\”We cannot continue all of our programs at the school…Because of the global economic crisis.\”
It was summer 2008. I can honestly remember rolling the pebbly fragments of an attempted concrete floor under my foot, wondering how on earth this man learned to say that statement. We were in Naqu, Tibet, huddled around a yak dung burning stove inside of the principal\’s administration quarters of the district\’s public schools. There was no electricity or windows in that building. Over the previous summer (through the help of EHC.ORG) SEAPC had sponsored the lifesaving care of 42 kids from that district as part of our Touching Hearts program. Now, in our \”follow up\” meeting with the high school principal, we were rejoicing in the health of those kids but at the same time learning from a very eager local leader how fast and far crisis based news can travel.
Panic ensued in many parts of the earth in 2008 bringing terrible loss and no real value to the people who embraced it. I can remember reading the reports of more than 10,000 suicides that followed in the panic\’s terrible wake and contemplating how or if the world would ever recover from such a state. But panic is certainly not the only action that follows crisis. One Chinese character for crisis is made of two fundamentally different words: danger and opportunity. It\’s true, in every crisis situation there is both the dangerous realities of risk and potential harm as well as the rewards of gained wisdom, expanded territory, and new relationships. Panic is only one of the more frightening potential byproducts of crisis.
Panic grows within us as we put our focus on the risk and potential harm of crisis. However, opportunity is always rooted in the hope we have for the future. The opportunities of crisis seem harder for us humans to embrace than the panic of potential harm, but they are undoubtedly timeless in their historic power to overcome. The hope of gained wisdom, expanded territory, and new relationships have moved every culture in time from crisis into newfound glory. 2008 was no different. In those days, the churches around the world swelled with people who were eager to place their hope in Jesus Christ, abandoning panic and fear for the love they\’d need to press into the future. Panic turned to glory and hope restored the nations.
I\’m pretty sure that the Great Recession of 2008 had no known impact on the yak dung supply used to heat Naqu\’s public schools, but I also know from a very real firsthand account that news of the widespread crisis reached the ends of the earth and motivated even the most remote people to identify opportunity and take action for change. The man we met—oblivious to the cracking concrete underfoot, the draft of high Tibetan plateau air rushing through his window frame, or the undeniable smell of poop burning on the stove—was focused only on the hope of his future and did not let rumors of panic keep him from taking action to make the world around him better.
Today we face the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Its impact has already reached the ends of the earth. The crisis is real but in the crisis, I\’ve embraced a great scripture of hope to keep me focused on Jesus. The scripture reads, \”And now we have run into his heart to hide ourselves in his faithfulness. This is where we find his strength and comfort, for he empowers us to seize what has already been established ahead of time—an unshakeable hope!\” (Hebrews 6:18 TPT)
The hope is also real. At SEAPC we have taken all necessary measures following the righteous leading of governmental decisions made in the nations we serve, shutting down schools, closing off children\’s homes, postponing any non-critical travel or events.
In the meantime, we have maintained a truth that we have found more historic and unfailing than man\’s triumph in crisis: our God is a good God who answers prayer.
We are committed to prayer, and that commitment keeps our focus on the hopeful opportunities that crisis presents. We are confident that our God will provide everything we need to overcome crisis and further to pull wisdom, health, provision, and revelation in His love for us from the opportunities this hope ensures.
As we walk these days out together, from your local community to places like Naqu, Tibet, let’s leave panic to its own devices and engage a hope in Jesus Christ and look to God above for the opportunities this crisis brings to take action in changing the world around us for good.
Ultimately, we helped that man in Naqu renovate his school. He put his hope in Jesus and his prayers were answered. In fact, SEAPC continues to serve the families in that community with health and education on a daily basis. He is part of the church now in Naqu undoubtedly reading the reports of the coronavirus today and joining with his friends in this community to unite their prayers to ours in hope for the future.
Please know that we are with you in this moment standing ready to pray together in the everlasting hope of Jesus Christ.
