Loving Cross Culturally–In Montana!

Different cultures are really fascinating!  We can learn a lot about people and ourselves from cross cultural interactions.  I spent several years of my life living cross cultural in Korea and doing short term cross cultural trips to other nations.  As a couple, we spent time living in a Korean community in Washington for a couple of years as well.  

There are days I miss living cross culturally, but in mid April, I found myself in a cross cultural setting less than 2 hours from my home.  I joined a group from Libby, Montana in Browning for a day of loving on Native American people and doing evangelism.  It had been almost 10 years since I had ministered on a Reservation.  I was a little nervous but excited to go!   

We met at a host church there.  The pastors have been there a long time and they were really welcoming and encouraging.  They spoke highly of the impression the Libby group had made on one of their prior outreaches there.  Homemade bread and God’s love will do that :-).  

After prayers as group and some words of exhortation to go walk in our authority, we were sent out into different locations around Browning.  We were mostly in groups of four, with two guys and two girls.  From there, we split into a team of one guy and one girl.  We went house to house, knocking on doors, giving out bread and Bibles, and offering prayer. 

Less than an hour into our time, we came to a house where we met a guy likely in his early 30s.  He was friendly and we struck up a conversation quite naturally.  Both he and I had young daughters and we connected on that among other things.  

As we’re talking with him, he shared he had problems with his back. He was unable to bend over real far and said his pain was typically a 6 out of 10. We asked to pray for him and after laying on hands and praying, I had him test it out.  He said it was some better, and I told him Jesus prayed twice for the blind man.  Could we pray once more?  He allowed us to pray again.  We prayed more, thanking God for what he started and inviting the Holy Spirit to come.  We had him test it again and he said his back felt really better to the point where he could bend almost all the way over, and he didn’t have any pain at all!  Praise the Lord!

Somewhere in our conversation, I felt the Lord lead me to share part of my testimony with him, including overcoming struggles with alcohol when I was in college after I met Jesus. At the direction of the Holy Spirit, I also shared the gospel using the three circles approach.  It was probably the most loving way I had ever shared, and it flowed better than I could have imagined.  I know God is really moving when that happens!  

He spoke of talking some to God and thinking a lot about his life and things he had done before, his regrets, etc.  He’d been sober from alcohol for 10 years, which was awesome!  

We could have concluded that he was a follower of Jesus.  But I have learned not to assume that.  Eventually I asked him the question very gently, “If you were to stand before God, what would you say to him for why he should let you into heaven?” 

He did not know what to say and clearly was very uncertain.  But the question intrigued him.  I told him that when we trust in Jesus and chose to live for him, we can know that we are in right standing with God because God then sees us through Jesus Christ and His perfect life. 

I had also shared with him a little bit about talking to Buddhists in Asia, and how when I asked them how good they needed to be to go to their version of heaven, they were never sure. Was 90% good enough?  They didn’t know.  I shared how many religions have a moral standard, but one can never be sure if they ever met that standard.  But in Christianity, our righteousness comes through Christ and his perfect life.  Outside of that, all of us have sinned and fall short of what God requires. 

I asked him if he’d like to pray to follow Jesus and be made righteous before God.  Thankfully, he was interested in doing that.  We had him put out his hands and wait on the Lord and as different sins came to his mind, he could give them to Jesus by flipping his hands over and dropping them into Jesus’ lap as if Jesus was standing there. 

And as he did that, he experienced the love of Jesus forgiving him.  I had him pray with me to turn from sin and believe in Jesus and choose to follow him.  He was blessed and shared how wonderful it felt!  Praise the Lord!

Before we left, we guided him where to begin reading in Scripture.  We exchanged phone numbers and received his permission to connect him with a pastor there in Browning. We also took pictures together, as it was a special moment!  Needless to say, he was glad we knocked on his door that morning!  

The rest of our day continued to go well! One individual invited us into his home and we talked and ministered for some time with him. He also gave me his number and told us we were welcome in his home anytime!  We saw another older man who didn’t walk well receive some physical healing after we prayed.   His wife commented how he may be faster than her now!

As we finished up in Browning and came back together as a large group, others reported God touching people and there were other salvations too.  I talked to the pastor, asking to meet up sometime in the future with my wife and I so we could learn more about the culture of the people and better minister to them in future visits.  I was so thankful for the opportunity to spend a few hours there!  

There are many opinions about the Native American people.  Certainly, there are dark parts of their culture as there are with all cultures.  We all are in need of the redemption Jesus Christ offers, returning to God’s original design for our lives and communities. On that Montana April day, I just found myself very grateful for the opportunity to join other passionate believers in loving the Native Americans and ministering the Gospel to them.  It may have been another different culture for me, but God’s heart of love is always the same.  We just have to yield ourselves to Him and He’ll share it with us! Praise Jesus!