Rebecca

We’d been ministering non-stop in Asia and were all exhausted. We’d planned this one night for rest and shopping. We’d traveled an hour away, up a dangerous mountain road, to help a local doctor. We were tired and were anxious to get back to a leisurely evening.  On the way, our van driver (who had watched us help sick people all day), asked us if we’d be willing to go visit his friend who was very sick. Of course, my husband said “yes.”  But inwardly, I was disappointed—watching our only chance for rest slip away.  We got to that house and a very sick 20-year-old girl named Rebecca was lying in bed.  Her skin was yellow and it was obvious she was very sick.  Our doctors looked at her and found out through an interpreter that she’d been to doctors and there was nothing else they could do and the family couldn’t afford to send her to a hospital. As a group, we pooled our money together and took her to the hospital.  But before she went, we shared the gospel with her and her family.  Miraculously, they ALL gave their hearts to Jesus that night. We visited her in the hospital the next morning and then left for the airport to go home.  On our way, we got a call that Rebecca had died.  We were devastated...and at the same time comforted, knowing she was in heaven.  It took me awhile to see the miracle in all of it.  

Jesus’ disciples experienced the same thing.  They’d been ministering for days.  At last, Jesus said, “Let’s get away so you can rest.”  But as they got across the lake to a private spot, thousands had run ahead of them and were waiting on them so they could be healed. The Bible says, “and Jesus was moved with compassion for them.”   I think the disciples responded like I did, “There goes our chance for rest!”  You know the rest of the story.  Jesus healed the sick and cast out demons and then before everyone left, he fed over 5000 of them with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.  It was miraculous!!  

Mark 6:52 says, “For they (the disciples) had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened.”  Why was it hardened?  Because they’d had expectations of rest.  While Jesus’ response was compassion when he saw the crowd, I think their response was to be disheartened, or angry, or frustrated.  I know that was my response when I expected to rest and shop and instead stopped for one more ministry opportunity.  But they missed it!!   And I missed it.  Of course, it later became one of their favorite stories to tell because they saw God at work!  I know that every time Andy tells the story of Rebecca, I feel sad that I would have chosen rest when Rebecca was only 24 hours away from hell.  Praise God that Andy, like Jesus, had compassion.  Because of his compassion, Rebecca is in heaven. Her family gathered every night for weeks to read the one Bible they owned—and the one family member who can read shares it with the rest of them.  

Of course, I see the miracle of it now.   I just wish my heart, like the disciples,  hadn’t been hardened at the time.