Putting It In Perspective - Part I

We would like to take the next few posts to express our personal thoughts on what God has done for us, or spoke to us, since arriving here in Vanuatu. We would also like to share with you a little of the burden we share for the Ni Vanuatu people.

When I was a child growing up in my Grandpa's church, I can remember him singing "He Abides" almost every Sunday. Even as a child, I pondered the fact that Jesus, the Savior of the world, took the time to "abide" with me. As I grew older and attended Ozark Bible Institute, I can remember feeling the same awesome presence "abiding" with me still. Away from the church of my youth, in a place that did not worship the same as I was accustomed to, a place that had new faces and new preachers, and yet His presence still "abode" ever so strongly in my life.

It was this morning in church that I felt God spoke to my heart. Here I am, 25 years of age, on the other wide of the world, in an unknown place where few would dare to go, and His presence still "abides" in my heart! I began to see the pattern of Christ, a continual faithfulness that began when I was a child. He has promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us, and there has never been a time or place since my salvation that He did not "abide!"

As I looked around at the tear-streaked black faces, and the calloused, hardworking hands lifted high, I realized "He Abides" with these people also! I listened as they prayed in Bislama, thanking God for sending the missionary, and I realized that way back in my Grandpa's church, God saw a people in need, and God saw the heart of a little girl who welcomed Him to "abide."

When I thought of where God has brought these people from, the tears began to flow. Some of their ancestors were cannibals, and surely were considered "the least among these." What if no one had come? What if that first missionary to Vanuatu had not allowed God to "abide"? Where would these people be?

It was then that the Spirit spoke to me and said, "If it had not been for those who God placed in your life, where would you be?" You see, we are really the same. Different faces. Different cultures - but we serve the same God. We were both in need of a Savior to "abide" with us and in us, to teach us to live right and walk in His likeness.

Someday, we will all "abide" together in His presence throughout eternity.

Thank God "He Abides!"

Jennifer