“This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’ ”
ZECHARIAH 4:6-7
What a formidable undertaking lay before Zerubbabel. He had returned with the captives of Israel to rebuild the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, but his task seemed insurmountable for at least seven reasons.
Reason Number 1—The Temple’s Utter Destruction
The fierce Babylonian and Chaldean king, Nebuchadnezzar, had razed the city of Jerusalem in 586 BC. In the process he massacred most of the leaders, priests, and soldiers, and he took the other citizens of Jerusalem bound as captives to Babylon. Second Chronicles 36:17-20 records this destruction:
Therefore He brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, on the aged or the weak; He gave them all into his hand. And all the articles from the house of God, great and small, the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king and of his leaders, all these he took to Babylon. Then they burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious possessions. And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia.
Seventy years later Zerubbabel makes the 900-mile journey with 42,392 men and their families across the arid topography to the city of Jerusalem. Imagine for a moment their dismay when they reach their final destination. The Jerusalem they’d envisioned, the city their fathers spoke of so affectionately, was in absolute disarray! The huge boulders that once framed great walls, impressive palaces, homes, and a grand temple lay in heaps of rubbish, huge impediments to restoration. The destruction has been further established by 70 years of neglect. There was little if anything here to work with. Instead these heavy slabs had to be removed to even begin to rebuild.
Reason Number 2—An Inexperienced Crew
The next reason the task was formidable was about the men Zerubbabel had to work with. He didn’t have an army of strong men. He didn’t have a construction crew at his side. The exiles who came from Babylon were professionals by trade. In the company were priests, singers, perfumers, goldsmiths, and the like. They had lived as captives in the sophisticated city of Babylon. They were used to city life, unaccustomed to the depravations and difficulties of country life. They didn’t have the skills, strength, and sagacity to build an edifice, let alone a great temple!
When King Solomon built the first temple, he employed a labor force of over 100,000 men. He selected 70,000 men to bear the burdens, another 80,000 to quarry the stone in the mountains, and 3600 to oversee the actual building of the temple (2 Chronicles 2:2). Not only were many men employed to build God’s temple, but a master craftsman named Huram was hired to design and oversee the work of the temple (1 Kings 7:13,40-45).
Zerubbabel didn’t have these advantages. He had only the exiles of Israel and a divine edict to rebuild and restore the temple of God.
Reason Number 3—No Building Materials
Zerubbabel not only lacked a construction crew; he lacked building materials. When King Solomon built the first temple, he imported beautiful cedar, cypress, and alum planks expertly cut from Tyre. Solomon also used the gold, silver, and bronze his father had amassed for the temple’s construction.
Zerubbabel had only the former stones, damaged and lying in heaps, to work with. The other supplies he needed couldn’t be imported. The materials had to be collected by the people who had returned from Babylon. At one point the prophet Haggai told Zerubbabel the Lord said the exiles were to “go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple” (Haggai 1:8).
The task was formidable because Zerubbabel didn’t have the multitude of resources sent to Solomon. The materials for this temple had to be salvaged and collected from the mountains of Israel.
Adding to the difficulty of this endeavor was the attitude of the people Zerubbabel was working with. Not only were they ill equipped for the job, but they were divided in heart. Many were unmotivated, and others were actively discouraging the people.
Jesus said, “ ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand’ ” (Matthew 12:25). Those who have ever vacationed with a grumpy teenager know how hard it is to get anything done when you’re dealing with uncooperative people. Yet that’s exactly the attitude of the people Zerubbabel was tasked to work with.
When Zerubbabel established the former location of the temple, cleared away the weighty stones, and laid the foundation, the reaction of the people was mixed. Ezra 3:11-13 records this:
And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD: “For He is good, for His mercy endures forever toward Israel.” Then all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off.
Nothing is more disheartening than to put your whole effort into an arduous undertaking, and then have that accomplishment belittled, criticized, and dismissed! That is exactly what happened to Zerubbabel and his crew. Worse yet, the religious leaders and the heads of the fathers’ houses were the most vocal in their complaints. These were the men of influence, but they weren’t using their influence in a positive manner to motivate, congratulate, or compliment those working. No! They were a downright deterrent to the nearly impossible feat the Israelites were attempting.
Reason Number 5—Intimidation
Even the wise and wealthy King Solomon felt intimidated by the commission to build a temple for the Lord of Hosts. He wondered how he, a mere man, could build a sanctuary grand enough, glorious enough, and beautiful enough to represent the God of all creation. Solomon expressed his dismay in a letter to the king of Tyre:
The temple which I build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods. But who is able to build Him a temple, since heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him? Who am I then, that I should build Him a temple, except to burn sacrifice before Him? (2 Chronicles 2:5-6).
If Solomon, the heir to the dynasty of David, endowed with the divine wisdom of God, and fortified with resources, felt intimidated, how much more intimidated did his impoverished distant relative feel returning from captivity!
