To begin with, a couple of weeks ago, we had a guest speaker at our regular staff "Biblical Lesson" time at school. Normally the pastor spends most of the time speaking to us, but this time Ján, the young man from church who switches off with Zuzka translating for us, came to give a presentation instead. He has a solid faith and serves our church congregation in many ways, especially in prayer groups and working with the youth. His powerpoint presentation was of course in Slovak, but Zuzka translated as we heard about Ján's recent experiences volunteering with mission workers in Zambia. He shared all sorts of good works that are being done to share the gospel of Christ and to serve the physical needs of people in poverty in Africa. It was all interesting, with great pictures, etc., but we were most impacted by Ján's challenge to all of us ----- to think about this question:
Where is YOUR Africa???
In other words, not everyone can or should physically go to Africa to serve God's kingdom. It's not for everyone. And God is certainly not calling everyone there. Sometimes it's easy to think we can best serve God by going to some far-off place and doing full time mission work. But Ján challenged everyone to consider where God is calling YOU to serve Him.
To be honest, some of our colleagues totally missed the point, as afterwards they said, "Sure, if I had lots of money, I could fly off to Africa too. He's rich, so he can afford it." We suspect they may even feel that as 'rich Americans', we can afford to fly off to Slovakia to do our mission work here too, but these Slovaks don't have the option of heading off into the sunset to some exotic place. But the point is, every one of us has a mission field, a calling, a place to serve, no matter where we may be.
One question posed during the Q & A session after Ján's presentation was: "How do you know God is speaking to you?" That led to related queries like - Does God really speak to people nowadays? and - How can you be sure it's really God instead of your own desires? More on that later.
Then the next Sunday at church here in Liptovský Mikuláš, our Slovak translated sermon was centered around ways that our congregation cares for others who need assistance. He especially shared about a group of women who devoted their lives to providing nursing care to the elderly in our community. The pastor told us afterwards that the group was unique to this region of Slovakia. These 'sisters' began their work before WWII, and during the war some of them were even jailed for their Christian faith. A group of people in the church continues this ministry to the elderly to this day. As we listened to this sermon, we both thought -- YES - this is "Africa" for those servants caring for others in Christ's name.
Within a couple of hours, we were listening to our weekly online sermon, and the message was about the faith journey each of us has. As 'seekers', we are looking for meaning in life. We need to hear the Good News to believe. Then as 'believers', we have found Christ as our savior and redeemer, and we need to accept Him into our lives. We move along a circle to become 'followers' as we begin to act on our belief in response to God's call. The sermon emphasized that we need a relationship with God to hear His voice, and that we also need relationship with the body of believers in a community. So, we were excited to hear these next threads tying into the theme about acting on our faith, as well as being in relationship with God and other Christians.
Two days later we had a long conversation with an colleague who was equally challenged by Ján's presentation and the questions it raised. We brainstormed a while and thought it would be a great idea to have the next staff "Biblical Lesson" be more of a "Bible Study" time, with small-group discussion. We felt that two questions should be posed to kick off the discussion.....
- Where is YOUR Africa?
- How do you know if God is speaking to you?
Our pastor went along with the idea, so we were able to explore the topic with some of our colleagues. To be honest, the whole concept of discussion-based Bible study time has not been well established at our school, but we are hopeful that some good will come out of trying to engage people in thoughtful conversation about the Bible, God's purpose for our lives, and our faith journeys. It was awesome to hear of some "Africas" right here in Liptovský Mikuláš, because there are definitely people here serving others in love. We each have skills and gifts which God calls us to use. Sometimes they don't seem like a big deal at all, in fact it just seems like we are doing 'normal' things (according to our colleagues in our discussion), but we need to open our eyes to see that we are indeed serving God in big or small ways that are important in God's kingdom! And perhaps we can find new 'Africas' too!
Finally, this past Sunday, our online sermon dealt with being in relationship with Jesus/God as the key to knowing when God is speaking. In any human relationship, communication must be established by spending time together, by speaking, and by listening. The same is true for our relationship with God. We need to spend time in the Word - reading the Bible, being with other Christian brothers and sisters in worship and in fellowship, and taking time to pray as we both talk to God and listen for His voice. In this sermon, we heard that maybe God IS speaking, but we just miss it because of our lack of relationship with Him. Sometimes God affirms what our heart desires. Sometimes God tells us to be patient and wait for His timing. Sometimes God leads us in a direction we hadn't been planning on going, or to do something other than what we've long been expecting to do. The sermon mentioned that God sometimes sends signs of some sort - maybe obvious, maybe subtle. Or perhaps there is a genuine peace in your heart 'that passes understanding'.
Thank you for reading this far. We have really felt strongly that these two questions are important for every Christian, and we encourage you to contemplate your answers to them. We were asked if Slovakia is our 'Africa' --- well, maybe in a sense yes, because we truly felt God's call to come here. But we feel our bigger 'Africa' is in working with young people as we have been doing all our lives - as educators in our classrooms in Iowa, in teaching church Sunday school and confirmation classes, in our home with our own children, and now here in Slovakia as well. 'Africa' can be right in your own workplace, your home, your church, and your community!!
So, where is your Africa?
And how do you know when God is speaking to you?
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