Her face was hard. In a culture of friendly openness, Lina seemed to wear a harsher expression than most women I’d met. I met her when we started literacy class. She was one of about thirty people who didn’t give their names in advance…they just came to the first day of class.
I wondered what her story was, but her Pidgin was limited and my Kamea doesn’t go beyond times of day and basic introductions.
We didn’t know that she and her sister argued often. Her sister insisted that Lina was going to hell, no matter what. After all, Lina isn’t married, and she has two children. Her sister’s words tore at her soul. “You are a wicked woman. You walk around down any road, and have anyone’s children. You can never go to Heaven.”
In literacy class, day after day, Lina heard something different. “We are, every one of us, sinners. We have only done what was wrong, and we all deserve the wrath of God in judgment. But Jesus only did what was right! So when He died, God didn’t ‘court’ Him for His own sin. He didn’t do any! God punished Jesus for OUR sins. And everyone who ‘hangs everything up’ on Jesus will be forgiven.”
“Jesus is the ‘namelman’ [middle man] between us and God! We are God’s enemies, as we break His law and follow our own ideas. Jesus did everything necessary to bring us back to God.”
“The grace of God is bigger than all our sin. The blood of Jesus is stronger than all our sin. He can clean us and give us His righteousness!”
Lina sat on the front row, day after day, shaking her head and clicking her tongue in amazement. Noni and I observed that God seemed to be working in her heart, and we prayed the more.
Monday, May 20th, Lina’s face was downcast. Gentle Noni asked her if she was alright.
“No. I have a hevi.”
“Let’s talk after class.”
During reading circle, Lina sat on my left, pressed against my shoulder. God, I love this woman. I want her to read, but I want her to know You.
As the last students sauntered out, Noni whispered, “I have a request. Pray for Lina. She has a question that I’ve never answered before. She wants to know if she can go to Heaven even though she has children and isn’t married. I think I’ll tell her about the woman Jesus talked to in John 4.”
We prayed together right then, and I left as Noni sat down beside Lina. Over the next two hours, I hoped and prayed and waited to hear how the conversation went.
At 1:40, I walked back to the school building for the afternoon class. Noni and Lina sat exactly where I had left them, hugging and weeping. Is this good or bad weeping?
Noni smiled through tears as I walked up. “God i kisim bek em!” I sat down and hugged and cried with them. Then Lina got up, wiping her face, and left.
“Noni, tell me the story! What happened?”
“I read her the story from John 4 about Jesus and the woman from Samaria, who had five husbands and then was with a man who wasn’t her husband. Lina listened and understood. Then I read to her from John 8, about the woman who was shamed before everyone and brought to Jesus so He could ‘court’ her [bring justice]. Jesus said, ‘Mi no kotim yu. Go, na no ken mekim sin gen.’ Lina told me, ‘I feel like Jesus is saying these words straight to me right now. What do I do?’
“I read her Romans 10:9-10, and told her to call out to Jesus. She replied, ‘I don’t know the first step of prayer.’
“I just told her it’s Jesus, and she knows Who He is and what He’s done. So call out to Him. And she did! I didn’t tell her what to pray, she just prayed and wept and asked Jesus to save her.
“Then she wondered again, still crying, ‘But can I really go to Heaven?’ So I showed her John 14:6, that Jesus is the road to the Father. She cried, ‘Mi painim Jisas bilong mi! I found my Jesus!’”
The next thing Lina told Noni was astounding. “Yesterday, you could have heard bad news about me. I was thinking that since nobody loves me, not even my family, I would kill myself and my children. But I didn’t. Now I know that God was giving me the chance to repent.”
Noni embraced her, mixing her tears with Lina’s, and replied, “Now you know that God loves you. And Jesus came to give you life.”
“The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
John 10:10
How grateful we are that the thief could not kill and destroy our dear friend! How precious is the Good Shepherd, Who gave His life to give us ours!
As I reflect on Lina’s conversion, I am overwhelmed by two things. One, I marvel at God’s grace to me. I am the Samaritan woman. I am the woman brought to Jesus in John 8. I am a sinner, just like Lina. And God saved me. The blood of Jesus cleansed me from all my sin. I am washed from my filth because Jesus claimed my condemnation as His own. I am pure and righteous, not because I have done pure and righteous things, but because Jesus did. God gave Him the wrath I earned, and now gives me the favor Jesus earned.
That will never get old.
Two, I marvel at the power of God’s plan for discipleship. That Monday afternoon didn’t just happen. For years, people have invested in Noni’s life. Sarah especially has spent much time discipling her. Last year, Chelsea started a Bible study to pull the youth girls of our church together to grow in the Word. Pastor Ben shepherds Noni (and all our youth) so well. His teaching of the Word and passion for evangelism and holiness is cultivating Biblical knowledge and sanctification. And behind Pastor, there are John and Matt and Andrew and others who invested much in his discipleship.
And we could go back further. Who discipled Sarah, and the Allens, and Andrew, and Chelsea? They have a part in Lina’s coming to faith too.
My part in the story is small, but it was still a part. I got to lift up the glory of Jesus in the gospel daily in literacy class, as others have magnified Him to me before.
And the Spirit of God, working through the Word of God in the mouths of the people of God, breathed new life into a dead soul here in the bush in PNG.
How many people did He use as His instruments? Who knows. It doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that God is building His church. He is saving people, and in grace He calls us to be part of what He is doing!
How can you measure the impact of discipleship? It’s not possible. Eternity, and nothing else, will reveal the yields of spiritual investment.
Lina has two children. They will grow up with a mother who can read, and mother who knows Jesus. What will those children become?
There are other women in these communities who are shamed by sexual sin. Will Lina be able to reach them?
Noni’s soul is on fire. Lina was the first person she saw converted. How much will this encourage her to proclaim the gospel more and more to others?
And on and on it goes.
What are you spending your life for? Whether we’re preaching the gospel in a mountain village, or repairing engines, or selling cars, or telling small children the same basic facts of life forty-two times a day, if we are Christians, our life is about discipleship. “I long to faithfully follow Jesus all the days of my life. What can I do to help other people follow Jesus too?” That is the mission Jesus gave His church.
I know every Christian doesn’t go to the mission field. But shouldn’t we all ask the question, as we are about the work of the mission? “Can I go to one of the places in the world where there are no disciples, and start making disciples there?”
If we go to Kazakhstan, we go there to make disciples; and if we stay in Kentucky, we stay there to make disciples.
Why wouldn’t we make discipleship the most important work of our lives? The kingdom of God is advancing. He commands us to engage in the only thing that will matter eternally. “Make disciples from every nation.” He will save and sanctify them. And He will use us in that process, as He uses others in our lives to do the same.
One day, an innumerable multitude of disciples will gather around God’s throne, redeemed from every family and language group in the world. May we live our lives today for the praise of God on that day, and into eternity beyond!
“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
Matthew 28:18-20
“And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.”
Revelation 5:9-10