The Fruit of Righteousness
Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. James 3:18 (nkjv)
In May 2010 I saw up close and personal the power of this verse for those who have seldom known peace when Danny and I went to southern Sudan on a mission trip. While we were there we went into a village for three days to share the good news of Jesus. Our interpreter there, Pastor Sam, had seen his whole family killed by a rebel leader in Uganda when he was thirteen. Pastor Sam later became a Christian and knew that the Lord spared him for a good reason. He became a pastor and went to a Bible school in southern Sudan that was started in part by Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas. He then started a church beneath a mango tree in the village where Danny and I visited.
While in Sudan I learned how to use a picture cube to tell people the story of Jesus. The people that we met were kind and loving and they were glad to let us share the good news with them. The villagers are very poor. They grow their own food and work very hard in the hot sun every day.
Their school was out for a break while we were in Sudan and every day the little children and the school-aged children would come to meet us. They would hold our hands and walk with us for a mile or two from hut to hut. Most of the children did not have shoes and some would carry a brother or sister on their backs the whole way. Their smiling faces were so beautiful.
If you’re not aware of the situation, until recently, northern and southern Sudan were engaged in a decades-long civil war. We noticed that most of the men we met were young, because many of the middle-aged men have been killed in the war. It also made their land wasted and barren except for the mango trees. But even in the midst of such hard times the people’s hearts were open to us and to hearing about the gospel. They were wide open to the fruit of righteousness, the righteousness sown in peace by those who make peace and who know the Prince of Peace.
Dear heavenly Father, I pray for peace for the people of Sudan. I pray for strength and safety for the young men that You have raised up to lead their people to salvation in Jesus. Amen.
