By Van Yandell
Matthew 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”
“Oh, The Places You’ll Go,” (Dr. Seuss). Working in missions where tourists rarely go has afforded me the privilege of seeing living conditions, meeting people and experiencing the foods few Americans have had as a tourist. Being there and witnessing such conditions makes me glad I was born in America.
In the Himalayas, I saw where people lived in caves. In Sub-Saharan Africa, to sit and discuss the Gospel of Christ with people in their yard, in front of a mud hut with a grass roof and dirt floor produced a permanent memory.
In Africa and South America, it is not unusual to see people living under old car hoods, in houses built with sheet metal from burnt buildings or mud houses on mountain sides that could wash away the next big rain.
To realize millions of children go to bed hungry every night is heart-breaking. Infant mortality rate is still very high in many areas of the world.
Many children have never seen a mattress or a pillow. Sleep every night is on a dirt floor with no pad or cover. A dozen people may sleep in a room the size of an American bathroom and to be sheltered out of the rain or cold is impossible for many.
Going to bed cold and hungry is not a condition any child or adult should have to experience. But it is more common than we may think.
In communist countries people have only what the government hierarchy deems necessary. Not having tools to work with or a hardware store or lumber supply to purchase materials limits capabilities. While government hierarchy eat steak and lobster, ordinary citizens live on rice and beans.
I’ve had conversations with witch doctors, Maasai tribesmen and Kikuku farmers. Talking to people of other cultures about our precious Savior Jesus is a great privilege God has blessed us with.
Sitting in an African village and being offered a meal of ugali (thick corn meal mixture) or githeri (corn, beans and rice combination) was an honor. To be told karibuni (welcome) when we entered their villages made us very comfortable.
The wazungu (white man) was an unusual sight for many of the children. They were not shy at all and crowded around me like I was a rare sight, which to them, I was.
Many Americans haven’t a clue what we have here. Millions of people in this world only have access to food they can grow or in some way produce themselves. There are no grocery markets to go to on a whim to procure something different for dinner.
In the case of a drought, many starve. The predictions of Jesus in Matthew 24:6 are happening in our world today. “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.”
One source tells us 25,000 people die of starvation or nutritionally related conditions every single day; another reference states as many as 60,000.
Famines as stated by Jesus nearly 2000 years ago are happening right now. Pestilences such as covid, ebola and the other viruses are infecting humanity at alarming rates.
People in many parts of the world are dying of curable diseases. While medicines exist as cures, many have no access to those and governments make no efforts to secure them.
Jesus said “nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” Wars are killing thousands of innocent people in many places. All in all, we are witnessing Bible prophesy happening.
America has not seen a major war fought on this soil since the first American Civil War. Of course we’ve experienced the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but wars such as Vietnam, WWI and II have not come to our land.
When Americans think about what is happening as well as what is not happening, we live in the safest, most secure and strongest country in the world.
We have freedoms that millions can only dream of. While we have the American dream, their dream is to come to America or for their country to become like America.
We have our Bill of Rights securing freedom of the press, speech, religion and assembly. Those among other freedoms provide us with a greater freedom. That is the freedom of opportunity. The right to educate ourselves, to capitalize, to come and go as we please and to speak freely our opinions, are freedoms many of the over eight billion on planet earth do not have.
The 4th of July is nearly here. It is time to celebrate 250 years of freedom and opportunity. We must not sit idly by and let the purveyors of bondage destroy us. An Irish philosopher, Edmund Burke, said, “When good men do nothing, evil triumphs.” This has never been truer than in America today.
Nikita Khrushchev said, “You will destroy yourselves.” Ronald Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”
Yes, America is a great nation, but with so many within intent on destroying her and few left to defend the true and original America, what will we be in twenty years?
Celebrating 250 years is a significant milestone. Our faith in country and God is paramount in our values and actions. We must also remember America was founded upon freedom of religion and that religion was Christianity. We must teach the only eternal salvation is a faith based belied in Christ Jesus crucified for the remission of sin and resurrected.
Van Yandell is a retired industrial arts teacher, an ordained gospel evangelist and commissioned missionary.