Even under the best conditions, how does one build an earthly temple magnificent enough to honor the King of kings and Lord of lords?
Reason Number 6—Lack of Finances
Zerubbabel lacked the finances to build a grand temple. Unlike Solomon, he wasn’t the heir to a palace or the bank account of a wealthy father. An exile, Zerubbabel had lived as a prisoner of war since birth. He had not been brought up with counselors, sages, and governors. He had been raised among the other captives of Jerusalem. He was given only a small budget from Cyrus, the king of Persia, when he decreed that the exiles could return to their homeland.
He had no money to hire laborers, import the supplies they needed from other countries, or buy the tools necessary for building.
Reason Number 7—Opposition
Perhaps this seventh reason is the greatest reason of all—enormous opposition to the temple’s reconstruction.
Because the land was left abandoned, over the years non-Israelites had settled in smaller compounds around Jerusalem. They established themselves in the land and even obtained favor with the Persian authorities. They felt they had the first claims to the land, and it wasn’t in their best interest for the original occupants to be moving back into the territory and reestablishing themselves as a nation by rebuilding the temple and restoring their capital city.
These opponents employed a variety of means to stop the progress. They lied, threatened, showed open hostility, tried to infiltrate, attempted to sabotage, attacked, slandered, and finally used legal force to halt the building of the temple. Their efforts were temporarily successful. The foundation was then deserted for four years until the prophets Haggai and Zechariah received a message from the Lord. Through them, He commanded Zerubbabel to return to the commission of building the temple of God.
Against all these formidable odds, God proclaimed His promise to Zerubbabel through the prophet Zechariah:
“ ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My
Spirit… Who are you, O great mountain? Before
Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall
bring forth the capstone with shouts of, ‘Grace, grace
to it!’ ” (Zechariah 4:6-7).
What God was declaring to Zerubbabel is astounding! He was telling this weary sojourner the following:
You don’t need a construction crew.
You don’t need great materials to build the temple.
You need only the presence and anointing of the Spirit of the Lord of Hosts.
All the obstacles before you will be leveled.
You will build this temple!
When the last stone is placed on the top of the temple, you will realize it has all been accomplished by grace!
From the time the prophet Zechariah spoke that word to Zerubbabel to the present time, this same promise has ministered to and inspired many men and women in their service to God. It has delivered scores of people from the pit of discouragement and motivated them to simply obey the word of the Lord. In so doing, many incredible works have been erected by God’s grace!
Perhaps you can relate to Zerubbabel’s plight. Perhaps you have an objective, obligation, or occupation that seems daunting. Like Zerubbabel, you’re facing formidable odds and opposition. If so, this word is for you. God desires to accomplish the impossible in your life by the power of His Spirit.
God loves to work against impossible odds. In this way He reveals His power working in us, with us, and through us. As we see God’s power displayed, our faith is enriched and strengthened. When we allow God to work in us, we become His venues of grace.
What follows are the testimonies of some of those who have learned the secret of God’s grace and how to harness that grace. In so doing, the mountains before them have been leveled, and the impossible has become possible. It’s my prayer that as you read their stories, you will be inspired to recognize and depend upon the grace of God in your own life.
In Weakness Made Strong
Dawn Vallely is one of my favorite people. I still remember the day I met her years ago. We were both attending a family camp, and observing her, I was sure that her husband, Dwight, had married her as a trophy wife. She had the beauty and bearing of Snow White. Then I spoke with her, and my heart not only melted, but bonded with her heart for life. After we met, Dawn became a leader at the women’s Bible study I was teaching at our church in Vista, California.
Like her mother, Dawn was a nurse. The medical profession was so ingrained in her that she even taught classes to nurses who needed to renew their certification.
Dawn had been a nurse for over ten years and was one of the head nurses in the NICU in a hospital in San Diego, California, when she began to feel a strange numbing and tingling sensation on her left side. Concerned, she went to see a doctor. Her worst fears were confirmed when an MRI revealed she had multiple sclerosis. She had been married for only nine months.
She continued to work for another four years, maintaining a full schedule, until one day her speech became slurred as she was teaching. She took a hot shower hoping to ward it off, but it worsened, and she felt weak. Her symptoms only intensified from there, at times paralyzing her left side. Dawn was forced to quit her beloved profession. She became weaker and tripped and fell easily. Even the weather affected her. Soon all her activity and even service to God were curbed.
The doctors tried a series of experimental treatments. She received injections of interferon, but later Dawn learned that because of an allergy to the drug, much of her early suffering had to do with receiving it.
Though Dawn was weak, racked with pain, and fighting depression, she began to draw on the grace of God. She and her husband developed the consistent practice of praying together. Dawn spent time poring over her Bible, reading, studying, and meditating on God’s Word. She listened to praise music, prayed for others, asked God for wisdom concerning her diet, and worshiped. As she did, she regained the strength to accomplish the simple tasks of life.
