The first day we are friends, the second day we are brothers.
Afghan Oral Tradition
This proverb comes from Afghanistan. I came upon it years ago in a book by Dr. Christy Wilson, and I’ve never forgotten it. It resonates with my own experiences with Central Asians, who have often stunned me with their sacrificial hospitality and friendship.
My family does not live in Afghanistan. But tonight, as the capital, Kabul, falls to the Taliban, we are grieving for what this will mean for the local believers there – indeed what is has already meant for them and for many faithful gospel workers who have invested so much in that land.
Regimes will fall. Evil may temporarily win. But true gospel friendship – and the friendship of Christ himself – will outlast all of it. And every ounce of suffering for Christ will count, will be remembered, and will result in an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
On the other hand, every action taken by the Taliban against an Afghan believer is an action taken against a friend of God, a brother or sister of the Messiah himself. He sees it all. And sooner or later, his justice is coming.
‘Our brothers from Parthia do not marry two wives; Jewish Christians are not circumcised, our sisters from Gilan and Kushan do not associate with foreigners; those from Persia do not marry their daughters; those from Media do not abandon their dead, nor do they give them to the dogs to eat, nor do they bury the dying while still alive, Christians from Edessa do not kill their wives or sisters who commit adultery, and those from Hatra do not stone thieves.’ This quote from Bardaisan’s ‘Book of the Laws of the Lands’ from the early third century is not merely instructive on account of the descriptions of the morals of the Asian peoples mentioned but also provides valuable evidence of how far Christianity had spread to the east by the end of the Parthian dynasty (224/226 CE). Parthia should be understood here as Mesopotamia, and Persia and Media as Iran. Gilan lies to the south of the Caspian Sea, the most westerly part of the great Kushan empire was Transoxania, and Hatra lies south of Mosul. At the start of the third century, Christian cells existed in all of these regions.
Baumer, The Church of the East, p. 19
What a difference the gospel made in these ancient cultures!
Ever wondered what a typical day looks like for missionaries like us serving in places like Central Asia? I can’t exactly say what a “normal” day is, since life here tends to be pretty fluid and not super structured, both due to the culture and the nature of our role. But as I thought through this particular day which is now wrapping up, I realized many of its parts give a window into key themes and challenges of this season of ministry. So, here it is. A day in the life of this particular cross-cultural church planter.
Today I slept past my alarm.
Drank coffee and read 30 minutes in a book about power and abuse in the Church.
Tried to counsel my seven-year-old through a bad attitude about her homeschool work.
Messed for a while with the internet only to realize the government had shut if off again to prevent cheating during university exams. Mobile data as well.
Listened to an audiobook while I got ready in order to keep preparing for the fall semester at the NGO where I teach part-time as my platform work.
Went for an hour prayer walk in the bazaar and stayed in the shade as much as possible.
Stopped for a cold blended melon drink on my way back to catch up on some texts. Updated colleagues on crisis counseling happening among local believing friends.
Went to the vet for tick medicine, and then back at home removed about 40 ticks off my poor dog. Drowned them in apple cider vinegar. Ordered a flea and tick collar from the US so that I never have to do that again.
Lunch with the family on the floor together, local style.
Talked with a student about a picnic house which he saw for rent. We are trying to find better local options for rest and sabbath.
Set up a friend who came to finish an overdue house project.
Led an update call with several coworkers in other cities.
Wrote out an English outline of the message this Friday and began the local language manuscript.
Made plans to go to a believing friend’s picnic house tomorrow night so my wife can connect with some of his unbelieving female coworkers who are also coming.
Dinner on the floor with the family.
Attended an engagement party for a believing attendee of our church plant who went against counsel and got engaged to an unbeliever. There was the normal line dancing but also a traditional dance involving a large knife.
Got my sleepy and sugar-crashing family back home, watered the garden trees, and threw away a pigeon carcass. Made plans for checking the local language sermon manuscript, sometime tomorrow.
Getting to bed probably around 1 a.m.
There it is. One random day in my life here. Overall not too abnormal, other than the tick apocalypse (grimacing even now as I recall it). During my prayer walk I was meditating on the end of the book of Jude, particularly verse 21, “keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”
I look back on a normal day like this one and am honestly a bit daunted by the trials and dubious of my ability to keep myself in the love of God. Keep myself? But that next line gives me courage. I am called to do this by waiting on Jesus’ mercy. Ok. Waiting. I think I can do that. I might not always have the faith to laugh at the future when there are some really hard things going on in the present. But I do have faith that He can help me wait. I trust that he will, one day at a time.
The donkey’s load is rifles, yet still he is eaten by wolves.
Local Oral Tradition
“Your wife is an amazing cook. That soup was fantastic!” my friend exclaimed.
“It’s because there was bacon in it,” I said.
“No, it wasn’t just the bacon. The donkey’s load is rifles, yet still he is eaten by wolves. Yes, she had bacon, but she also knows howto cook.”
