Saving Syrians III. God’s Mighty Work

 A clear theme emerged from our first worker we interviewed, and all the way through.  A wise worker summed it up this way:We are not here to show Christ to these people. Christ is here to take over more of me and then show himself through me.
 One woman said it this way: I soon learned that if I was going to see these people change through Christ, then Christ had to change me first.
Another, one working side-by-side in the mist of anarchists said it this way: the hardest part of this work is to get over one self first.
 When he said that to the four of us, it really became clear. The internal scrutiny, deep confession, clear dependence, broken ego, purified goals  –  all of that would be hard to avoid living in the multi layered demands of the anarchist environment.  I even pointed to my friend, the psychologist, and said he could not get nearly as much stuff out of me in the easy environment of Richmond as a year there would do.  I also knew that to  take shortcuts around any of these would leave me vulnerable and several and in unexpected ways.
 Another sais that she made a very difficult but successful application for a permit, something others would have charged $3000 to do. She submitted it proudly—and was turned down. She knew. God had to work on her first. That was the mighty work of God— to prepare her for a telephone call from a man she barely knew who volunteered his legal skills cor anyway that would help her work.
No, God does it need these people but he has chosen to work through them.  His first mighty work is to work in them.