Gettin' ready to go...

I was having my time alone with the Lord this morning in a garden spot on the campus of Dallas Christian College where we are training our students to serve overseas. I was sitting at a table.

After I had been there awhile, I was approached by a young chinese woman named Yu Xen. I met her briefly my first day here, as she works on the campus. She timidly came to my table and sat down. It was evident she wanted to talk.

I had no idea how much impact our conversation would have on me.

She moved here 10 months ago to go to school at DCC, as a missionary in her home country had graduated from there. She wanted to go to a Bible School in the USA, where she believed she would encounter many believers.

To her suprise, after 10 months, she has no close friends. She heard missionaries were coming to the campus to train teams, and was desperate for fellowship. So desperate, that she would ignore any social customs from her own country and approach me.

She is a precious believer who understands what it means to deny herself, take up her cross and follow Christ. She comes out of the underground church in China. She expected the "land of the free and the home of the brave" to be filled with many believers who loved and worshipped God from a similar position of desperation.

To her surprise, the churches she has attended have not been anything like she expected. There's been a lack of depth, and little fellowship that was meaningful.
She grew up with an understanding of Salvation and of a relationship with Christ that was the most important thing in her life. Many of her countrymen have suffered immensely at the hand of their government for their belief.

She was just sure that here, where worship could happen freely, she would encounter many who were seeking the Lord as hard as she was.

I cannot speak to what churches she has visited, or what lengths she has gone to to try to establish relationships, but my heart breaks for her! She joined us for some of our sessions of worship and teaching.

There are many wonderful churches in the Dallas area, without a doubt! But what does it say about the state of Christianity in our country that a sister from a persecuted church from Asia, would struggle to find even a friend, let alone a body who seeks after the Lord the way her heart burns for Him.

We have much to learn about our relationship with Christ.

I wanted so much to just embrace her and apologize for the shallowness of Christians in my country. She sees the lack of surrender in our eyes, and knows it has been replaced largely by the want for things, and a hard pursuit of the same.

Believers who have suffered and lost loved ones for believing, have a depth of trust in Christ that most of us cannot relate to. It widens the culture gap between the USA and most closed countries.

Watching Yu Xen worship, blessed me beyond belief.

We must surrender our all, the entirety of who we are and what we possess to seek and serve our Savior. Too many of us have too tight a grip on the world to even realize that what we are doing is defaming the Glory of God!

He is worth our total surrender.

When are we really gonna finally do it?

dad