God brings people along amazing paths. Take, for example, Roger and Therese. Roger has pastored Colombo Gospel Tabernacle for over 25 years, and both him and his wife have also been the adoptive parents of dozens of orphaned children from around the city over the years. Their spacious, peaceful house is mostly empty now since their children are almost all adults, many married with children and doing ministries of their own, but the house is full of pictures and stories of how God has moved in and through them throughout the years.
Thesere came to Sri Lanka from Seattle in the late 80s after some supernatural prompting and as a single woman with the help of a few locals, began caring for orphan children. Her and Roger met a few years later and were married. They make a
n amazing team and have impacted a huge array of lives through the ministry to their children and to the congregation at the Tab.
What resonated with me most as we attended the Tab and, later that evening, WoW, a radical charismatic church, was that regardless of where in the world you are God’s people are still the same people. It’s not without reason that the apostle Peter calls the physically separated, ethnic and racially diverse believers in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, etc “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9) and the apostle Paul says, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” to the church in Galatia (Galatians 3:28 NIV).
When you enter into the body of Christ you don’t lose your ethnicity, culture, race, language, or identity. Instead those pieces of you are elevated by the beautiful tying-together that takes place as you are united with tens of thousands of others through the blood of Christ. Ignore the language barrier. You’re brothers and sisters with the same daddy. Delight in the cultural differences; your family is an amazing array displaying God’s creativity. Gather together around your savior and king Jesus and you’ll discovery the unity of the faith.
As we sat and shared lunch with Roger and Therese and several others, as we walked Galle Face the night before with Steffan and Sharon, as we worshipped with the people at WoW, I heard the same questions, the same Gospel, and the same praise for the same savior.
I can’t encourage you, reader, highly enough. If you have a chance to step out of your city, state, or nation and engaging with Christians from another culture (even just across denominational lines within your own city) do so! There’s an abundance of joy in meeting family you didn’t know you had.
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