Mar 24, 2020
By Garfield Miller
Director of Outreach
SDB Missionary Society
In the podcast What is Love by John Piper (Founder and Teacher, desiringGod.org), he defines love in two ways: “love of complacency”—because something is pleasing; and “love of benevolence”—to bring about something beautiful. Based on these definitions we can know with confidence that what we experience from God is the love of benevolence. In reflection, I believe that the greatest expression of God’s love is communicated to us in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” This is the verse that motivated Joan Small (New York City SDB Church, NY), Johnmark Camenga, (Pastor of the Lost Creek SDB Church, Lost Creek, WV) and me on our missions trip February 4 -18, 2020, under the theme “Handle with Love!”
Our team to Ethiopia and Burundi sought to bring encouragement to our African brethren through leadership training, ministry to children and women, Gospel preaching and needs assessment. SDBs in Ethiopia are refugees from South Sudan struggling to make a life starting from nothing. The Burundi SDB Conference is a World Federation member dealing with the 20 of their 54 churches closed because of government bureaucracy. In both Ethiopia and Burundi, we experienced the outpouring of devotion to God that was strongly motivated by the light of God’s love. We went there to “Handle them with love,” but we were the ones impacted when we witnessed them handling their communities with love.
We experienced earnest worship and evangelism with SDBs in both African nations. The manifestation of their love of complacency for God and their love of benevolence to humanity was remarkable! The blind could see their sincere and intense conviction for God and in His mission to save the world from perishing.
When they gathered for worship, it was amazing and infectious to see and hear them sing and dance. In most cases the gathering would be divided into singing groups (each would have their turn to sing) and the dancing just came naturally with very little regard for what others may think, the time, or whether they needed energy afterward to do anything else. They used all they had for the time they had it to worship God. In Burundi in particular, praying is done kneeling, even when they are in public places, again with no regard for others around them but steadfast focus on the subject of their supplication. At prayer time in the sanctuary, they would close all doors and windows, and then kneel for earnest prayer without distraction or invasions.
It was always interesting to hear them talk about addressing the needs of their communities and sharing the Gospel when they themselves needed help. In both countries, we had evangelistic services. Because of the groundwork they did before we got there and while we were there, a total of 65 persons were baptized and many more to be counseled towards this same sacrament. It was an honor to work alongside people who felt they were experiencing God’s love and were passionate about sharing that love. In Burundi, we had more than a thousand community members witnessing the baptism and at the special crusade gathering on Sabbath, there were approximately one thousand five hundred persons. We learned a special lesson of having a good witness and authority in a community.
On this trip, I learned many lessons of being an earnest worshiper and witness. I must thank the Ethiopian and Burundian SDB Conferences for hosting us and allowing us to work alongside them. Thank you Pastor Johnmark Camenga and Sister Joan Small for your service, and a heartfelt gratitude to all who supported this trip. To God be the Glory…For He so loved the world…
