SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #145 ---- 10/23/00
Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>
As We fight The Good Fight
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #145 ---- 10/23/00
TITLE: "Back Where It Started"
My dear friend and partner in ministry:
Today I greet you from the extreme northeastern shores of the Adriatic Sea
and the Dalmatian Coast. Jo Ann and I are, after two and one half weeks of
intense ministry in Bosnia, resting and relaxing for a few days at the Life
Center of LCI Ministries in the resort town of Crikvenica, Croatia.
Following our teaching and preaching experiences in Tuzla, Novi Travnik,
Sarajevo, and Konjic ---- all in Bosnia ---- we traveled to Mostar where we
spent a wonderful evening with the Tim Gotchey missionary family last
Monday.
Tuesday we did something we have wanted to do for five years ---- we spent a
day and a half in the famed ancient walled city of Dubrovnik, nestled among
the rocks and mountains of the Adriatic between Bosnia and Montenegro, a
part of present day Yugoslavia.
Dubrovnik, a city of some 45,000 residents, is a modern city of commerce
surrounding the old city, still inhabited, within those monstrous stone
walls. Walking around them and looking either into the old fortress or
outside either upon the new city or the sea itself, I felt like a guard on
the walls of Ancient Jericho.
Behind the city rise the familiar mountains of the region, while all along
the front the Adriatic Sea pushes its rolling waves upon the rocks and crags
of her mountain's feet.
In 1993 the Yugoslav Army launched a major attack on the famed city
simultaneously with its attack on Vukovar, hundreds of miles to the north,
believing the Croatian military would be stretched too thin to protect both
cities, and they could easily be conquered.
As the son of our host gave us a quick tour of the city, he pointed out the
long ridge above the city from which cannon, mortars, and grenade launchers
rained down terror upon the old town, attacking jointly with the Yugoslav
Navy mounting a similar attack from the sea.
There appears to be no logical reason for such an attack, since Dubrovnik is
at the very tip of Croatia where that nation's land is just a few rare miles
wide, and it is not a significantly large city. The only possible answer is
that Yugoslavia either wanted a seaport, intended to launch an invasion up
the coast to northwestern Croatia, or simply wanted to destroy more of
Croatia's great history and heritage housed in the city's museums, ancient
buildings and walls.
We fell in love with Dubrovnik, and fully intend to return if the Lord
allows.
Then, leaving Dubrovnik by ferry boat (more like a small ship), we spent the
next twenty two hours sailing among the thousands of islands, awed by their
rugged beauty. More so, however, we were amazed at various "divine
appointments" God arranged for us on board. Each gave us an opportunity to
learn more of the Balkan history and to discover other agencies doing things
similar to what we do.
Then after a night's sleep in our little room and arriving in Rijeka at
7:00 on Friday morning, we were quickly taken to the Life Center in
Crikvenica by our friend and founder of the Life Center, Stevo Dereta.
So, we found ourselves . . . . . .
BACK WHERE IT ALL STARTED:
It was five years and four months ago that Jo Ann and I first stepped foot
on the shores of the Adriatic just across the street from the Life Center.
That was the culmination of an event a year earlier in Dallas, Texas, when
we first learned of the St. James Bible College in Kiev, Ukraine, and the
Life Center in Crikvenica, Croatia.
We had heard about both ministries at that conference. Our hearts were
stimulated on the one hand over the thought of helping train young men and
women of former Soviet countries for Gospel ministry, and broken on the
other over the reports we heard of the horrific atrocities of genocide and
destruction being carried out against the various ethnic and religious
groups of the Balkan people.
I remember that night well. Along with thousands of others, Jo Ann and I
watched with amazement as video footage of a Bible training college meeting
in the former cultural center of the Communist Party in Kiev was projected
onto those giant screens. The very thought of a facility once housing
antagonistic denials of God's existence was now being used to equip young
men and women to go back to their countries and tell the people that He does
exist ---- and He loves them!
Unbelievable!
