Don't Hesitate to Rescue

A few years ago, my mom told me a story that had been told to her from one of our dear family friends. He had been out to a work lunch and aspirated on a bite of food. Seconds passed as he struggled to get air, while all his colleagues watched him cough. Just when he began to seriously worry for his life, someone at a nearby table came to his rescue.

When telling the story later, he encouraged us to not hesitate to rescue. When someone is suffocating, you can't stand by and watch wide eyed, or hope that someone else will come to their rescue. You must rescue them now. 

This week, we traveled to Jinja, the source of the Nile, so Benji and his brothers could white water raft and I could have a day to read and rest. (I'm just not adventurous, sorry). We traveled by bus with several other rafters. Once we arrived, myself and one other woman stayed behind as every other adventurous soul was outfitted in helmets and life jackets. There was barely time to blow Benji a kiss before he was whisked away. 

After a few hours of fiddle faddling around, the woman and I were loaded into the back of an open bed truck amongst stacks of chairs, plastic tables, and a lifetime supply of toilet paper to make the very bumpy journey to the Nile campsite. 

She and I got talking, and I learned that she lives a very wanderlustful life. She is here in Uganda for a few weeks, then off to Greece, then Siberia, and she doesn't know exactly when she will return to her home in New Zealand. She mentioned the hardest part of her travels is seeing the immense differences in wealth and suffering. 

While talking about all the places she's been, I kept saying "oh! My sister/cousin/husband/brother in law served a mission for our church there..." Since that was practically the only connection I had to most of the places she's been. 

Then, I got that feeling. That gentle, relentless rubbing on my heart that it was this girls' turn to hear about the Gospel. In the course of our conversation she had mentioned that she believed all life was connected and she believed in governing, supernatural forces, but she didn't really believe in God or have any defined beliefs at all. I was afraid. How come it is so much harder to talk to white people about the Gospel than it is to talk to Africans??

So I said a prayer in my heart: "Dear Heavenly Father. Please bless the missionaries to find this girl someday." To which He promptly replied, "Bethany. I sent you." 

Then I thought, "okay maybe tonight we will all sit around the campfire and it will be the perfect opportunity to talk to her. Then I will have Benjis help and this truck is too loud and irreverent anyway, you can't introduce the gospel to someone in the back of a truck on a highway in Uganda." 

Then in my heart I heard the words of our dear friend: "you cannot hesitate to rescue." 

The Spirit whispered to me that this woman has likely never been told in her life that she is a daughter of God. And maybe, the opportunity will never come to her again, for a long time. The time for her to know was now. 

So I gathered my courage and I looked at her and I said "forgive me, I know you said you're not religious, but I just feel like I should tell you this. In my church we believe that God is our Father, and that makes all of us His children, you are His daughter and I am His daughter. And even though there is a lot of suffering and inequality in this world, eventually because of Jesus Christ, because He knows us all perfectly, everything will be alright. And I just felt like I needed to tell you that."

She smiled, and asked the name of my church, and then told me thank you. 

I don't know why it is so difficult to talk about something that is so precious to me. But I'm thankful that I was the messenger for this loved daughter of God, that He trusted me enough to tell her even though He knew it would be hard. 

Whether it is physical or spiritual suffocating, we cannot hesitate to rescue.