When Wiley Coyote stands with steam coming out of his ears and eyes bulging you know his efforts to catch the evasive road runner have yet again failed. When a sumo wrestler stands in the middle of a frozen pond only to hear the obvious crackles and then see the shooting cracks he knows freezing and wet are in his near future. When a tired and grouchy mother is awakened for the umpteenth time during the night because the glow in the dark dinosaurs on his wall have stopped glowing you can tell that a meltdown is on the brink.
Breaking points. We all have them. But have you ever stopped to think about the good breaking points? Those moments when something you have been working towards is finally about to unfold. I am not talking about those short lived glory moments when you wanted something for a few hours or a day and then got it. I am talking about those issues that you have lost sleep over. Those problems that have plagued you. The thing that comes to mind every time you have a free moment of thought.
Sometimes hope shows up in the least expected of places. Sometimes ground is broken in the most unconventional way. Yet it happens. The breaking point you have been praying for has finally arrived. And even though you have been praying for what seems like an eternity for this breaking point to come the reality of its arrival hits you like a ton of bricks. You never saw it coming. And this is when God tells your awestruck heart, "I am here. I am doing this."
My own "eternity" of praying has been for about 3 years. That's when God first laid Loja Province on my heart. It wasn't a Cinderella story for sure. The first trip I took this dusty province of Ecuador made me want to head for the hills and pray for God to send someone else. Between bumpy dirty roads to the middle of nowhere, hotels with dance aerobics outside the window until 11 at night and then again starting at 5am, and hot hot sweaty icky dirty hot weather, I was not easily wooed. We even had people telling us that their local priests were telling people to throw boiling water on anyone claiming to be a Christian! But that's when you know God is in it. When you look at something and say "No way Jose" then pray to close out a trip because its the "right thing to do" and during that prayer time God brings your own heart to a breaking point and completely changes you; you know its Him. Its not normal to go from an absolute "no" to an absolute "yes" within 5 minutes. And when it happens to 4 people at the same time...you know. That's a God breaking point.
Loja Province has been a long hard road these past 3 years. It seems that anything that has touched, thought of touching, or almost thought of touching the ministry in Loja has had to face spiritual battle. From the minor frustrations of incorrect paperwork or head to toe bug bites for the first few months living here, to the bigger issues of arguing amongst ourselves, financial problems, and the bleakness of not even a spark of interest in the hearts of the people of the province. We prayed, we forgave, and we went forward. We did what scripture told us to do but saw nothing in return. We were all at our breaking points and not in a good way.
It is at these moments that I had to re-evaluate my motives. Why was I here? Was it because I wanted to change the world? Was it because I wanted to be the one who finally broke through to the hearts of the people here? Because if it was, I was failing. And miserably so. But, if I was here because God said "go", then the results didn't matter as much. You see, I don't have to see the results to know I have been obedient. I don't deserve that. I am not owed results. I have been given the greatest gift anyone could ask for by receiving the salvation offered in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And me asking for more beyond that is equivalent to a man being freed from prison on murder charges only to be whining a day later that his newly issued sneakers are not the right color. Its just wrong.
Now, that does not mean that the prisoner can not ask for different colored sneakers, but he surely better not be angry if the answer is no. Do you get my drift? We need to feel privileged and blessed when God gives us anything beyond the cross because even the cross we did not deserve. Our life needs to be lived in a manner of thanksgiving for unmerited favor.
So where does that leave me today? Well, about 10 days ago it left me a little humbled. About ten days ago I was at my own personal breaking point. I was frustrated with the slowness of progress. I was tired of the difficulty. But then in one small moment everything changed. I was on a medical team translating for doctors. I was covered head to toe in hives due to some ridiculous allergic reaction that we still are not sure about (can we say spiritual battle!), and I was absolutely exhausted. I didn't feel like being a missionary that day. I just wanted to go to bed. But I went, I did what I was supposed to do, and God showed up.
Towards the end of the last day of translating a woman named Delia showed up at our doors. She wanted us to send a doctor to see her grandmother. Her grandmother was immobile in their home and in a lot of pain. We don't normally do home visits. But she seemed quite persistent and so we bent the rules and the doctor, I and a couple of nurses headed out to go on to this woman's home. When we got to this crude structure of cement blocks and a wobbly tin roof we found Maria (the grandmother) on the front porch in a plastic chair cushioned with a bed pillow to bring her what comfort it could. The pastor who also came with us carried Maria to her bed so that she could be examined. Poor Maria wept the whole time she was moved and the entire time she was in the bed being examined. It was a botched hip surgery and bone was grinding on bone. Any movement at all issued a stabbing pain. The surgery was a year old and 90 some year old Maria couldn't possibly survive another one. Ibuprofen was all we could give her. She too was at her breaking point. The pastor began sharing with Maria how there was a God who loved her and wanted to be her Savior. He told her how she was loved and not forgotten. He shared about heaven and how when we get there that God would have a new body waiting for us. And Maria cried out to God and asked Him to be her Savior.
This was the breaking points of all breaking points. Maria was the first soul that I saw given to Christ in Loja province. It was as if through this fragile and tattered woman had plunged a stake into the ground and victoriously claimed, "Satan, you lose!" I went and visited Maria again last week. She was still sitting on her plastic chair with her pillow. Chickens and kittens were scratching around at the ground around her. Jennifer (another missionary) and I sat on her dusty porch floor and read the Bible together with her. She was grateful to be visited and to hear the scriptures.
God does not usually plan things out the way that we do. In Bible times the Israelites were looking for a grandiose leader to sweep in and save the day and what they got was a tiny baby raised by very humble means in a town that was barely on the maps. Maria was kinda like that for me. If I were being honest I was envisioning a high and prestigious family accepting Christ into their hearts and then that family using their status to win the people over of their town. But that's not how it worked. God chose Maria. God chose the most unlikely of people to be the breaking point of satan's schemes.
Since that day we have seen a change. We have a handful of people in each location that are truly interested in reading the Bible and learning about God. They have asked us to begin coming out regularly to study God's word with them. Satan is losing ground. And what we see on the horizon is similar to the ending of the Warner Brothers cartoon. The road runner escapes the snares set before him and the Wyle Coyote is left in a big blowed up mess in the dust.
If you would like to be a part of this ground breaking work please consider partnering with us in ministry. We are always looking for people who are willing to lift us up in prayer and come along side us financially to see this work through. Please consider joining our team. https://onemissionsociety.org/give/TheWilliamsons2
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