what we do and who was involved only can be realized to its fullest magnitude by being there.
I talked with Jonathan on several different occasions during his visit. As he got to know the Echo team, he had realized that Echo is ordained by God. The unity and love that they demonstrate towards one another is astounding. I am sorry to say that I have not experienced anything remotely close to this in America. Maybe most of that is my fault. I am not exactly sure what I am doing wrong here, but I know that my involvement in Africa is completely different than here. I can hardly wait to return and fellowship with the body of believers that are there. In Africa they are willing to do whatever it takes to grow together and be committed for the long haul. That is the way that the love of Jesus works. Jonathan found Kelvin and Tony to be outstanding young men. The possibility of not being drawn to their Christlike behavior is near zero. Tony has an amazing servant’s heart regardless of the situation. Kelvin has been blessed with wisdom and spiritual awareness that would rival anyone that I know.
Jonathan came away from the situation with his faith on fire and the highest degree of excitement that he has ever had. As this continues to unfold, it is amazing to see Yahweh include the right people to expand His mission. Now there are many people involved that are doing a far better job than I could ever do. Thank God he saw my deficiencies and quickly enlisted the services of others to keep His program on track. We all rejoice together as the body of believers continues to grow. Next time, I will be talking about how a head-on collision could have ended much differently. Praise Jesus for His amazing hand of protection.
