Seattle, Washington
Volume 3, Issue 27
November 21, 2008
-Safety In Christ Alone-
…memories…
Tears slowly, gently roll down as the sound of teenagers laughing and baristas working echo in the background. I didn’t expect that I would be this emotional, but little has escaped my memory as I think of where I was one year ago.
As I read recent published articles about bundibugyoebola virus in scientific journals, a tidal wave of memories drown my thoughts. November 29, 2008 marks the one year anniversary of the announcement of the Ebola outbreak in Uganda – the day when Scott Myhre found Mr. Mwonga and me working in the pediatric ward at the local health center and said, “I need to talk with you. Right now.”
Next weekend, on the day of the one year anniversary, I will be briefly speaking at a local church in Everett, WA about the Ebola outbreak. Above all else, in the few fleeting moments in front of the congregation, I hope to express how God led me to Bundibugyo, and that despite chaos and uncertainty during the Ebola crisis, I have never been so confirmed that I was exactly where God wanted me to be. In the face of all my fears, and many they were and still are, God calmed my spirit and wrapped me in his reassuring love. Never more than one year ago have grace, mercy, death, and faith in God been more palpably real to me.
In the brief, blessed encounter I had with Jennifer Myhre’s mother, on the day that I left for Uganda in October, 2007, she told me that she came to the realization many years ago that doing God’s will doesn’t always mean you will be safe physically, but there is no safer place you can be. I agree.
May we all rest in the safety and love of Jesus Christ.
1 comment:
Hi Scott,
Congratulations to your approval by Project MedSend! And praise the Lord for His provisions!
I saw your blog on "Safety in Christ Alone" a few days ago. While I was deeply awed by your courage to face whatever danger that was to come in your mission to Uganda and knowing that what you have said about the difference between physical safety and spiritual safety is absolutely true, I still felt unsettled, maybe even kind of frightened, by the possibility of danger and suffering.
Today I came across this paragraph in Elizabeth Elliot's "Passion and Purity." As if suddenly a switch was turned in my mind, I started to see a glimpse of what God's love really means for us. She said it better than anyone I have read so far:
"Our vision is so limited we can hardly imaging a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering. The love of God is of a different nature altogether. It does not hate tragedy. It never denies reality. It stands in the very teeth of suffering. The love of God did not protect His own Son. That was the proof of His love -- that He gave that Son, that He let Him go to Calvary's cross, though 'legions of angels' might have rescued Him. He will not necessarily protect us -- not from anything it takes to make us like His Son. A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process."
I pray that even at times when we feel that we are all alone and that God is no longer with us protecting us, we will still have the unfaltering conviction that his unfailing love is still there and will carry us through the purifying fire.
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