PRAYER LETTER NO.42

Dear Easter People,                                                                                       14th April 2006

Hi! I hope this finds you well. Today is Good Friday, and Sunday is Easter – but how many of us want Easter perks without Calvary pain? A friend of mine wrote: "We are more concerned with happiness than holiness. We seek to be served rather than to serve. We want a church that makes us feel good rather than one which challenges us. So often we opt for a religion that costs us little. We stress our rights, not our responsibilities; our freedom in Christ rather than our debt to Christ; our security rather than our sacrifice."

Hmm…

I have just got back from an amazing youth camp. We (Scripture Union) invited about three hundred strategic leaders from schools around the country to come and spend four days together – at a cost of just $3,000, which shows how far money can go out here. The living conditions at the school we hired were basic in the extreme (no running water for four days, so some very grubby hands and noxious smells!), but amazingly nobody got seriously sick, and we had a wild time. They were so spiritually hungry, starting at 630am and continuing until 1030pm. For these guys, following Jesus is no picnic.

John had been studying at the very school we were meeting in when the war kicked in. Immediately, students split along tribal lines. He did the same, but felt very uncomfortable with it. After a few days, a group of students went and murdered the headmaster and teachers from the other tribe. The military had by this time surrounded the school and things had ‘settled’ down - at least for John as he was from the ‘right’ tribe. But he left his tribesmen and joined up with four Christians from the other side to pray. He was repeatedly warned that he would get killed with them, but he stood firm. After three weeks, his fellow tribesmen told him they were coming the following morning to kill him as a traitor. He and the other believers prayed that, as Daniel was protected when the Lord closed the mouths of the lions, so they would be able to escape unscathed. So the next day they just sauntered past the students and the guard, greeting them nonchalantly, and then legged it from the school compound. When the students realized that John and the others had escaped, they chased them through the bush for miles, but didn’t catch them. John said that the whole of the following year when things had calmed down and he had resumed his studies, it was a nightmare, as people from his own tribe constantly spat in his face because of how he’d behaved – good on him, following his Leader. And now those people both fear and respect him, because he knows what they did and yet he didn’t compromise himself.

Another lad, Francois, shared how after the previous SU camp he had gone back to school so on fire that he preached non-stop in lunch breaks in the open-air. Lots of staff and students came to listen to him. People were being converted, so he ended up getting expelled for preaching the gospel. Others students who had converted received written warnings, and their parents were summoned to a meeting. Francois told the others not to worry about him, that he’d be back at school on Monday morning - God would be faithful. At the parents’ meeting, one of them asked the headmistress: “So let me get this straight: you have expelled this boy for telling the kids to love and support each other, to respect their superiors, and not to cheat, steal, lie, sleep around etc, but you have never expelled a student for lying, cheating, stealing, or sleeping around?” The headmistress was caught and cornered, and accepted Francois back on condition he agreed only to preach at the school Christian Union meetings!

There were many more great testimonies, and I am convinced the effects will be far-reaching. So I have returned deeply encouraged, after what have been a tricky few months. Our work is contested at every level, I believe, because it is so strategic. I wish I could show you a photo of our team truck which was returning from upcountry a few weeks ago – a taxi coming the other way on the wrong side of the road forced ours to skid out of control, flip in the air, and land vertically hanging over the cliff, wedged on a tree stump!!! Praise God for His protection, because for those five team-members, it was a whisker away from certain death.

Our outreach to Muslims has suffered a real setback, as the woman in charge forged a cheque and ran off with all the money - $15,000 in all. It has been a real mess. She’s been caught, has admitted her crime, faces a maximum ten years in jail, but has probably bribed the police because they aren’t being at all helpful. Please pray we get the money back and that Josée is truly repentant. It has knocked the stuffing out of me, and has been a bad witness to people watching what is going on. Converts from Islam have such a hard time. Not just Saleh (previously mentioned sheikh with an amazing story), now another Muslim leader has converted, but the churches are so poor they can’t seem to do anything for these guys, who lose their livelihoods, get death threats, and often have to flee. Mahmoud now lives in a hovel, his wife has just given birth, he has no money, and people want to kill him. But he is still holding firm. I think the events of Calvary are so very real to these guys…

Lizzie and Zac joined me at the camp. He’s not been ill once in his little life so far, hardly cries at all, and sleeps like a baby (that sleeps!). Lizzie’s language is improving, and she’s on good form too. I don’t doubt your prayers play a massive role in how well we all are.

So as we celebrate the mystery and wonder of Easter (and I am not talking about how the Easter Bunny manages to lay eggs!), may you and I resist settling for a bland, feel-good, safe and sanitized gospel which bypasses the costly realities of Calvary and is therefore devoid of resurrection power. Let’s live as though Christ died yesterday, rose from the grave today, and is coming back tomorrow – with joy, hope, passion, and urgency, having counted the cost and embraced the challenge to lay down our lives for Him. Following Him is worth our everything. No compromise! We’re onto a winner, let’s not hedge our bets!

Happy Easter,

Simon Guillebaud