HAVE WE MISSED THE OBVIOUS?
HAVE WE MISSED THE OBVIOUS?
Summer is here and Zambia is getting hotter and hotter. I have been here about 7 months now serving in Lusaka and I can honestly say I have seen and experienced a lot. I will share some of the small experiences with you. I am not here to share any new amazing idea, but will only share what God is showing me.
We have had many great programs that brought many people to the church. Everything seemed to be going great and moving in the right direction. Little by little I started noticing something missing. Little by little as the activities and big events went down, the people went down. I became very saddened with what was happening. I started feeling like maybe I had lost focus and done something wrong.
As I was entering the compound for the daily visitation and evangelism, I went into a house to visit a Church member and remind her of the fellowship meeting. I went in quickly and invited her and left and started towards the next house, when I felt God calling me to go back. He said, Go Back! You didn’t even really spend time talking to her. You didn’t even ask about her life. I went back and started talking to her. 5 minutes with her became 45 minutes. This woman and her family had a lot of troubles and God really wanted me to spend more time with them. We prayed together, shared the Bible together, but most of all I really started to develop a deep relationship with the family. God was really teaching me a lesson that day. I felt God saying, you are serving My children, but you don’t really know them. You will never help them grow this way. So for the rest of the visitations that day, I took my time, I slowed down and I started to know each person deeper. It made a world of difference and that was probably the best day of service since I arrived in Zambia. I felt God showed me the foundation of how He wanted me to serve Him. God wants me to build strong Christians in Zambia, but now He shared with me a small piece of how to do it. I was focused more on programs than people.
The following Sunday came and the Gospel was another strong message.
“Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see” (Luke 10:23). See what? The Gospel continued with a focus on loving our neighbors. Love them? I don’t even know them. I asked the congregation to look around at one another. I soon realized the church was full of people, but no one knew each other, especially me. I know God was telling me something obvious, but somehow I missed it for so long.
Our focus is starting to change, to really go deep with one another. Can you really say you know your family, friends, neighbors, and people you serve very deeply? Are you spending time to know their needs, their struggles, and things they are rejoicing about? We as the Body of Christ will never grow unless we slow down and go deeper with one another. We need to really spend more time with one another. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” How? I don’t even know my neighbor. I don’t know all the steps and I don’t have all the answers, but I know God is telling the first step. Go deep with My children. Get to know them. Spend time with them. Build them up. Carry their burdens.
The biggest problem is we don’t go deep with anyone any more. Shallow friendships will kill the service of God. Even our relationship with our fellow servants has gone shallow, that’s why we see the service of God suffering. I pray we all examine this with the people around us. We really have lost the basics of Christianity. We have complicated the simple things Jesus taught us. It is not about more activities and programs. And by being busy in the church doesn’t mean we are really helping people. Let us first start by building deeper friendships with one another. Even if we only focus on two or three people. But let us not pass one another by so quickly. That person you pass by might be the one God has asked you to help and serve. May God Bless and give you wisdom on your journey.
Please pray for us here in Zambia and all the Coptic Mission in Africa,
Father Abraham
