God's Priests

A tall mango tree gives shade to the entrance of their bamboo house covered in nepa. Green fruit will soon yield a sweet yellow-ripened treat. On the east side of the house, a river passes to within a few feet. During high tide, small fishing boats bring the day’s catch from the sea less than a kilometer away. Twice in recent memory, flood waters threatened to wash away Bro. Edol’s and Sis. Ging’s humble home, but both times the feeble foundation refused to give way.

The gospel came to this house a year ago. Since that time, neighbors have been baptized and a small group of believers gather regularly in the small dirt-floor room to pray and worship. Bro. Edol’s father, a new believer, suffered a stroke last month that has drained what little funds they had from their work in the sugar cane fields just outside their village. Despite such hardships, their testimony is that God is good and has thus far supplied all their needs.

Bro. Edol and his wife, Sis. Ging, are God’s foot soldiers in this place. Their house is the territory of God’s kingdom. They serve the King of Kings, the Creator of the universe. As I prayed with them, rain dripped through the decaying roof as their youngest child splashed happily outside in a mud puddle, wearing a tattered hand-me-down shirt that should have been discarded as a rag long ago. This is not the place you expect to find royalty.

But the greatest in God’s kingdom, the priestly class, are those who have learned to be servant of all. Edol and Ging have shown their faith in trying times and have come out shinning. As they continue to speak of Jesus to their neighbors, our prayer is that God’s kingdom would spread to other nearby families.

How honored I am to serve God’s soldiers. I’m so grateful I can be here in the remote parts of our island, rather than in a hospital recovery room. Thank you to those who prayed for my little health interruption last month. Now, would you direct your prayers to Bro. Edol and Sis. Ging, and the many other leaders in God's Kingdom. “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven.”