The Official Writing Challenge
BACK TO
CHALLENGE
MAIN
INSTRUCTIONS
how it works
submission rules
guidelines for
choosing a level
ENTRIES
submit your entry
read current entries
read past entries
challenge winners
Our Daily Devotional HERE
Place it on your site or
receive it daily by email.


TRUST JESUS TODAY

  • Share
  • how it works
  • Submit
Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Fearful (08/23/07)
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. “ (2 Tim. 1:7 NKJV)

You probably heard this prayer: “LORD use me… but send my sister!”
That was the kind of prayer I prayed many years ago before we began traveling with the organization of Brother Andrew.
I had known about his work of smuggling Bibles behind the Iron Curtain from the early years of the mid-fifties.

To read about it and enjoy the many stories of God’s miraculous interventions is one thing, to be involved in it, another!
Anyhow, years later after visiting an information day of Open Doors, my wife began to pray about being couriers ourselves. As she knew about my hesitation, she quietly prayed that the LORD would convince me too.

He did so in a way that I had no excuse to back-out.
Deep in my heart I hoped that just my willingness to go would be enough and that our application would not be accepted.

But God meant business for us. So we received all the proper training and instructions and were off for our first trip to Rumania in the early eighties.

The LORD, in a loving way, had given us a wonderful promise via a sister in the LORD, who felt let to share Jeremiah 29:11 with us,
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” NKJV.

The day before we were to travel, I got an asthma attack but thanks to the many prayers on our behalf, we were able to leave the next day as scheduled.

We arrived safely in Rumania a few days later and were not even asked the dreaded question: “do you have Bibles with you?”
They had asked for anything else except that particular question.

We found the correct address to deliver the precious cargo but had to bring the Bibles in broad daylight into a church.
This piece of information unleashed a spirit of fear in me.
I could not sleep until 4 a.m. when I suddenly remembered the precious promise of Jeremiah 29:11.
I felt the inner insurance that the future would not be in a Rumania prison!
I slept well afterwards and that morning everything worked out smoothly - in record time the five bags were carried safely from our car into the church.
We left without having seen the brothers, who had been secretly watching us, and shouted a big HALLELUJAH when we reached the outskirts of town.

What joy it was to cross back into back into Austria - you really felt the freedom and the luxury of the West.

We reported our successful trip at the Dutch headquarters of Open Doors.
While driving home to Amsterdam my thoughts were like this: This was once but no more!

Guess what? The first Sunday morning in church, the preacher used the above verse of 1Timothy 2:7! And I knew in my heart: here we go again!

The next summer we traveled again to the same country, different address, different story, and still fearful.
But by God’s grace, this time we went in a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be right now. CLICK HERE

JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
This article has been read 1127 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Loretta Kibby
08/30/07
I loved what you wrote. You made it clear that being fearful is not a reason to step out in faith. Thank you for the reminder.
Josiah Kane
08/31/07
I was completely hooked by the title, and it clearly showed the theme of a battle between faith and fear. I also liked the way that it loops at the end of the story, to show that this never ends. But I was wondering whether you could tell what the experience was that convinced you.
Rhonda Clark
09/02/07
What an awesome experience. Smuggling Bibles is very tough work.

Remember to capitalize Bible all the time (I get this same reminder from my crit partners.;)). Also, you may want to consider a different format. It seemed a bit disjointed the way is was.

Great job.
Brenda Buikema
09/03/07
Outstanding. Thanks for sharing this tidbit of yourself with us readers! Great writing.
David Butler
09/04/07
Eye-catching title. Appreciated the honesty and the true courage (i.e. that which overcomes fear) you showed. God seems to use us the most in our weakness. Good real life lessons here.
I had to smile at the "inner insurance" though - unless it was intentional. Maybe there is such a thing?