3 minute read
Finding Bethlehem
DR. JOSHUA BOGUNJOKO
When SIM workers get together, we often ask each other, Where are you from? Our newsletters mention how many countries are represented in our ministry or at an event. As our teams increase in diversity – diversity of culture, ethnicity, age, language, skill - the question, Where are you from?, has no chance of dying out any time soon.
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But in our diverse mission, some of us will feel confident about our "from" and others will feel less confident. Maybe you’ve experienced that your "from" requires some explanation, or carries with it some misperceptions or stereotypes. You have to manage assumptions in the eyes of others.
As we anticipate the Christmas season, let’s marvel at the "from" that Jesus chose for himself. He could have picked anywhere to associate with during his life on earth. Unlike us, he had every option available across time and place. Yet he did not choose citizenship in a safe, peaceful kingdom or in a powerful empire. He did not choose an affluent city by the sea or a prosperous and comfortable town. He deliberately chose his place of birth, his "from" – a tiny, inconsequential and overcrowded village clinging to the dusty outskirts of an occupied city.
Like little Bethlehem, I am from a tiny village called Owa Onire, with a population of no more than 500 at the time of my birth. Attached to this ‘from’ are many things – my culture, language, socio-economic status, ethnicity, etc. Owa Onire is not of huge significance in my state or region of Nigeria, and yet it is God who established this "from" for me.
Just as we come from many places, so we are going to many places. In fact, we are always going to someone else’s "from," and nowhere is too inconsequential for us to go. If the Lord of the Harvest sent his only Son into a stable in a village called Bethlehem, how much more should we go anywhere, for his sake. No matter where you are from, God can use your “from” for HIS future.
"God can use your 'from' for his future." Dr. Bogunjoko
One hundred years ago, a professional athlete from Canada turned down the opportunity to compete in the Olympics. He became a missionary. One day, he trekked 26 kilometres into my village from another remote village. He came to my “from.” There was nothing to mark Owa Onire on any map, nothing special about it physically or economically. Yet this man was convinced there were people in this village for Jesus. Because of this, I and my family follow Jesus!
"These are all 'Bethlehems,' waiting for the light to dawn." Dr. Bogunjoko
Chad Loftis photo
Such a story is repeated many times over. Today a new believer named María Teresa hikes two hours the village of Cruzpata in the Andes Mountains of Peru where she has planted a church. Today, we are sending people to a cluster of homes in Mali called Dudya-Kadjel, praying for gospel seed to take root there. There are remote villages in Mongolia and North Africa. There are forgotten neighbourhoods in Ayutthaya, Paris and Quito.
Seen in the light of the Christmas story, these are all “Bethlehems,” waiting for the light to dawn.
"We are always going to someone else's 'from' and nowhere is too inconsequential for us to go." Dr. Bogunjoko
Chad Loftis photo
No matter where you are coming from - country, education, socio-economic level, single or married, language – or where you are going, the joy offered to you is to imitate the Christ Child.
Crossing barriers into the Bethlehems of today, we, too, incarnate ourselves, confident with the prophet Isaiah that “the people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned."
Dr. Joshua Bogunjoko
