So reads a plaque on a shelf in our treasurer’s office. As we sit and discuss matters together, my eyes often drift to this plaque and I wonder, So, what exactly is a normal day?
Take yesterday, for example. It was filled with back-to-back meetings concerning legal niceties, HR decisions, financial reconciliations, website development, missionary matters, recruitment questions and on and on until my eyes glazed over. Was this a normal day? Should this be a normal day? Or is a normal day something far more wonderful?
Serving with AFM, I am convinced that a normal day is a treasure because it is yet another chance to personally experience the gracious leading and love of our Heavenly Father. Let me share a recent example of such treasured days.
In early January 2013, our project leader in a West African country received a threat from a previously unknown group demanding that we stop teaching Bible at our school of more than 300 students. After prayer and counsel with AFM leadership, our project leader visited with local officials, and to his dismay was instructed to cease morning prayers and open the school for classes each Sabbath.
After a season of prayer, we decided to close the school for 10 days. We gathered together in our office and called for 10 days of prayer and fasting. For each of the 10 days, colleagues fasted and prayed. We fasted and prayed to humble ourselves before God and ask that He be glorified in Guinea. We claimed the promise of 2 Chron. 7:14. Around the world, AFM family members and supporters joined in solemn prayer and fasting.
On the first day of prayer and fasting, a local official visited the school and addressed the students in an assembly, instructing them to refuse to participate in the morning worship service. The students rejected his counsel and threatened to riot. In a moment of supreme irony, our team leader had to rescue the official from the angry students!
On the third day of prayer and fasting, a meeting of the parents resulted in overwhelming support for our Adventist principles of education (though less than five percent are Adventist), and a delegation of vociferous parents visited the local officials.
On the fifth day of prayer and fasting, a local official came to apologize for the difficulties being caused for our school and our students, but the restrictions were still in force.
On the seventh day of prayer and fasting, a delegation arrived from two national ministries in the capital. After a detailed investigation, they declared publicly that our school was doing nothing wrong, and we were free to operate the school according to Adventist principles.
On the tenth day of prayer and fasting, our school reopened—with Bible classes, morning worship and prayers, and honoring the Lord’s Sabbath day!
A candle may not appear to give much light at midday, but when the darkness gathers, the candle’s light is visible to all! God indeed was glorified in West Africa—a truly wonderful day!
So, what exactly is a normal day at AFM? A normal day is when I personally experience God’s loving care, sense His gracious leading and observe the miracle of conversion and new birth wrought by His Holy Spirit moving on people’s hearts all around the globe. These are normal days. These are days to be treasured! My prayer for each reader and for our AFM family worldwide is that we all experience and treasure days such as this!
