Making a Difference

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Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.—Romans 12:11,12

She was a lay leader in her unit—deployed for seven months. Before she left we spent time together talking about her hopes for spiritual growth in herself, and her unit, during this time away from home.

So when she returned it was a joy to link up and hear about what she had observed and experienced from her time away—visiting foreign ports, leading the chapel praise team, praying and reading devotions for those who gathered for fellowship and study. But I caught some doubt and discouragement in her voice.

“I’m just not sure if I made any impact at all,” she said. She hadn’t seen any spiritual revival in her unit—and she just didn’t know if the spiritual leadership which she and the other lay leaders offered was of any value to those seeking study and worship.

It’s at times like this that we can encourage one another—because it is the Lord who uses our obedience and faithfulness to do what only He can do. It was easy on my part to thank her (and the other lay leaders) for their faithfulness to serve in this capacity, and to assure her that God would use her service for His glory.

She did admit that others had noticed her joy. In spite of the many tragedies in her young life, others knew her struggles and could see how the Lord was leading her into tremendous recovery and courage. They voiced admiration for her vibrant spirit. When questioned, she could boldly reply, “My joy is from the Lord.” “Maybe that helped someone,” she told me. Indeed it did—no doubt in my mind.

So then I shared with her a story which I heard and read recently. I think we all need to “hear” a story like this from time-to-time . . . because it’s true, and it is how God works:

“His name was David Flood. In 1921, he and his young wife, Svea, left Sweden for the heart of Africa. They were soon joined by another young missionary couple and, together, they decided on a remote village. When they arrived, however, the chief rejected them and would not let them enter his village for fear of displeasing the local gods. The two couples had no choice but to go up a hillside and, on a slope of land, build their own mud huts. They prayed for a spiritual breakthrough, but none came. Their only contact was a young boy, who was allowed to sell chickens and eggs to them twice a week. Svea Flood decided that, if this was the only African villager she could talk to, she would try to lead the boy to Christ. Soon, he did indeed accept the free gift of salvation through faith in Christ’s death alone on the cross. Beyond that, there was no other encouragement.

In the meantime, malaria began to hunt them down. Soon the other couple decided they had had enough and left for another location nearby. David and Svea Flood were alone. In the midst of these trying times, Svea found herself pregnant and, when the time came, the village chief softened just enough to allow a midwife to help her. A little girl, Aina, was born. It was too much for Svea, however, as she was exhausted and weak from malaria. She lived only another seventeen days and died.

Something inside David Flood snapped. He dug a crude grave, buried his twenty-seven year old wife, and took his daughter down the mountain to the mission station. He handed her to the missionaries and snarled, “I’m going back to Sweden. I’ve lost my wife and I obviously can’t take care of a baby. God is not good; He is not faithful; He has, in fact, ruined my life.”

With that, he turned his back on his calling, and on God Himself.

Within eight months, the adoptive parents of Aina died of malaria. She was given to another missionary couple, who brought her to the United States and raised her. Aina, now known as Aggie, grew up in South Dakota. She attended North 7 Central Bible College, in Minneapolis, and married a man, named Dewey Hurst, who entered the ministry.

Years went by. Aggie knew nothing of her past, apart from her parents names, her own birth in Africa, and the death of her mother. She had never seen her father. She enjoyed, with her husband and family, a fruitful ministry. Dewey had become the president of a Bible college in Seattle, Washington.

Then, one day, a Swedish religious magazine appeared in her mailbox. She had no idea who had sent it, and, of course, she could not read the words. But, as she turned the pages, all of a sudden, a photo stopped her cold. There, in a jungle setting, was a grave with a white cross, and on the cross were the words, Svea Flood.

She rushed to the office of a college faculty member who could translate the magazine article. He summarized, “It was about missionaries who had come long ago . . . the birth of a baby . . . the death of the young mother . . . the one little African boy who had been led to Christ . . . how, after the missionaries had left, the boy had grown up and persuaded the chief to let him build a school . . . he won all his students to Christ . . . the children led their parents to Christ . . . the chief, himself, became a Christian . . . today there were six hundred believers in that one village.”

All because of the sacrifice of David and Svea Flood.

For their twenty fifth wedding anniversary, the Bible college gave the Hursts a vacation in Sweden, where, among other things, Aggie could search for her father. It was not difficult to find his family. David Flood had remarried and had four children, but, in bitterness, had slowly wasted away and had only recently suffered a stroke.

After an emotional reunion with her half brothers and sister, Aggie brought up the subject of seeing her father. They replied, “You can talk to him, even though he’s very ill, but you need to know that he’s had one rule in his family, ‘Never mention the name of God, because God is not good, He took everything away from me’.”

Aggie was undeterred. She went in to his room and approached him. He was now seventy-three years old. He turned toward her and, immediately, began to cry, “Aina,” he called her, “Aina, I didn’t mean to give you away.”

“It’s all right, Papa,” she replied, “God took care of me.”

The old man instantly stiffened and the tears stopped. “God? God forgot all of us . . . God forgot us.”

He turned away toward the wall. “Papa, I want to tell you a true story. You didn’t go to Africa in vain. Mama didn’t die in vain. The little boy you won to the Lord grew up to win that whole village to Jesus Christ. Today there are six hundred African people serving the Lord because you followed the call of God in your life. Papa, God had a plan all along . . . He didn’t forget you.”

He turned back from facing the wall, the tears returned, and he began to talk. By the end of that afternoon, the kindness of God had brought him back, not to the repentance that brings salvation, but to the repentance that brings restoration and fellowship.

Aggie and her husband, eventually, had to return to America. A few weeks later, David Flood went home to heaven.

A few years later, Aggie and her husband were attending an evangelism conference in London. A report was given from the nation of Zaire by the superintendent of the national church, representing 110,000 baptized believers. He spoke eloquently about the spread of the gospel in his country. Afterwards, Aggie could not help but go up and ask him if he had ever heard of David and Svea Flood. “Yes, madam,” he replied, “as a little boy, I used to sell chickens and eggs to them twice a week. It was Svea Flood who led me to Christ.”

They embraced for a long time. He then said, “You must come to Africa. Your mother is the most famous person in our church history.”

In time, Aggie did come. She was welcomed by cheering throngs of villagers. Eventually she was taken to her mother’s grave – with that white cross and the words, “Svea Flood,” written there. She knelt in the soil to pray and give thanks to a good and patient and kind God. That national church leader read from scripture, “Those who sow in tears shall reap with songs of joy.”

I pass this along in hopes that if you are wondering if your Christian testimony and witness is making a difference in anyone’s life . . . be encouraged. It is. An eternal difference.

Work cited:

Cymbala, Jim , Fresh Power (Grand Rapids:  Zondervan Publishing House, 2001), p. 115.  This manuscript is from a sermon preached on 8/26/2001 by Stephen Davey. © Copyright 2001 Stephen Davey

Questions to Share:

1. How have you witnessed someone’s Christian walk during deployment? How did that encourage you?

2. How has someone noticed your Christian walk during deployment? How do you hope that has been an encouragement to them?