Story of the Day for Friday January 29, 2016
A Joy Greater than Fear
Strengthen the trembling hands, steady the knees that give out. Tell those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, don’t be afraid. Your God will come.”
Isaiah 35:3-4
The fear among the Nigerians is as dry as tinder right now, and the smallest spark sets off an inferno. Last month, two boys returning from work on a farm got into an argument about money. They began fighting. Those near the scuffle were terrified, thinking another religious war had broken out. The villagers stampeded and two children were trampled to death.
In the U.S., a couple of confirmed cases of Ebola caused national alarm. Imagine living in Nigeria where thousands are dying and you can never know who may be spreading the deadly disease?
A brave woman (I’ll call Rachel) has chosen to live in Nigeria. Recently, her friend was driving her to the Plateau region when an oncoming car signaled for them to turn around. They made a lurching U-turn and pulled off the road. They were told robbers were stopping traffic up ahead. Only after traffic resumed twenty minutes later did they know the robbers had fled.
Despite the dangers, Rachel works for Wycliffe Bible Translators and is passionate about translating God’s Word into a Nigerian tribe’s native tongue.
Last September, the terrorist group, Boko Haram, took over a town on a Sunday morning. Two Bible translators from the town snatched their laptops and ran. The townspeople crossed the river to find safety. The two translators waded across, the water came to their chin but they held their laptops on their heads and made it to safety.
Many in town were killed and those trapped in the mountains were starving, unable to slip through the Boko Haram net. The translator team later found their home burned to the ground. They lost everything they owned — except for their laptops with their precious translation work.
When Rachel finally reunited with her co-workers, they were surprisingly cheerful.
“It’s much harder for people who weren’t ready,” her co-worker said.
“Ready how?” Rachel asked.
“Boko Haram burned my house and everything in it,” he replied, “but I was ready. I have always told people that God gave it to me, and if He takes it away one day, that is up to Him.”
Why don’t Rachel and her fellow translators leave such a dangerous place and come home? Perhaps it’s because they’ve seen the joy.
Last Christmas, they had just finished translating Luke 2 into the Tugbiri language. A young man stood up and read the Christmas story, and the people heard it for the first time in their own language. The congregation erupted with applause. But the pastor stood up and said, “I don’t think that was good enough. Really clap for him!” The people thundered their approval and then crowded around him at the front of the church and began stuffing his pockets with money, as if he was the bride at a wedding dance.
“Fear not,” the angel at Bethlehem says, “for I bring you good news of great joy.” Slowly, I am beginning to learn there is a joy far greater than fear.
(copyright 2016 by climbinghigher.org and by Marty Kaarre) (image: http://aa.com.tr/uploads/Contents/2015/08/18/thumbs_b_c_264c8bfeecb6276dde2c13ca7adc6823.jpg)
Story of the Day--climbinghigher 
