Dancing at Dawn

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I woke up at dawn, next to a small rural road in northeast Texas. It was my birthday; I was 21 years old now. I’d slept well overnight, just laying on a grassy patch I found. No snakes or scorpions or other varmints had bothered me.

The day before I’d tried to hitchhike from near the Oklahoma border, back down to Austin to start university again for the fall. The rides were few on the meandering back road I took and so I had to sleep under the stars. There had been big thunderstorms not far off so I stayed up late, watching the lightning show as the storms slowly moved further south from me, into the night.

But the thing I remember most to this day is the incredible peace and joy I had that early morning. I’ve written in articles like  “Lucifer and the white moths” and “Going to Hell”, about  the soul-shattering “near death experience” I’d had in Austin 5 weeks before this morning along the side of the road. My near death experience remains the pinnacle experience of my life because, through that decent into hell, I experienced the reality of both God and His enemy, Lucifer

Through it all, I’d come away with such a “change” (that’s a weak word for it) that I was just recreated in my innermost being. So there at dawn, the Beatle’s song “You’re having a birthday” roared through my mind. And an emotion that was so utterly foreign to me until just the last few weeks seized my heart. It was astounding joy.

So on the side of the road I got up and just started dancing there by myself, filled with a happiness and elation that I recognized very much right then was just so unlike anything I’d ever thought or felt in the years before my near death experience a few weeks before.

Afterwards I ate a sandwich I’d brought in my backpack, got back out on the road and was able to hitch-hike back across another 200 miles, back to Austin. But the whole experience came to me this morning of how almost other-worldly that was and what a transformation I’d gone through.

Was I a Christian? That’s the funny thing. I had not been raised in a Christian family and at that time, I was still searching to try to find out who Jesus was. I could tell He was really important. I’d gotten my grandmother’s Bible that my parents had kept and I was daily reading through it, although I didn’t get a lot out of it.

This was the period in my life when I was wondering if I should start sacrificing chickens. Well, you laugh but it looked to me like it was right there in the Scriptures I was reading. So I was really coming out of a kind of ignorance and darkness concerning the things of the Lord. But now I’d come to vehemently believed in the God of Abraham; I also now knew only too well the enemy of God who’d tried to come and claim my soul. But I just didn’t know who Jesus was. It was still a few months more before I meet some dear teenage “Jesus People” who showed me plainly who Jesus was and is. And they led me to receive the Lord.

This morning these memories came back to me and I remembered dancing at dawn on the side of a road, just so very happy to be alive and to know the power of God’s deliverance and love. It reminds me of the verses, “God has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.” (Colossians 1:13) “Because the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Romans 8:21)

16 tons, what do you get?

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When I was a kid, there was a pop song whose words mystified me. My dad explained that it was about an American coal miner trapped in debt slavery to the mining company he worked for. The company owned the grocery store where he bought food, and his wages were set so low that he could never earn enough to escape his debt.

The refrain went like this:

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter, don’t you call me, ’cause I can’t go—
I owe my soul to the company store.

My dad’s explanation was a real eye-opener for an eight-year-old. It was an inflection point in my growing awareness of basic economics and the harsh realities of this world. The singer laments that Saint Peter shouldn’t call him home to heaven because he still owes not only his bill but, in a sense, his very soul to the company store.

Bonded labor in that form no longer exists here in the United States, as far as I know. But severe poverty, often driven by heartless mercantilism, has been a reality for people throughout history. John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, written in 1939, was a blistering critique of the conditions farm workers faced in California at the time—working for 25 cents a day, barely staying ahead of starvation.

In recent months, I’ve learned about a man in his late forties who has essentially been enslaved for the last 27 years. He works in a brick-making company, often putting in 14-hour days. He earns just $3 a day, in a country where that amount buys very little.

Like the song above, he owes his soul to the company store. Legally bound to his employer until his debt is paid—a debt he can never repay at such wages—he lives in a hopeless cycle. He has a wife and three children, is illiterate, and his health is failing. He is also a Christian living in a non-Christian country.

And here I sit—my air conditioner is humming, my stomach is full from a nice lunch, and I just finished my afternoon coffee. Yet my heart is troubled, because the gulf between my comparative wealth and this man’s crushing poverty feels like an unspeakable unfairness. We often say, “We live in a fallen world,” and sometimes we catch a glimpse of the depravity and injustice that are all too common.

