Daily Devotional

Missionaries like Paul often report to their churches how they progressed in presenting the gospel to unbelievers and encouraging believers. I have often heard them called “tiger stories.”

In the last devotional, I shared a couple from one of my first ministry trips to the Philippines back in 1990..a few days after the beginning of the Gulf War. Here are a few more:

Tiger Story #3
While driving to the U.S. military base, the guard, believing I looked like an Arab terrorist, and having just been warned of a terrorist threat at the very same base, pointed his assault rifle and commanded us to get out of the car. Our Filipino friends were quick to tell them we were American missionaries. The guards examined our passports and let us pass; not without adding, “You looked like Gaddafi.” Throughout our time in the Philippines scores of people stared at me and said, “Hey, Saddam! You, Iraqi!” It was equally curious for them to see my fellow missionary, a tall, blonde American walking with a “little Arab.” We escaped the notice of very few. l couldn’t convince them I was Italian. One lady commented to us, “You are very brave to be here at this time.” No, we weren’t!
            “Heavenly Father, thank You that You know us as we really are.”

Tiger Story #4        
Very early the next morning, as we were driving from Baguio to Rizal to attend our main pastors’ conference, our vehicle overheated, and we were forced to stop on a major thoroughfare. We were busy with our heads under the hood, attempting to replace a broken water hose. We found out later that while we were hard at work our bodyguard had to pull his gun on two men coming quickly toward us on a motorcycle. They were carrying a suspicious handbag in a manner our bodyguard, in his expert opinion, felt was “a threat to our safety.” The two men saw him reach for his gun and wisely left the scene. This all happened without our knowing what was going on.
           “We praise You, Lord God, for protecting us even when ·we don’t know we are in danger.”

Tiger Story #5
The small car problem turned out to be a major breakdown—a blown head gasket. We were towed to a poorly equipped garage where we waited for ten hours for the car to be fixed. Our bodyguard nervously watched the whole time!
           
While at the gas station, we watched in horror as a husband beat up his wife. I wanted to help but our bodyguard insisted I stay out of it. “Such things,” he said, “are common in the Philippines. Even our police do not involve themselves in such matters.” My heart ached for that poor woman!

It was now nighttime, and we were finally on the road again, still many hours from the camp. We had missed the first day of the pastors’ conference, and since we had no access to a phone, we fervently prayed that God would give two others of our team members the wisdom to go ahead without us. They did!
            “Thank You, God, that You are in control of the details of our lives. Your plans are          infinitely better than ours.”

New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.