This conversation took place yesterday after a late lunch. Some volunteers had recently brought us the culinary holy grail of meals in Central Asia – precooked bacon from the West. We had served it up to a local friend of ours who appreciates this food now made clean by Jesus. Intrigued, I went on to get some further clarification on this new (for me anyway) local proverb.
The saying gets at the importance of know-how. Even though the donkey has the tools needed to fight off the wolves – a load of rifles – he still dies because he cannot use them. In other words, tools are useless without the necessary equipping, the necessary know-how. On the positive side, as my friend used it, it’s not only the presence of good tools or ingredients that should get the credit, but also the one who wields them with skill. The right tools and the right experience – that’s the goal.
By this means wolves can be killed. Or a mean bacon stew can be served.
In truth these are two songs, transitioning at the 1:30 mark. Both are exploring the theme in Hebrews of Jesus being our great high priest. It’s a fun pairing of theology, typology, and some creative banter. Some select lines:
I see your point, but you gotta see mine,
These men were appointed by God's design.
Designed to die?
No, designed to sympathize
With the lives of the Israelites.
I think you might be losing your mind there, Thom!
Sympathy's not going to save.
I know, but listen to what I'm saying, Kelsie!
These guys are like shadows and types.
Yeah, ineffectual types.
Your guitar's an ineffectual type.
But what we can agree on is this,
Jesus he is better, he is infinitely better,
Blameless, spotless, sinless, righteous,
Able to fight this sinful-itis.
Able to right these wrongs that plague us,
Able to sympathize with our weakness,
Cause he has taken on flesh to save us.
We are teaching through the book of John at our small local church plant. This past week we were looking at chapter 8:31-38, a section often summarized as “The Truth Will Set You Free.” A couple of the local believing men came by earlier in the week to study through the passage with me and we spent an hour or so asking interpretive questions of the text and making observations. What a help it is as a teacher to meet with other men with their own eyes and their own insights into the text.
One of the final questions I like to ask in these study sessions is, “What connections does this passage have to your culture? Any proverbs, customs, or history that can serve to illustrate the truth that we see here?” This time around we couldn’t think of much that connected with the major themes of freedom, slavery, and truth. I decided to shelve the question and try to come back to it when I was crafting the sermon later. I was writing out my local language manuscript the next day when it came to me – sheikhood might work.
The local concept of sheikhood could serve as a negative illustration of true faith held out in this passage of John. In this passage, Jesus has proclaimed that true disciples are those who abide in his word, who know the truth, and who are set free by the truth (v. 31-32). In protest, the Jewish audience balks, responding that they are free, that they have never been slaves of anyone, because they are children of Abraham (v. 33). Jesus goes on to spell out their slavery to sin and their need to be set free from the temporary and dangerous situation of the slave, and into the eternal freedom of the son and his house (v. 34-36).
One of the main points of the sermon was that only the truth of Jesus can set us free – our physical lineage cannot. This is where sheikhood comes in. Locals believe that an Islamic holy man, a sheikh, passes on his title, his prestige, and to some extent his holiness automatically to his biological male descendants. This is regardless of the actual character or life of said male descendant. He might not pray, he might be a drinker, or he might even be an atheist, and many would still call him “Dear Sheikh So-And-So.” Locals freely acknowledge this, and see the inconsistency in it, but it continues to happen nonetheless. We even had a fun surprise during all this, discovering that one of our own believing members, *Darius, is technically a sheikh in this regard (Given the fun-loving nature of our church plant, we are sure to have a good time teasing Darius with this newfound knowledge).
My point in bringing up sheikhood was to compare it with the Jews’ misplaced faith in their physical descent from Abraham and to contrast it to the true faith that is experienced by the individual who is set free by the truth of Jesus alone. True faith is not like sheikhood. It is not passed automatically from father to son, merely downloaded through physical descent. This view of faith-by-blood is a real danger in this part of the world, one which can destroy gospel clarity in as little as one generation. Local believers begin with the assumption that their physical children are automatically born with the same faith as their father. However, instead of this we should not trust in our parents, our people, our supposed descent from holy men, or anything else. We should trust in Christ alone and continue abiding in his word.
It resonated. The believers knew what I was talking about when I made the connection in the sermon, and they seemed to grasp the contrast presented by the illustration from their own world.
Later on, a few of us were at lunch together, enjoying some good rice, lamb, soups, and flatbread. Our summer volunteer turned to Mr *Talent and asked him what he had learned from the sermon that day. Mr. Talent swallowed his mouthful of flatbread and rice, and furrowed his brow.
“Well, the point about sheikhood was a powerful one for me.”
I nodded, thinking I knew where he was going. Instead, he took it in a different direction.
“Just as sheikhood is given from father to son without the son doing anything, so God the father gives us the eternal freedom of Jesus apart from our good works, and we thus also become sons of God.”
I smiled to myself. How many times had I heard other teachers and preachers recount how some the most powerful takeaways from their messages were not actually connections they had made at all? And yet it was not an improper connection to make. The eternal freedom of the Son is indeed given to us freely, not entirely unlike how the honor of a practicing sheikh is given (imputed) also to his irreligious son. How interesting that Mr. Talent put the pieces together in this way.
