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The Great Commission
Showing up
By Frank Decker

“We thought God had forgotten us.”

Such was the welcoming cry from members of a small village in Central Asia that greeted Jeanette* when she moved there 11 years ago. Currently she is stateside on temporary assignment. As she sat in my office a few weeks ago, I was reminded why I am always refreshed to hear her stories.

When you listen to cross-cultural workers preparing to move overseas for the first time, usually they convey their big plan—what they are going to do when they get there. Jeanette is a nurse, and several years ago she had a big plan as well. She was going to help establish a modern clinic in an area of great medical need near a large city. But after a year of living there, in her words, “nothing I had planned actually happened.” The clinic never materialized, and Jeanette describes her first year in her new country as frustrating and confusing. “I knew God had called me to come, but I didn’t know why.” After such an exasperating initial year, many people would have returned home, citing reasons we would all understand. But Jeanette did not come home. She stayed.

At about the same time that the clinic endeavor failed, the ministry team—composed of missionaries and nationals alike—felt compelled to plant churches in a very remote area about nine hours away. Jeanette reports the humbling experience of being selected to serve on the church planting team, “not because I was qualified, but because they didn’t have anyone else to go.” So she went, along with a coworker from the national team. And over the past decade a community of believers has grown among these “forgotten” people. In fact, they’ve even sent out a few missionaries themselves. Here is a glimpse of how God is using the obedience and perseverance of Jeanette and her coworkers to touch the lives of many:

There’s the story of young Katya, who had arrived with her family of 13 at a time when the living conditions in the village were at their worst. “I asked them, ‘Why would you move to a village with no jobs and no food?’” The answer? “Because it was better than a village with no jobs, no food, and no water.”  Jeanette reports that Katya was among the first believers in their fledgling fellowship—something for which she suffered ridicule and bitter abuse in their village, where half of the inhabitants identify themselves as Muslims. Yet, Katya’s family experienced God’s provision in amazing ways as well. “Over time,” says Jeanette, “we’ve celebrated with them the purchase of a four-room house that replaced a two-room shack, the opportunity for Katya and her sister to attend university, and best of all, the conversion of several siblings as well as their atheist father before his death. One family member said, ‘We came here in search of water and God provided Living Water.’”

Then there’s Doosya, who was delivered from demonic oppression and a spirit of debilitating fear that had consumed her for most of her life. But over the years, she has seen God transform her life and the lives of her husband and two daughters, who now attend college. Jeanette adds, “I’ve been humbled to see Doosya jump and squeal over the gift of a real refrigerator.”

And finally there’s Gulnara, an adamant atheist of Muslim extraction who “didn’t want to have anything to do with God.” But she did visit Jeanette’s little cottage from time to time in hopes of learning English. “If Gulnara came by my house and saw that we were having a prayer meeting or small group, she would leave immediately. After a while Gulnara began to linger more each time, stating that she ‘felt a peace in this place.’” Then one day Gulnara told Jeanette that this overwhelming sense of peace had followed her home. As a result she told Jeanette, “I’m ready to hear about your Jesus.”

For more than a decade, the village has seen many lives transformed by Christ. If you hang around Jeanette for a while, you will become infected by her excitement as she shares about redeemed lives, healings, and the joy that the Holy Spirit brings in the midst of great material need. But she is quick to assert that in the process she has learned a number of lessons the hard way. In fact, before Gulnara came to Christ, Jeanette had been going through a time of self-doubt with feelings of uselessness. In her brokenness, she cried out to God, asking what she could do. “I experienced a major breakthrough when God reminded me that I can’t do anything. He is the one who transforms lives, and I will see him do his work if I simply obey and show up.” 

Aspiring cross-cultural workers do well to follow Jeanette’s example of flexibility, obedience, and perseverance. These are qualities that will bear much fruit, especially if they are rooted in a simple axiom: In order to see God at work, we must simply show up.

* Pseudonyms are employed for those in this article serving in secure areas.



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