Status Updates From Facing Terror: The true Sto...

“We arrived in Khartoum, the capital, and I could see David's countenance change. ‘Man, I love this country!’ he said. ‘I'm grateful because the only way someone would ever love this place is if God was calling him here. Only God can impart such a love in one's heart for such an unlovable place?’”

“Unlike God, we can't see the beginning and the end at the same time. If we could, we might turn back. Since we can't, we trust that He can, and follow Him where He leads.”

P. 111
“This was an important revelation to me. I didn't expect to miss Israel and the Middle East once I was back home in Texas but I did. Nor did I expect to miss David and his can-do, what's-around-that-corner perspective on life as much as I did...” (cont in comments)

“Nothing made David happier than life in the Sudan and touching the Arab people with Christianity, whether that meant a prayer walk around the town or a discussion on how their religions differed.”

“…so life was slower than ever. I learned during this time how important my daily spiritual disciplines were. There was nothing I could personally do to impact countries fighting each other, but I could be faithful where God had put me... By faith, I got on my hands and knees and scrubbed…the same floors. Outside, intifada raged, but within my shipping container, I was learning to be quiet amidst the storm.”

“As we walked and waited on the group, David asked what I would do after I finished my term of service in Israel. I told him that I would return home to attend seminary and then come back to the region to work among Arabic-speaking Muslims. He then asked how I came to that decision...” (cont in comments)

“When he arrived in Jordan he was like a puppy whose tail won't stop wagging. He couldn't wait to get started, to explore Jordan, to learn to depend on God completely, to learn the power of prayer and the majesty of God. He wrote in his journal, ‘In order to live out what I plan, I must die to self. I must crucify my will to allow the Holy Spirit to control my life.’”… (cont in comments)

“The powerlessness I felt was unreal. To know better about how to care for a wound than the emergency room staff, yet be unable to help, to have to entrust myself to people whose ultimate motives I didn't know ... I learned things about faith in those moments I had never had to learn before.”

My left leg was in pieces so I stood on the one "good" leg, unable to use my listless arms, struggling to breathe through my nose. My manners had long since gone. "A little help here!" I screamed in English, thinking to myself, Can you not see me shot up here?
(Cont in comments)