Wednesday 02 Oct
Ryan and Suzie share an encouraging story from South Asia.
“The first three months of our time here were spent in the north of the country where we focused on culture and language learning.
We were hosted at our organisation’s training centre.
Aside from the daily language learning, we had the privilege of joining the local staff each day for their morning devotions. These times were particularly encouraging.
One morning our reading was Romans chapter 8. Just as we started reading the chapter around the room, I received a phone call. It was my son, Jesse, so I excused myself, left the room and answered his call. As it turned out, he just needed some help talking through how to work the vacuum cleaner! Anyway, I sorted him out and returned to the room, just as the reading was finishing.
In the discussion that followed, I noticed one of the staff looking a little emotional. He looked up and said, ‘Verse 16 is important to me.’ They were reading in the local language, but in English, this verse says,
‘The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.’
I asked him why this verse was important to him. He replied in his broken English, ‘Well it’s like... we’re VIPs! Like when your son phoned you before. You answered and went out immediately because he is your son - he’s important to you. We are like that with God! We’re His children!’
It was one of those moments when you could feel the Spirit’s presence, doing just what this verse tells us - testifying with our spirits that we are God’s children!”
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