I have this amazing young friend who is in her twenties! About a year ago she was texting me and at the end of the text she called me a “Rock Star!” LOL!! It was her way of paying me a compliment. It was such a fresh way of showing love and gratitude that I decided to adopt it as my new way of paying tribute to people who do things that I admire or do things that I think are special!
Recently, Brewer, Thomas and I got to have dinner with two people whom I call Rock Stars!! Truly, they are. Let me just introduce them to you!! We came to know them years ago through the college ministry in our church and they would babysit our kids sometimes. Our kids adore them and so do Bill and I. In their 20’s, shortly after they got married, they decided to obey what God led them to do and move to a foreign country, a land in Southeast Asia, to share their faith! They were college graduates who picked up and went to a very foreign place with a very different language. Of course, they had to learn this particular language and, as far as I know it isn’t a language offered in any university course or high school. They now have four children–two boys and two girls.
They have been home over this holiday season and are headed back to the country they now call home. It is really the only thing their four children have known! It was hard to comprehend them telling me that their children were ready to go home???? It really blew my mind. Their children do not enjoy all the luxuries American children enjoy and these kids want to go home to this foreign country! It was so much fun hearing them share what their life is like and it was especially fun hearing Brewer and Thomas quiz them too!! Of course, the boys asked about the sports and if their kids played sports. Football, baseball, etc. are not options in this country……..Why? Because there is no room……land crunch…..there are 1.4 million people in this small country!!!!! It is very, very hot there as well. The parents had to adjust but their kids have never known anything different. I have to be very careful in what I write about this couple and their children because they live in a place hostile to what they believe and the beliefs they desire to share………ULTIMATE COURAGE, FAITH AND LOVE for God!! It really amazes me to spend time with them. Dinner at 7 p.m. turned into a visit that lasted until midnight. They then had an hour drive home to where they have been staying while here on leave. It is the first time they have been in America in three years! Wow!!!
As they shared and we tried to catch up on life since I had seen them last, even though we email some, it was so refreshing and inspiring to me. The sacrifices they have made and the simple life they lead are all for their love of complete and hostile strangers who they are seeking to make their friends! Their lives speak volumes to me……..VOLUMES!! Before we parted ways, we had a time of prayer. Their prayers humbled me…….seriously……..I will pray differently from now on……….They offered no real prayers for themselves……. they prayed for stuff way outside themselves……..!!! It was truly an appointed time for me to change my prayer life!!!
As I finish this post and have tried through my writing to help anyone reading this to “love them,” I ask you to pray specifically for a request I have for them!……One of their sons is experiencing extreme difficulties………right now…….he has some development and educational needs…..he is their youngest child and they knew….something was wrong and have been working and seeking medical answers here in America…..their answers have been “heart breaking!”…..They are awaiting approval to be able to go “home” to continue their work. Their simple request to me was to pray that the board who helps them minister would approve them going back……the approval depends on them getting the needed support to help their son in this foreign land! Of course they want the very best help that they can receive, but they strongly feel that God wants them to go back and that is where their hearts are………So would you please pray for this request for them?………..They truly are Rock Stars……They, of course, are not perfect people and would be the first to tell you so. But they live Mark 12: 30-31 as well as anyone I know…..”‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
This couple……..will never be what most Americans deem as “Famous” but they are “Rock Stars” in God’s eyes and ours!