Tragic Hope

Guiding Prayer For Our Season of Fasting: 

Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom,the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Myself in Truth

Holy Father, drive out the doubt, the fear, the indifference which keeps me from living the Gospel this world desperately needs.

Nurtured and Nurturing 

Jesus Christ, Son of God, help us create and nurture within our families and within our friendships a holy reflection of your love for those who have yet to come to know the grace of community with you.

                        The Gathered

Gathering Spirit, challenge our holy assembly to live the Gospel beyond our walls and into the community around us.

Challenge

This entire week, challenge yourself to meet someone new, talk to someone you haven’t ever talked to, share the love of Christ with someone you would not normally spend time with.

The story of Jim Elliot and his four friends is a story I grew up hearing during our annual missions nights at my church.  It is the story of five men compelled to share the Gospel to one of the most hostile people groups in South America, the Huarorani people.  These people lived in a remote section of Ecuador and were known as a savage people who did not care for outsiders.

Jim and his four friends decided they had to reach out to this people.  They flew into Ecuador and landed a small plane by a river close to one of the Huarorani's villages.  Early reports from the missionaries were promising.  The people seemed to be open to their presence, even sharing in some time at their campsite by the river.  Many waited anxiously to hear more from the men.

Unfortunately, the men would never get the chance to share any more with the world.  During the night, warriors from the tribe snuck into the missionaries' camp and killed all five men.  It was a tragic story made famous by the national coverage it received, including a piece in Life magazine.

The Huarorani were an isolated people who did not trust nor like outsiders.  Jim and his friends believed all people deserved to hear the great truth of the Gospel, that no person should ever have to live in isolation from God.  This would lead to their deaths, but it would not be the end of their story.

One of the men with Jim Elliot was Nate Saint.  Nate had a sister named Marjorie.  She believed wholly in her brother's mission and did not see his death as the end of God's calling to this isolated people group.  She would continue her brother's mission to the Huarorani and eventually would make inroads that would lead the entire village to come to know Christ.  Nate's son Steve spent a lot of time with his Aunt Marjorie among the Huarorani people, helping her in sustaining his father's legacy of mission work.

When I was in High School, my older brother and his wife invited me down to Houston, TX to attend a concert by the Christian artist Steven Curtis Chapman.  Chapman had been inspired by the story of Jim Elliot and his friends, writing his newest album around their story.  During one point in the concert, Steve Saint joined him on stage.  But so to did another man named Mincaye of the Huarorani people, pastor of their local church

What was so significant about this gathering is that Mincaye was not only an elder in the village and pastor of the church, Mincaye was the man who many years ago had killed Steve's father Nate.  Here is Steve Saint standing on stage with his father's killer sharing in the glorious grace of the Gospel of Christ.

How far has God been willing to go to reach us with his love and grace?  How far are we as his children willing to go to share this same love and grace with the world around us?  My prayer is that there would be no mountain so high, no valley too deep, no place so far that we would not be willing to answer the call to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with the world around us.

-Pastor Patrick