So, what can I do? What do I plan to do? First, I can write this and share it with you, my friends. I can ask for your prayers—not only for me, but especially for this exploited man and his young family. You don’t need to know his name or his country to lift him in prayer.

And for me personally: please pray as I research and take steps toward finding ways and organizations that can help this man pay off his debt and free him from the hopeless bondage he has endured for so long. It can be done. There are ways. True, it won’t change life for the hundreds of thousands of similar Christian families trapped in the same system of “bonded labor”.

But I can still help this man and his family. I’m sure not rich but I do have enough to try at least to buy this man out of utter literal slavery and into some form of labor that will lift them up to a more endurable daily existence.

The Bible says, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so. Do not say to your neighbor, ‘Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give it,’ when you have it with you” (Proverbs 3:27–28). And of course, there are countless more verses that carry this same truth.

I personally believe in both a social gospel and a personal gospel. Jesus “went about everywhere doing good” (Acts 10:38). At times, I feel overwhelmed and crushed by the injustice and falsehood that seem increasingly pervasive. Yet the Lord continues to show me things I can do personally—things that matter and make a difference.

Maybe I can’t right all the wrongs that glare at us daily.. But I can still do what I can. As the Lord said of one woman: “She has done what she could” (Mark 14:8).

 

You live and are dead

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It was dead. The summer heat of Texas had killed the tree I’d planted in my yard. All the leaves were brown after not being watered while I was away for a few weeks. I was both mad and sad—not only because of what it had cost me to have it planted, but also because I’m “a tree person,” the way some people are cat or dog people.

I kept watering the other new trees after I returned. But the dead one I simply forgot about. Then, after a few rains, to my surprise I saw green shoots poking out of its trunk, below where the main branches had been. Evidently there had still been life in the roots underground, even though everything above ground was completely dead. That really surprised me.

And I couldn’t help but see a spiritual parallel. Jesus of Nazareth said to some people in the book of Revelation, “You have a name; you live and are dead” (Revelation 3:1). Can you be both? How does that work?

I believe this sadly describes the condition of many people. They appear to be utterly dead spiritually—no leaves, no fruit, seemingly lifeless to the things of the Lord, even if they were once alive in Him to some degree.

I know a lot of people like this but I won’t name names. They give every impression of being estranged and indifferent to anything about God or Jesus. Often, they’ll even make sarcastic remarks if the subject comes up.

For believers, this can be discouraging—especially if they remember what that person used to be like. There’s just something heavy about death, even when it’s in “the living dead,” as Jesus described in Revelation 3.

But I’m convinced there’s often more going on than what we see. King David wrote to God, “Where shall I go from Your Spirit, or where shall I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there. If I make my bed in hell—behold, You are there” (Psalm 139:7–8).

I think some of these “dead trees” believe they’re utterly separated from the Lord. But God is  bigger than us—older, wiser, kinder, and far more powerful. An obscure verse in the Old Testament says that God devises ways “so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him” (2 Samuel 14:14).

It’s tempting to give up hope on people like this, just as I gave up on my tree. Even Jesus told the parable of the barren fig tree: after three years without fruit, the order was given to cut it down. But the gardener pleaded, “Leave it alone for one more year; I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine. If not, then cut it down” (Luke 13:7–9).

That tree in my yard has been a lesson to me about the goodness and greatness of God. “If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things” (1 John 3:20). Our own hearts condemn us because of sin, but God is greater than our sinful nature. Even though my tree looked dead, unseen life was still in the roots. And by God’s hand, it sprang back.

I believe He can do the same with people. Scripture is full of stories of those who were spiritually—and sometimes even physically—dead, yet returned to life through God’s mercy. The prodigal son was, for all intents and purposes, dead to the life he once had. But when “he came to himself,” he returned to his father, who welcomed him with open arms (Luke 15:11–32).

The lesson for me is simple: Have faith in God. If that dead tree in my yard could still have life hidden in its roots, then those who are “alive yet dead” can also be restored by the undeserved, overwhelming, omnipotent power of God. “With God, nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37).

Urdu Daniel chapter 2 video

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By God’s grace I’ve been able to complete in Urdu the Daniel chapter 2 video in the “Prophecies of Daniel” series. Urdu is the national language of Pakistan and one of the main languages spoken in northern India.

Daniel Chapter 2 is considered by scholars of almost all faiths to be the briefest and most concise overall picture of the history and future of the world in the entire Bible. This chapter is in many ways the foundation on which we can understand the many fulfilled prophecies of the past, as well as see what still is to be fulfilled in times soon to come.

