Campus Target

Did you ever look at a front-loading clothes washer and wonder, “What would happen if the lock on that door failed as it was full of water?” Well, I don’t wonder anymore.

This funny thing happens around here when a foreigner is invited to an event – he usually gets overwhelmed by local people. Take this Halloween party we were invited to a week ago. It was crazy. There were at least 120 students to us 8 foreigners.

This is an exciting time for our city in Asia, because construction is happening non-stop. All around us, buildings are being torn down and glistening new skyscrapers are being built in their place. Just a little while ago, my new team and I headed out to one of the brand new campuses to do a “walk-and-talk,” a time to pray for the school. The campus is beautiful – actually, it’s the nicest I’ve ever seen anywhere, including in America! Everything is new and clean, with modern, graceful, and visually striking architecture and wide open spaces dominating the campus. I was wowed, until Indy, one of my new teammates for this year, called out to me from one of the beautiful new buildings.

“Hey, Ben,” he said. “All of this brick is fake – it’s all just a thin slice of brick, plastered on the side of the building.”

“Ben, I have a prophetic word for you. You’ll probably want to sit down.” Those were the words of Sonny, one of the other leaders in CT, last August as we prepared to come to Asia. I nervously took my seat. “The Lord wants to say to you that you think you know what you’re good at doing, but you don’t really know. This year will open your eyes to what you’re truly gifted for, so be alert to what He will be teaching you.”

“Ding dong,” my tiny electric doorbell rang. Chuck came shuffling into my apartment with a look of concern and despair on his face. I’ve never seen him so worked up, so you can imagine my surprise when in the first two minutes he said “I think I need to follow Jesus to help me in my spiritual life.” Ehh, wasn’t this the guy who we didn’t have one spiritual conversation with during our whole two-day visit just last week?

This quick trip to our friend’s house was not all that special because of me being particularly spiritual or “on” (I wasn’t, after nearly four weeks of continuous travel and crazy schedules in my life), or because of our amazing conversations about the Lord (we barely had any), but rather because we got to spend time with one of our key friends, staying in his house, sharing meals with his family, and showing him with our actions that we care about him.

We have this friend, Tom, and he’s been in contact with CT people for the last year. He came to Bible studies, and even talked to God sometimes, but was never really able to commit to following Him with his whole life. He seemed so close, yet not quite there, for what felt like forever.

The best part of the evening was the natural transition these decorations gave me to talk about the real meaning of Christmas. It seems incredible at times, but most of our friends have no idea that this season is about Jesus coming to save people, and it was a special privilege for me to get to share about the love that our Father has for us that compelled Him send His Son to earth.

“I am thankful that God has helped me to be friends with you,” said one of our new friends at their first Thanksgiving dinner. “It is truly a miracle how he brought us together.”

As we hop on the bus to take us across town, Leonidus sits down and says that his stomach is bothering him after dinner. Immediately, I feel like the Lord wants me to pray for him, out loud, in front of our friend Ed. Now, you have to understand, Ed is a very educated guy. He’s hung out with a lot of western people, has been to church, and decided it’s not for him. So I’m a little nervous to pray for a healing right in front of him.