Forgiveness

(I won’t have my computer or Internet for a few days as we help out with our annual MK Camp about an hour from here at around 9,000 feet. 

A couple weeks ago, I shared a testimony of Steve Saint in Timbuktu, and I want to share a couple of posts relating to him and those families that gave their husbands and dads in the Ecuadoran jungle back in 1956.  I’ll schedule another one or two for this week if I can. 

This evening a co-worker and I watched “Beyond the Gates of Splendor” which is one of the most powerful documentaries on any topic that I’ve ever seen.  I guess having a heart for missions gives me a bit of a bias for it.  Their story led to thousands of young people to give their lives to the Lord as missionaries in the years that followed.  It still is a powerful story that encourages us to remember that to have purpose in this world, we must follow Christ.  There is no other way to have a meaningful purpose that touches eternity.  Giving one’s life as Christ’s servant, whether for decades in faithful ministry or through sacrificing one’s life in a moment while taking the Gospel to a hostile people, it’s all for God’s glory and it is really all that matters in this world.)

Steve Saint shares the testimony of forgiving his father’s killer, Mincaye, who in turn taught Steve as a child living with this newly reached tribe how to hunt and the very abilities to kill that Steve could have used to exact revenge.  Yes, Mincaye, a new believer in Christ believed that he must take that risk in teaching Steve as an act of future forgiveness should Steve grow up and turn from Christ’s path of forgiveness and take revenge for his father’s murder.

The “Auca 5” not only sacrificed their lives for this small tribe of indigenous people, but the effects of their testimonies and that of their children and widows will echo throughout eternity.  Thousands of American believers committed their lives to Christ as missionaries as a direct result of the testimony of their sacrifice.

Isn’t it amazing how God uses our frail attempts to serve Him and even through them, shows Himself awesome and powerful?

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