Then we listened with breaking hearts as Stevo Dereta gave graphic details
of men and women being massacred, children being shot, women being raped,
cities being destroyed, and then heard him describe the vision God had given
him and his little congregation to try to minister to the multitudes of
fleeing and broken hearted refugees who streamed into the region looking for
a safe haven.
Later that night, while the rest of the customers cheered the Dallas Cowboys
as they won the Super Bowl, Jo Ann and I sat huddled in a corner booth
weeping our hearts out over what we had seen. While the boys played ball,
the Balkans were dying.
So, little more than a year later, there we were ---- on the shores of the
Adriatic. As ignorant as it is possible for an adult to be, we stumbled and
mumbled our ways through some teachings about God's love to a group of 47
men and women from Bosnia who had been trucked off to an old military base
turned refugee camp where they lived (or existed), stripped of human
dignity, privacy, and hope.
More importantly, though ---- those precious people stumbled their ways into
our hearts, and we have never been the same.
So, . . . . .
COMING BACK HAS BEEN GOOD:
There's something about going back to where it all started.
Do you remember when and where it all started for you? Do you remember
where you were when you first discovered you were in love? Do you remember
when you first realized your need for Christ? Do you remember where you
began your journey as a new fledgling Christian? Do you remember when God
first called you into ministry?
It feels good, doesn't it.
Though this has been a leisurely past few days, unexpected hectic moments
have invaded our world, trying to steal my motivation to write to you today.
Yet, through it all, one theme has constantly rung in my mind ---- "Back To
Where It All Began".
In spite of sending most of Friday and all of Sunday with Stevo and his
family, I haven't been able to get that thought out of my mind.
Is it really good to go back to where it all began? Are there benefits to
be found? Maybe some lessons to be learned?
I think so.
Here are some things I believe such a step into the past will accomplish.
1. Going back to where it all began reminds you of how God began a
particular special work in your life. Sometimes we forget such special
moments and circumstances. It's good to be reminded. We forget too easily;
and when we forget, it's a bit like the mooring lines that have held us to
the task suddenly slipping loose and falling into the dark waters below.
Do you remember? ---- how God began that special work in you?
Why not just stop reading my letter for a little while and just sit and
think about that.
Go ahead ---- stop, ---- and think for awhile.
2. Going back to where it all began also gives you an opportunity to
enumerate God's blessings and reflect on His Grace that has brought you from
there to here. The old song is true ---- "Count your many blessings and see
what God has done." Isaac Newton's great hymn still says it all ----
"Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come. 'Tis grace
that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home."
Sometimes when we forget where it all began, we also lose focus on the
blessings and provision of the Lord and begin to concentrate on the
failures, the heart breaks, and the nightmares.
Do you need to have your memory refreshed regarding God's faithful
provision, His mercy, and His grace? Have you been so bombarded by the
attacks of the world, the flesh, and the devil and his minions that all you
focus on are the shadows and darkness? Have you forgotten that the shadows
are what intensify light in great paintings? ---- and in human lives?
Maybe going back to where it all began for you would be a good exercise.
3. Going back to where it all began also reminds you of the progress and
victories that have been accomplished. Remembering where, when, and how it
all started gives a great backdrop against which to see the present and
anticipate the future. It's a great way to declare "Great Is Thy
Faithfulness, Lord, Unto Me!"
4. Going back to where it all began also teaches us that nothing stays the
same and can never be as it was. This perhaps is the big truth God has
taught Jo Ann and me on this trip.
When we first arrived at the Life Center, the Bosnian War was still raging,
as close to us as Bijac some 90 or 100 miles away. The town was nearly
isolated. Most of the businesses were closed, many of the hotels boarded
up. The nearby marina was like an empty pond save a few little fishing
boats belonging to residents too poor to leave town. When we would walk
into a local business (if we could fine one open) we were looked at with
suspicion and approached through fear.
The Life Center was a three story stucco second class hotel, bare windows
ablaze with lights, looking something like a faded whitewashed jack
o'lantern sitting on a drab table in a dark room.
