And Who is my Neighbor?

A letter from the Editor – Ron Barnes

Berti was a student in our first English outreach in Hungary. He was a grumpy old man who never prepared, never participated, and always seemed uninterested in the English lessons and the Bible devotional I would share during each class. In fact, he was usually a distraction in the classes and my teacher would often complain. I was often tempted to give him his money back because he wasn’t learning, but worse, he was preventing the others from learning. They too would complain to me about him, saying he was “the hardest, meanest, grumpiest Hungarian man” they knew.

But I let him stay in the classes. Even though he still wasn’t really learning, and still disruptive, I sensed the classes were good for him. If nothing else, it was a social outlet. He continued in the classes for the following four years. Despite showing absolutely no interest in the Gospel, I intentionally continued to plant seeds in his life, physical and emotional deposits in his “spiritual bank account.”

One day, I found myself meeting with our national partner, at a coffee shop down the road from my home, when I got a phone call from my wife. Brenda told me Berti was sitting at our gate in his car crying and wanted to know if I was home. I shared this with my partner, and we were both shocked. He too knew him well. The “hardest, meanest, grumpiest Hungarian” was sitting in my driveway crying. So of course, my partner said, “Let’s go!”

We sped home and found him exactly as described. This proud man sat in melted, teary pieces in my driveway. We brought him in my house and tried to pry what was wrong out of him. He told us of the story of leaving our English graduation party “on cloud nine” and called his estranged son in an attempt to begin to reconcile with him. He had heard my message on the “prodigal son” that night and decided maybe it was time to start straightening out things with his own son. He invited his son to visit the next day, but his son rejected his invitation and denounced that he was even his father. Berti sat devastated, drinking through the night, and decided that he would end his life.

Knowing that if he killed himself in his home, because he was a recluse with few to no friends, someone probably wouldn’t find him there for quite some time, so he decided to overdose in his car at the end of his driveway, in a busy neighborhood where someone was sure to find him. He drank some more, swallowed a handful of drugs, and fell asleep. Then, to his dismay, he awoke. He looked at his phone; he had been there for three days. The fact that he laid there out in the open for three days and no one bothered to check on him, compounded with the fact that he couldn’t even kill himself right, sent him deeper into despair. He was truly at the lowest point of his life and began to drink again and create additional scenarios in his mind that would guarantee his successful suicide.

Then he remembered my words from the graduation, the same words I said to my students every week in my devotional during the English classes. I told them they might not believe what I have to share, but they can believe this: God loves them, and so do I, and we will both be there whenever they need to call on us. This was something I shared every week, something he had heard for years and years.

That day, Berti came to Christ. He was at the end of his rope and sometimes that is what it takes in the heart of men to yield themselves to Christ. This is why we invest the long days, weeks, months, and even years into loving people with no guarantee of seeing fruit. Why we will love them even when it’s hard. Why we invest time and resources having people see the Light of the World reflected through us in tangible ways of ministry, meeting their physical and emotional needs, sometimes before we are able to minister to their greatest of needs, spiritual. Our hope is that all that investment in loving them will not “return void.”

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, notice Jesus didn’t say anything about seeing the fruit from conversion when the lawyer asked what he must do to inherit eternal life.

The lawyer himself correctly answered, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself” (Luke 10:27 KJV).

Jesus addressed the obvious need of loving Him first and foremost, but additionally to love our neighbors like we love ourselves. Ironically, as much as we may deny it, there is really no one that we love more than ourselves. Jesus said to love others this same way.

Source of Light’s ministry is in the “business” of seeing people become mature disciples of Jesus Christ. But often it necessitates a significant amount of “loving our neighbors” with intentionality and sincerity. Many of our missionaries are planting and watering seeds in some of the hardest soil in the world over years, even decades, and see “fruit” only sporadically.

They are in good company. During history, many “heroes of the faith” saw little or no fruit throughout their ministry. It was decades of being “Good Samaritans” that future generations of missionaries, evangelists, and pastors built their platforms of ministry on, reaping the benefits of years and years of their predecessors loving their neighbors.

This Reaper is dedicated to the lives and stories of missionaries who have committed their lives to years of blood, sweat, and tears, and have acted as the Good Samaritan in ways others have benefited from. This Reaper will tell the stories and testimonies of our missionaries who have loved their neighbors in tangible ways, feeding, clothing, and providing for their medical needs.

Some stories in this edition will reveal the fruit of their labors, and others we may never know the outcome of, other than the writers themselves answered the call to go, to demonstrate His love, and to be the Best Samaritan they could possibly be.

“But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor?”
(Luke 10:29 kjv).