An Old Friend...

Hello and blessings to our team and family in God's work!


This is a story that is so dear to me and I am honored to be able to share with you. I hope it encourages you to not ever lose the hope in Christ that was paid for with the blood Jesus shed for us. In His time all things are made perfect and one day we will get to see all of the ways He answered us that we simply didn't perceive because His answers didn't come the way we expected them.


A little over 20 years ago, when I was about 9 or 10 years old, I met a boy from Africa named Basil (said the British way, not the way Americans pronounce my favorite spice). He was the step-son (a technicality) to a missionary who my family was connected to and who I remember to be a strong and intense, yet warm and approachable man. This missionary, David Hart, ended up marrying a woman named Janet who has been a pastor in Africa for over 20 years.


My friendship with Basil was very unique when it began. My stepfather had been planning a missions trip to Africa to work with Basil's family's church through a ministry we were very closely involved with. When he called Africa, I often got to chat with Basil about the types of things young boys do - toys and games and animals and all of the differences and similarities our lives shared from halfway around the world. There was something special to me about having Basil as a friend - he connected me personally to a place I was intrigued with. Even as a young boy something about Africa called to me and I am now beginning to see the depth of that call. Basil was one of the bridges God built in my soul to connect me to what I would one day know as an assignment and destiny in Christ. I loved the times we spoke and wrote each other, and for a few years our friendship grew, albeit with very certain limits.


However, over the years that relationship would struggle to survive. We didn't live around the block and get to ride bikes together. In fact, I had never even gotten to play a game of any sort with Basil. All I ever knew were the communications from thousands of miles via a phone or a letter. As my family moved around and things changed in our lives, so did our contact with Basil's family. Then, all of a sudden, David died when we were about 16. David was the main connection between Basil's family and ours. He was the missionary that traveled back and forth to the States, and a fatal battle with malaria shook everything up. Even the ministries that connected us at that time began to dissolve. That chapter was closing and our friendship was a clear loser in the margins of life.


To compound all of these changes, the next season of my life was one of much loss and compromise. I walked away from my faith and grew bitter toward the church and things of God. Like Basil, my father passed away tragically. Soon I was on the brink of disaster, hurt and lost, seeking relief from drugs and sin. My salvation and the passion God planted in me for Africa were dissolving into the same space that my friendship with Basil had.


But God wouldn't let that be the end to the story. I get to write you today because of the salvation miracle God did in my life. He rescued me from the death this world has to offer. He gave me a wife and beautiful kids and, piece by piece, restored me with a vision for His Kingdom that is built on the bedrock of those earlier experiences. In total awe I am writing you from Africa today! This alone is a testimony to God's faithfulness.


However, it is the part of this story that included Basil that I wanted to share most with you. Last weekend Basil and I got to eat lunch together for the first time in our lives. After finally meeting face to face two weeks earlier, we got to spend time catching up and ministering to each other and testifying to the greatness of God in our lives over all of those lost years.



You see, Basil's mom has been pastoring here in Livingstone, Zambia faithful to the call of God, in spite of, and ever since her husband's death. Sure there were vague connections through the word of others over the past decade or so, but it had easily been 15 years since Basil and I last spoke. In fact, the only contact I have had was really none at all - 7 years ago Nikki and I sowed something small into Janet Hart's church for a building project they had. We prayed in faith that one day we would be able to see that seed blossom. As far as I know the only person who knew we sowed was the mutual friend we asked to send it for us. But God knew the faith we stood on then. Now God has my family in the same town as Basil being trained for our work in Christ.


This Sunday coming, we will all get to worship at Janet Hart's church here in town. I don't even think it is the same building we prayed over 7 years ago when Nikki and I sowed. But the church was never a building. And this story was never finished. Even these new chapters are still being written and I really cannot explain the excitement and expectation in my spirit for what is to come. For some reason God has brought what was stored up for all of those years to fruition now. And knowing God and how His timing works, whatever is in store now is far greater than what would have been or what I ever asked for.


The same is true right now in your life. Through time and distance, pain and loss, wherever you are now can be redeemed by a God who does all things well and whose ends are infinitely more glorious than our dreams. Hope that is in Christ is never lost. Even when we lose sight of it. Keep praying. Keep trusting. If somewhere along the line you forgot how to do either, just try and remember. Look to Christ for He is the AUTHOR AND THE FINISHER - THE PERFECTER - of your faith.


I hope this blesses and encourages all of you.


John