“Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.”  1 Peter 2:17

 I just returned from a mission trip to Africa and am trying to process everything I saw and heard.  One of the most wonderful experiences of a mission trip is to meet brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world.  We can go halfway across the globe, alight from a plane and have dear, joyful Christians waiting to meet us!  In most cases, they are members of Christ’s body we have never met!

Working in a medical clinic takes native nurses and translators.  They enable the clinic to run smoothly amid the chaos of patients and family members waiting to see a doctor.  One of the translators was Pastor Mark.  He spoke excellent English, so we put him with the nurses doing assessments.  My daughter worked so well with him, she affectionately called him, “her brother by a different mother!”

Mark had a story to tell.  He was adamant that the African church should learn to care for itself and not be dependent on the American church.  Mark was born to the “first wife” of an African man who subsequently married 3 other women.  Although his mother was the first wife, she was not the favorite, so Mark didn’t have the respect that goes with being the “oldest son.”  When the Christian missionaries came to his village, they taught from God’s Word.  “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23.  Along with biblical teaching, they taught a man should be the husband of one wife.  This angered Mark’s father and he made sure the Christians were thrown out of the village.  He preferred the native religion of his forefathers.  But Mark saw something different!  He began to attend a missionary school and learned about the love of Jesus and soon accepted Him as his Lord and Savior.  The school had high standards.  Mark excelled in his studies, passed his exams and was eligible for the University.  After graduation, he became the head master of a school, but always felt God was calling him to become a pastor.  So, he resigned from his job and began to serve the Lord shepherding God’s sheep.  His desire is to teach his people to care for themselves, planting fields, or learning professions to support their families, with a hunger to learn God’s Word and teach others.  His vision for the African church is to be a vibrant testimony to what Jesus Christ can do in the lives of people who for centuries have lived in poverty.

I thought of that phrase, “a brother by a different mother.”  We who are believers in Jesus Christ have different mothers.  We may look different on the outside, but on the inside we’re united by the Holy Spirit.  If God is our Father, we are one in Christ, all part of God’s family.  And what a family it is!!!  The God of all the earth, the creator of all things, the Alpha and Omega, is our Heavenly Father!  When we get to heaven, every tribe, tongue and nation will be represented there.  There will be no barriers to fellowship, we will be one family!

I love the words of this Bill Gaither song, “I’m, so glad I’m a part of the family of God, I’ve been washed in the fountain, cleansed by His blood!  Joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod, I’m part of the family, the family of God.”  Praise Him!

Your friend, Jean