So in the end, it seems that we could say that sheikhoodis and sheikhoodis not like true faith. We are not saved by being part of anyone’s physical line. But we are saved by being part of a certain spiritual line, that of Christ. And in this line we become so much more than mere sheikhs, with their false genetic titles and holiness. We become free indeed, eternal residents of the house of God himself.
“So we’re the first Christians that you have met in person?”
“That’s right,” our new friend replied.
“And how long has it been since you believed in Jesus?” I asked.
“Since January… I had been studying the Bible and listening to theology and apologetics for six hours every day. Before that I had been searching for the truth for years. My family is Muslim, but I became an atheist, then a Buddhist. But none of them had answers for suffering, nor for my desire to be loved by God.”
We sipped our coffees and chai in the mall food court and marveled at what this young man was telling us in his near-fluent English. He continued.
“But now I know it’s not a weakness to desire to be loved by God, as all my friends say it is. It is the Holy Spirit who was working in me.”
“You know,” we told him, “there are several small churches of believers in this city from your people group. We’re so glad you were able to find us.”
“I thought I was alone,” he said shaking his head. “I would really like to meet other believers like me, from a Muslim background. If I don’t come to your meeting tomorrow, I will definitely be there next week.”
I recalled my recent desperate prayer. Please show us that you are indeed working here. It feels like strife and failure everywhere we turn.Where is the power of the truth?
Then all of the sudden, today I am introduced to a new believer brought to faith completely in isolation, through the witness of YouTube apologetics channels and a few good books like Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. None of us were involved whatsoever. And yet now we get to introduce him to the body and bride of Christ, the local church.
Yes, I know in my head that the Spirit must be working here in countless ways we cannot see. But oh what it does for the heart when this secret work is revealed. He really is here. He really is on the move. It really isn’t dependent on us.
It really isn’t dependent on us. What a truth to rest in.
And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. John 10:16
We recently had a mini team retreat where we looked into the spiritual gifting and personality wiring of the different members on our team. At one point, one of my teammates quoted me as once telling him, “You have the strengths you do for a good reason. Sooner or later, they will save the day. We need your gifts, honestly, so that we won’t die!”
While we had a good laugh together about this particular melodramatic wording, I honestly stand by these words. Not only do I recognize the goodness of the diverse natural and spiritual gifts on my team, I need them. Even if we weren’t engaged in church planting somewhere like Central Asia. My belief in the sovereignty of God is such that I know that he has brought these particular teammates, for this particular season, because their gifts and strengths will be the key to making it through tricky and terrible situations. When I will not know how to thread the needle, when I simply won’t know what to do or what to say – somehow, one of them will. And it will make all the difference.
Consider this quote by Corrie Ten Boom: “This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.”
I don’t think this is only true for experience and persons in our lives, but also for the natural personalities that God has given us as well as the supernatural gifts he has bestowed.
This is nothing other than a practical outworking of the sovereignty of God and theology of spiritual gifts. This is “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” meets “all things work together for good” (1 Cor 12:7, Rom 8:28).
Persecution is coming. Wolves in sheep’s clothing are coming. Suffering, awakening, complexity, breakthrough. How can I wish that you be just like me when I know that our differences are divinely ordained in order that we might face these challenges faithfully?
No, if everyone on my team was wired just like me, we would all die prematurely – metaphorically, and perhaps even literally.
This is true in general, but also true of my specific wiring. I have been created an ideas/vision guy. My brain gets flooded with hundreds of possible futures for the work here, most of which we can never pursue, and some that should never pursue. The problem is, in the beginning all of these ideas make a stunning and powerful rush on my brain, as if dazzlingly bright and accompanied by the Hallelujah chorus and rows of Central Asian picnic line dancers. And yet, they often turn out to be duds, or at least to be decent ideas that have not yet found their proper time. (Idea people out there, please find a place to store your ideas so that you can manage this issue, for everyone’s sake. I use the app, Trello. Time to marinate is key here.)
Should we quietly develop a legal network of friendly lawyers and judges in anticipation of coming persecution? Yes. Good idea, but premature timing. We don’t have the capacity or know-how yet for this. Should we start an illegal pork-smuggling operation in order to support local believers who have lost their jobs? Um… better take that one back to the drawing board.
My team (and my spouse) are my invaluable friends who help me know how to wisely move forward, in all kinds of situations, because Christ has ascended and has given them gifts (Eph 4:8).
Whatever our cooperative situation with other believers – be it church membership, ministry, the workplace, the family – let’s strive to more often view others through the lenses of sovereign gifts that might at some point save the day.
This is a proverb for those who have “been there, done that, got the T-shirt,” although in reference mainly to difficult things. For example, are you volunteering in the church toddler class after successfully surviving the raising of your own offspring? Yet others are bidding you beware? This proverb might come in handy. Gird up your loins, grab the diapers, the storybook Bible, and the animal crackers. The wet is not afraid of the rain.
Entrusted to the Dirt 