|
Love Like a Fountain
Sergie was a truck driver in a very large city, but he was different from the
millions of people who lived in his city and in his country—Uzbekistan. Sergie
was a Christian. Every day that he was able, Sergie would walk the streets of
the city fasting and praying that God would begin to work in his country.
One day God answered his prayers. He emboldened Sergie to preach. Sergie
began to preach everywhere at any time, morning, noon and night. God
poured out his Holy Spirit. Many people came to Jesus, and 139 churches were
started. When Sergie talks about those days and God’s answer to his prayers,
he says, “A fountain began to flow—the fountain of the Holy Spirit.” Sergie
never thought it was his work; he knew that it was only God’s work.
Mike and Cindy were two Assemblies of God workers praying that God would
send them where they were needed. When God called Mike and Cindy to work
in Uzbekistan, they did not know about Sergie. When they got to Uzbekistan,
they met Sergie for the first time. He was now being called Pastor Sergie.
Pastor Sergie introduced Mike and Cindy to a woman in his church. She
told them about an orphanage she had found where over 400 special-needs
children were suffering and dying. Cindy went to the orphanage and found
that it was no more than a garbage can where people threw away the special-needs
children they did not want. The children lived and died on the same
dirty floors where they went to the toilet. They did not get much food.
Bedridden children laid on very dirty mattresses that had springs poking
through.
Cindy began to work there. It was very hard because children were dying all
the time. The hardest thing for her was that the children did not know what
love was. They did not know what it was like to have someone be happy to see
them, to smile at them or talk to them. They did not know what it was like to
be held with love.
Cindy cried so much. One day she told God, “I can’t do this anymore.” She left
the orphanage and said she would never go back. After a month, God spoke
to her. He said, “Cindy, if you go back, I will do a wonderful work there.” She
obeyed God and went back, and she and Mike have seen God do a beautiful
work of love there—the most beautiful they have ever seen.
Children who never walked are walking for the first time. Others are drawing
beautiful pictures. Some of them sing songs and play musical instruments.
The children are learning to sew, cook, and work on computers. Many of the
parents who didn’t want them are surprised that their children can do so many
beautiful things.
When the children turn 17, they have to go to another place where many of
them die. So Mike and Cindy started praying for a place they could go where
they wouldn’t have to die. God answered their prayers. A man and his wife
gave Mike and Cindy a beautiful building. They were going to sell the building
for lots of money, but when they prayed about it, God kept showing them
Cindy’s face. So they gave it to her.
Sergie remembers how he had prayed that God would work in his country.
That was in the 1980s. The Holy Spirit began to work there like a fountain, in
answer to his prayers. Many Muslims have come to know Jesus, and Mike and
Cindy know the fountain flowed to the orphanage and showed the children
there what love is. God answers prayer.
A special thanks goes to the children in the United States for giving to BGMC.
Your giving has helped to touch the children at this orphanage and all over
Uzbekistan. BGMC has provided funds to translate and print children’s literature,
buy children’s Bibles, purchase children’s storybooks, songbooks, and
other things needed at the orphanage. Thanks, kids, for helping to touch these
children in Uzbekistan.
Information for this story was provided by Christian workers and is used with
permission from Assemblies of God World Missions.
©2008 The General Council of the Assemblies of God. All rights reserved. Permission granted to reproduce and adapt lesson components for exclusive use in the local church. Any other use requires written permission. |
