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God is Faithful
| Bro Isaiah Odiwuor Awino (S Nyanza, Kenya)
This brought tears into my eyes.
I
n the country of Armenia, in 1988, Samuel
and Danielle sent their son off to school.
Samuel squatted before his son and looked at
him in the eye, “Have a good day in school and
remember, no matter what, I’ll always be
there for you”. They hugged and the boy ran
off to school.
Hours later, a powerful earthquake rocked the
area. In the midst of the pandemonium,
Samuel and Danielle agonised over what might
have happened to their son, but they could not
get any information. The radio announced that
there were thousands of casualties. Samuel
then grabbed his coat and headed to the
school yard. When he reached the area, what
he saw brought tears to his eyes, Armand’s
school was a pile of debris. Other parents
were standing and crying.
Samuel found the place where Armand’s class
used to be and began pulling a broken beam
off the pile of rubble. He then grabbed a rock
and put it to the side and then grabbed
another one. One of the parents looking on
asked, “What are you doing?”. “Digging for my
son”, Samuel answered. The man then said,
“You’re just going to make matters worse.
The building is unstable” and tried to pull
Samuel away from his work. Samuel just kept
on working. As the time wore on, one by one,
the other parents left. Then a worker tried to
pull Samuel away from the rubble. Samuel
looked at him and said, “Won’t you help me?”.
The worker left and Samuel kept on digging.
All through the night and into the next day,
Samuel continued digging. Parents placed
flowers and pictures of their children on the
ruins, but Samuel kept on working. He picked
up a beam and pushed it out of the way when
he heard a faint cry, “Help! Help!” Samuel
listened, but didn’t hear anything again. Then
he heard a muffled voice, “Papa!”
Samuel began to dig furiously, he could see his
son. “Come out son”, he said with relief.
“No”, Armand said, “Let the other kids come
out first because I know you'll get me”. Child
after child emerged until finally, little Armand
slid out. Samuel took him up into his arms and
Armand said, “I told the other kids not to
worry because you told me that you’ll always
be there for me!”
Fourteen children were saved that day
because one parent was faithful. How much
more is our God Almighty? Whether trapped by
fallen debris or ensnared by life’s hardships
and struggles, we are never cut off from God’s
faithfulness. He is true to His character. He is
reliable and trustworthy and can always be
counted on. As Christians, let us keep trusting
God to the end.
S
o far as the preaching of the gospel goes,
we are back in the days of Noah, this for
sure. Even if, in the past fifteen years or so,
we have not gone flat-out in gospel procla-
mation, it is still true that from time to
time some stalwart efforts have been
made. Yet as the coming of Christ comes
nearer, bigger and nobler efforts seem only
to produce small results and discourage-
ment.
Without doubt, so we assure each other, it
is because these are just the days of Noah
that so many of our well-intentioned efforts
flounder, so we comfort ourselves over the
meagre success that follows. Thus, alas, we
perhaps excuse ourselves from further
effort. ‘Lord, we tried, You know we tried.
But we might as well give up. These are the
days of Noah. Please send the Deluge,
quick.’
However, until the Deluge comes, we have
no warrant to give up. Until the Lord
Himself shuts the door, we must hold it
wide open, and shout to everyone: “Come
in, there’s a little room left”.
Witness Committee
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