Be Encouraged

“We are not alone!” Those words echoed in my mind as I sat and listened to the testimony that one of our ECC pastors recently gave in a pastoral prayer meeting with his fellow pastors in Central Asia. Paul (name changed for security reasons) had just returned to his home country after having been in Korea for the ECC conference. Because his country was the next one that Dave and I were visiting after Korea, we got to spend some additional time with him.As Paul shared about his experiences at the Korean conference and the seminars he attended, he paused for a moment to share about his biggest experience. He explained how over 90,000 Christian believers had gathered in the Olympic Stadium in Seoul to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the church in Korea. (See my previous post about Korea) That’s when he made the statement I will never forget. Paul said; “I was in a Stadium with over 90,000 Christians, and it was so exciting to know that we are not alone! We have Christian brothers and sisters around the world!”

When I first heard Paul say this I thought to myself, ‘Well of course were not alone! That’s obvious!’ But then I began to realize that perhaps my perspective on worldwide Christianity is vastly different from most people. Only a few years ago I was completely naïve to the size of the Christian church around the world even though I had all the advantages of coming from the western world with its vast wealth of media and information. Why should I be critical of Paul for having this new revelation since he comes from a rural village in Central Asia where running water and electricity are luxuries?

Maybe you are like Paul and have never realized that we are not alone. Or maybe you know, but haven’t given it much thought. Let me encourage you the same way that Paul encouraged his fellow pastors to take comfort from the fact that you are not alone in your faith! Let me also encourage you to continually lift up your brothers and sisters in Christ around the world through prayer. Many of them need the encouragement of knowing that they too are not alone, and through the power of the Holy Spirit and prayer, they too can know this.