Stories from the Field

November 2004

Auntie's Sacrifice

By A Christian Worker in the Pacific Rim

Auntie has sacrificed all of her life. Earning five dollars a month, she taught school for thirty years, and many of her former students are now leaders in the country. Her husband became a seaman to make ends meet and left the family for eighteen month tours. He would return for six month vacations, but saw precious little of their only girl’s childhood. Auntie carried the load of work, school, and survival in a in a country dominated by Buddhism and ruled by oppression and tyranny.

No one was more proud than Auntie when their daughter graduated from college with honors. No one was more aware, however, what little hope the graduate had for any kind of future. That was when Auntie and her husband decided that somehow they would send their daughter to America. Long months of waiting and paying money under the table resulted in a rare and precious visa. Auntie hugged her daughter at the airport, told her how proud she was of her accomplishments. Then she watched the plane whisk her only child away to a foreign land. When people leave this country, they usually don’t come back.

Auntie’s daughter emailed and called every week, updating the family on her progress and experiences in America. A year ago, she phoned with the news she was pregnant. A grandbaby! The thought made all the years of crushing sacrifice worth the effort. As the months passed, Auntie dreamed more and more of going to America to see the birth of her new grandbaby. But, this country - Auntie’s home country - is the land of shipwrecked dreams and devastated hopes, and after two very expensive attempts, Auntie was denied a visa. She now can only hold inkjet pictures of a baby she will probably never embrace.

Even worse, Auntie believes that all of these events are because of sins she committed in a previous life. In her opinion, the only way to improve her next life is to bear the suffering of this life with no complaining. This conviction has produced a country of people who suffer in silence: they suffer as infants die from contaminated water, suffer as their children are swept away by human trafficking, suffer as relatives are tortured in prison, and suffer as friends are expended to detonate mine fields. Satan has stopped their mouth and they believe there is no one who can free them. But there is a God in heaven who hears and answers prayers of deliverance! May God’s fame cover this land as believers throughout the world raise their voices and pray His kingdom come; His will be done, in this land as it is in Heaven!