As each day passed, she learned to draw upon the grace of God a little bit more, Dawn began to slowly but surely feel stronger. Naturally gifted as a teacher, she longed to teach the secrets of grace to other women and men who were suffering. She started a blog and wrote about what she’d learned holistically that fought inflammation. She wrote about the great lessons and promises she gleaned from the Lord through her personal time studying her Bible. She answered questions. She encouraged others to pray. She shared her favorite spiritual songs.
Dawn soon began writing and teaching Bible studies to women. Her group increased in size, as did the influence of grace upon their lives.
Most of those living with MS experience some progression in the disease, and just over 50 percent may become severely incapacitated.1 Twelve years after Dawn’s first diagnosis, she’s working part-time again in the nursing field she loves. She’s also been able to resume teaching recertification classes for nurses. Still, Dawn lives with chronic pain and difficulty. Her disease is not gone. She often suffers from paralyzing attacks. However, she learned in the hardest years of her disease how to draw from and minister the grace of God to others. This is the grace Dawn lives on daily. This is the grace of God Dawn shares with others. She is a living testimony to the grace of God!
A Mother’s Grace
My friend Danielle’s third child, nicknamed Bubba, was born with a severe heart defect that required five open-heart surgeries from the time he was four months old until he turned eight. His fifth surgery was a heart transplant.
It’s emotionally excruciating for any mother to watch her child struggle, suffer, and endure such pain. For over ten years, Danielle felt the intense agony of a mother helpless to spare her son the necessary procedures for the sake of his well-being.
After Bubba’s fourth surgery when he was only seven years old, Danielle learned to fully rely on the strength of God’s grace. After the surgery, she and her husband, Brian, took turns sleeping in ICU with their son as he was recovering. One night he asked her to play a board game with him, but he became frustrated when he couldn’t focus and keep count of his cards. Danielle suggested they put away the game and simply go to sleep. She turned out the lights and rolled her cot close to his bed.
As she was climbing under the covers, her son whispered, “Mom, I’m really scared.” Danielle took his hand and prayed. The truth was she was scared too. Her bravado was a shell she wore to comfort her son. It was wearing thin.
An hour later, Danielle awoke with a start. Bubba’s bed was shaking violently, and she immediately realized he was having a seizure. She jumped up and called for the nurses. As she waited for the hospital staff to arrive, Danielle inwardly prayed, Lord, this has been a long ordeal. I can’t stand watching Bubba in constant pain. Please take him home to heaven. It was the first time she had fully released the young boy into God’s hands. She was wrung out, as was his whole family. There was nothing else to be done.
The Lord immediately spoke to Danielle in response to her prayer. She heard Him say to her heart, I will walk you through this, and a great peace enveloped her. When the doctor and nurses arrived, they were able to stop the four-minute seizure before it could do any further damage. They commended and thanked Danielle for being so calm and cooperative.
Two days later, after extensive testing, the doctors found the reason for Bubba’s seizure—blood had been pooling at the base of his brain. The blood had finally dissipated, and he was out of danger from seizures.
Danielle later testified, “Grace came to me in a flood of peace, and He gave me a huge dose of grace that continues to last even to this day. When I have the assurance that God is walking with me, I can be filled with His grace to keep going. I can crawl in the valley or climb the cliffs with Him.”
Today Bubba no longer goes by that moniker. He’s a healthy young man in his early twenties. He actively serves in our church, and very few of his acquaintances know the miracle of grace he is.
The following two stories have to do with the grace God gave to minister to and sacrifice for difficult people in difficult circumstances.
Ministering Grace
The first hero most young girls discover is their father. I know my father was my greatest earthly hero for years. It seemed as if he could do anything. He loved, protected, cherished, ministered, provided, and even sang to me. I never once had a cause to doubt his love. Sadly, this is not the reality for so many women I know. Their fathers were harsh, critical, neglectful, or completely absent. Yet when pressed, each of them can describe in detail what a good father should be like. It’s as if our heavenly Father has ingrained in every heart His own image of fatherhood. To this day, regardless of the type of father they had, I’ve never met a woman who couldn’t list the attributes of a good father.
I never had an issue with ministering to my father. It came easily, simply by responding to and reciprocating the love he lavished on me. But how do you minister to a father who is hateful, unkind, or cruel? My friend Darlene received God’s grace to do just that.
When Darlene was ten years old, her father took her and her sister aside to inform them he no longer loved their mother. He had found another woman to love, and he was leaving their household. Darlene’s first emotion was relief. Her father was an angry person. He hated the fact that his wife and daughters had become born-again Christians and were attending church regularly. He blamed his own bad behavior and the divorce on the church, their Christianity, and God.
