This is the second installment in a series of articles that are designed to help unpack the practical implications of the We Have a Dream declaration that has been entrusted to us as a family of Friends here in Mid-America. Using Acts 2:17 as a holy compass, We Have a Dream seeks to discern and describe the specific directions that God is currently calling the people of EFC-MAYM to take so that the “dream of the gospel is lived out … in our local churches, in the communities where our churches serve, and in the family of churches called Evangelical Friends Church-Mid America Yearly Meeting.”
Shortly after midnight on May 10, 1996, 34 men and women embarked on the final leg of what most people would consider an impossible dream: climbing to the summit of Mount Everest, the highest peak on the planet. Their heads were literally in the clouds as they set off from High Camp that morning, but the air would get much, much thinner by the time they arrived at their destination.
Enthroned high above the Himalayas, straddling the border between Nepal and China, Mount Everest rises nearly 30,000 feet above sea level, or roughly the cruising altitude of a 747. Before Tenzin Norgay and Edmund Hillary made the first official ascent in 1953, Everest was considered completely uninhabitable, and for good reason.
Above 26,000 feet is an area commonly called the “death zone.” The atmospheric pressure at Everest’s summit, which actually penetrates the stratosphere, is about a third of sea level pressure, resulting in the availability of only about a third as much oxygen to breathe. This means that a sea-level dweller (like most of us in Mid-America) exposed to the atmospheric conditions at the altitude above 27,900 feet without a lengthy period of acclimatization would likely lose consciousness within 2 to 3 minutes.
But none of this was about to deter Doug Hansen. Unlike so many of the climbing elite, Doug was just an ordinary mailman with an insatiable passion for the mountains. He had attempted to summit Everest the previous year but had been forced to turn back just 300 feet from the top. Doug worked two jobs all year just to be able to afford the $60,000 price tag for a return engagement. This second effort was also being sponsored, in part, by a group of school children back in Washington state who helped Doug raise money for the trip. In one of the most memorable scenes from Everest, a recently released feature film based on these real-life events, Doug is asked by his fellow climbers why he wanted a second chance at Everest. “Reaching the summit would be the realization of an impossible dream,” Doug replied, “if I can do it, maybe those kids back home will believe they can accomplish their dreams as well.”
On the afternoon of May 10, 1996, Doug Hansen reached the summit of Mount Everest. His impossible dream finally came true. And he paid the ultimate price. His body has yet to be found. Along with eight others who died in the mountains of Nepal that day, Doug sacrificed his very life for the sake of an “impossible dream.”
And I wonder … are there any “impossible dreams” for which we, like Doug, might be willing to invest at such an extraordinary level, even if it required us to sacrifice our very lives?
As I consider this question, there is another, more recent story from Nepal that comes to mind. I received this story firsthand during a visit to Kathmandu last summer on behalf of Evangelical Friends Mission (EFM), the official mission-sending agency of EFC-MAYM. My basic mission was to assess the damage from the devastating earthquake that shook the country on April 25 (over 9,000 people were killed, including 19 on Mount Everest, and more than 23,000 were injured), to observe some of the relief efforts being carried out by our Nepalese Friends, and to offer a small measure of personal support and encouragement to our church leaders. Along the way, one of these church leaders recounted to me an amazing new development that he recently witnessed in Nepal, a predominantly Hindu nation that until a few years ago was under the rule of a long-standing Hindu monarchy.
According to my friend, there was a particular village in Nepal where Christians had been severely persecuted for their faith by their Hindu neighbors. Some had even received death threats. Following the earthquake last spring, however, things had taken a dramatic turn. Up until that time, the Hindus would not allow the Christians in that village to draw water from the village well, which was the only source of fresh water in town. The Christians were suffering greatly, but they sensed a clear call to respond with mercy and forgiveness out of obedience to Christ. So as they began to receive material aid from EFM following the earthquake (including significant contributions from EFC-MAYM), they chose to share a large portion of this aid with their Hindu neighbors. Over time, this made such an impression on the village that the leader of the local Hindu party showed up at the church one day to thank the congregation for their unexpected compassion and to announce that they were now welcome at the village well and were free to draw water at any time … even when they needed water for Christian baptism!
And so another “impossible dream” is gradually coming true in Nepal. But this one is infinitely greater than scaling the summit of Mount Everest, because the fulfillment of this dream will have an eternal impact that far outweighs even the highest and most impressive of all human accomplishments. Through the sacrificial, life-giving generosity of God’s people, an ancient Hindu kingdom is slowly but surely, one person and one village at a time, being transformed into “the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” (Rev 11:15).
I can think of no more powerful illustration of the second facet of our own good and beautiful dream:
We have a dream of Jesus-followers being known as the most generous and life-giving people in the whole world. A church that is unstoppable, built by Christ, fueled by the Holy Spirit. Believing that what’s impossible to men is possible with God (cf. Mt 19:26).
And I can’t help but wonder … what seemingly impossible dreams might come true right here in Mid-America if we acted as though we truly believed that we serve a God of generosity instead of god of scarcity? To be more specific, I wonder what might happen if every one of our local churches gave at least a tithe (10%) of their income to fully support the collective ministries of EFC-MAYM both here at home and around the world? If we’re not careful, we might begin to develop a reputation for being “some of the most generous and life-giving people in the whole world.
On September 20, 2015, I received the following update from my friend in Nepal:
God answered the prayers of His people all over the world and Nepal today as the new constitution was unveiled by the president of Nepal. Nepal is declared as a secular state which has been widely welcomed by various political, ethnic and religious communities. Christians in Nepal are happy for this. The press asked Kamal Thapa (Chairman of the Pro Monarchy Rastriya Prajatantra Party), “Since you have not been successful in raising up a Hindu country in Nepal, how do you think and comment about this”? He reportedly answered, “Let the Christian grow more and more in Nepal, but the Christian must be like Jesus.”
Let it be so, O Lord. Let it be so.
– David O. Williams, General Superintendent
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