Go to www.lettersoutofafrica.com/paperback to find it on Amazon.

I imagine that we all read sometime in our childhood the Aesop’s Fable, “The Tortoise and the Hare.”  We consciously cheered

on the underdog tortoise as he slowly plods on to beat the overconfident hare.  But was the tortoise really an underdog?  He may have appeared to be on the outside but inside he had a quality the hare never possessed that gave him the advantage all along: PERSISTENCE.

Persistence is the inner fortitude to keep going no matter what.  It is the steel of a decision made that will be followed through until the end.  The tortoise had his eyes set on the finish line while the hare was distracted by everything else around him.  Paul encouraged the early Christian church in the letter to the Hebrews to keep their eyes focused.  “Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy set before Him endured the cross…” So persistence involves a decision to move forward plus a determined focus on the goal.

How many dreams have been forfeited because in our minds we thought we couldn’t attain it?  It was really a self-filling prophecy.  We made excuses why we never took the first step toward the dream. “I’m not smart enough.  I don’t have the money it would take.  I have too many other responsibilities.”  The world is full of people weighed down by the burden of “not enough” thinking.  If they do start moving toward their dream, they don’t have the fortitude to continue if they are met by criticism or roadblocks.  They feel justified in saying, “Well I tried but it just didn’t work out.”  They settle for mediocrity.

Shadrach had many times that he experienced giant setbacks in his quest to become a doctor.  He had the innate ability within him to accomplish this goal but everything around him seemed to be against it.  He fled out of Liberia numerous times avoiding resurgences of the civil war.  But he kept his eye on the goal, never giving up.  He was discouraged but not overcome with defeat.  All the time, God was in the background, setting circumstances up for Shadrach to achieve his goal. It wasn’t in the way he imagined.  He had to navigate over and around many road blocks but he did it.  He persisted without exception.

Andy Andrews has written a book called “The Travelers Gift.”  It is a fictional story of a man who goes back in time to meet 7 people who had great accomplishments or were exceptionally admired for their life.  He developed 7 qualities that made these people great that he calls the 7 decisions. Of the 7 decisions, Andy notes that the decision to persist without exception is the most important.  All the other decisions hinge upon this decision.  The 7 decisions are as follows:  The Responsible Decision (The Buck Stops Here), The Guided Decision (I Will Seek Wisdom), The Active Decision (I Am a Person of Action), The Certain Decision (I Have a Decided Heart), The Joyful Decision (Today, I Will Choose To Be Happy), The Compassionate Decision (I Will Greet This Day With a Spirit of Forgiveness), and last but certainly not least The Persistent Decision (I Will Persist Without Exception).

There may be many who are smarter, stronger, wealthier, or more beautiful than you.  But if you have sought wisdom and made an educated decision to follow a certain dream, then move toward that goal with action.  Don’t sit still.  Don’t stop. Persist without exception.  Be the tortoise and win the race.

When Shadrach first came to our home, he was a stranger. It wasn’t long however before he was family.  He calls my parents grandma and grandpa and my kids call him brother.  Shad came from a large, extended family but in most places here in the US, the extended family is almost extinct.  We are independent and mobile causing us to live painfully isolated from each other.  I am so thankful that I have always lived close to most of my family.  I have known 3 generations of grandmothers and benefited from their history and wisdom.  My children have traveled away from Indiana but they have always come back home.  I have to believe that this is because they have strong family ties here.  We have a legacy of stories that we love to share whenever we are together as a whole for a meal or a holiday.  Shadrach has become a part of this family history.

Radical hospitality, in the best possible sense, leads us to become family with each other.  I wrote about this in a previous post as it relates to the strangers God puts in our path but it also relates to those we know best in our own churches.  We are called to be “The Body of Christ” but instead we are disjointed parts trying to function all on our own.  We were never meant to be this way.  We are wired to be in community helping each other in our daily struggles like an extended family.  For this to happen though we have to be open and honest with each other.  We have to let down our facade and be vulnerable.  However, there is a sense in most of our churches that we have to act as if we have everything together even when we are falling apart.  We can’t help each other if we can’t admit that we need it.

How do we go about changing this reality?  I think we have to consciously reach out to each other and allow others to reach out to us.  Reaching out to others who have no biologic family or have family far away from them is important and necessary.  To do this though, we have to be willing to be responsible and accountable to each other.  This is tough.  It requires that we may be asked to be there for someone else even when it is uncomfortable or inconvenient. My husband Tim is so good at this.  I envy him in this because it is an area I struggle with.

A year ago in October, Ryan, the son of good friends of ours was in a terrible auto accident.  He had a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and has been in rehab since.  He has made tremendous strides but it has been slow.  We are celebrating that he passed his swallow test so now he can eat and hopefully get rid of his feeding tube soon.  What seems like a minor thing like swallowing is a major thing after a TBI.  Our friends and their son are true heroes for their courage and perseverance.