In reality Frank’s own vices were responsible for his cold heart. He carried deep-seated resentment against the harsh father he could never please. He hated God because of his younger brother’s death at 21 from stomach cancer. He used these factors and others to excuse his drinking, womanizing, and financial irresponsibility. Though he was brilliant and made his way up the ladder in the lucrative software development industry, he was also verbally abusive to his family and terrifying to everyone who knew him.
After leaving Darlene’s mother, he married four more times and had numerous live-in girlfriends. On every visit to her father’s house, Darlene and her sister were ordered to embrace his current flame with the affection due only to a real mother.
Darlene and her sister hoped for a storybook ending. They prayed for their dad to come to Jesus and for his heart and behavior to change. When that didn’t happen, Darlene’s heart began to harden. She became untrusting and cold. However, Darlene’s mother never stopped showing grace toward the man who had abandoned her. She continued to love him and pray for his salvation, setting an example of grace for both her daughters.
Darlene grew up. One day she was called out of her college classroom and informed her father was in the hospital. Darlene left immediately, and when she arrived she saw a sick, feeble man, isolated and in tremendous pain. He looked so small compared to the man who had terrified Darlene in her childhood.
His foot was infected with gangrene because of his diabetes and an injury with his toenail clippers. For the next several days, the nurses gladly let Darlene take care of him and treat the infected toe. He had been so mean and hostile to them that they wanted to keep as great a distance possible from his hospital room.
Darlene held the bedpan to his face when he was sick. She cleaned around his mouth with a cool cloth. She smiled as best she could and took his soiled clothing home to wash and return the next day. She listened to his constant tirades. He cried often and was suicidal. Because of his diabetes, many of his toes had to be amputated. Other complications arose, and Darlene remained by his side through it all. With every new development, and through all his emotional outbursts, Darlene was given the divine grace to minister to a father who had abandoned her, refused to pay child support, and constantly criticized and belittled her while she was growing up.
She received the grace to let all the unkind words and actions roll off her shoulders. She received the grace to continue to pray for him until the day her broken-down, weary, blind, toeless, and toothless father finally surrendered his life to the Lordship of Jesus. The day he came to know the grace of the Lord, he, too, felt the sustenance of that grace—and did until his death four years later. To this day, Darlene testifies of the amazing grace that overwhelmed her and worked through her to love, care for, and pray for her father. Because of the grace she received and ministered, her father is in heaven today.
Sacrificial Grace
Cindy was sure she would have the storybook marriage. Her husband, Joe, had been the best-looking boy at her school, and she loved him from the day she first saw him. They both came from Christian homes, and both families were supportive of their long-term relationship throughout high school.
Cindy relished being a wife. She threw herself into the daily chores of mothering and homemaking, preparing daily gourmet meals and decorating their home. She constantly looked to her husband for approval ratings. Gorgeous, she kept her figure in perfect proportion, her hair styled, and her makeup flawless. And if Joe criticized her work, she simply added more gusto to her effort.
Then after seven years of marriage Joe asked for a divorce. Cindy was stunned. They had experienced the typical ups and downs of every couple, but she’d never seen any warning signs or indication of a problem that would lead to this. Yet Joe had been having a series of affairs with men. While he’d been lying and deceiving her, he’d also kept up the sham of a nearly perfect husband and Christian.
The grace and provision Cindy received as she prayed for grace were astounding. Cindy was devastated, as were their families and their children. Many of her friends had urged her to give in to bitterness and vengeance, but that wasn’t how Cindy felt in her heart. She loved Joe, and she didn’t want to see him punished. Somehow, she even empathized with his pain and frustration. Cindy prayed for Joe, setting an example for her children, friends, and extended family to also pray for him. Though they were divorced, Cindy invited Joe over for dinner, and she served every meal with a genuine smile and laughter. Her graciousness tugged on Joe’s heartstrings, and he was generous to his family.
This same grace continued to pour out of Cindy as Joe needed reoccurring visits to the hospital. Since his partner refused to take him, Cindy regularly drove him to all his appointments. Cindy continues to minister grace to her ex-husband. He is always present at their family Christmas celebrations. She knows he struggles with sin, but that it’s his struggle, not hers. Her struggle was with grace, and she has won her own battle for grace. Now she prays for Joe’s emancipation and salvation.
Daily Grace
Many of us have come to depend on the partnership we share with our husbands. But what happens when the personality of the one you love changes? What happens when the one you committed your life to before God becomes like a child and must be tended and watched constantly? From where do you draw the wisdom and strength to cope with the unpredictability of the new person you’re dealing with, watch their mental decline, and continue to love and serve? Marsha found hers in the grace of God.
