Seeking relief is a common first reaction to pain and suffering, but is it the best way to proceed? In my life I have tried many different ways to react or respond to physical, emotional and spiritual challenges. Seeking relief is appropriate in some circumstances but there are often other avenues on God’s agenda for us.
For example, decades ago I helped open the CRU ministry in the country of Senegal, at the western most tip of Africa. Our team was full of excitement for the adventure. Three of us, me, Kelly, and Chamsoudine Moudine the 13th Christian convert from the tiny Comoro Islands, landed in Dakar in May of 1985. “Cham” was chronologically 26 years old, but emotionally closer to 16 in his emotional make-up. Because of the persecution that caused him to flee the Comoros years earlier he was constantly seeking relief. I like to say God gave us a teenager before he gave us our own children. Senegal was my third African country and culture to live in in under five years. Add that we had barely been married a year.
Back in Nigeria I taught History & Bible Knowledge to Nigerian Public High Schoolers. I moved to Cote d’Ivoire four months after our wedding in the US. There, I focused on Campus ministry. It is also where I worked to bring my years of classroom French into functionality. Fluency would have to follow.
Unlike Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal was well over 95% Muslim at the time. There were more Protestant missionaries than National believers when we arrived. That took some adjusting. Our world view and approaches had to adapt to the world view we hoped to connect with.
I do not have the space here to explain all the trials and difficulties we faced. A few big ones include: me being debilitated with morning sickness for months on end. We returned to Cote d’Ivoire for the month of December. We helped host CRU’s, and literally the world’s, first ever satellite conference. When we sought advice, our African leadership based in another country told us we were his experts on Senegal. Then Cham left us unexpectedly to seek asylum in France.
I hope you can agree that we might want to seek relief.
Thankfully, God had other ideas. We went from praying fervently God would move us to work in French speaking Canada, to praying that we would learn the lessons we could only learn where He had placed us at the time. This change of attitude began to enlarge or perspectives. Our networks grew and we began to cooperate with God molding us increasingly into the image of Christ. (Still in process these decades later.)
African students from other countries began to come along side us to grow in their faith as they helped us navigate the culture. YWAM placed a team in Senegal who were great prayer partners and collaborators. The JESUS film was translated in to Wolof, the trade language for Senegal. We experienced some openings with nationals interested in Jesus. Our team grew to include some Americans and Europeans. In 1990 we moved to Mali to help supervise the ministries across Francophone Africa.
If we had fled to French speaking Canada, the fledgling work would have to start all over from nothing. For about 20 years now the ministry there has been led by Senegalese nationals. We did not raise them up, but we were part of the process. I also know I learned to not default to seeking relief first. By choosing to ask God more questions first, I learned far more about God and His ways. “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” Romans 8:28
If we are willing to learn from God more than seek relief from our pain, my experience and the word tell us the relief will eventually follow.
