Heartbroken & Confirmed

It was an interesting morning here in Salamanca.  Steffani and I took our regular walk to our language school, roughly 15 - 20 minutes.

This particular walk couldn’t have been more different than almost any other walk I’ve ever taken.  You see, a few weeks or a few months ago, I asked God to give me a heart for the lost.  It’s one of our organization’s core values after all.  It seemed like a great core value to have myself.

Sometimes it can be so easy and tempting to be lulled into a lukewarm faith, can’t it?  We love spending time with other believers.  This is not unique to our subculture or even our country for that matter.  One of the things I’ve noticed at our cafe during breaks at language school is how Chinese people hang with other Chinese, Dutch people hang with other Dutch, etc.

Anyway, God answered that simple prayer this morning on the way to school.  For some reason I started looking at people in a whole different light.  Back in March, a seasoned missionary here informed us Christians make up less than 2% of the population here.

For some reason that hit me in the gut today.  When we passed a group of 10 people I mused to Steffani, “Only 1 of those 10 people are Christian, maybe.”  We passed at least 100 people on the way to language school.  2 or less of those know Christ as their Savior.

This is incredible motivation to work as hard as I can to learn Spanish and speak it fluently.  It’s truly a blessing to be able to focus exclusively on language learning for 6 months.  Many missionaries don’t take the time to do so and inevitably regret it later when they can’t find the words to express themselves.  It can truly be a handicap later on in mission work.

Three quarters of the way to our destination I had another thought.  In my mind I was thinking about how many people are without Christ in this country.  Immediately it occurred to me that was why God put us here in the first place.

Not everyone is built for living overseas.  Personally though, I feel more confirmed than ever before.  A friend mentioned to us after our last church service at our home church that we are truly built for this unique experience.  Right now, I couldn’t agree more with that sentiment.

Heartbroken and confirmed; it’s a good place to be.  Undoubtedly there will be periods of doubt in the future about whether this was a mistake.  Hopefully I can look back at this post and be reminded of why we’re here.  It’s not about us and our comfort.  We’re here to be witnesses to Christ and point as many people to Him as He graciously allows us to.

Maranatha!  Come, Lord Jesus!