When Marsha and Gaylord married in 1972, neither one of them was a Christian. Then in 1981, because of a work-related injury, Marsha was referred to a Christian psychologist. The psychologist urged Marsha to receive Jesus as her Lord and begin attending church. Marsha started attending my dad’s church, where she loved what she was hearing so much that she often checked out his cassette messages from what was then a tape-lending library. Gaylord happened to overhear one of my dad’s messages and asked Marsha to borrow a few tapes for him. She did. Gaylord was transfixed by what he heard. After a few weeks he felt compelled to leave his Los Angeles office and drive down to Costa Mesa to find a pastor who would pray and lead him to Christ.
By the end of 1981, both Marsha and Gaylord were born again, and they both had a voracious appetite for God’s Word. Gaylord began to volunteer all his free time from his job as vice president of a major company to serve at the church. Marsha often accompanied him.
When my husband took the pastorate of a small church in Vista, California, Gaylord and Marsha often drove down from Orange County to help us. Gaylord and my dad worked together to remodel the church building, which had been an Elks Lodge. Marsha set up a tape-lending ministry with Brian’s cassette messages at our church. After they’d helped us for a year, Brian asked Gaylord if he would consider moving to Vista and becoming the assistant pastor of the growing fellowship. Gaylord and Marsha joined us.
Gaylord was smart and accomplished. He could do just about anything. He could balance bank accounts, oversee finances, make wise decisions, fix broken pipes, remodel, counsel, and even repair appliances. Marsha had been the more unassuming partner in the duo. Once she retired from her job, she loved being taken care of and was unaccustomed to having to do much in the way of work, other than making dinner and keeping the house clean. Marsha’s passions were in her crafts, ministry to friends, and sharing her faith.
They lived in Vista until they took a long road trip across the United States in their motorhome. Gaylord was an excellent driver. He could move the cumbersome bus through narrow lanes, in heavy traffic, and on country roads. Marsha felt relaxed with Gaylord at the wheel. They returned to Vista after their long adventure. Then my father asked Gaylord to consider a position at his church in Costa Mesa, California. Gaylord prayed and accepted. The couple moved to Orange County and Gaylord joined the staff.
Gaylord had always had a laidback personality. Nothing seemed to stress him, so when he began to show signs of anxiety, Marsha was concerned. Then he began to decline mentally. His personality began to change as well, and he became confused and disoriented easily. It was difficult for Marsha to cope with these changes at first because the person Gaylord was becoming was so drastically different from the man he’d once been. Soon Gaylord was officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Marsha became the sole caregiver for her husband, and she never had a break. The care was constant and high maintenance. People with Alzheimer’s are as different in behavior as fingerprints are different, but the commonality they all share is their growing self-involvement, childlikeness, and mounting insecurities.
Marsha continues to take daily care of Gaylord. He’s forgotten her name and often calls her “Mom.” She tells him how much she loves him every day, and he responds with a nod or tears. Marsha has never told Gaylord his condition is terminal because she doesn’t want to darken the years he has left.
One of the most difficult aspects of her new life is the profound loneliness she sometimes feels. At first, she struggled with feelings of bitterness and resentment when people didn’t return her phone calls or respond to her emails. Then God gave her the grace to understand the busyness others struggle with and to avoid such high expectations for them. She has allowed the isolation of her life to prove that Jesus is her Friend who is closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24).
Today Gaylord mainly speaks gibberish. It’s difficult for them to get out of the house because his moods are unpredictable. He cries daily, and Marsha endeavors to comfort him with God’s Word and promises. She testifies that she would never trade her journey for something more comfortable. Through this time, she has come to know the faithfulness, love, and grace of God in an unfathomable measure. Early in their marriage, after both Gaylord and Marsha had come to Christ, the theme of their lives came from Isaiah 6:8: “I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.’ ” This theme continues to resonate in Marsha’s heart when she wakes and contemplates another day of ministering to Gaylord. She looks up and whispers softly to the Lord, “Here am I! Send me.”
Extraordinary Grace
I met Kris Repp at a missionary conference in Austria. Kris is tall, elegantly beautiful, and in her fifties. She has long, flowing locks of gray hair she wears pulled back in a ponytail. She has the bearing and grace of a yoga instructor, and I fully expected teaching yoga to be her occupation. I was totally wrong! One afternoon she approached me and asked if we could chat. Kris felt compelled to share her story with me. I am so glad she did.
Kris had gone on various outreaches with her church in Seattle, Washington, before her divorce. As a nurse, she could help minister to those who were sick or injured. When her husband left, however, Kris concentrated on raising their two sons.
Then two years after her separation, Kris was asked to serve in a medical clinic in Mexico. The offer intrigued Kris. She had a deep longing for missionary life and to help people in impoverished countries. Her eldest son was spending a year away from home in a high school exchange program, but her youngest son was still under her care, and she didn’t think her estranged husband would agree to his spending a year abroad with his mother as she served in a clinic. Kris almost refused the offer outright, but something moved in her to wait and pray. As Kris prayed, the desire to go increased. She decided to fast and pray and then talk with her husband. Kris was stunned when he readily agreed to release their son to go with her.
