Twelve hundred miles from home, I walked out of my hotel room, Bible in hand, just to spend some time in the Word. A voice across the courtyard questioned loudly, “Marcos Schultz?”
I had only met the gal at her congregation’s mission conference, about halfway between Porvenir and where we were now. I had been the conference speaker. I remember that closing Sunday, the date was October 7, 2001.
Ani had been preparing for years to take her Great Commission response to the Middle East. She had flight tickets for Wednesday. She was one excited gal, and the church was one joyous family! The joy ended abruptly that Sunday morning when the pastor opened the service dropping a bomb on us. “Last night,” he spoke slowly and solemnly, “the United States and Britain began an airstrike campaign against Afghanistan, in retaliation for 9/11.”
I can still recall where I sat as I forlornly concluded that there was no way Ani would be able to go to Islamic lands now with a war on. Sad, but obviously true. All that work, all that investment, all that prayer, all that effort... for naught.
Until.
Until Ani stepped to the front to speak to her church family those words that are chiseled in my memory bank: “Now more than ever, I must go to that nation. Moreover, woe be I, if I do not go.”
That fancy loudmouth preacher hung his head in awe of Ani and in shame of himself. He silently rejoiced in the fact that—for once—I had kept my big mouth shut. I never said my “obviously true” statement out loud. I was humbled by the faith-filled courage of this young woman.
I hadn’t seen Ani in 20 years. She had served in three Islamic countries, was now married, and she and Stephen were doing mission work in the very same area where I was teaching.
Wow. The things God brings to pass!