Quiet Relations and Transformations

It's a gift to be close enough to learn and share with each other.

Recently I had the privilege of being helpful in a pretty special relationship. The president of our partner church has been cultivating a relationship with a cleric in a neighboring town that he used to live in. This relationship started with them just openly discussing what is the right way to live and what Jesus teaches. Over several years this grew to a mutual respect and welcome for each other. One of the Bible school graduations I attended even featured this cleric giving a message of congratulations to those who had completed their studies to serve God. I also had the chance to visit this man with the president to greet him and pray with him as he sat with his disciples. Then a few weeks ago, the president told me he wanted to share an audio Bible with this cleric, because it would be easier for him to listen to on his own and wouldn’t raise any questions from people seeing a paper Bible at his place. When I brought an audio Bible player I happened to have in the right language, the president told me with excitement that this would be a great encouragement for the man, as he had shared that he believes in Jesus, but isn’t ready to declare that publicly. This is a pretty amazing situation because this cleric is second in rank in his town and is from a foreign sect that is known to be quite aggressive in recruiting and speaking against Christians in villages where there have been evangelism events. It will be exciting to see what possibilities for relationships and other transformations can take place from this one man coming to faith.

-- El Padre