The news reports from a country torn by civil war, where safety for locals and foreigners is getting increasingly challenging, focuses on the instability and mayhem. A viewer safely away in the comfortable peaceful west could not be blamed for thinking, where is God in all this?
While these images flash across large high definition TV screens, there is a greater story going on behind the scenes of destruction. Only a few blocks behind the latest bombing event, is a small but growing church of locals, all recent converts.
A year earlier a tentmaker had arrived to this area to work as a “construction” worker. At work he had been challenged by locals who were adamant in converting him to their majority religion faith.
Over time the tentmaker earned their trust through good humor, good questions, time spent together at meals and his ever present joy in work. One by one his co-workers heard about Jesus. Some claimed having seen a man in white in their dreams with out stretched hands beckoning them to come. Then the miracles started, as his co-workers started sharing in secret that they had accepted Jesus into their lives and had earnestly begun to read their Bibles.
They were impacted by the knowledge of a sure salvation, the character of Jesus who did not retaliate and in the Bible which made sense while being logical and reasonable. They fell in love with a God who loved everyone including their enemies and being able to have a relationship with him.
They started meeting with the tentmaker in homes and cafes, studying the Bible and watching videos.
Soon the group grew too big to continue meeting in homes and emboldened by the rapid changes in their country, they rented a location where they could meet in the open.
Then the police came to the tentmaker’s home. Politely but firmly they told him to stay away from the group as his presence there was jeopardizing everyone’s safety. If he promised to stay away, the police assured him that the group and their meetings would be protected.
It was with tremendous sadness that the tentmaker agreed to these terms even though it meant he could not continue to meet with his spiritual children that were so precious to him.
Not long after, the tentmaker had to leave the country for unrelated reasons. But the church continues to meet and grow in increasingly threatening conditions.
The lesson for us reading this is that God is not lost in the clouds, His Kingdom is growing when all we see is death and destruction. Pray for the persecuted church and the tens of thousands of people coming to Christ.