I was sitting at my desk, writing or reading or working on some ministry accounting or something along those lines. My cell phone rang and I looked to see who was calling; not that I ever screen my calls. I could tell from the caller ID that it was in international call. I answered and was pleasantly surprised. It was my friend Ibrahim, who is from a region of Pakistan made famous by Led Zeppelin (I'm being a little vague for the search engines because I want to protect my friend's identity).
I met Ibrahim two years ago, almost to the day. I had taken a small team of relief workers to Pakistan in response to the earthquake of October 8, 2005. We went to a mountainous village area, where roughly 300 families lived. Ibrahim is the leader of this area. He took us around to small villages, showing us the damage and letting us evaluate how we could help. Our small team of 4 was able to provide 21 temporary shelter kits as well as monthly rations for more than 600 people. More importantly, we showed our new Muslim friends a Jesus they had never seen. Ibrahim became a follower of that Jesus on Christmas Day, 2006.
Today, in our broken English and broken Urdu, we were able to communicate, at least a little. After a bit, another man took the phone and said he would translate. Ibrahim asked me when I was coming to see him. I told him I would love to come tomorrow, but that I needed to be home with my family right now because my mother-in-law was sick with cancer. He told me he would pray for God to bless her and to heal her.
This afternoon, my mother-in-law returned home from her chemotherapy treatment. I told her Ibrahim had called and relayed our conversation. She shook her head in utter amazement and wondered at how beautiful it is to know that the village leader on the other side of the world who she prayed for every day would now be praying for her.
That, my friends, is life in the Kingdom of God...
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