“Let them be One… ”
Jesus asks this for us explicitly in His prayer in John 17. Unity is so important to Him, and He made sure we knew it! And He is fulfilling this in our day… He gave the team a word about a “multicultural-multidenomenational church” during our time in X-Town, and He’s already doing awesome things in our new “neighborhood.”
As I go up to the rooftop, just above my new 26th floor apartment, and look out over the city, the mountains and lake, and especially over the university city that we live in the midst of about an hour (or 3 if traffic is bad, haha ;)) south of the city, my heart is excited at all He has planned for this place and the 100,000+ college students here. They will hear the good news. They will understand the most important decision of their lives is whether or not to follow Jesus Christ. Many, many will believe and be saved. And many will leave behind everything else to follow Him, and change lives and nations for eternity!
They will be like Shelley and Wendy, Alex and Eric, who had come from a different city to share the gospel on the campuses here where we live. I was biking around last week looking for an ATM, and I wandered on to a very large, beautiful, brand new campus. I asked the first students I saw if they could help me and they said to follow them. After talking with the two girls for a few minutes and them complimenting me profusely on my language skills, they asked me why I came to Asia. I paused, and then began, “Wo xiangxin Yesu…” (I believe in Jesus), to which they almost started jumping up and down with excitement, telling me that they too were Christians. Shelley and Wendy were part of a team of about 20 young Asian students who came down on a short-term trip. We had lunch with them a few days later, hearing amazing testimonies of family members being saved, miraculous healings, one guy getting taken by the police for questioning right during their trip here, and more! They also expressed deep gratitude to us for our coming and serving here – such a mutual blessing that Dad had planned for us. We were able to give them some resources and have a powerful time of praying over each other. So encouraging!
We have also met many local workers from other organizations, again illustrating the wonderful complexity of God’s plan for this nation. May we all stay faithful to the calling He has placed before us, and operate as a healthy body bound together in His love…