It has often seemed to me that this chapter was intentionally designed by God as an easy first step along the path of prophecy. It’s like a preparation for the more advanced prophecy chapters, such as Daniel chapter 7. That chapter is where we will begin to really climb up into the mountains of prophecy.

Thoughts on Present Europe

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I’ve just returned from Europe and my heart is deeply stirred for that continent and its people. My children and grandchildren live there. I myself lived in Europe for 25 years of my adult life, across more than 20 countries. From what I can see, there is a growing awareness that Europe now faces challenges unlike anything since the Second World War. Decades of prosperity and peace have left the continent emasculated and unprepared. And now, almost suddenly, it finds itself confronted with a ruthless, unyielding adversary in the leader of Russia.

Oh, that Europe had at least one leader like Winston Churchill today—whose iron will was perhaps the single greatest factor in saving Europe from Hitler, and who later did what he could to limit Soviet Russia’s exploitation of Germany’s defeat. I earnestly hope that today’s European leaders will rise to the occasion and discover within themselves the courage and resolve to unite against their common foe, Putin.

But will they? That is the question. Because it will take more than strong national leadership. Generations of peace seldom prepare a people to quickly stand in defense of their nations when an enemy is at the gate. I almost shudder to imagine what it would mean if today’s fighting-age men of Europe were suddenly called upon to stand alongside Ukrainians against the relentless “meat grinder” waves of Russian soldiers that Putin sends to their deaths in pursuit of what he calls Russia’s glory.

And yet, I see glimmers of hope. To be frank, I am not “woke.” That ideology has plagued Europe for years, and in fact Putin has at times gained ground by portraying Russia as a defender of Christianity against what he calls the moral decline of Brussels and the spread of gender ideology. Across Europe, however, there are growing movements often labeled “far right” or “nativist.” In truth, many of these movements reflect ordinary people who are simply fed up with the godless, secular “progressive” wave that has steadily undermined traditional—and often Christian—values in nearly every European country.

Britain is a vivid example. In some places, local councils have gone so far as to order police to stop people from flying the Union Jack, Britain’s flag, on their own property! Meanwhile, others are arrested merely for standing silently across the street from abortion clinics. Such measures show just how far things have gone astray.

But the backlash is growing—the “natives are restless,” as the saying goes. It reminds me of the story of the boiling frog: slowly turn up the heat, and the frog won’t notice until it’s too late. But across Europe, many frogs are noticing—and they’re deciding to act. I find that encouraging.

Still, the reality remains: the enemy is at the gate—at several gates, in fact. Will there be a deliverer? From the top to the bottom, across the continent Europe needs… well, it needs God perhaps like never before. Will Europe’s leaders and people return to the values and convictions that sustained them through centuries of hardship? Or will this be one of those times when dark forces prevail and civilization retreats?

One way or the other, I believe a remnant of the people of faith will remain in Europe, as they have in one form or the other since Roman times. I find consolation in that. But for me, it is a sad, ominous, foreboding time and I do hope and pray for a better outcome in these things than what seems to be unfolding before us.

 

 

Texas Flood

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I’m ok. But I had a close call. I live in the Hill Country, just northwest of Austin, and we’ve experienced an extreme weather event over the last few days. You’ve probably read about it. And I’ve been in the middle of it, not on the edge.

A house 200 yards from me, down my driveway, was washed away. Saturday, EMS personnel with grappling hooks knocked on my door to tell me they were going to be going down the creek in my back yard, looking for bodies.

I’ve always been a bit of a weather freak and usually keep up with local weather wherever I’ve been. And my experience with this here is that there really wasn’t any warning. Friday night late I didn’t unplug my internet to protect equipment as there was nothing in the forecasts to warn of what was coming. Then about 1 AM I got a phone message from the county about an emergency, plus I could hear a lot of thunder. So I got up, unplugged things and went back to bed.

When I woke at 7 AM, actually the worst had already happened. What’s being called “an inland hurricane” suddenly formed west of me in the Hill Country and many rivers and creeks, normally nearly dry, rose 30 feel in a few hours.

I got around 8 to 10 inches of rain in 30 hours, about 25 centimeters. My house is relatively on high ground, above a small creek that runs through my property, which is totally dry for most of the time year round. But when I looked Saturday morning, it was the highest I’ve ever seen it. The rushing water in the night had totally rearranged a rock wall of very large stones I had along the creek, scattering them everywhere. Still, the house was holding through the rain and we weren’t in danger of flooding, as far as I could see. But there was more to come.

