A Jew, a Palestinian, and an Arab Christian all walk into . . .

Many of the tribes we will be working with in Northern Mozambique are Muslim.  In preparation for living there, we are doing training this week to learn about Islam and how to build relationships and effectively share Christ's love in those environments.

Besides all the training, we got to meet one of the other MAF families headed to Mozambique and we are getting to know them a little this week, as well as Christians from around the world who God is using in amazing ways.  Tuesday night a group of American’s, Koreans, a Pastor from India, and another pastor from Sierra Leone spent a long time praying for our family, and it was very exciting and humbling.

There is a lot about Muslims I did not know.  This week I have been challenged, convicted, saddened, and inspired all at the same time.  There are on average three Christian missionaries working with every one million Muslims.  In North America there are about seven million.  I have never had a meaningful conversation with one.  Almost none of us have.  Ninety-nine percent of Muslim international students never enter an American home.  I am hearing stories of people doing little things, who go over and are welcomed into houses, and are told they are the first Americans to ever visit.  One women just said a simple prayer after they met and talked a little, and the women who was prayed for cried, because no one had ever prayed for her before.  Many of them come from restricted access countries where it is next to impossible for them to hear the gospel, even though the Qur’an claims the New Testament as a Holy Book of Islam.  They come here, and we have ignored them.  They come from a culture that is extremely hospitable, and they find our doors shut and locked.  And I have been a part of that.

They are told America is a Christian nation.  That might be all they know of Christianity, and most have never met a Christian (that they engaged with long enough to know anyway).  To them the adjectives of Christian and American are synonyms, so playboy is a Christian magazine.  Please consider what you are doing to the cause of Christ if you call America a Christian nation, but do not feel too good if you do not, because until they meet you they will continue to see Christianity as whatever they see as American in Hollywood.

I have also been overwhelmed with testimonies this week from people who grew up Muslim, some devout.   Despite the overall apathy we have shown, more have come to Christ in the last decade than in the previous 1400 years combined.  It does not take super Christians to build friendships, Christians who were unprepared made huge impacts in their lives just by loving them and being willing to go where they are.  God is moving.  Many of the Muslim background believers I have met this week came to Christ largely through dreams and visions.  Their stories are amazing, but I do not want the rocks and the trees crying out because I have been silent.  Even in the dreams and vision stories God is working through believers.  Often God sends the dreams after someone starts praying for them.

Today we learned a little about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  We heard from a Jew who grew up Zionist, a Palestinian who grew up Muslim and whose father lost everything in 1948, and a Lebanese from a Christian background who grew up hating both as his friends and relatives died in the conflict.  They, and their families, have been through incredible tragedies.  And yet they all stood at the front of class today as brothers and explained the conflict as it relates to the cause of Christ, without taking sides.  Their love in Christ trumps all of that, and at the end they prayed together for those who used to be their enemies.  It was amazing.  Beauty for ashes . . . that is what my God is doing, and if that does not give you hope, I do not know what will.

Flying, Caterpillars and Thunderstorms

Today I got to go flying in the airplane my Uncle Keith built, which was also the first small airplane I ever flew (an RV-6 for you pilots out there).  It was a flight in that plane (N55KE), somewhere around 2002 that hooked me on flying and redirected my college plans to commercial aviation.  This was the first time I have flown that airplane since.  It is pretty cool how God used that flight with my Uncle to ultimately lead me to missionary aviation.

The last couple months there have been several times where Holly and I have both felt extremely blessed to be part of the families we are in.  Last month in Kansas we stayed several days with Holly’s Aunt and Uncle who flew for MAF in Zaire (Now the Democratic Republic of Congo).  It was encouraging and exciting for me to talk to Terry about their time with MAF and get advice about a lot of things.  Apparently the caterpillars they eat there are actually pretty good when dried, and taste kind of like bacon (I hear we will probably get to eat some in Mozambique, and if they really taste like bacon I am all in!).  He did have a story about the caterpillars though which led to some strong advice that we not fly anyone’s stash of live ones.

About a week and a half ago in Penrose, Colorado I had the honor of preaching at the last church my Grandpa Ellis pastored in Colorado.  We went there almost every summer when I was little so it felt pretty good to go back in that little church.  We were extremely warmly welcomed as Grandpa’s grandkids before we ever said anything, and I have always loved the feeling of being accepted based only on my relationship to someone like my dad or grandpa.  It is part of what I imagine heaven being like.

As a kid growing up in Washington I almost never got to see thunderstorms, so one of my highlights visiting Penrose as a kid was getting to watch the lightning zig-zag across the sky.  As we walked out of church we saw probably the best storm I have seen in years, and somehow it just seemed perfect.