I recently returned from another trip from the mountains. It was a hard trip, but also incredible. We had eight hour walking days, leeches, waterfalls and landslides. We climbed mountains, got lost in jungles, endured monsoon season and slept on dirt floors. There were also great times of worship, fellowship, breaking bread and training. While mostly the trip was incredible, there was one moment where I almost lost it on a pastor and his apathy.
The first day my supervisor, a national and myself started trekking about seven in the morning. We arrived at our destination around three in the afternoon. The day had been a long one, and it was one of the hardest days of trekking since I have been here. About two and a half hours in we climbed up around 800 meters. That was hard but the hardest part of the day was the brute of a hill we begrudgingly trudged up at the end of the day. I really don’t know how high it was, but it was probably a couple hundred meters less than the first. Needless to say at this point, but it was a challenging day.
Once arriving in the village we spent about thirty minutes to and hour walking from house to house trying to find believers. We finally located some and we were treated with the local hospitality that we have come to expect. They brought out some fresh plums for us to enjoy. These plums were by far the juiciest sweetest plums I have ever had the joy of eating. They made some salt tea and handed us a few glasses. While this is not even close to my favorite way to drink tea, it ain’t bad, and if you drink while it is still hot is goes down pretty smooth. After sitting around doing nothing for an hour or two we were shown to the church. The church was a small ten by ten room with a six-foot ceiling. The church also had the ability to second as a small child’s birthday party with the bright streamers that were used to decorate. We hung out in the church for a few minutes talking amongst ourselves until two pastors showed up. One was the pastor of the church we were in and the other was from about an hour and a half walk away. We introduced ourselves and then cut straight to the chase. We had walked all that way not only to find a people group, but also to see what the believers there were doing. We asked if they had baptized anyone or led anyone to faith. We asked them about how receptive people were in that area. This is when things got interesting.
The pastor from the neighboring village told us how there was a village close were people wanted to hear about Christ. We then asked him if he had gone to tell them. He said that he had not. We responded with the only possible next question. Why? Why in the world are people that want to hear about the Truth being left in the dark? What in the world are you doing? He then responded with a very typical answer that we all like to use in such a situation. “I am to busy.” Now, at this point I was a little frustrated with the guy, but I was willing to hear him out. I had another question lined up though. Why haven’t you sent someone from your church to share with them? The next response almost resulted in lighting thundering down from the very hand of God and striking us dead. He said that the reason no one from his church had went yet was because it is monsoon season and this time of year the leeches are very big. The leeches are too big!!! I wanted to give the guy another second. I knew that he had to misspeak. There is no way that a harmless creature is keeping people from hearing the Gospel. I admit I hate leeches. They latch onto your leg and when you pull them off you leg will bleed for a solid thirty minutes. Leeches though preventing people from hearing the Gospel is erroneous. You want to stand accountable before God and say that you did not go because of the leeches. I do not think so. I told this man of Paul and Stephen. I made our translator tell him that it was embarrassing and he should be ashamed. I had just walked for eight hours. I was tired, I was hungry, I was bleeding from the leeches I had just pulled off my leg. I was also heartbroken, but then I remembered myself. I remembered my sin. I remembered my laziness and I could not forget the apathy I have often been consumed with.
Leeches were not the main problem here, and instead of bashing this pastor should we not look inward first. In that moment sitting in the dim light reflecting on the dirt floor I began to reflect on my own sin. I have made excuse after excuse in my life. I have been defiant of the King. I have denied people the chance to hear truth. I have made excuses. We have made excuse, and you have made excuses. We do not cower down at leeches, but nonetheless we have them. We have our reason for not sharing. We hold back the breath of life, the never-ending fountain, the saving grace of the Sovereign Lord. We say we are to busy or that we or at work. We talk about the weather instead of The Christ. We go on vacation instead of to the harvest fields. We continually justify our apathy.
We are more concerned about the leeches than His eternal Glory! There is no excuse you can muster that will prove of any worth when standing before the Creator. The blood of many will stain our hands, we should do all we can to make it one less. We should do all we can to in pursuit of His Name!
