Through His Poverty, We’ve Become Rich
MERRRRYYYY CHRISTMAS beloved brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Great Comforter, the Holy Spirit. What a wonderful time to rejoice in the hope and joy from the birth of our Savior!
I am so blessed and thankful for your partnership in the Gospel. Truly. Thank you loving me and supporting me through your prayers and gifts. I have felt and seen the love of God through you. As John said, “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:12).
I pray that you are able to draw near to God as He draws near to you. May He remind you of His rich promises. May you find inexpressible joy, a peace that goes beyond what the mind can fathom and a living hope in Christ. For He is faithful, and will never leave nor forsake you.
I apologize again for not being able to communicate much until now. I haven’t had a computer to type up a newsletter and have had limited wifi. Thank you for your patience and understanding! 😊
God has really blessed our time in here during outreach. Because of security reasons, I cannot share with you photos of the believers I’ve met and people we’ve served, but I will try my best to describe to you the rich joy I’ve had in serving the people here so far.
Poor, Yet Making Rich. Having Nothing, Yet Possessing Everything.
I have been so encouraged by the local believers I have met… they have such great joy and remind me of the churches from 2 Corinthians 8. We went to one church in the slum a couple times. Before coming here, I never really understood what slums were, except it being government housing where people didn’t have much. But out of their poverty, they have given much. They don’t have jobs in the traditional sense, and often do manual labor to make a living, like making bricks. There were locals who shared their prayer request for tuition money to be study in Discipleship Training School (DTS — what I’m doing now) and right after, people from the church covered all their costs! Now this wasn’t from the church’s budget, but from people’s personal pockets. Even though they didn’t have much, the believers gave what they could. Like the widow who offered to God two very small cooper coins, worth only a few cents, they gave out of their poverty, putting in everything. They put in money they could have used to feed their families, or buy new clothes or school supplies. They trusted God with their little. As a result, God has blessed them in their blessing of others.
The missionaries here truly live by faith. Often, they may be the first Christian in their family or community, so there aren’t many who support or understand what they are doing… the odds are stacked against them. Even when their pockets are empty, again and again God provides. Oh what faith! Oh what courage!
One of the believer’s stories really touched my heart… she decided to become a missionary around 16 or 17 years old. There was one time she only had enough money for a round-trip bus fare to church. She decided to walk THREE HOURS to church, offer up half of her money to church and spend the other half on her bus fare. And guess what! After the church, a brother in the church she didn’t even know handed her an envelope with money 70 times what she gave for offering. Oh how God provides!
Through stories like this, I think about the great sacrifice Christ made for us. Christ had the best position in being God, but still, He humbled Himself in becoming a man for our sake. Because He loved us so much, He was willing to be born in a stable, from a carpenter’s family, in the most humble of places and backgrounds. He gave up His place in Heaven for us.
This is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That though He was rich, yet for our sake He became poor, so that through his poverty, we might become rich. // 2 Corinthians 8:9
Pure Religion Is This.
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27)
I haven’t seen a group of people so dedicated to living out this truth. First, what I love is that every time believers greet each other, they say, “The victory is Jesus’”! This contrasts from what locals typically greet each other with. What a wonderful thing it is to remind each other of where we stand because of Jesus! No matter what trouble, burden or challenge we face in this world, we need not fear, because Christ is already victorious! He has overcome the grave! “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:55–56).
I also love how the believers here are so intentional in investing and loving on the orphans and widows here. It has been such a blessing and honor to serve alongside the believers here in sharing the Gospel through Christmas programs with children and widows from the slums. Even though the children in the slums are not technically orphans, many of their parents don’t take care of them and are often drunk. In fact, when the church members first started investing in the community, they had to bathe the children themselves, because their parents didn’t bathe them. Since many of the children don’t go to school, church members go there twice a which to teach them secular studies and the Bible. Recently, we had the blessed opportunity to spend time with such precious children of God through playing games, performing skits, singing, dancing and eating together. What a joy it was to spend time with God’s beloved people!
We also had the opportunity to speak and pray with adults from the slums. It was a pleasure to listen to the life stories of these people. There was this one man we talked to who had such an eagerness to learn what it means to be a follower of Christ. In the end, we were able to lead him in the salvation prayer. We also prayed for the widows individually for health, protection and finances. What a blessing it was to pray for them! And to see the light and gratitude in their eyes afterward!
My dear brothers and sisters, this letter only shows a snippet of how God has worked in my life as well as the lives of the people here.
Prayer Requests:
1. Please continue to pray that our team stands firm in the armor of God and walk in the Spirit (Ephesians 6:10–20, Galatians 5:16–26).
2. I believe God called me to law school and allowed me to pass the bar for a reason (another testimony of the sufficiency of God’s grace in weakness…a story for another time). However, I earnestly desire to dedicate more time to reading the Bible from cover to cover and understand God’s Word more deeply, but there are some real challenges that make it difficult. Please pray that God continue to guide me step by step in wisdom, truth and clarity about my future.
Thank you again for your partnership in the Gospel. May God bless, guide and protect you now, forever and always. For He is the Good Shepherd and never forgets nor leaves His sheep.
In His Grace and Peace,
Rachel
