by Connie Lord, Missionary to England

Here in Birmingham , England we live near, shop beside, and travel on buses with many types of people. Some have lived in England all their lives and have no desire to know anything else. Some have relocated here from third world countries. They wear the clothing of Islam, Sikhism, or other religions or cultures. In the recesses of our minds we wonder if some could be terrorists. And who knows what they wonder about us! We all have our differences our human foibles and our fears resulting from what we read in the paper or see on the news. In reality, we’re all just people who have been taught a certain way of life based on our background and heritage.

Often, as I begin the week, I ask God to help me love the people with whom I will be traveling and working. I think of Jonah and I have a new appreciation for what he must have felt when he rebelled against going to Nineveh . How can I not fear the ones, for instance, who have declared themselves the enemies of Christians? God has brought us to this place to tell folks about Himself just as He sent Jonah. We’re not asked to understand people of other cultures or even to approve of what they do or how they live. But we are commanded to love them and to be obedient in the place and to the task we’re given so that God doesn’t have to deal with us as He did with Jonah.

But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God. . . . By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned (II Corinthians 6:4a, 6).