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We are so accustomed
to freedom, we simply take it for granted. Imagine for a moment you have no
freedom.
Come along on a trip
with a man who goes by the name of Andrew.
Excerpts from his biography published
in 1983 about his travels around the world will help make the imaginary lack of
freedom a reality:
After several hours, I heard the
driver let out a yell of terror. I turned and looked ahead and saw a group of
men all carrying machine guns.
It seemed that these were a group of
bandits who required payment before they would let us into their territory.
One of them pointed his machine gun at my head and signaled to the others to
grab my wife.
“They want to sleep with your wife
and then take her to the harem,” sputtered the driver. “Then they plan to slit
your throat.”
And then a little later in Andrew’s
story we read:
On a particular occasion, one of our
teams was caught by Bulgarian border guards. The team were quizzed for many
hours by the police and then put into custody. The Bulgarian police made one
mistake, however. They neglected to disconnect the phone in the room, and so at
three in the morning, he called me.
“Brother Andrew,” he whispered
through the receiver, hoping his guard outside was now asleep, “we’ve been
caught by the Bulgarians.We could be sent to prison for six years if we are
found guilty. Please pray and get the whole family praying please.”
Andrew had a friend
David who shared some similar experiences:
He told me that as they approached
the beach, a Chinese patrol boat with a manned machine gun on its stem deck
headed straight for the tugboat towing the barge that contained their huge
cargo. . . The boat miraculously went straight by—as if God had blinded the eyes
of its Chinese crew.
David said “I’ll never forget the moment the first blocks of cargo reached the
beach. Although they knew what to expect, there was still a sense of disbelief
as the recipients cut them open and held the cargo close, their eyes brimming
with tears.
“Sheer joy rendered them speechless
as oohs and aaahs echoed over the sand. Finally, they found their tongues and
praised God, their voices ringing with absolute delight. Well before the
delivery these people had told us they would be willing to die to see this book
come to their land. Now they held it in their hands.
The cargo they would be willing to
die for? The cargo that Andrew and David and their helpers risked their lives
for? The Bible.
If only our Bibles could mean as much
to us.
Today let’s cherish the freedoms that
others have died to give us.
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