Difficulty = Discipleship Opportunity

A few weeks ago our family was able to make the drive into our village over the kid’s term break. It was nice to be there as a family again; for Robyn to be able to spend time with the ladies and the kids to spend time with their friends too.

One day, Robyn and I needed to take a little road trip to get some medicine from the local hospital. We invited a few other people along for the ride who needed to go to town. On the way home we asked one of the ladies about their daughter whom we’d not seen in a while and her answers were evasive. When we got home and everyone had bailed out of the vehicle, our sister stayed behind and began telling us about how her daughter had succumbed to temptation and is now pregnant. For about an hour we sat in the vehicle listening to, encouraging with Scripture, and praying with our sister-in-Christ.

There are other cultural dynamics that only serve to complicate this situation. The next day Robyn went over to our friends’ house to see them. Our daughter-in-Christ now lives in shame and fear of what the future holds for her. Over the next few days (with the parent’s permission) we took the opportunity to speak with the church about what their biblical response should be in this situation. If this young lady is willing, we said, to submit herself to God, her parents, and the church, she needs to be restored. The ladies need to draw alongside her and teach her all she needs to know about being a mom and a woman. She doesn’t need to constantly be reminded of her wrongdoing. The wrong has been done, but what she needs now is to be shown the love, mercy, and forgiveness of Christ. I took the opportunity to speak with some of the Christian men from this clan and encourage them with the need to stand strong on the Word of God even when it will be counter cultural. There will no doubt be many culturally relevant solutions offered up in this situation, but they will most likely not be biblical. As the men their voices will carry weight and they need to use that weight to influence others toward a biblical resolution.

• Pray for this young lady that she will be willing to be restored to the Lord, her family, and the church.
• Pray for the church to step up to the plate in helping this young lady.
• Pray for the church to stand boldly on God’s Word, even when it stands against culture.

It is difficult at times (okay, almost always) to see our difficulties as discipleship opportunities, and much more difficult to thank God for them. This situation has caused me to think long-and-hard about how I would respond if this were my own child? I pray that my children won’t fall into temptation, but I also know how easily it can happen. I pray that when they fall short in some way, I will be able to show them the love, mercy, and forgiveness of Christ; because do you know what?? I need it too when I fall short.

• Pray for us as we raise our children; that they would grow up to be God-honoring adults!

One more thing…

Please also be praying for the young man involved in the situation. He has expressed an interest in hearing God’s Word and I have encouraged our teachers not to let this opportunity pass as he is ripe for the picking.

Thank you for praying.

Levi (for the Lenz fam.)