Once an attractive but simple wayside for holiday seekers, it had been
abandoned during the war, vandalized, and completely uninhabitable until a
ministry in America learned of its availability and provided manpower and
money to renovate it for use as a place of refuge for the bewildered and
beleaguered victims of the wars.
But, it's not like that today!
When Jo Ann and I first saw it last Friday, it was more than our eyes could
behold. No longer a drab three story white stucco building with
approximately 40 rooms that would house some 80 people, it is now a bright
yellow and white four and one-half story building with a chapel that seats
over 100, three other large meeting rooms, and some 70 or more rooms each
with its own private bathroom.
Now instead of an old iron railing across rotten wooden window frames, each
room has its own balcony looking out over the sea on the one side or the new
parking lot where the old chapel used to be on the other.
Many who read my letters are former team members who remember the old Life
Center. How I wish you could see her today! You would stand around with
your mouth open, too.
In spite of the exciting developments since a group of Christian investors
from Germany purchased it, there is a sadness that accompanies my joy. The
transactions and improvements were costly ---- in many ways.
Part of me is thrilled with what has developed and how Stevo and LCI can use
it during certain times of the year. Yet, I am sad, because the mystery of
God's provision is gone; now a group of men get the credit.
The simplicity of a ministry sent from the heart of God to the heart of a
man and carried out by sacrificing men and women has been replaced by the
modern conveniences of technology and a crafted renovation process that
expanded the building upward a story and one-half and outward on the front
and back perhaps some 20 feet or more.
It's true, my friend ---- going back to where it all began will show you
things can never be the same again. That's sad ---- and that's good.
5. Finally, going back to where it all began will give you the old reason
for it all, but accompanied by a fresh vision for the future. It's been
said that remembering the past is fresh fuel for the goals of the future. I
think I agree with that.
You see, when you go back to where it all began, you are able to see with
retrospect that is much clearer both the successes and mistakes of the past.
That, in turn, makes you wiser in preparing for the future. You are
equipped to note the mistakes of the past and make certain you don't make
them again.
If you go back to where it all began, and then just sit there ----
remembering ---- , you've missed the real value in such an exercise. The
primary reason for going back to where it all began is not to just
reminisce, rejoice, or grieve, but to help you begin again today with a
renewed sense of purpose and a new vision to fuel your ministry.
Then, five years from now, you can come back here and visit ---- coming back
to where it all began ---- again.
IN CONCLUSION:
Have you gone back to your own "where it all began" place lately? It will
do you good; ---- but only if you learn from it what I've mentioned.
If you go back with a right attitude, you will rejoice over God's
faithfulness, you will thank Him in amazement for having even called you in
the first place, you will be grateful for the beginnings, moreso for the
future, and you will have a much clearer sense of where God is taking you
for the future.
So ---- go ahead ---- Back. Back to where it all began.
Then get ready for a more mature and stable future that will undoubtedly be
more fruitful. The latter rain will indeed yield more than the former rain.
I'm glad Jo Ann and I came back. I still imagine the possibilities of my
footsteps having overlaid those of Titus, or maybe even Paul. I imagine
that even more since talking with a pastor here recently who told of seeing
a 17th Century map which identified Dalmatia as far north as the Isrtrian
Peninsula and as far inland as Sarajevo.
I'm glad we came back to where it all began for us. It has made us even
more certain as to our calling. It has made us love the people more. It
has intensified our desire to serve them, lift their load, support them in
every way possible. It has deepened our resolve to link arms with them and
walk in step with them in trying to see God's Kingdom come on this part of
the earth as He has decreed it to be in heaven.
Try as I wish to communicate it to you, you will never know the emotions and
thoughts we feel as we have come back to where it all began.
I guess that's just for us and the Lord to enjoy ---- while you go back to
your own spot where it all began.
See you there.
In His Bond of Mercy and Grace,
Bob Tolliver ---- (Rom 1:11-12)
Copyright October, 2000. All rights reserved.
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