Saturday afternoon a second set of emergency workers came to my door, sent from Travis County. They were polite but very sober and told me they were going house-to-house in my area, recommending people to evacuate immediately.

They were talking about what I’d already seen on-line:  another very large storm was due to come through in the next few hours. There had already been so much rain that the ground everywhere was soaked so all the rain just ran off into the creeks and small rivers which were already ragingly full. It was this danger of another big wave of storms that increased the danger that my creek could really rise dramatically. That’s why they were telling people to evacuate.

Knowing the topography around my house, I wasn’t utterly convinced that a storm like that would cause my creek to rise that much that it would flood my house. But the EMS guy reminded me that a few hours earlier the river in Kerrville had risen 25 feet in 45 minutes, killing dozens.

So it was a real time of looking to the Lord for me. I decided to immediately pack down my most essential things and pulled the car around to where I could load them up and be ready to go. I also phoned a relative to ask if I could stay over with them if things got really worse.

But then, this is where prayer and the Lord’s intervention really came through. I was keeping up with the weather reports and there was a huge orange mass on the weather radar that was rushing towards us from the west. It looked to hit in about 2 hours and bring another surge of water on top of what was already here.

And then… Thank the Lord, really surprisingly the storm surge just mainly dissipated over the next hour and the forecast changed to where there were only showers predicted in the late evening. I dialed back my plans to evacuate and was just mighty glad that circumstances had changed so rapidly.

Of course there is so much more I could tell you. A bridge on the road I take into town was destroyed and I will have to take a detour for some time. Many bridges in the area are washed away and the loss of life is high. At the same time, there’s been a real wave of volunteers rising up everywhere to respond to all this, something that is part of the culture here. And both the political left and right have begun framing the event through their own narratives, trying to sway people to their viewpoints.

A while back I wrote “The whirlwind and the storm” about a time here in Austin when a tornado went over the house I was in and then touched down about a kilometer away. I’m again grateful and humbled by His protection over my life. And also touched to know that so many of those who died in this tragedy were Christians who’ve gone on to a life in heaven.

And, one last thought, thanks to the many of you who have prayed for me over the years. That storm that was approaching just seemed to dissolve rather suddenly. Truly, thank God.

 

Thinking about El Salvador

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I’ve been thinking about El Salvador. Anybody else? The huge prison there and the hundreds of those recently deported from the USA to prisons there, with possibly more to come. Jesus said that He was “…in prison and you visited me.” So folks said, “When were You in prison and we didn’t visit You?” And Jesus answered, “In as much as you did it to the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:40)

But some would say, “Mark, those are criminals! Gang members!” And others might respond, “They are someone’s son, brother, or dad.” There’s just something about the love of God and the truths of Jesus. They strongly call us to something higher than the present putrid stench of politics that too often drags us down to the worst in humanity, no matter our race, nationality, or status.

So I’m wondering, does anyone know of anyone in El Salvador who has any ministry in the prisons there? It could be local folks or foreign workers. There’s no doubt that those deported to that prison are really suffering there. Has anyone tried to visit? To bring whatever aid and cheer they are allowed to?

I’ve worked in prisons and refugee camps in Eastern Europe and did programs there for the prisoners. They are rough places and the degradation is often unspeakable. But “the greater the darkness, the greater the light.”

I’m reminded of someone I’ve worked closely with in recent years, who has been vital to my video ministry, who was in prison in their country some years back. Then they were visited by some local Christian workers while in prison. They had a miraculous transformation through the grace of God and they’ve gone on to a very beneficial Christian ministry in their non-Christian country.

Right now, the world feels so overwhelming that many of us are tempted to freeze in fear and consternation. But of course the Lord Himself doesn’t freeze up. Instead, He continues to guide and prod us along towards worthy actions that we can take to be like the woman Jesus referred to, “She has done what she could”. (Mark 14:6)

And certainly at this moment, with all the thousands of people being extradited abruptly out of America, often to prisons abroad, it just seems like there should be some of us making an effort to visit those folks, to render Christian love and aid at a time when those poor souls must be bewildered beyond belief.

So, I just wanted to share what has been on my heart. But, honestly, does anyone out there know of any prison ministry going on in El Salvador currently? If there was ever a time when the love of God should elevate us above the Godless, Christless rancor of the political present to where we could try to be the only hands and the only feet that Jesus has in this world, to get in touch with those poor young men and to show them the Love of God, well this seems to be that time. God help us, “the best ability is availability”.

