A Universal Message
Gathering with retired teacher friends and colleagues felt good Friday night. Lots of stories and connections were made over tea. When I referred to being in Nicaragua just before school started, questions started flying. What were you doing there? Who did you go with? What were you teaching?
When I talked about bringing Bibles for the church there, I realized they had no idea why we thought that was important. I told how we gathered the women together on two afternoons and shared two favorite verses. Our goal was to show them how to simply read, ask questions and find what was there to learn. I had worked with these women, some for ten years, yet this part of my faith life was still foreign to them.
As I found myself summarizing the two verses, I told how the Nicaraguan women's eyes showed connection to the verses we shared. Women are the same worldwide and they needed to know of God's amazing love for them, even when their husbands and children didn't affirm them. They also needed to know that lying awake worrying about things could be dealt with by remembering God's promises. Worries could easily be translated into prayers. Did these Canadian women need to hear the same message?
Late that night, as I crawled into bed, I smiled at the opportunity to share scripture. Only God knows when hearts are receptive. Maybe someone needed to hear of God's love for them. Maybe someone needed to start turning worries into prayers. Maybe I just needed to be ready to verbalize my faith life more with my work friends. This universal message is foreign to many right here in Canada. I wouldn't want to keep anyone searching in the dark.
When I talked about bringing Bibles for the church there, I realized they had no idea why we thought that was important. I told how we gathered the women together on two afternoons and shared two favorite verses. Our goal was to show them how to simply read, ask questions and find what was there to learn. I had worked with these women, some for ten years, yet this part of my faith life was still foreign to them.
As I found myself summarizing the two verses, I told how the Nicaraguan women's eyes showed connection to the verses we shared. Women are the same worldwide and they needed to know of God's amazing love for them, even when their husbands and children didn't affirm them. They also needed to know that lying awake worrying about things could be dealt with by remembering God's promises. Worries could easily be translated into prayers. Did these Canadian women need to hear the same message?
Late that night, as I crawled into bed, I smiled at the opportunity to share scripture. Only God knows when hearts are receptive. Maybe someone needed to hear of God's love for them. Maybe someone needed to start turning worries into prayers. Maybe I just needed to be ready to verbalize my faith life more with my work friends. This universal message is foreign to many right here in Canada. I wouldn't want to keep anyone searching in the dark.
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