NN Aug 2020 Page 4

By Nestor Soriano … My family and I travelled to Indonesia in the spring of 2019. Katherine, my wife, was thrilled to go back to her native country. We flew to the popular island of Bali and enjoyed the beautiful beaches and delicious food. We also flew to Singapore to enjoy the sights and sounds of the bustling country. After a few days, we returned to Indonesia and spent the remainder of our vacation in Jakarta, the capital city where Katherine grew up.

On our last Sabbath in Jakarta, I had the privilege of preaching at Katherine’s home church. I preached in English and Katherine translated my sermon to Indonesian. I preached on how Jesus is the Good Shepherd from John, Chapter 10.

After the church service, I found some youth who played and sang popular Christian tunes. After reveling in our music, our family was ready to leave, and I told them I’d like to say goodbye and thank their pastor for the opportunity to preach at his church. I noticed the pastor was speaking with an elderly gentleman who was a member at his church and a young woman in her 20s. When I approached the pastor to say farewell, and he said, “Please sit down. You need to hear this story.”

Then the pastor introduced me to the young woman whose name was Nuryl. She didn’t speak English, but the pastor and his friend shared her story with me. Nuryl grew up in a Muslim home. Her father was a Muslim leader and she attended Muslim schools. But then they shared something spectacular: Nuryl had recently been having dreams of a man in white. She was convinced that this man was Isa, the name for Jesus in the Quran. She said she came to this church for the first time to learn about Isa, or Jesus from the Gospels. She wanted to study the Bible with a pastor, become a Christian, and be baptized. I was ecstatic when I heard this story! I affirmed her in her search for Truth. I then had a special prayer for her journey with Jesus.

I learned an important lesson from this experience: Jesus is still in the business of drawing people to himself. Jeremiah 31:3 says, “I have loved with you an everlasting love; therefore, with lovingkindness I have drawn you” (NKJV). It was quite obvious to me that Jesus was using dreams to draw Nuryl to Himself.

The English poet Francis Thompson wrote the poem entitled the “Hound of Heaven,” a 182-line poem that describes the endless pursuit of man by God:

The name is strange. It’s startling at first. It is so bold, so new, so fearless. It does not attract, but rather the reverse. But when one reads the poem, this strangeness disappears. The meaning is understood. As the hound follows the hare, never ceasing in its running, ever drawing nearer in the chase, with unhurrying and unperturbed pace, so does God follow the fleeing soul by His Divine grace. And though in sin or in human love, away from God it seeks to hide itself, Divine grace follows after, unwearyingly follows ever after, till the soul feels its pressure forcing it to turn to Him alone in that never ending pursuit. 

May we never forget that the Hound of Heaven is still pursuing us.

—Nestor Soriano is associate pastor at Campion Seventh-day Adventist Church

By Chelsea Inglish — Several years ago, I had the privilege of working at a place called Camp Wawona. Wawona is located inside Yosemite National Park, a gorgeous section of mountains and valleys and forests and rivers in central California. It is full of wildlife, some harmless, some totally deadly.

The summer camp is perched on steep mountainous terrain, with a road full of switchbacks connecting the horse barn and pool at the top of the hill and with the kitchen and dining hall at the bottom. Along the road are various buildings and activity equipment, all in the midst of a thick forest of evergreen trees.

The dry, mountainous air gets cold at night, and we woke up each morning to a crisp temperature. But as the day wore on, the bright sun in a cloudless sky would heat the place up. I’ll never forget the smell of pine needles roasting in the heat of the day. To this day, it is one of my favorite scents.

The stars were amazing. At Wawona, when you look up at night, you can understand why we call our solar system the Milky Way.

One section of road, a switchback on that steep hill, didn’t have a single lamp, nothing to light the path after dark, and because of the trees, you couldn’t see very far ahead or behind. This part of the road had earned itself a bit of a reputation, because once, one of the camp staff had turned the corner on the road and seen two mountain lions slinking through the trees and off into the forest. After that happened, this part of the road became known as Cougar Alley, and no one wanted to walk it alone after dark.

That’s not the only reason why. I said it was on a steep terrain, so if you happened to step off the pavement, you could tumble down the side of the mountain and probably only stop if you hit a tree–not a place you wanted to be alone at night. But sometimes, it just happened!

Many times, I found myself either at the bottom of the hill when I needed to be at the top, or vice versa, and I had to walk through Cougar Alley alone at night without so much as a cellphone to give me light.