Kris called back to say she’d accept the offer, but while she’d been praying, someone else had been chosen to fill the vacancy. She said to the recruiter, “You must have some other place you can send me. I know God wants to send me, or my husband would never have agreed to let my son go.”
Kris was invited to go to Roatan, Honduras, to pioneer a new work. Roatan is an island in the Caribbean. On one side are scenic beaches and hotels, and where tourists snorkel in the crystalline waters. The other side is filled with abject poverty and primitive conditions. Kris was going to this other side. She quit her job, packed her bags, and with her son beside her set off to live at and establish a clinic on a tropical island. After arriving, it became obvious that the pioneering plans must be put on hold, but Kris remained in her post for another month, accepting the sweltering heat, mosquitos, barking dogs, and humidity as preparation for whatever mission call would come next.
She was soon invited to Guatemala, Central America, where she had many opportunities to use her nursing skills. Kris’s son attended an international school in the city while she worked in a medical clinic in the squatter’s camp in the city dump and learned Spanish. Not long after her arrival, she met another missionary who drafted her to translate for the teams with which he worked, taking the gospel to the indigenous mountain villages. Kris accompanied him and was immediately drawn to these mountain people. She remained there to work and minister among these villages for another five years.
Kris’s life began to weave back and forth between visits and short stays in Seattle and traveling to set up medical clinics in some of the most remote, dirtiest, impoverished, dangerous, and darkest places on earth.
Despite enduring muggings, arson fires, being placed under arrest in a communist country (but never threatened by terrorists), contracting malaria, deprivation, and countless discomforts, she has continued to serve the Lord for 22 years. She’s traveled the globe, sharing the gospel, setting up clinics, setting broken bones, extracting rotten teeth, cleansing wounds, dealing with infections, dispensing medicine, stitching up gaping wounds, bandaging sores, and any other procedure required.
Kris daily relies on the grace of God for her strength, wisdom, courage, direction, and endurance.
I will never forget that first conversation we shared years ago. She mentioned some friends she stayed with when she was on furlough, and that they were wealthy. My jaw dropped. At the time I was having a private struggle with grace. I had developed an anti-materialistic attitude, and I was resentful of what I perceived to be wasteful living in the place I was living. I think I harbored a private sense of guilt because I, myself, was not serving on the mission field. I was living in the comforts of home while my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ were enduring extreme hardships and making great sacrifices.
When Kris mentioned her wealthy acquaintances, I asked how she dealt with reconciling the abject poverty and need she experienced with the comforts and excesses she saw in Seattle. Her look was so gentle and disarming. A tender smile swept across her beautiful face, and she said, “Cheryl, I am a missionary wherever I am. As a missionary, I don’t judge my mission field or the people there. I simply seek to minister to them the grace and love of Jesus.”
I have never had a poker face, and my facial expression must have betrayed my heart issues, because she asked, “Are you struggling with grace for the mission field in Orange County?”
“Does it show?” I asked.
“Just a little bit,” she answered, graciously. Then she asked if she could pray for me. As she prayed, I felt every iota of gracelessness vacate my body. Tears streamed down my cheeks.
Kris has been given an extreme and extraordinary grace to travel, endure, and minister in ways you and I might never experience. Yet wherever she is, no matter what class of people are there, Kris pours out the extreme grace of Jesus to others.
Enabling Grace
Sarah is a vivacious young woman with a personality that immediately draws you in. She loves people, and that love can be felt. Probably the most notable thing about Sarah is that she’s the eldest daughter from a family of seven children. She grew up in Southern California and spent most of her youth frolicking in the waves along the beaches in Orange County.
At 16, Sarah was already working at her church in a book distribution ministry. Working with books was the perfect outlet for her. She loved to read, and her favorite books were missionary biographies. She tried to pacify the restlessness in her heart with imagining the far-off places and cultures where her missionary heroes and heroines served.
Sarah excelled in this ministry. She worked well with people, she was intelligent, and she was well organized. She had such great management skills that by the time she was in her early twenties she was supervisor over the entire ministry.
In the meantime, her younger sister, Rachel, who is also her best friend, was working with an American pastor in England named Phil Pechonis. They were facilitating a Christian musical festival in Southern England called Creation Fest. Sarah delighted in anything her little sister did. She had boundless energy, exuberance, and great ideas. Watching her help organize this big event piqued Sarah’s curiosity. She wanted to see the festival where Rachel had invested so much of her time and effort.
Sarah accompanied Rachel and the team from their church to Cornwall, England, in 2009. Rachel immediately put Sarah to work helping organize tents, booths, servers, greeters, and in just about any and every area where she could serve. Sarah loved it. She also met and hit it off with Phil Pechonis, the initiator and overseer of the festival.