Tim has made it his habit to visit Ryan every week.  He will read to him, plays “Angry Birds” with him and generally just chooses to be there with him.  He jokes with Ryan that they will take a baseball bat to the machine that pumps in his tube feedings.  It beeps incessantly and drives him crazy.  Ryan has several faithful visitors.  They are acting as extended family for Ryan and his mom and dad.  They are being the “Body of Christ.”

This kind of family is what we all need and long for if we are honest.  It adds a dimension of belonging that you don’t get anywhere else.  Sometimes my real family and my extended church family can drive me crazy because none of us are perfect.  But isn’t that really the point?  We aren’t perfect.  We need each other.  I wouldn’t give up these  wonderful, sometimes exasperating relationships for anything.

Shadrach once told me the story of how he and his mother were divinely protected while walking home from another village. They were singing as they walked along which is something I have come to know is common for the Liberian people. Shadrach often sang as he worked while helping me in our vegetable garden at my home. Both he and his mother have beautiful voices. I could visualize them doing this together.

Shadrach recounted that as they walked along the dirt road, they were not aware that they were being watched. A group of soldiers lay in wait to kill them as they returned home. However, they chose not to harm them because of the large crowd of people surrounding them, all singing together. Shadrach was made aware of this at a much later time when one of the soldiers told him this account. He told the man that he and his mother had been alone but the man insisted otherwise. Unaware, they had been accompanied by a band of singing angels!

Shadrach’s story in “Letters Out of Africa” is full of similar miraculous events. When looking back it is obvious that Shadrach has been divinely protected. Do we see the miracles all around us? Or is it only in retrospect that we see the hand of God on our lives?

I have experienced miracles in my practice of medicine that are unexplainable on a scientific basis many times. The most dramatic involved a patient of mine many years ago who suffered a massive stroke and had been comatose on a ventilator for 2 weeks. Her mother was her only next of kin and she knew that she would not want to be kept alive like this. The MRI of her brain revealed that over half of her brain had been destroyed by the stroke. Together with her team of doctors, we made the decision to turn off the ventilator so she could die in peace. On the way to the hospital the morning we planned to turn all life support off, I prayed that God would take my patient or heal her. My fear was that she would survive but be in a vegetative state. This would have devestated her mother.

Well everything was turned off and my patient was transfered out of ICU to a regular room to die. But she didn’t die. The first day she began to wake up. On the second day she started to talk and by the third day she wanted something to eat. Her mother looked at me on that third day and said, “You and I both know this is a miracle.”  I could not disagree. I felt like I was walking on holy ground when I was in her room. She recovered to go home to her mother and with much physical therapy and speech therapy has been able to function only walking with a cane.

What miracles have you seen?  Do you expect miracles or do you dismiss them as the other doctors taking care of my patient did? My patient’s repeat MRI showed a nearly healed brain! How do you explain that? I can’t.

Expect miracles. Look for them in your everyday life and you’ll see the hand of God at work. Please tell me about your own personal miracles in the “Stories from Readers” page.

“Letters Out of Africa” is the story of my friendship with a young Liberian man, Shadrach Gonqueh that began with the letters written by him from Africa in the mid 1990’s. I saved all these letters knowing that someday I would write about the incredible series of events that eventually led him to the US to become a dentist. It is an interesting story in and of itself but the greater story is what went on behind the scenes that made all of it possible. You might say that my meeting Shadrach was just a coincidence but I don’t believe that. God took many ordinary people who were willing to listen and act on his behalf and He put them in the right place at the right time for all of this to happen. God is like the man behind the curtain in the “Wizard of Oz”. When you look closely you see that He is in control. But He chooses to remain hidden to all but those that have eyes to see.
None of the people in this story were especially talented or skilled. We were and still are ordinary people. The difference was a willingness to be open to God’s calling, to set aside our agenda for His. So much in the church today is doing what we think God wants us to do without really asking His opinion. It’s not to say that these things are not good but maybe God has something greater if we would just ask Him, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” He might lead you in a direction you never imagined!
Do you think I ever imagined in my wildest dreams that I would have a refugee from Africa living in my home? Never! This was God’s idea, not mine. Travis and Gina Sheets who started “Hope in the Harvest” mission never dreamed they would be living in Liberia. God led them there because they were willing to listen and act. None of the apostles were qualified for the work God put before them. They were fishermen, a tax collector and other ordinary people. When Jesus said, “Follow me”, they left what they were doing and went.
What would happen if all of God’s people asked the simple question, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” I think the world would be changed in ways we never imagined!

Suzanne

With more than a little trepidation, here I am writing my first blog post. My motivation for beginning this blog is a desire to share a story I wrote almost 3 years ago about a dear friend of mine, Shadrach who is a refugee from Liberia. His story is one of courage and perseverance during a brutal civil war in his country. But, it is also a story about God’s providence as He protected him and called those who were to help him come to America to become a doctor. Come join me as I share the story. God does call the most ordinary people to accomplish the most extraordinary tasks. He did it in the Bible and He still does it today.

Suzanne