A village man knocked at my door, asking me for a little help. “Can you check my light? I just bought it from David and Edie, but their battery for checking lights isn’t available, and I want to check to make sure it works before I go back to my house up the river.” If people have any electricity here, it’s almost always solar-powered batteries, and this man didn’t want to get all the way home only to discover that his light was broken.

“I will be happy to,” I replied. He handed it to me after getting it out of the box, and I walked into our house and connected its wires to one of our batteries. It shone brightly, and the man smiled and thanked me. We talked a little, and he told me where he was from as he folded the wires back up and stuffed them and the light back into its box. Keren and I have been here only a month, and I am still learning the names of the different villages up and down the river.

After he left, I got to thinking. How is my light shining? Is it shining brightly, or is something getting in the way? Here at May River Station, we are perched near the top of a pretty steep hill. Jesus said, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid” (Matt. 5:14).

Our light must go out to others, and their light must go on to still others until this whole area is lit with the good news of the soon-coming Savior. We know that time is short and that there is an urgency as never before to finish the work. Please join us in praying that God’s light can shine brightly from this hilltop and penetrate into the deepest recesses of the hearts of those all around us.

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