Returning home to California, the restlessness in Sarah’s heart couldn’t be ignored. Talking with Rachel, she realized they both shared the same sense of disquiet and felt God had something for them outside of California, just beyond their reach. Together they planned a year-long trip, traveling across three different continents and visiting the Christian ministries they knew of in each country they chose.
In 2010 Sarah and Rachel took off on their adventure. They loved everywhere they visited and the missionaries they met, as well as the ministries they experienced. Never overstaying their welcome, they proved to be a blessing wherever they stayed.
While traveling, Rachel met the man who would prove to be her soul mate and ministry partner. Sarah knew she wouldn’t be losing a sister but gaining a brother. Still, the thought left her a bit more restless. She knew she couldn’t return to her old job; she needed someplace new to serve. At the same time, her church was looking for a communications director, and she got the job. In this role Sarah helped the different ministries communicate and coordinate with one another as well as helped plan, organize, and execute events ranging from 500 to 5000 people in attendance. This new job also meant Sarah helped coordinate Creation Fest from stateside.
In the meantime, Creation Fest continued to grow, attracting thousands of people from all over England. The festival included strong Bible teaching, apologetic and biblical workshops, worship, games, a skate park, bouncy castles, kids’ programs, and camping.
Sarah again proved to be outstanding at her job. She served as communications director at the church until 2014, when her services were required in England because Phil Pechonis was gravely ill with cancer. Although it seemed like he was rallying, he needed help. Then the morning after Sarah landed in England, she learned Phil was in the presence of Jesus. Sarah was needed to step in and take over.
No one could imagine Creation Fest without Phil. He was one of those amazing individuals who could go anywhere, do practically anything, and make things happen. He had an irresistible faith in God and a passion for the gospel. It was quietly decided that after 2014, Creation Fest would be put to rest, but 2014 turned out to be the greatest year Creation Fest had ever experienced. More people and more kids attended than in any of the previous years. Also, more commitments were made to Jesus than in the previous years. It was as if the festival had finally gained credibility with the community, and it just seemed wrong to stop the festival now. It was obvious that God’s anointing was on it.
Someone suggested to Sarah that she might take Phil’s position to keep the festival going. The thought was daunting, but the more Sarah tried to push it away, the stronger it grew. Still in England, she found a teashop in Plymouth, where she could be alone and read her Bible. The Lord quickened her attention to Isaiah 49:1-10. As she read, it seemed as if every verse was directing her to the coastlands of England to serve the Lord in the special capacity for which He had created her. Sarah wanted to be sure this was from God. She scribbled a date and short notation in her Bible, and then she decided to hide this idea away in her heart and wait for confirmation.
The confirmation came the next day when a couple she hadn’t seen in six years approached her. They asked if they could pray for her. As they did, it was as if they were directly praying Isaiah 49 over her. They couldn’t have known these were the very verses with which Sarah felt the Lord prompting her heart.
Sarah tentatively approached my husband, Brian, who was in England as well, and said, “I think maybe I’m supposed to stay here and run Creation Fest.” Later she recalled that Brian’s face looked blank. She waited for a response, but he just turned and walked away. Well, that’s over, she thought.
To be honest, the Creation Fest board was looking for a man to oversee the festival, thinking a man would be best for such a huge undertaking. However, no man they knew, British or American, was in a position to step in.
Brian caught up with Sarah the next day. “Would you be willing to stay here and oversee preparations for the next Creation Fest? We’ll just plan on doing it next year and see how it goes.” That was four years ago. Today Creation Fest is a mainstay event every August at the Cornwall Fairgrounds. It continues to grow yearly in size and fame.
The festival is a huge endeavor with more than 10,000 visitors and more than 2000 campers. The children’s program has almost 800 children in attendance. Almost 60,000 people watch the live stream on the internet. As they would say in England, “It’s massive!”
Behind all the activity is this vibrant young woman named Sarah. I was able to spend a few minutes with her recently over a cup of coffee. I asked if I could use her story to highlight God’s grace. Her life is so amazing to me. She’s a single young woman living in a foreign country. She works at the Creation Fest office in Wadebridge, Cornwall, near the bus station. She’s known by most of the people living in the Cornish town. Throughout the year, she and her team host kids’ clubs, sporting outreaches, and prayer meetings. She also works with local churches and churches all over England to coordinate evangelistic outreaches and prayer meetings. She’s a frequently requested speaker throughout the country and all over the world, speaking at social clubs, retreats, luncheons, churches, and wherever else God opens a door for her to share the glorious gospel of Jesus.
I asked Sarah how she maintains the supply of grace she needs to manage all the activity in her life. She told me her greatest supply of grace comes from her daily devotional time. During that solitary hour she prays, reads her Bible, and then meditates on God’s Word. She also spends time fellowshipping with her two South African roommates, who are also her friends and coworkers. She told me she intentionally seeks out godly people who walk closely with Jesus and allows these individuals to pour God’s grace into her.
