Aftermath

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.

Isaiah 26:3

It’s totally frustrating when the phone dies. When the electricity goes off. When someone makes fun because of jokes, movies, or activities that are unsavory to a believer. Frustration. Deprivation. Persecution. But…really? Maybe inconvenient would be a better word. Because the phone will charge, the electricity will come on, and another person’s opinion is just that.

Our brothers and sisters in Kashmir, India, have had a season of great difficulty. The political atmosphere, as in all nations, has spilled over into other areas of life. It is a set of issues far too complex to explore or even totally comprehend from a Western mindset. But what we can understand is a portion of the effects the communication restrictions had on the nation. And we look forward to what lies ahead for the work of the Lord in the aftermath.

Hillsong United has written an amazing song, “Aftermath.” It captures the heart of a Father who sent His Son as a sacrifice.

Freedom found in your scars

And in your grace my life redeemed

For you chose

To take the sinners crown

As you placed your crown on me

And in that moment

Of glorious surrender

Was the moment

You broke the chains in me

Lifted out of the ashes

I am found in the aftermath

If believers in Kashmir are in the aftermath, what does that even mean? And if the chains are broken now, will they stay broken? What exactly is this freedom? How can we stand in the ashes with our friends?

Of course, it is understood that when any person accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior, the personal chains of their sin are obliterated. The ashes of their lives after rebirth are blown away like ephemeral dust. But individual renewal does not equate with societal renewal. So people find themselves personally free even while earthly life continues to bind them.

There is the potential for future unrest in Kashmir. That could be true for any country. If communication is once again cut-off, if projects stall, if persecution arises, how should the rest of the believing world respond? There are always two “Sunday School” answers to every question: Jesus and prayer. They are always correct. But unpacking what that looks like in reality is going from milk to meat, as Paul says of the maturation of believers in Hebrews 5:12.

SEAPC has come alongside the Church of North India, regional pastors, and a local ophthalmologist with a dream to open a school for the blind in Srinagar. Many have lost eyesight following injuries during riots, others through medical issues. The goal is to teach life skills and to provide a way for the blind to thrive in the culture.

Cecelia Manning, Matt Geppert, Bill Richardson, and others from SEAPC have traveled to Srinagar to meet with Kashmiri friends. They searched for a building that could house the school and looked at resources. Bridges were built into the community. And then things stopped when Kashmir closed to travel and communication.

In the town of Anantnag, John Bishop Memorial Hospital is an oasis of the Christian faith in a Muslim majority. The hospital serves the needs of women. Babies who are born there receive prayer at birth, covering them with the love of Jesus. The mothers meet the Lord through the excellent care they receive. In addition, there is a nursing school where young Kashmiri women (most of whom are Muslim) learn to become skilled nurses. In addition to a rigorous education, they attend daily Christian devotions, weekly church, and learn songs to praise the Lord. When they graduate, both secular and spiritual knowledge go with them into their homes and careers.

The SEAPC medical team has visited Kashmir to provide clinics to the least and the lost. Student nurses assisted with triage and translation. They witnessed believers praying with patients, listening to tales of violence and abuse with compassion in Jesus’s name and discovered the humanity behind the belief. Due to new government regulations, the school will close if the physical structure isn’t rebuilt. SEAPC prayed and stepped into the gap. Until the gap closed.

As of this writing, Kashmir is slowly opening its communication outlets once again, but travel is once again restricted due to COVID-19. It is possible to be in contact with friends there. It is hoped that soon the time will come when face-to-face meetings will once again be possible. Prayers continue for the blind school and the nursing school. And for God’s guidance to His perfect plan and timing.

Kashmir is in the aftermath of a time of isolation. The ashes aren’t yet blowing away, but are drifting in the breeze. It’s important to remember that although the believers there are truly born again, like all of us they need the support and encouragement of the entire body of the Church. What that will look like will evolve over the next months as many factors are weighed.

Prayer is of the utmost importance at this juncture. Safety, peace, open hearts and minds, steadfast purpose are a beginning. A building, equipment, funds to rebuild, feet on the ground, ongoing dialogue are a few next steps.

SEAPC moves with the intent of relationship before ministry. In submission to God’s authority. Led by the Holy Spirit. By faith before human reason. And so we pray. We listen. We submit. And we have faith that the good work God began will be brought to completion. Not because it makes sense as the world sees it. But because in God’s economy the impossible is always possible.

We invite you to come with us in faith and prayer, to be found in the aftermath.