Sharing in His Sufferings

Mariluz making chicha in her home

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

Leah had a Skype call with her church that I had the opportunity to listen in on, and it was a wonderful encouragement for the both of us. Many members of the church read passages of Scripture to encourage us to persevere to the end, and it was such a blessing to hear! We've been under what we think is a spiritual attack, and the call was so timely. Our Lord is so good!

Prayer Necessities:

1. Please pray for Leah and me as we return to Salvatierra for 10 days. We are teaching stories from the book of Acts, and we truly desire for this new church to really grasp what it means to be the church. Pray that they will understand how to be under the headship of Christ, how to truly be brothers and sisters to one another, and how to love one another.

2. Pray for Leah, my parents, and me as we seek the Lord together regarding clarity in His vision for my future. Ask that we would all be in agreement in what He says and that He would grant His wisdom to each of us in hearing from Him.

3. Be in prayer for the people of Taramarca and Ayuma. Though we are no longer working in those villages, we do miss and love those precious brothers and sisters in Christ. Please pray that God continues to work among them and that, when they hear His voice, they would not harden their hearts but would obey.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know:

Each of our trips to Salvatierra has brought different challenges. Our first trip, a two-day affair with our bosses for the purposes of getting acquainted, brought the adjustments of meeting new people and hearing a new language (my third new language in three years on the mission field). The second trip, just over a week long, gave us heat and endless requests. In the afternoon, it was so hot and with so little air movement in our jungle house that it was almost hard to breathe. And the villagers asked us for everything from money and food to daily rides into town in our truck (whether or not we had intended to go to town). The third trip was supposed to be just over two weeks long but was cut short by illness and, because we left our truck in another town to avoid crossing a river swollen by rains, we got to experience - three times, no less - a ten-mile hike in jungle conditions, once with a backpack full of gear.

Finally, on this latest two-week trip, we got to experience a plague of mosquitoes and trying to find dry places to sleep in a house with a leaky roof. Let me just tell you one thing: These mosquitoes did not play. They are carriers of dengue fever and other dreaded tropical diseases and, despite lathering myself in insect repellent and wearing a long-sleeved denim shirt, they often still managed to bite me through my clothes!

After we returned to Santa Cruz for a period of rest after the trip, I developed a rash and then a fever. My doctor diagnosed me with a mosquito-borne virus that took about a week to fully resolve. And somewhere between sitting in a cloud of mosquitoes and trying to sleep through a 102-degree fever, I started thinking about suffering. Prior to coming to the mission field, I had rarely experienced physical suffering. Sure, there was the occasional illness or injury, but I never before had to walk ten miles in 95-degree weather to buy food or bathe in a pesticide to avoid nasty little insects or experience the joys of tropical illness. Life in the South American jungle takes physical suffering to a level that I had never experienced.

And that reminded me of what the apostle Paul said about suffering:

"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead" (Phil. 3:10-11).

Let me repeat that: "I want to know... the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings."

Now Paul didn't say that lightly. That was a guy who definitely knew something about suffering. In the book of 2 Corinthians, he gives a list of what he went through:

"Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches" (2 Cor. 11:24-28).

Yet he still wanted to know the fellowship of sharing in Jesus' sufferings. But why? Was he masochistic? Why on earth would he want suffering?

Because, through those sufferings, he would become like Jesus and, somehow, attain to His resurrection.

Here's the way I read it: Those sufferings eventually destroy the fleshly part of us, that oh-so-stubborn part that wants to do only what I want and not what He wants, and allow me to be transformed and resurrected into the new (wo)man that I really am.

Sufferings come in many forms: Physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. They can seem small or enormous. They can come directly to us or vicariously through something that happens to a loved one. But they all serve the same purpose: To make us like Christ.

A sister in Christ recently shared this passage of Scripture with Leah and me:

"And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I entrusted to him for that day" (2 Tim. 1:11-12).

And when that dear sister shared that with us, it occurred to me that I can echo those words with Paul. I have been appointed as a herald, an apostle (one who is sent), and a teacher of the gospel, and that is why I have these particular sufferings. Yet I am not ashamed, and I know that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him.

These sufferings, however mild, are not in vain.

And, wow, there is no better cause of suffering than being sent as a herald, apostle, and teacher of His Gospel.

That's how I can buy into what Paul says in Phil. 1:29:

"For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him."

It has been granted to me to suffer for Him. People are granted wishes or scholarships or independence. Things that are granted are never bad things, only good ones. They're gifts, not punishments.

I hope I can remember that when I face the mosquito swarms again in the coming weeks.

Three adorable local girls in Salvatierra