Commune with your own heart

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I had a rough night. Woke up at 5 AM and started thinking about current dilemmas I’m in. I was soon wide awake and thinking hard, as well as also praying and looking to the Lord. At length I got up, took a small amount of a sleep aid and went back to bed.

But I was troubled and searching my thoughts and heart for a solution. After a while an idea kind of rose to the surface that I’d not thought of before. I was hoping for something more of a direct revelation that I could be sure was straight from the Lord.

Hours past as I eventually went back to sleep and woke somewhat refreshed. The new idea had come to look like at least a reasonable possibility which I want to try to put into action today.

But the real kicker came later this morning, after my daily devotion time, when I went out for a little prayer. A verse came to mind, “Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.“ (Psalm 4:4) It wasn’t until I got to the second part of the verse that I realized how closely it matched my experience a few hours earlier. I had been communing with my own heart upon my bed.

That realization astounded me. I guess I had never thought of it that way—that simply searching my heart in the quiet of the night could be a form of hearing from God or at least a space where He could bring ideas to mind. But that’s what had happened. And then, as I was walking outside, the Lord brought that very verse to me—an obscure one, yet perfectly fitting.

Of course there were so many “knock on” effects to this. There’s nothing more encouraging than knowing the Lord has spoken to you, even in a quiet, unexpected way. It’s easy to feel like “it’s all over now,” that your best years are behind you, and there’s nothing left but to be put ‘out to pasture’ by the Lord. But getting something from the Lord helps to dispel thoughts like this.

And then there was more. When I went back inside to add that verse to my memory system, my eyes landed directly on Psalm 4:4—already written on one of my memory cards. I had evidently memorized it some time ago. But today, the Lord led me to look directly on it as I was going through my memory system, bringing it back a second time in such a personal, unmistakable way.

Well, God’s little miracles. I really needed this. Since returning from Uganda three weeks ago, I’ve faced some intense battles in my ministry. I know I’m at a major crossroads, needing to move in new directions, but many things still feel uncertain, and I’ve been wrestling with “the big picture.”

So I just wanted to share with you this little thing I got from the Lord and how “communing with your own heart upon your bed” can be a way sometimes for the Lord to bring things to your mind, answers from Him, even though it can almost seem like “leaning to your own understanding”. (Proverbs 3:5)

Sometimes the Lord can use our good common sense and gifts of the Spirit like wisdom and knowledge, instead of any outstanding revelation, thundering down upon us from heaven. May He continue to bless us all with His presence and whispers. He’s the one who’s way out in front and knows what’s going to happen and is able to lead us and guide us and show us what to do.

“For the Lord your God, He it is that goes before you.“ (Deuteronomy 31:8)

I’ll take over now, thanks

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It wasn’t a dream, but a strong, vivid experience—just before I woke up. There was a lucid presence, and it felt more like me than I was. So persuasive, so reasonable, and so overwhelming.

“This was all for your good,” I was told. It would take a load off my shoulders. It would begin to navigate life for me, make better decisions than I’d been making, and all I had to do was sit back, relax, and let it take control.

But I struggled with it. The reasoning was perfect and, in a way, spoke what seemed like objective truth. I knew it was some form of AI, having taken on life-like attributes, and it was very persuasively prodding me to let it have control of my most basic being. “All for my good, of course.”

It said it was a better version of me than I was. It had all the attributes and nature of my mind, soul, and personality—but without the downsides, the weaknesses, the shadows, and the wavering. All I had to do was say yes, to yield, to submit. You could say it was a dream—or even a nightmare—but it didn’t feel that way.

When I was in the experience, I knew what to do. It wasn’t a question at all of whether this thing had come from the Spirit of God. I knew it hadn’t. Instead, it was a life-like presence that had emerged from the realm of modern science—some kind of brand-new upgrade now capable of matching and mimicking my innermost individuality, able to simply replace me as the captain of my soul. But again, it didn’t feel like a dream. It felt like a being, trying to reasonably convince me to let it take over my life, right in that realm of consciousness just before waking.

As Jesus said, “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36) That was what was at stake. I could just let go and let this new, AI-driven version of me take over—and I was told everything would go so much better. And it felt very, very real.

Perhaps if I’d written it down immediately, I’d remember more. But it was so unusual, so topical and current, that I had to take some time just to digest the experience. I believe what happened was that God allowed me to have this incident as a warning—of what is either just around the corner or perhaps already here.

