an extraordinary answer
This is one of those God stories that gives me goosebumps. It's also a story that requires some cultural explanations and background history so bear with me please, you'll want to get to the end.
My family moved to PNG nine days before my sixteenth birthday. I can't say that I really wanted to be here. It was one of those moves where you feel like you left your heart behind in everything and everyone you knew and now you're having to start completely over. New place. New people. New school. In the middle of high school. Yeah, that was fun.
I could tell you dozens of stories about how good God is from that time . . . most of which I didn't realize at the time, but by looking back. However, that's not what this story is about. One month after we arrived in the country our house was broken into by some local "raskols" (the Tok Pisin term for criminals or gang members). I won't go into a lot of the details of what that term represents or the events surrounding the crime, again it's another story, but one piece of the story is relevant. The raskols cleared out a large number of items from the house, but primarily from my bedroom. I lost clothes, electronics, etc. I remember saying to my Mom that night, unable to go back to sleep after the event, "at least they didn't get my Bible."
Fast forward two years to my senior year of high school. My senior class was traveling to a coastal city for our senior retreat. It's not that far, but thanks to lots of potholes and a bad mudslide which we actually had to walk through and switch cars at, it was a six to eight hour drive. Along the way, one of the cars in the caravan was held up by some raskols on the highway. Again, there is a longer story here about how some of my friends and I had almost gotten in that vehicle at the beginning of the trip, but ended up in another, but the main point is that the vehicle was primarily carrying luggage for the thirty plus people. The raskols took several items including my backpack and the backpack of one of our adult chaperones.
When we reached the coastal city and were unloading, I couldn't find my bag anywhere and found out that it was one of the items that had been taken. It had everything for the trip in it: clothes, swimsuit, Bible, journal, etc.
That night in my hotel room, I remember thinking back to the incident two years prior and the words I spoke. This time they took my Bible. It had been a gift from the school I went to in Suriname and had my name engraved on the cover. My Bible and my journal contained a lot of my notes about what God was doing, what He was teaching me. I was devastated to lose them.
That night, I was challenged to look beyond myself. Lying prone on the floor, crying my eyes out, God challenged me to pray for the raskols as I never had before.
Psalm 33:11
But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart, through all generations.
This verse is one that is written in my prayer journal that my Mom made and gave to me for my high school graduation. On that page of verses there is a heading "Pray for them to be peacemakers" and I wrote a note to pray for the people of PNG and especially the raskols.
Over the past eleven plus years, every time I turn to that page I pray for the raskols. I pray that they will hear God's call and that they would become people characterized by God's peace. I have prayed that someone would read the Bible and journal that were stolen with my backpack those many years ago and that they would change a life.
Last month, I met someone with an incredible story. He is a pastor in a village, but he grew up in the capital city and was a part of a raskol gang. I don't know the exact dates, but close to the same time as the story above, this man was part of a group who stole several items. In one of the bags, there was a Bible. He read the Bible and trusted God. Today, he and his wife serve their community through the church, teaching parenting lessons, and mentoring youth, especially young men.
His story took place in a completely different part of the country, but it was parallel to what I prayed for. The extraordinary answer to prayer is a testament to God's amazing love. And what a gift to meet this pastor and his wife and see God's answer. We don't always see answers to prayer, but that doesn't mean they don't come . . . most of the time bigger than we can even imagine.
Ephesians 3:20-21
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
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| This is what many churches in PNG look like. |
My family moved to PNG nine days before my sixteenth birthday. I can't say that I really wanted to be here. It was one of those moves where you feel like you left your heart behind in everything and everyone you knew and now you're having to start completely over. New place. New people. New school. In the middle of high school. Yeah, that was fun.
I could tell you dozens of stories about how good God is from that time . . . most of which I didn't realize at the time, but by looking back. However, that's not what this story is about. One month after we arrived in the country our house was broken into by some local "raskols" (the Tok Pisin term for criminals or gang members). I won't go into a lot of the details of what that term represents or the events surrounding the crime, again it's another story, but one piece of the story is relevant. The raskols cleared out a large number of items from the house, but primarily from my bedroom. I lost clothes, electronics, etc. I remember saying to my Mom that night, unable to go back to sleep after the event, "at least they didn't get my Bible."
Fast forward two years to my senior year of high school. My senior class was traveling to a coastal city for our senior retreat. It's not that far, but thanks to lots of potholes and a bad mudslide which we actually had to walk through and switch cars at, it was a six to eight hour drive. Along the way, one of the cars in the caravan was held up by some raskols on the highway. Again, there is a longer story here about how some of my friends and I had almost gotten in that vehicle at the beginning of the trip, but ended up in another, but the main point is that the vehicle was primarily carrying luggage for the thirty plus people. The raskols took several items including my backpack and the backpack of one of our adult chaperones.
When we reached the coastal city and were unloading, I couldn't find my bag anywhere and found out that it was one of the items that had been taken. It had everything for the trip in it: clothes, swimsuit, Bible, journal, etc.
That night in my hotel room, I remember thinking back to the incident two years prior and the words I spoke. This time they took my Bible. It had been a gift from the school I went to in Suriname and had my name engraved on the cover. My Bible and my journal contained a lot of my notes about what God was doing, what He was teaching me. I was devastated to lose them.
That night, I was challenged to look beyond myself. Lying prone on the floor, crying my eyes out, God challenged me to pray for the raskols as I never had before.
Psalm 33:11
But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart, through all generations.
This verse is one that is written in my prayer journal that my Mom made and gave to me for my high school graduation. On that page of verses there is a heading "Pray for them to be peacemakers" and I wrote a note to pray for the people of PNG and especially the raskols.
Over the past eleven plus years, every time I turn to that page I pray for the raskols. I pray that they will hear God's call and that they would become people characterized by God's peace. I have prayed that someone would read the Bible and journal that were stolen with my backpack those many years ago and that they would change a life.
Last month, I met someone with an incredible story. He is a pastor in a village, but he grew up in the capital city and was a part of a raskol gang. I don't know the exact dates, but close to the same time as the story above, this man was part of a group who stole several items. In one of the bags, there was a Bible. He read the Bible and trusted God. Today, he and his wife serve their community through the church, teaching parenting lessons, and mentoring youth, especially young men.
His story took place in a completely different part of the country, but it was parallel to what I prayed for. The extraordinary answer to prayer is a testament to God's amazing love. And what a gift to meet this pastor and his wife and see God's answer. We don't always see answers to prayer, but that doesn't mean they don't come . . . most of the time bigger than we can even imagine.
Ephesians 3:20-21
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
That is an amazing story! Wow! So glad you shared. We really never know what God is doing when we don't understand life.
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