Page 8 - Good News July 2014 paper

“I Leave the Costing to You”
“I Leave the Costing to You”
Continued from p. 1
Continued from p. 1
news came to Darlene’s prison camp that
Russell had died, she was understandably
devastated. That night, alone on her thin
mat in the barracks, God came to her
through Scripture: “He hath sent me to
bind up the broken-hearted... to comfort all
that mourn... to give unto them beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the
garment of praise for the spirit of heavi-
ness” (Isaiah 61:1-3).
“Experientially,” Darlene said, “I was
beginning to understand the comfort of the
Holy Spirit... The sword of sorrow had
pierced deep within me, but He had bathed
the sword in oil.” Over and over the Holy
Spirit would bring to mind memorized
Scripture at just the right time to sustain
her.
Through encouragement from other to mind, “The Lord is a strong tower: the
believers - God blessed Darlene by righteous runneth into it and is safe.”
providing other believers in her prison
barracks. Every morning and evening,
they read the Bible, sang hymns and
prayed together. Serving and encouraging
others helped distract the women from
their own suffering, and created a feeling
of community in the barracks.
When Darlene was taken away for months
of solitary confinement, she remembered
the last charge one of the other mission-
aries gave her. “Lassie, whatever you do,
be a good soldier for Jesus Christ.” That
challenge became her prayer: “Let me be a
good soldier for You.”
Through prayer - Darlene learned what it
meant to pray without ceasing. During her
months of solitary confinement and daily
interrogations, Darlene had a conver-
sational stream of requests and praise
going up at all times. She asked God for
A MUSTARD SEED OF FAITH
emember the bleeding woman in
Mark 5? When she heard that Jesus
Rwas passing by, she thought to
herself, “If I can just touch His robe, I will
be healed” (Mark 5:28). Hidden in her heart
was a mustard seed of faith - the kind that
grows into a large, fruitful plant.
“I encountered this kind of faith on a trip to
Brazil,” relates Gary Wilkerson. “I asked a
local pastor to take me on a tour through
an impoverished community to see how
‘World Challenge’ might help with some of
the needs. Brazil's ‘favelas’ are the
equivalent of America's most desperate
urban ghettos, only worse - much worse.
There is no electricity or running water.
The streets function as sewers, flowing
strength to endure, thanked Him for her
daily portion of runny oatmeal and mag-
gots, asked Him to heal her body and
begged Him to protect her friends. Darlene
realized her own powerlessness and cast
herself completely on God.
By taking every thought captive - Darlene
had to learn the hard way of the danger of
letting her imagination run wild. In solitary
confinement, she drifted into what she
called the “spiritually unprofitable game of
suppose.”
“Suppose the Japanese do win the war,
what then? Suppose Mother and Father are
gone. Suppose my brothers are fighting in
this war. What if none of us ever return
home?” After only a few minutes of this
thinking, Darlene would be plunged into
despair. But again, God brought Scripture
Darlene remembered that Jesus was her
Defense; she could hope in Him and be
ultimately safe. She decided to take no
thought of tomorrow, but to live gratefully
and dependently in the present.
Despite her fears, Darlene would indeed
return home, marry again and return to the
mission field. God never left her nor
forsook her. Looking back over the years
that had cost her so much, Darlene was
grateful. She said, quoting Charles
Spurgeon, “I can thank my God for every
storm that has wrecked me on the Rock,
Jesus Christ.”
© 2011 Susan Verstraete.
www.ccwtoday.org
The whole story of God’s provision for
Darlene can be found in the book
“Evidence Not Seen” by Darlene Rose,
Harper and Row, 1988.
with human waste. Homeless orphans years old, interceding for this community where
roam looking for food and shelter. The gangs and drug lords continue to kill. But now I can
favelas have no governing bodies or police go home to You because you have sent this man to
and instead are run by drug lords. care for our community.” Gripping my hands, she
then prayed for what our ministry would do - start a
“The pastor who took me to the favela was school, an orphanage, a medical clinic, a feeding
a former drug addict. He wanted me to meet program - all of which we were enabled to do. It
the faithful elderly woman who had led him happened because she prayed in faith, ‘Lord, you
to Christ. She was over one hundred years will’ - and the force of her faith fuelled my own. I
old and still lived in a humble shack. Years began trusting God to bring all of these things to
earlier she had evangelized the young man, pass through our ministry.”
telling him day after day, ‘There is hope for
you. Jesus will change your life.’” “Don't misunderstand: this woman's faith was not
the name-it-and-claim-it kind. Her prayer wasn't
“As the pastor introduced me to this saintly based on some wish or whim, but on a desire that
woman, she immediately began praying: had been sown in her heart by the Holy Spirit. It was
‘God, you have brought this man to me. I in agreement with God's Own desire to bring about
have prayed to you since I was eighteen His Kingdom on Earth.” [Gary Wilkerson, JNI 911].