A Year of Thanksgivings

Tonight I was sitting on my porch, watching a massive rainstorm come in, and it was just beautiful.  Seeing the way that a sunny, hot, humid day fades to a rain shower and then becomes a peaceful, humid-less evening is one of my favorite parts about being here.  Especially tonight, I had so much to write about. 

Today is American Thanksgiving, a completely Western holiday, which isn’t celebrated here at all.  We still had school as usual, and nothing closed down for the day.  In my US History class, though, we had a Thanksgiving party, full of food, American music videos, and great fellowship.  As we went around the table of desks pushed into the center of the classroom, we each had to share one general thing we are thankful for and one thing that happened between last Thanksgiving and this Thanksgiving that we are thankful for.  It was such a blessing to hear the ways God has been at work in these students’ lives. 

After the party, I continued teaching, and the day went on as usual.  But watching the rainstorm tonight, and catching my breath after a busy day, made me realize how much has changed in my life from last year to this year.  After all of the hard times, lonely nights away from friends and family, culture shock, and transition anxiety, I am still so thankful that God has called me to this place. 

This time last year, I was struggling to finish up my last semester of college.  I had good grades, but the work was completely overwhelming.  I finished that semester, completed student teaching, and then graduated, moving on to academia as a teacher, not a student. 

This summer, I had one of the best summers of my life.  I got to visit so many new places, form new friendships over sports and wings, play music and share testimonies at countless churches, and spend some quality time with my family.  The eight weeks between graduation and leaving went so quickly, but were filled with too many blessings to name. 

In the middle of July, I went off to training for my organization in the Midwest.  Not only did I learn so much, I also met some of the most wonderful, supportive, God-honoring people I have ever met.  Their encouraging messages, Facebook posts, and testimonies continue to inspire me, even though we are worlds away from each other. 

Quickly, training was over, and I was on a plane to the South Pacific!  I knew so little of what I was getting into; I knew I would be teaching, helping with chapel services, and coaching soccer, but that was all.  I knew I would meet friendly people, but I never thought people would be this friendly.  I imagined learning the language would be tough, but I didn’t think locals would be so gracious and willing to help me struggle through learning.  I knew that I would enjoy teaching, but I never thought I would enjoy these students, these classes, and this school so much.  I felt confident about my call to come here, yet I never imagined my life would look so beautiful since I arrived.  I am truly so thankful. 

Today is a day dedicated to giving thanks.  Please make sure you thank those who are important to you – “thank yous” from my students today meant a lot.  But today isn’t the only day we have things to be thankful for; let’s make this Thanksgiving Day just the first day in a never-ending lifestyle of thankfulness for all He has given us.  

If you are reading this, you are one part of my story, my calling, and my influence here.  I cannot say thank you enough to all of the support I’ve received since I’ve arrived.  I hope you know how much you all are appreciated.  I am truly so thankful! 

Happy Thanksgiving, from “rumah saya” (my house) in the South Pacific to yours. 

Love and miss you all!  

Luke Forshey

November 26, 2015

Cookies, Creatures, and Catastrophes

Cookies, Creatures, and Catastrophes

Every team retreat, we each bring a snack.  Cookies seem to be a fairly popular retreat snack food, so I often make chocolate peanut butter no-bake cookies for my contribution.  Tonight I found myself making cookies for our retreat this weekend.

This time, the cookie making didn’t go as well as before.  I didn’t have the time to go to the nice grocery store, so I didn’t get the highest quality of ingredients, plus the proportions of peanut butter to chocolate were off.  So I tried again, this time just making peanut butter no-bakes, and they got hard too quickly.  Two completed batches of cookies, two hardly edible batches of cookies.  But the cookie catastrophe is not the important part of this story. 

As I was cleaning up my mess of ingredients on the floor and countertop, I came across two ants.  Here, it is almost impossible to go three steps without running into a group of ants, so I swept them up with the cookie crumbs and planned to throw them in the garbage.  When I opened up my cloth though, the ants were still alive, so I proceeded to let them live and put them back on the floor.  Thinking nothing of these two ants, as there are probably hundreds in my kitchen alone, I went back to cleaning.  As I was just about finished, though, something about one of the ants caught my eye, so I bent down to look at this creature.  I could see his mouth, and he was eating a piece of cookie crumb that I left on the floor.  Not knowing how ants actually consume food, I watched him for a little bit.  After eating, he went to cleaning his face, and then stood up to reach to cookie crumb again.  This process continued for a few minutes, and then he ran off into other areas of my apartment. 

As I looked back on this situation, I saw how similar I was to that ant.  I like cookies, so does he.  I shower, so does he.  More significantly, I am a beautiful creation of God and so is he.  But, there were also a few striking differences between us.  I am thousands of times bigger and more powerful than him.  I controlled his fate, and I chose to let him live.  He was completely at the mercy of my decisions; he had no say.  Only after I allowed him a place in my life did I see the incredible beauty of his one, small, seemingly insignificant life. 

And then I looked at what is going on in our world right now.  There are so many people who need help: the refugees, the injured, the fatherless, the oppressed, the victims, the captives, and the captors.    So many people are in the situation of the ant, unable to help themselves, relying on help from others to ensure their survival.  These people come from terrible situations, and yet the only find hope from limited groups of people.  Other groups push them away, saying “You look too much like them,” or “How can we trust you when you’re from THAT country?”  The saddest part of this reality is that these people are people too: created in the image of God, given inherent worth by Jesus’ blood, and able to impact the world in a positive way, if they only had that chance.  There is no reason they should be discriminated against because of their skin color or ethnicity; Paul commands us in Galatians that “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).”  It breaks my heart to see people, just like you and me, who are being denied basic human rights because of situations out of their control.  This problem needs fixed. 

I am not here to start a political conversation.  I understand that each situation in today’s world involves risks, and sometimes leaders believe the risks are not worth the rewards.  I am just here to bring Jesus into the conversation.  Jesus shed his blood to save every person on the earth: all religions, all cultures, all people groups, and all areas of the world.  He gave his life, his ultimate sacrifice, to show love to all people.  If Jesus gave all he had, without discrimination, shouldn’t we do the same thing? 

Living in a Muslim country this year has given me a greater impression of their religion and culture.  These people are some of the friendliest people I have ever met.  They enjoy talking, hanging out, playing soccer and guitar, and just being in community together.  Not all people of this faith are involved in the negative situations in the news; in fact, that percentage is a very miniscule fraction of the total population.   It breaks my heart to see friends posting ideas that stereotype all followers of this religion into one category; this simply isn’t true. 

As an American living in a foreign country, I urge you to be Jesus to the people you interact with each day.  The world doesn’t need more people to judge; the world needs people to love.  Most importantly, the world needs Jesus, and who is better to be that example than you?

The answer to the world’s problems is not more violence.  The answer is Jesus.    

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mohandas Gandhi

Luke Forshey

November 20, 2015