Something happened this week that was so unusual even Paul said I need to blog about it.
We had a full morning at the hospital and around 3 pm we needed to leave the hospital to deliver 9 boxes of nursing books to a local clinic that has recently opened a Christian Nursing School. Following our dropping off of these books, we drove to the airport to pick up a visiting anesthesia resident.
Words cannot describe the beauty of the new airport in Niamey, Niger. Everything about it is beautiful, efficient and clean. There are bones of ancient animals with historical notations. There is a cafe with a sign that looks very much like Starbucks but don't be fooled! It is a knock off. However, since we were early, we went through security that is required to enter the airport and treated ourselves to a pot of tea served in proper tea cups. Image us sitting, sipping, and chatting. All of a sudden a police captain uniformed and armed asks to speak with Paul. The brief conversation is only partially understood as the policeman spoke so quickly. Being slightly paranoid, I thought he was suggesting that the cafe was only for departing passengers and so he would show us where to find the arrivals. He mentioned that the plane we were waiting for would come in at 16:11 precisely.
Paul and I finished our tea wondering if we had done something wrong by coming into the airport and having tea while not being passengers?
We looked down the terminal and saw one or two passengers come out from customs and baggage claim. We assumed these were the first class passengers and since we knew that the young doctor was not coming first class we finished our tea and began our stroll down the terminal to the arrivals. Immediately, the police captain strides up to us and says he will escort us to the arrival hall. There is only one, so we were a little confused and still feeling perhaps we had violated some airport regulation. SURPRISE! We were not only being escorted to the arrivals we were being escorted right the way through to the escalator where all the passengers must come down. We walked passed other police, customs officers, public health nurses checking for yellow fever vaccinations and so on. We were in total shock! We had no ID on us other than our business cards for CURE and hospital badges which would mean nothing to immigration officials if we were asked what we were doing there. Every time we passed another official person, Captain AK would say, these people are with me. At one point he received a call and said that he needed to go for a few minutes and if anyone asked us anything, we were just to say speak to Captain AK.
There is a spiritual analogy here:
We have no authority to go into the presence of God who is holy. We need an advocate. We need an escort who can vouch for us, who can give us permission.
Jesus Christ is our escort to God's Presence. We have no authority, no credit of our own.
Jesus told His disciples that one day He would have to leave them but He would send an advocate, a comforter in other words Jesus would send His Holy Spirit. While we were fearful to be left alone in the unauthorized zone, we did not need to fear as we had Captain AK's name and permission.
How sweet to have everyday spiritual lessons as we go about our everyday tasks. God is alive and well. He is teaching us great and wonderful things about His kindness to us. What a grace gift to be given permission to meet the young doctor! How wonderful to have an escort, advocate!
We are privileged to be here in Niger! We are enjoying our days keeping our eyes and ears wide open to see the goodness and kindness of our great God and Savior.
Saturday, January 18, 2020
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Word pictures-Sweeping the dirt
Disclaimer: Before photography people read books with words and no pictures except for perhaps an illustration or two that was hand drawn and painted. I am going to attempt to post a blog without pictures since my computer is not allowing me to post photos. I will post the pictures on FaceBook.
Hopefully, the descriptions will cause you to see in your mind's eye some of our experiences and spiritual lessons/illustrations.
Brown sand and terracotta colored dirt is everywhere. Most homes have dirt floors. Most roads are made of dirt. It is very dusty everywhere. There is trash everywhere on the ground including bits and pieces of plastic bottles, discarded candy wrappers, worn out and broken sandals and so on. What do people do with all this trash in front of their homes and shops? They sweep it away or at least attempt to.
Everyday we see men and women with a small bunch of twigs about 15 inches long sweeping the dirt. The trash is swept up and piled up to be burned or thrown in a ditch nearby. The sweeper makes the dirt as pretty as possible with circles or swirls. Do you know what? It is still dirt! There is nothing that can change the fact that there is dirt everywhere. Can you picture that in your mind?
There is a spiritual illustration here and you do not have to be a theologian to understand.
No amount of sweeping in our lives can make us clean. We can do our best to clean ourselves up. We can get rid of some of the trash which may be undesirable or irritating habits. We can make ourselves look as good as possible through outward observable activities like church attendance, generous giving, daily quiet-time and small group attendance. We can even do good works such as teaching Sunday School, feeding the homeless or going to Africa on mission journeys. All these good attempts to be 'clean' do not change the reality of the human original sin that has tainted us all. Sounds rather hopeless doesn't it? What hope is there of ever being clean and getting rid of the dirt in our lives?
The good news has been shared for many years in an old hymn-
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!
Yes the remedy for our 'dirt' our sin stained lives is the cleansing power of Jesus Christ. Truly God, Jesus Christ became human to be the perfect solution to humanity's greatest need of a relationship with God who is holy, pure and good.
You see at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly....But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:5,6,8
God made Him (Jesus Christ) who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:22-24
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith---and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God---not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:8-10
Hopefully, the descriptions will cause you to see in your mind's eye some of our experiences and spiritual lessons/illustrations.
Brown sand and terracotta colored dirt is everywhere. Most homes have dirt floors. Most roads are made of dirt. It is very dusty everywhere. There is trash everywhere on the ground including bits and pieces of plastic bottles, discarded candy wrappers, worn out and broken sandals and so on. What do people do with all this trash in front of their homes and shops? They sweep it away or at least attempt to.
Everyday we see men and women with a small bunch of twigs about 15 inches long sweeping the dirt. The trash is swept up and piled up to be burned or thrown in a ditch nearby. The sweeper makes the dirt as pretty as possible with circles or swirls. Do you know what? It is still dirt! There is nothing that can change the fact that there is dirt everywhere. Can you picture that in your mind?
There is a spiritual illustration here and you do not have to be a theologian to understand.
No amount of sweeping in our lives can make us clean. We can do our best to clean ourselves up. We can get rid of some of the trash which may be undesirable or irritating habits. We can make ourselves look as good as possible through outward observable activities like church attendance, generous giving, daily quiet-time and small group attendance. We can even do good works such as teaching Sunday School, feeding the homeless or going to Africa on mission journeys. All these good attempts to be 'clean' do not change the reality of the human original sin that has tainted us all. Sounds rather hopeless doesn't it? What hope is there of ever being clean and getting rid of the dirt in our lives?
The good news has been shared for many years in an old hymn-
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!
Yes the remedy for our 'dirt' our sin stained lives is the cleansing power of Jesus Christ. Truly God, Jesus Christ became human to be the perfect solution to humanity's greatest need of a relationship with God who is holy, pure and good.
You see at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly....But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:5,6,8
God made Him (Jesus Christ) who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:22-24
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith---and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God---not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:8-10
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)