Crisis: Danger & Opportunity

The Chinese word for “crisis” is made up of the two characters: Danger & Opportunity. That would accurately describe our last 10 days. Thursday as the Internet returned, the pro-democracy protesters clashed violently clashed with the pro-government protesters—an ugly turn of events sending the future spiraling toward oblivion. Even more chilling for us was the reports that state-run television was broadcasting blame on “foreign elements” for sparking the protests and riots. In particular, journalists were targeted and much of what you heard on the news flowed from the attacks on them. It was terrifying for them and disturbing for us. Meanwhile in our part of town it was calm. No one was eying us with suspicion, but we were quite aware that anti-foreigner sentiment could multiply and spread to our neighborhood eventually. Yet the neighborhood watches continued with a good spirit of community.


Friday was dubbed “Day of Departure” by the protesters, but the only ones departing were more foreigners. Karan’s school sent out their first voluntary evacuation flight on Friday. The rest of us were told to stay inside. A few members of our church who did not hear this admonition were moving about and were picked up by the police. They were taken to the police station and questioned as to why they were here and were they journalists. One woman had a picture in her camera of herself posed by a tank. They made her delete the picture. They released them without further incident. Though the protesters are anxious to get their message out, there is another sizeable segment of average citizens who realize that reports have not presented their country in a favorable light.

The tourists are gone and the average poor person is feeling the effects of hunger as the nation’s economy has shut down. There is a definite mood of “Let’s get back to work so we can eat.” Democracy is a wonderful goal, but you can’t suddenly jump right into it without a huge risk of an extremist faction flowing into the power vacuum ala Iran 1979. The mindset and education system here emphasizes rote learning and not thinking outside the box. There is also entrenched corruption and apathy. True and fair democracy will be a learned system over a period of time.


By Saturday there was a palpable sense of relief that nothing violent had occurred the day before. We had our church service at noon attended by around 150 people. The spirit was amazing and electric. We took Communion to remember why we have remained here. As we took the bread and wine, Steve focused on how we are an extension of that Body that provides vital community, and we have the sacrificial blood of Jesus flowing through our spiritual veins to serve those around us. Mark, the worship pastor, shared a story of how his neighbors were opening up as they manned the barricades in the wee hours of the night. One guy from the majority religion here when he saw Mark’s guitar said, “Do you know that song ‘O Happy Day’? The one with the words, “When Jesus washed my sins away.’ ” So here they were belting out this gospel song with the very lyrics that form the center of our message. When we were going to close with a song, you could just tell that the crowd was not ready to go after 75 minutes. Something deeply Spirit-driven was at work. We wanted—no, we HAD—to connect with God. The congregation wanted to keep singing. When we spontaneously sang “O Happy Day” the place rocked! There was more volume and joy than when we had three times as many people under the tent. For the first time in a long time, Steve was overcome with tears. We kept going for another 20-25 minutes. We all realize that we and our church will never be the same!


This is a time of huge opportunity. Here is a letter from the pastor of a large downtown church made up of local people:
“Our prayer meetings had begun to intensify the last three months, accompanied with forty days of fasting by the end of the year, in which more than 1200 people participated. We heard many prophetic messages about what is to come, clear words indicating a huge change is coming in 2011. On New Years Eve, a clear word from Exodus 34:10 came to us saying, that He is going to things that no one ever heard before in our land. The feeling we had was similar to the feelings of Esther, a time of a great danger mixed with a time of great victory, and how the Lord put her in this position for such a time as this (Esther 4:14)."

It’s now Sunday and Karan and Alex’s school is opening up for a few hours to begin charting a course for starting face-to-face classes later in the week. Things are calming down, but one person from this land said yesterday, “Yes, but there is deep anger just under the surface.” Whatever the future holds, we are learning daily a deeper dependence on God through all the ups and downs and future fears.

Jesus' baptism site in Jordan


With Love,
Steve and Karan