I just got back from a week in Egypt with my friend and partner in the gospel, Dr. Blake Wood. Egypt is a beautiful country with wonderful people, many of whom I met for the first time.
A large part of our time was spent training leaders and encouraging them to stay encouraged. Ministry is always challenging, and even more so in the midst of all their challenges – working in a world where Christianity is not a default understanding for most people. They must be equipped, confident, and able to reach their city, full of people who believe totally different than they do. Sharing their faith can quite possibly put them in danger of persecution and even losing their lives.
We walked through numerous cities, like the community of Luxor south of Egypt. It was a thriving community the first twelve centuries before it became dominated by Islam. We walked around there and in numerous other cities doing prayer walks. We were asking God to orchestrate connections with people of peace, people who can be the first foot into an area, opening doors for relationships that could lead to coming to know Jesus.
It was a week of looking people in the eye and seeing sadness, hopelessness, and emptiness.
It was a week of finding out one more time that people on the completely opposite side of the world need the same things and want the same things that I do.
Travel always enlarges my heart for the people of the world, no matter what their background or belief. My compassion for the people of the world is magnified. They have become more than distant, unknown, nameless people whose problems do not intersect with me at all. They are now friends – friends with hurts and problems, needs, and joys just like mine. They are now names on my heart and faces in my prayers.
It also affirms that what I do is significant. I could not be investing my one and only life in anything more important. It reminds me that my life is an investment and I want to invest in something that will last forever.
Your life is an investment too. I encourage you to go on a trip to another country. Push past your fears and concerns and let God speak to you.
Remember that when Jesus was leaving to return to heaven, He told His followers to “go into all the world and make disciples of all people.” Then He closes by saying, “I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually – regardless of circumstance, and on every occasion], even to the end of the age.”
Think about that. The time that Jesus promised He would be with us – without exception, even unto the end of the world – was when we are fulfilling His command to go and make disciples. Maybe the reason so many people who say they believe in Jesus feel so disconnected from Him is that they aren’t doing what draws Him close. Will you?