A. . . from the uttermost part of the earth@

Mark 13:27

 

 

March, 2000

 

It was finally here; the trip I had been dreading, the long drive in the dead of winter in the middle of a snowstorm.  Because of various circumstances, I have gotten out of having to drive students to and from mid-winter retreats for the last couple of years. Ever since my ice-storm >98 car accident, I have been less than excited  about driving people around in inclement weather during the winter months.  It=s just one of the little downsides of being in campus ministry.  Our normal campus schedule usually has at least one or two long trips on back country roads going to some out of the way retreat centre during the winter term.  Sooner or later you are bound to run into some bad weather.

 

The sky certainly did look threatening as we pulled out of Toronto.  We had just finished the annual Eastern Region conference which took place at the end of January.  A record number of students from all across Ontario attended this year.  It was a good conference.  As we were about to head out, there was a last minute shuffle and I ended up with two students in my car who were not the same ones who accompanied me down to Toronto.  We lost the other Ottawa-bound cars in our little three-car caravan within seconds of departure.  I took a wrong turn.  And now we were alone, driving on the highway, snow swirling around us in the dark, and a long drive ahead.

 

I told the two students that they would have to keep talking to keep me awake.  The swirling snow has a hypnotizing effect.  A steady stream of conversation helped to keep me focused and  calm.  Since these were foreign students, we talked about their families, cultural differences, traditional cuisine from their home countries, personal dreams and goals, geo-political history, . . anything and everything to keep me awake.  We discussed what they had learned from the conference, how they got involved with Campus Crusade for Christ, and personal testimonies.

 

Before getting in the car I had known that the one student was from a nominally Muslim background.  She had been in dialogue for quite some time with one of our female leaders and with another Lebanese student who has recently converted from Islam to Christianity.   I had assumed that Diana (not her real name) was from the Middle East somewhere.  Her accent and her appearance are rather non-descript.  During our trip, I found out that Diana is not from Lebanon at all, but from China.  In fact, she is from a very remote northern province  where the people are Muslim.  She is not ethnic Chinese.

 

I remember years ago as a student praying for Aunreached people groups@ from the information given on AOperation World@ prayer cards.  That=s the only way that I knew anything about Diana=s home country.  I was amazed to realize that I was sitting in my car in the middle of a snowstorm recounting the long version of my testimony to a young woman who came from a people group where there are only a handful of national believers.  When I prayed years ago that the Lord would send someone to reach Muslim minorities in Northern China I could scarcely have imagined this scenario.

 

In the back seat of the car was a young German fellow named Christian.  I have known Christian since September.  He is a quiet young man who got involved in our group at the beginning of the year. Christian has come to just about every event since.  I was aware that he came from a Christian family and that he was already a Christian when he got involved with us.  What I did not know was that Christian comes from East Germany, and not West Germany.  During our trip this student  told me the little known story of how Christians were involved in the peaceful dismantling of the Wall between the two Germanies. 

I remember praying during my student days for Christians in Eastern Europe who lived behind the Iron Curtain.  We prayed that Christian families would stand strong and that the specific discrimination that Christian young people faced against obtaining higher education would be overcome.  Christian says that he is the first person in his family who has been able to go on to gain an advanced education because the rules changed just as he was making decisions about his education in junior high.  How incredible to think of how God was showing me the answers to prayers prayed fifteen years ago when I was a student.          

 

Today the Christian students continue to pray.  It=s exciting to think of how God will answer their prayers over the next fifteen to twenty years.  Some of the Apray-ers@ will go themselves either short or long-term to remote lands where the gospel has rarely been heard.  Some will be able to share the message of Jesus with those who visit Canada and then return to their home country.  Some may continue to pray and support world missions financially.  They may or may not be as privileged as I was to see a specific and visible answer to their many prayers.

 

Diana will eventually go back to her home province in China equipped with the AJesus@ video and the Scriptures in her own language.  Pray that she will be kept safe and that she will be able to overcome the many barriers that she will face.  Christian will also go back to Germany.  While he is here, he has decided to take advantage of our Discipleship Training Project in Toronto this summer.  Pray that God will use this to help equip him to grow into a strong and godly leader for his home country.   

 

Thanks again for your support. You help me to be available to students so that we can see them go from being Aworldly Christians@ to being Aworld Christians@.

 

 

 

Discipling the nations,