Missionaries are not exempt from suffering. I still remember the young woman who heard that my husband had cancer and was going through surgery and radiation. She was shocked, stating that she thought missionaries would be exempt from cancer. After all, we had left our families and homeland and were serving God in a foreign country. All I could think at that time was, "Wow! What a ridiculous statement." But I've had some time to think about it, a bit over five years. I really didn't know that person; maybe she was a new believer who hadn't read Hebrews yet. Maybe she was simply a church-goer, not a believer. I don't know and I'm rather sorry to say that I never got her contact info or even considered keeping in touch with her. As my students say, "My bad!"
Recently I read a blog written by a couple serving in Haiti. I don't know them but since my husband and I served in Haiti for eighteen years, I tend to read anything I come across that is written by those who are there. This young couple is suffering. Their suffering far exceeds what my husband and I experienced with this adenocarcinoma of the lacrimal gland. Their youngest child, Susana, has neuroblastoma, a deadly form of cancer that seems to uniquely attack children. I have now bookmarked this family's blog so I can follow and pray for them. My heart is extremely heavy for this family. I know the financial package most missionaries live with (read poverty level) and the insurance programs they are a part of (self-insured). It is really tough to experience this kind of personal trauma, especially when it deals with a child.
The truth is that God knows all about this. He knew it was coming, even their level of suffering. I have a very unpopular view of this kind of thing. I don't think Job was a unique character. I believe that all of us are fair game for Satan to attack at any time with hardship, illness, any number of difficulties. The only sense I could make of my husband's experience was that God had called us into that hospital, into that community of suffering people. And now God has called Susana's family. We need to pray for them. This is beyond traumatic! These people lived through one of the worst earthquake's in history, have been ministering to suffering people... probably around the clock. They are exhausted, traumatized themselves, and now they are suffering horribly. We are not exempt. We are called... called to go, to be, to suffer as Christ did.
This is what praying without ceasing is all about - every moment, all day, always.
1 comment:
Thank you so much for writing about our story. Your post is so true. We are not exempt from any suffering. As a matter of fact, we are called to suffering. That's what the Book of 1 Peter is all about. We pray that through our suffering, Christ is glorified. Just like it states in 1 Peter (a book that I studied for several months last year) that "these (trials) have come so that your faith, of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Yes, we also are probably in the minority circles when we state things like "God has appointed this suffering" But we believe that He has appointed ALL things in our lives, and that He will be glorified in ALL things.
Thank you for praying for our little Susana. We do pray that the Lord heals her and brings glory to His name!
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