rwanda: part one

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." - James 1:27

This verse has meant so much to me over the past year.  Last December (one year ago), I studied the book of James and was totally shaken by this verse. Looking after orphans and widows was definitely not something that I had been doing. 

I have a heart for missions, but at the time, I didn't feel any desire or need for it in my life.  I've been on 3 missions trips to New Orleans, and there will always be a special place in my heart for that city.  But last December, I realized that I had let not just missions but all of the needs of others stay on the back burner in my life.

I saw people moved by the need for the gospel in other countries, but for some reason I just wasn't moved in the same way others were.  It wasn't that I didn't feel for others or that I didn't like missions, it was just that I felt like I didn't need to do anything.  Or that it was someone else's "calling" to support it.  The lost, the broken, the hungry, the thirsty, and the poor were all being ignored in my life. I felt no desire to go overseas, and I was perfectly comfortable in my little Christian bubble life. 

James 1:27 quickly woke me up to how apathetic my heart had become in this area.  This is one of those times in Scripture where you would be totally stupid to NOT take it literally.  Do I want pure and faultless religion? YES! Am I taking care of widows and orphans in distress? Oh....uhh...

Its laid out SO plainly in this verse: if I wanted to have a pure and blameless relationship with God, caring for the broken must be essential in my life.  If I'm not caring for others in need, then my religion, my Christianity, my faith is useless. 

Since I was in a place of apathy about this, I started to pray for a compassionate heart. I prayed for God to make me uncomfortable ignoring the needs of others, and to put something in my path that I truly was concerned about.  I began allowing God to break my heart to the things that break His. 

So I prayed. And let me tell you - it did not take long for God to start powerfully stirring something in me. 

One day as I was praying for compassion in my life for missions, I felt God whispering something simple to me: Rwanda. This country was pressed on my heart so heavily, and I knew that it could only be from the Lord. I also knew it had to be from God and not something I had thought up myself because I was clueless about Rwanda. I had no idea where this country was, what had happened there, or what it needed. But I felt for it so strongly in my heart.

So I kept praying for Rwanda.  I prayed blindly for a little while, not knowing what to pray for or what it was like there now.  But I couldn't remain blind for long because I wasn't the only one that God was stirring up for Rwanda.