Knitting Minorities into His Story

Awkward & Uncomfortable:
I just returned from a four-day event where leaders in my role from around my region gathered to pray and seek the Lord for future things. Aside from the Asian-American man representing the Ethnic Field Ministry, I was the only person not Caucasian (of the majority culture community). I knew this would be the case coming in but it didn’t make it any less uncomfortable. To add to the awkward, I was one of about ten women in a room with 30 or so men. I was definitely the minority!

Example:

Just imagine being a majority-culture man at an AME church event where people were invited to knit hats for children with cancer. Now live there for four days…. Sounds a bit crazy but please indulge me. An African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church is a very specific denomination and knitting isn't typically something men are into.

If you're this Caucasian man, you may not like to knit but if you have family, friends, & maybe even your own children who have been diagnosed with cancer, you may do this. You know what it is like to watch them go through painful treatment and not even have the opportunity to “feel normal” with hair or a hat to cover. Simply out of your heart for this person in your life, I’d assume you would stick it out and help knit together something to help.

Well, since it’s 10:40PM and I’m exhausted from the week, this is the analogy I will use.

My heart: That the world will hear.

1. I truly love ethnic minorities. Not just because I am one but because the Lord has burdened my heart as He has opened my eyes to the spiritual depravity of many of these people, especially on the college campus. Most ethnic minorities who I've encountered have been brought up in churches that preach something other than the simple and complete Good News of Jesus or have added to the unfathomable Gospel so that they would be able to make complete sense of it. Very few ethnic minorities (only a handful I personally know) are raised in churches that have taught the fullness of the Gospel. By that, I mean the importance of the knowledge of the scriptures and its application through Kingdom-driven lifestyles. AKA – They may "know" Jesus but they don’t "yada" Him, share Him or live like they do. (*I recognize this isn’t only true of ethnic minorities but is at large a U.S. citizen problem. However it is, for the most part, largely true in the culture of many ethnic minority groups and seen in interacting with them. Myself included.) Many of our people are still drinking milk.
2. God has also opened my heart to see the value of these people in this world and the next. The ethnic minorities on the college campuses of the United States are most likely to be successful in evangelism in the many countries that reject Caucasian Americans. We simply won't be flagged as easily as others may be in closed countries. These students are also in positions where they can encounter great opportunities in the U.S. business world if they can speak a second language or simply relate to a different people group well. Ethnic minorities will be the influencers of this nation and the world. They easily can be and have been a very large part of introducing many to the King!

And so because of these two truths, although I may not be the biggest fan of "knitting with a group of people who are not much like me", I will come, learn and stay until the hurt and dying friends and family who surround me at least have an opportunity to know comfort and meet Love and join His Story. (Knitting - creating opportunities to include God's people in His Kingdom business; helping patch up torn relationships within the body of Christ across ethnic lines) Sure it’s uncomfortable and sometimes doesn't seem worth it for me to work toward this dream around a lot of people who don't look, think or act like me. (Dream - that all people will have the opportunity to hear who Jesus is; ethnic minorities will grow into a more full understanding of God; the "sent ones" working toward this dream would be more equally reflective of those that live in this earth.) But if I don't go, who will?

Challenge: Go.
If those of whom I’m building into now don’t “go” later and those who I work alongside are not making the same efforts to “build” now, when and how will things ever change? Will those who are ill, hurting, and cold (the lost) ever be warmed by the healing knowledge of our Savior or will they suffer til He returns? I’m not asking what is God’s plan and timing because I’m aware He can do whatever He wants with or without us and at whatever time. I also don’t expect things to change tomorrow. I’m simply asking how will they hear if nobody tells them?

For ten years now, I’ve been praying toward this effort and there have been many changes, big and small, within the specific scope I have been involved in and now lead in. I pray now that there will be national changes that will demonstrate God’s love through His ONE bride to the unique world. So that everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus Christ. So that awe will come upon them as they see us worship in our own tongue (different nations and cultures) and the Lord will add, day by day, those who are being saved (added to the ONE family of God).