|
Christian Writer and Speaker I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. |
|
|
|
Some Kind of Hero by Judy Vandiver
He doesn’t look like a hero. He stands about 5’7” tall, has a sway back and knobby knees. What hair he has left is beginning to lose its color. He thinks his waist line is somewhere below his portly belly. He likes to stand with his hands in the pockets of his faded jeans, looping his thumbs on the outside. His jeans are usually too long, causing him to walk on and wear out the hem. They also hang baggy in the seat area. He quit high school a year before graduation. His grammar is tarnished and his spelling is atrocious. He is simply known as Mr. Steve.
Mr. Steve may not look like a hero, but he plays large in the eyes and hearts of those who know him, as he strives to meet the needs of his two circles of friends on opposite sides of the world.
Until the winter of 2003, his world was composed of a small radius of friends and family. About the most he drove his old battered pick-up truck was five miles to a local refinery where he worked or ten miles to a community church where he worshipped God.
As the media brought coverage of the fighting in Iraq into his living room, Mr. Steve heard God speak to him about the people of the war-torn country. At the weekly Friday night bible study he attended with his wife and several friends, he would often bring up the Iraqi people, asking others to join him in praying for these strangers. Then one night, he asked the group to pray for him, as he felt God wanted him to go to Iraq, work to rebuild the country and share the gospel with the faces he saw on the television.
God opened doors. In May of 2003, Mr. Steve quit his job of thirty years. Within a few weeks, he held his breath as he first crossed the border from Kuwait into Iraq. Entering the country as an advisor on a military contract, Mr. Steve began assisting in the restoration of Iraq’s Liquid Petroleum Gas, a much needed resource to the inhabitants of this mid-east country. This job would also give him close and daily contact with the Iraqi people as he worked side-by-side with them.
Mr. Steve thanked God for the opportunity to help the people he saw around him. “All those years in a small refinery in southeast Texas, I didn’t realize it, but God had been preparing me for this particular responsibility,” he writes in an email to his family. “I have been given the skills and knowledge to be placed in this position and I have to ask myself why God wants me here.
Yes, I believe He wants me to help in rebuilding the refinery, but that is not God’s ultimate reason for taking me half-way around the world and away from my family. The central reason God wants me here is so I can share with the people of this land, about Jesus Christ, who He was, who He is, and who He wants to be to them. I have asked God for opportunities to speak about and show the love of Christ.”
God has been faithful in giving Mr. Steve those opportunities. And Mr. Steve has been faithful in expressing his passion for Christ. “I have many friends, here,” writes Steve. “They follow different religions, Shiite, Sunni and Christian. They are eager to talk about Christianity and ask me to compare my beliefs to theirs. I tell them I will share with them, but that there is no comparison to Jesus Christ. This intrigues them and they want to know more.”
“Many of my Iraqi friends want to know why I would come to their land. I tell them that Christ wanted me to come. He asked me to come help them and I said ‘yes’. I show them ways to repair their refineries so they will have stable jobs for the future. I laugh and tell jokes with them. I eat with them. I cry with them. And I continue to pray for them.
I try to help meet needs in physical and tangible ways when I can. When I go into Kuwait or on a trip back to the United States, I bring them gifts of books, medicine, toys and other items that they can not easily obtain in their country. I was able to arrange for one family to get a washing-machine. I pray that they will understand that I do these things in the name of Jesus Christ. When they see that I care, it is my desire for them to know that it is ultimately Christ who cares for them.”
Many of Mr. Steve’s new friends consider him family. One man showed Steve a picture of his wife, but would not let another close Iraqi friend see the picture. When asked why he behaved like that, the Iraqi man said that he could only show the picture to family. “You are like a brother,” he said, “therefore, you can see the picture.”
Another Iraqi man came to the refinery one day to tell Mr. Steve that his wife had just delivered a baby. “We have named him in honor of a great man,” he said. “We shall call him Steve.”
“I have also learned from my wonderful new friends,” shares Steve, “things that help me in my faith. They are very open in their prayers to Allah, and are not ashamed to have people see them praying publicly. They will have services at their place of work during their holy days. Often a Sheik will come to the refinery and read parts of the Koran, ending with a short sermon. Although it is not required to attend these services, most of the workers take time from their day to go and worship. The people are very transparent and do not try to hide what they believe.”
On the other side of the world, waits another group of people that Mr. Steve deeply cares about. Being so far away is demanding. Mr. Steve was unable to fly home, recently, when his father passed away. Phone calls and the knowledge that when he sees his father again, it will be on streets of gold, are what bring him comfort. In contrast to the death of his father, Mr. Steve will soon miss the birth of an anticipated grandchild. But even being so far away, Mr. Steve reaches out to those he loves. He monthly sends money to his mother and 101 year old grandmother. One of his grandsons recently received a special phone call from Iraq, congratulating him on a little league home-run. On a visit back to the United States, Mr. Steve had a giant birthday party for all his grandchildren, because he knew he would miss many of those important days in the year ahead. Still, he wanted each of them to know that they were special to him.
During a two-month break in the work schedule in 2004, rather than sit at home, Mr. Steve traveled to Mexico to volunteer at a church school for under privileged children. The mistress of the school shared, “God and Mr. Steve’s timing were perfect. We had a teacher who had to take a two-month emergency leave. We didn’t know how we were going to fill her position. We prayed and Mr. Steve showed up on our doorstep.” In January 2005, while Mr. Steve was home for a short visit, he and his wife traveled to Mexico to visit the group of students he had come to love.
Chapter eleven of Hebrews is sometimes referred to as a chapter filled with ‘Heroes of Faith’. The verses tell about the faith of great men of God, including Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and others. Verses eight and nine tell us, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.”
It is with that same faith that Mr. Steve, when called to go to an unfamiliar place, obeyed and went. He has lived like as a stranger in a foreign country. Those who know and love Mr. Steve would eagerly agree he is also a Hero of Faith.
|
|
|
Contact Judy at judy@judyvandiver.com or write Judy Vandiver; 1626 Berlino Dr.; Pearland, TX 77581 |
Judy Vandiver