The Good Samaritan

Jim Ritchie, Missionary, Kenya
January-March 2016

I love the painting The Good Samaritan by Vincent van Gogh. He painted it in 1850 while he was a patient in an asylum. He was struggling, and he found solace and direction in his artistic meditations.

The painting is dense with meaning. The Samaritan is himself struggling, awkwardly pushing the ambushed and injured Jewish man onto his donkey. The Samaritan has given up his place of relative comfort on the donkey and has emptied his luggage, treating the man with oil, wine, dressings, and clothes. But the Samaritan man isn’t glorified in the painting. His face is in shadow, and his leg serves as a step-stool for the Jewish man.

The injured man doesn’t even appear to be particularly grateful to the Samaritan. His countenance is heavenward, which is more appropriate. The priest and the Levite, who should have stopped to help a fellow Jew, pass by on the road, ignoring the need and the struggle.

Sometimes those who serve in missions feel like the Samaritan in the painting. Struggling, awkward, stepped-on, unappreciated. We have given up our place, our treasure, our comfort, our time. And sometimes the people we are serving seem oblivious to what we left behind or even contemptuous of our effort.

Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan after a Jewish lawyer asked, “Who is my neighbor?” In Jesus’s story, He doesn’t praise the one being served. Jesus exalts the server. After telling the parable, Jesus asked, “Which of these three proved to be a neighbor…?” The answer was “The one who showed compassion toward him.”

Let us be compassionate toward our neighbors, regardless of where they are, regardless of their acknowledgment, and regardless of the attention of others. The One who sees and remembers our compassion is He who taught us about compassion and showed the greatest compassion of all. He is never oblivious, never contemptuous of the things we do in His name. Awkward, struggling, yes. But never unrecognized or unappreciated by the Great Servant King. Serve on.

PRAY: Father, help me to be compassionate toward my neighbors. May I be sensitive to opportunities to be Your hands and feet for those hurting around me. Please use my talents for Your glory, and I will praise Your name in everything I do. Amen

Prayer Calendar March 13-19, 2016

I love the painting The Good Samaritan by Vincent van Gogh. He painted it in 1850 while he was a patient in an asylum. He was struggling, and he found solace and direction in his artistic meditations.

Pray that Christians around the world will show true, selfless compassion to those in need. p.6

The Sugar Cane Workers

Larry Overholt, Missionary, Honduras
January-March 2016

I first met the Siete de Mayosugar cane workers in May 2014 when Angie and I were hosting a group of agriculture students from The Ohio State University. One of the scheduled activities for the students’ study-abroad experience was visiting a large local sugar cane operation. While we were touring the fields, I noticed a group of sugar cane workers standing idly off to one side of the field.

As the university students walked through the fields learning about how sugar cane is planted, I was more interested in learning about the group of men and finding out why they were not working. By their gestures and the tones of their voices, the men seemed uneasy. I walked over to them, introduced myself, and explained our purpose for touring the sugar cane operations. After their initial surprise that I spoke Spanish, one of the sugar cane workers recognized me from occasionally seeing me before in the village that they walked through on the way home from work. As I talked with them, I learned that they were temporarily halted because the seed material they had been planting had run out and new material had not arrived yet. The sugar cane planters are paid by the amount of work they get done daily. When there was no material available to plant, they did not make any money.

The temperature was near 100 degrees and the men were taking advantage of the lull in the work schedule to rehydrate their bodies. One of the workers told me that they live in the mountain region above the village of Siete de Mayo where our Shalom church ministry team has been actively working for the past several years. As we talked, we learned that we had several friends in common within the Siete de Mayo community, especially Veronica, who happened to be a family member to David, one of the workers. Veronica was our key contact person when we first started a new ministry there. Without her support, it is unlikely that we would have ever been able to begin the ministry that is now growing. I was reminded how important it is to keep a positive testimony in the community and to build our network of relationships.

One of the missionaries’ major challenges is to find ways to build relationships with people. With the sugar cane workers, there were potential cultural barriers at two different levels: that of a North American and even more as an outsider from their community. The first meeting out in the middle of the field with the sugar cane workers has led to more opportunities to continue talking with the men. Someday, we hope to be able to enter their communities to share the gospel of Christ. We are continually amazed at how God opens ministry opportunities by allowing us to become friends of the “friends of a friend.”

In order to get to know the workers better, I approached them with a request to take photos of areas of interest in their lives. Each worker was given a disposable camera, and, once the pictures were developed, they chose one favorite picture to talk about.

ACT: Share the joy of pictures with someone new in your life just as Larry did with his new friends. Take time to share your favorites so you can learn more about each other’s lives. The experience may have lasting memories just as it did here.

Prayer Calendar March 6-12, 2016

As the university students walked through the fields learning about how sugar cane is planted, I was more interested in learning about the group of men and finding out why they were not working. By their gestures and the tones of their voices, the men seemed uneasy. I walked over to them, introduced myself, and explained our purpose for touring the sugar cane operations.

March 6-12: Praise God for open doors to building relationships. p.16

Souls and Soles

Hubert Harriman, President
January-March 2016

The invention of photography will probably remain as one of the more memorable discoveries in the history of mankind—to be able to capture a moment in time. Some pictures stay with you for a long time; they speak to powerful truths and stories. Let me tell you about one of those pictures that will always stand out in my mind.

I was participating (translating) with a youth team led by my oldest daughter, Anne, to the Manuelito Project, a ministry that saves children off the streets of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Our trip started where the work had started—in the church that Jorge Pinto pastors. Pastor Jorge took us into his office and immediately captured our attention, and the heart of their ministry, with a pair of shoes. He told us of a poor boy named David, whom they had rescued off the streets. He had been in their program for a while when David started asking for a new pair of shoes. Pastor Jorge argued that his shoes looked fine, until other kids told him to look at the soles. They were completely gone. The shoes just looked good from the top side, but he was literally walking barefoot on the bottom side. Then, he brought David into the office. A young man now, David had been transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ because someone had cared for his soul as well as his soles. It was a powerful moment, to say the least.

Later that year, our children were with us for Christmas, and Anne gave me a special gift. She had taken a picture of David’s shoes and had framed that picture especially for me. That picture is hanging on our living room wall as a constant reminder that we must have eyes to see not only the soul, but the whole of each human being.

The apostle John wrote: “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?” (1 John 3:17, NIV). I want to see the soul need of every person, but I also want to see the “sole” need of every person. Someone may look good on the “top side” of their shoes, but be suffering on the “bottom side” of their shoes. I pray for an eye to see underneath the veneer of the world—to discern that, even though people can look happy on the outside, they may be walking on bare feet. The deeper hurts are often overlooked when we don’t really look.

WGM is purposed to deal with both the souls and “soles” of those around us, seeking to bring God’s healing to the whole person. That is God’s sole purpose! We can do no less.

GO: Has God called you to serve kids in Honduras with your church, a work team, or as a volunteer? The Manuelito Project needs people interested in children’s and youth work, education, and much more! Visit www.wgm.org/honduras to learn more.