Dana's Christian Journey

William sat in the chemo chair next to mine last week. He has a few final rounds of chemotherapy before being released from treatment. I overheard a distinct accent as he talked to his nurse, so after she left I asked where he was from. A big smile lit up his dark face and he replied: “I am from the island of St. Thomas!”

William shared that he received a cancer diagnosis in May and considered it a great blessing to travel to Atlanta for treatment and surgery. Because of the heavy accent, I had a hard time understanding my new friend, but there was no doubt he wanted me to know God’s part in his story.

He told me about the chemotherapy he endured before the surgery. Then he told me of the miracle of recovery after his surgery. He shared with great enthusiasm that the day after surgery, he walked twelve laps around the nurses’ station which equaled one half mile. “Nurses told me that after a surgery like mine no one had ever walked that distance before! I told them it was God who gave me strength… and He did! The next day I walked 24 laps!”

I smiled as he told me story after story of God’s provision and protection. He said his entire church has been praying for him on the island of St. Thomas and he has encouraged them all with his positive reports. William next told me a story dealing with an answered prayer in his work. He is an electrician and evidently God had helped him perform a very difficult task. His workmate could not believe it. William proclaimed, “God enabled me! Don’t you see?”

I was not feeling great last week, but this man lifted my spirits and encouraged me. I was reminded of what happens when a child of God lets the Father, Son, or Spirit be the center of a story. As William constantly thanked and praised God in regular conversation, our Heavenly Father was honored.

If I had not been a believer, I think I might have thought William a bit strange. But I would have listened and would not have tried to discount what his God had done for him. Maybe his testimony would not have led me to become a Christian, but I would have been forced to think. I would have also celebrated with a man who was regaining his much wanted health.

Being a believer, I simply joined William in praising God. Here was a foreigner in a hospital far from his home, but God is with Him. While my story may be quite different from William’s, I also know the peace of the Good Shepherd’s presence in dark valleys. William’s immense joy reminded me that “we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.”

“One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked Him – and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, ‘Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then He said to him, ‘Rise and go; your faith has made you well.’” Lk 17:15-19

Living in Texas now, my brother Brian regularly visits several churches and mission points in different African nations. He and his wife Sondra were missionaries in Africa for almost twenty years. Recently, he told me of his summer visit to Zimbabwe with the goal of restoring unity among Christians divided by societal uproar.

Robert Mugabe has been in power in Zimbabwe since the 1980’s. In a nation once known as the ‘breadbasket of Africa,’ the policies of government have brought runaway inflation, shortages of food, and intense racial strife.

Brian said the first goal of his trip was to get several groups to try to work out differences that would allow the Body of Christ to be God’s intended light in the community. Three groups were local: the whites who had lost power and property, the majority tribe of the land called the Shona, and the minority tribe called the Notebele. The last group consisted of four tall visiting Christians from the Dinka tribe of South Sudan (7’7” ex-NBA star Manute Bol was from the Dinka tribe). South Sudan is presently going through unimaginable national struggles. Thrust into a close-quartered environment, all these Christians soon found it was much easier to talk about reconciliation than it was to live it out.

The conference was held on a piece of property managed by one of the dispossessed white farmers of the area and used by the outdoor-education organization called Outward Bound. In a large meeting room, someone suggested each of the four groups stand and sing a hymn in their own language. All agreed and things went fairly well as the three larger groups stood and sang. But at the end, when the four Dinka guests stood to sing, a terrible thing happened. Having a different sound and style of singing, all the Christians from Zimbabwe pointed and laughed and ridiculed the tall foreigners. Brian said it was such a disastrous moment that he was afraid there would be no recovery, but from the back of the room the property manager made an announcement: “Tomorrow we go on a hike that I will lead. Be ready to leave bright and early!”

Brian told me that if anyone had known what lay in store, no one would have shown up the next morning. The property manager had observed incredible things happen as drug addicts and alcoholics participated in team-building exercises as a part of recovery. He believed a six-hour trek up a rugged mountain was what the Christians needed to counter the immaturity he observed the night before. He did not know that the most valuable members of the adventure would be the four tall Sudanese who had been ridiculed for their singing.

Brian said these men were built for the hike. While everyone else struggled to climb, the Dinkas easily scaled cliffs and managed seemingly impossible paths. Not only did they succeed but they helped everyone else. Brian shared that on several occasions the Dinkas would climb to a high point then reach down and pull the others up one by one. “We would not have made it to the top without them,” Brian said.

“What did you do when you reached the summit?” I asked. “Well, it took a long time for us all to catch our breath, but when we did, someone suggested we sing a common praise to our Heavenly Father… and we did. It was a beautiful moment.”

“So was the conference a success?” I asked. Brian replied, “You can’t fix years of chaos in one weekend, but we started. Reconciliation is a process, and though there is a long way to go, we made progress. Thank God for the Dinkas.”

“I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.” I Corinthians 1:10