In these moments, I could barely see my hand in front of my face, and I could have stepped right off the pavement and tumbled down the hill through the trees if I wasn’t careful.

However, there was a trick to making it through that section without falling off the path.

You had to look up.

When you looked up, you would see a road of stars cutting through the trees that matched the paved road. The stars of the Milky Way were the brightest, and if you looked up and followed the path of the stars, you would stay safely on the road, without falling off the edge, until you turned the next corner and could see lights from the buildings on down the way.

As terrifying as it was, I always felt comfort and safety when I looked up.

This year, so far, has felt a lot like walking through Cougar Alley in the dead of night, not able to see through the thick trees, not knowing exactly where the edge of the path is, not being able to see what is ahead or around me.

I have struggled with a lot of emotions. So much has happened, one thing after another, to wake me up to the reality of a world out of control. There is sickness in our world that has filled many of us with fear and caused people to shut themselves away at home in order to protect themselves and others. Events in America have filled many of us with sadness and rage and caused people to pour into the streets in protest.

2020 has driven us to our knees, praying for wisdom and guidance, protection and justice.

It has been a hard year, and it’s not over yet. We have many different ways to handle the stress and uncertainty, the distraction, worry and anxiety.

As Seventh-day Adventists, we have this little thing we do. When the world is groaning and we are filled with sorrow, we look up.

It is easy at times like this, to want to head for the hills. Pack everything up, get off the grid, and hunker down until Jesus comes. We want to survive the last days, and we often react fearfully to what we think are signs of the end times.

As Adventists, we have a long history of looking up. We also have a long history of looking around us. This is not the time to give that up.

It’s time to roll up our sleeves, look for those who are hurting the most in these uncertain times, and jump into the middle of it all. This is the time to do exactly what Jesus did when He was on this earth: to work to bring healing to the sick, freedom to the captive, and hope to the hopeless.

We are all in this together.

–Chelsea Inglish is associate pastor of Madison Campus Church in Madison, Tennessee and daughter of RMC’s Susan and Doug Inglish.

By Matthew Hasty – Loveland, Colorado … I’ve been doing literature evangelism for over half of my life.  Each day, I see first-hand the impact that I’ve made by “go”ing as Jesus asked us to “Go” in the Great Commission at the end of the gospels of Matthew and Mark.  As you contemplate what job you’ll have at Campion this year, contemplate making this year a year of service for the salvation of others.  Take a look at what others have said when asked, “What has LE [Literature Evangelism] meant for you?”.

Raquel – “LE was my favorite part of Campion last year, and is a fun way to spread the Word of God.”

Adrianna – “LE has shown me that the world is bigger than myself. Before I started canvassing, I was very upset with God about past events in my life. Canvassing has shown me that if it wasn’t for those experiences, God would not have been able to use me for his ministry.”

Alexis -” LE has become another family to me.  Everyone who does LE, and has ever done LE, is part of a huge family that is pulling me closer to Christ.”

Pastor Joe – “Literature Evangelism has been in my life for 44 years.  The experiences I had have changed my life.”

Robyn – “LE means an opportunity to be God’s tool!”

Richard – “I value it, because you spread the word of God. I think it’s super cool and rare.  I like praying with people, and leaving seeds of salvation.”

Naomi – “There’s been something about spending my day trying to sell people on the concept of Jesus, that’s really made me take it all in for myself. Nothing’s driven home the point of Christianity for me more than literature evangelism has. Jesus has a way of reaching people when they’re committed to reaching others.”

It’s one thing to look back and see how God has blessed others who have done LE in the past.  It’s another to consider how He will bless it during this pandemic.  Will God continue to bless this ministry?

On August 4, I received a call from Adrianna, who has been canvassing independently this summer.  She met a lady who recognized the Steps to Christ Adrianna was offering. The lady had purchased it a few years ago.  This year, she gave Adrianna $100 for ten more copies, so she could share them with her friends.

A few weeks before that, I received a call from another independent LE named Clayton.  Clayton met a man who had been struggling over things in his church that he said were, “Anti-God”.  After a few minutes of chatting with Clayton, the man kept a book about how to study the Bible and scheduled a time to study the Bible with Clayton.  After their first Bible study, the man told Clayton that he’s “never learned this stuff before“.

I’d like to repeat the old quote, “We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past.” God has led LE in the past, and he continues to lead LE today. Is he leading you to do LE this school year? I challenge you to pray about it.

–Matthew Hasty is RMC literature ministries director; photo supplied

This article was originally published in Campion News.