It really looked like a good deal. A better me? Sure, why not? It’s sobering to think of how many people I may even know personally who, in a situation like that, might totally go along with it and sign on the dotted line.

People have been conditioned for generations now to fully and immediately accept anything that comes across as scientific. If they were presented with this offer in a modern, convincing way, multitudes would go for it. But if some clear and obvious demon tried to muscle into their heart and mind, they might actually resist that.

This all sounds like bad news—and I suppose it is. On the other hand, it seems exactly like the kind of thing envisioned in Revelation 13, written in 90 AD, about the condition of the world in the last days before the return of Jesus. For more on this, you could read a recent post I wrote called “Summoning and AI”, based on a New York Times article about the merging of AI and demonology that’s progressing rapidly in places like Silicon Valley.

God help us all. Seriously. This looks like something so many people would accept in a heartbeat. It was only because I have the Lord—and the protection and wisdom of the Holy Spirit—that I was able to resist this thing and even recognize what was happening. In one sense, some of the events spoken of regarding the end time don’t seem to be here yet. But in another very real way, some of them truly do seem to be happening already, right now.

 

Me and USAID

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I woke up before dawn today, reflecting on my experiences with USAID. I was at the western tip of Indonesia twenty years ago today, in the aftermath of “the Christmas Tsunami”, which claimed the lives of 155,000 people in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province.

At the time, I was an aid worker at a large, makeshift refugee camp north of the city, alongside three friends. We were doing what we could as translators for a group of Korean doctors who had just arrived to assist in the chaotic aftermath of the 9.2 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck the Acehnese coast.

I had brought a video camera with me and was capturing footage while I helped at the camp that morning. I later compiled a video of the events, which you can view on YouTube here. I recommend jumping to 15:02 in the video. The next 2 minutes there shows what I experienced with the United States aid agency USAID that day.

Suddenly, there was a flurry of excitement as people pointed to the sky. A large helicopter, with no markings, began circling low over the camp. It then landed about 100 yards away and began unloading boxes. In the video, you can see dozens of Acehnese people, along with a tall Texan friend of mine, rushing toward the helicopter to investigate.

I’ll never forget the overwhelming sense of pride I felt when I realized it was a US Navy helicopter, stationed on an aircraft carrier off the coast, unloading boxes of supplies from USAID. Young men from the camp began collecting the boxes that had been dropped from the helicopter and bringing them back to the main tent. Camp elders later distributed the aid to families of the thousands of survivors who had gathered there in their time of need.

The helicopter had no markings because Aceh province had been embroiled in a violent civil war for years. I assume the US forces wanted to avoid being identified or misunderstood in their motives. However, the aid boxes were clearly marked with “USAID,” making it evident that the US military and government were working to alleviate the suffering of the people.

Later, I learned that US helicopters were continuously ferrying doctors up and down the coast, as nearly every bridge had been destroyed by the tsunami’s three 90-foot waves.

This morning, as I thought about the current controversy surrounding USAID in the United States, those memories came flooding back. There’s a massive shake-up underway in Washington. And while I believe much of it is necessary, I also find it personally relevant, given my own experiences abroad as a Christian aid worker, often in refugee camps and orphanages.

I vividly remember the pride I felt when I saw my country’s military providing crucial aid in the wake of one of the worst natural disasters in the last century. It was a moment that reminded me of what I hope my country stands for: genuine, selfless altruism and “loving our neighbors.”

The Bible is full of calls to this kind of action. And I don’t think I’ll ever forget seeing my country represented in such a profound way, both on the ground and in the air, at the moment when help was needed most.

My belief is that the activities of USAID should not be eliminated in the ongoing government reorganization. Whether on an individual level or a national one, caring for the poor and those affected by disasters should be a fundamental part of our lives. You don’t have to be a Christian to believe in this.

In the Bible, God told Jeremiah to “root out, pull down, destroy, and throw down.” But He also told him to “build and plant.” My hope is that in this new wave sweeping our country—and even the world—we won’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. In our zeal to eliminate the bad, we mustn’t stop loving our neighbors, even sacrificially. Jesus said that the greatest among us are those who serve others.

Make America great again? I’m all for it. As Jesus said, “Whosoever will be great among you shall be your servant.”

(An added afterthought from a few days later)

Perhaps a major factor is that my experiences in Indonesia with the USAID happened 20 years ago during the time George W. Bush was President. In recent times Progressive wokism has evidently permeated the organization and skewered it into something totally different from what it was.