To an outsider Sarah’s life looks daunting, and it is. This life is only possible for her when she continually draws upon God’s grace.
Grace unto Death
For years I had heard about Ian Squires. He attended a church in England our friend pastored, and our friend dearly loved him and often shared with us the work Ian was doing in Africa.
Ian was an optician. He owned his own shop on a bustling corner in Shepperton, Surrey, in the United Kingdom. In his spare time, he created a portable, solar-powered lens grinder. Since these machines didn’t require electricity, they worked well for the tribesmen in Nigeria Ian had been ministering to. In 2003 he created his own Christian charity—Mission for Vision. He raised money, collected old eyeglasses, and used the funds gathered to manufacture his lens grinders and take them to the impoverished regions of Nigeria. There he set up clinics where he trained men and women to give eye exams, make the lenses, and fit adults and children with glasses.
In 2013 Ian began to work closely with the missionary organization New Foundations. He traveled with them often to a compound in Enekorogha, Nigeria. There he worked in their clinic with doctors and nurses, examining patients from early morning until sundown. Ian would conduct eye exams, make glasses, and fit those he attended with the proper eyewear, all the while training others to take over when he left. He and the four-member team spent their nights in accommodations right next to the clinic.
In early October 2017, Ian left England with the three other members of New Foundations charity and flew to Nigeria to minister once more at the Enekorogha compound. Since the remote village was in South Nigeria, they weren’t overly concerned about violence. Also, they had won the respect of the people there because of the help and services they’d provided. Yet in the early morning of October 3, sometime just after midnight, militants rudely awakened the New Foundations team. The gang violently ransacked the compound and collected the team’s possessions. Then they grabbed them all and took them hostage.
Ian and the others were taken to an undisclosed location and carefully guarded. The militants were armed and nervous. Ian tried to keep the spirits of the other three hostages hopeful. They played the game The Unbelievable Truth, where you try to discern fact from fiction. While they played, one of the militants brought them a guitar they’d taken with the violent intrusion. Ian picked up the guitar and began to play and sing the hymn “Amazing Grace.” The other three joined in, and as they sang they felt their spirits lift. Ian had just finished the last stanza when suddenly a round of bullets rifled through his body. He died instantly. The other three dived for cover in the jungle and only returned when the militants brought them back. Ian’s assailant was never identified. A few days later a settlement was negotiated between the government and the militants, and the other team members were released.
Amid the most harrowing circumstances imaginable, Ian Squires chose to sing about the grace of God. It was the reminder and contemplation of this grace that raised the spirits of his fellow captives. Ian Squires entered the gates of heaven with a song of God’s grace on his lips.
You Have a Grace Story
You have a grace story. It’s yet to be recorded, but it’s in you. You need only to look back across the years of your life to recognize the grace of God toward you. I remember asking a 90-year-old man I knew when he’d been saved. He shook his finger at me and said, “Oh no. We can’t start there. Even though I finally surrendered when I was in my forties, I trace the grace of God in my life all the way back to my childhood.” He then started with the gracious providence of God that had begun even before he was born to direct the events of his life.
The same is true for you. God’s grace toward you began even before you were born, or conceived. He has been exercising His grace toward you in a myriad of ways. By His grace you live. By His grace you are saved. By His grace you are sustained. By His grace you are strengthened. By His grace you are enabled. By His grace you are sanctified. By His grace God works His character, goodness, and gifts into your life.
I don’t know what the circumstances of your life are, but I know God’s grace is more than you ever expected. I know God’s grace is all you’ll ever need for whatever life throws at you. As you begin to explore and embrace the grace of God for you, your own story of grace will be realized.
God’s grace is waiting for you. God’s grace is more than you ever expected and all that you will ever need!
Dear Father God, thank You for the grace You have so richly provided. Help me continue to search out this great grace. Show me again and again how to appropriate this grace into my life. Fill me with Your grace that I might overflow with grace. Let others see Your grace in me. Use my life to write a grace story that will attract others to You. Help me to bless others with the grace You have so richly poured out on me. In the gracious name of Jesus, amen.
For consideration:
1. Take a moment to trace God’s grace in your own life. Where did it begin?
2. In what area of your life has God’s grace been the most evident?
3. If you were to write your own grace story, what would you title it?
4. Read Zechariah 4:6-10 and answer the following questions:
• What obstacles or opposition are you presently facing?
• What inspiration do you receive from the fact that God promised that Zerubbabel would finish the temple?
• What does it mean to you to know that God rejoices over even the small things in our lives?
• How does the fact that the words “Grace, grace to it!” would be shouted when the capstone of the temple was brought forth minister to you?
• How can you apply Zechariah 4:6 to your life today?
5. Why is God’s grace beyond your expectations?
6. How is God’s grace all we need? (See also 2 Corinthians 9:8 and 12:9.)