There's more to weaving a tapestry than just accumulating threads. There are looms, shuttles, spinning wheels. and of course, the hand of a master weaver. Some things about this Bulgarian experiment seem more like spinning wheels or shuttles than they do tapestry threads.
One of those revolves around some mobile prayer meetings in 1992-93. That year, a Southern Nazarene University world missions organization organized "Joshua Walks" on campus. These are prayer meetings that take their name from the way Joshua captured Jericho by walking around it.
In this modern version, a group walked around the campus, stopping to pray at various locations. They paused in front of each building and prayed aloud. At the dormitories, they prayed that a passion for world evangelism would consume the students housed there. In front of classroom buildings, they prayed for professors and for the Lord's presence in classes. The last stop was the administration building, Bresee Hall. That campus focal point is right on what was "Main Street USA" Route 66, the historic Chicago-to-Los Angeles highway. There, facing SNU's oldest building, a group prayed earnestly for President Gresham. They prayed that he would discern God's vision and that he would be divinely empowered to carry out that vision.
Those Joshua Walk organizers had never been to Bulgaria. As it turned out, none of the Bulgarian volunteers were involved in those Joshua Walks. So there is no physically direct link. However, those prayer walks do loom as a backdrop to the Bulgaria experiment.
Who can say what influence those prayers had on the global vision that then-president Gresham began articulating so clearly only months later? Did those prayer walks prepare the college campus to rise to the challenge of the Bulgaria experiment? One cannot help but wonder if those prayers somehow fueled the zeal of those applying for the Bulgaria project. Surely, it was more than just a coincidence that these events occurred one after another.
Evangelist Chuck Milhuff represents others who have indirectly contributed to Bulgarian tapestry design. For years, Milhuff had talked about Nazarene young people emulating young Mormon volunteerism. He had been the evangelist for several annual college spiritual renewal weeks at Southern Nazarene University. In his visits to the campus, did he ever talk to Loren Gresham about his idea? Neither remembered talking to the other about the Mormon model of volunteer service. Still, it is interesting that both men thought and talked a lot about it.
There were some pathfinders or trailblazers for the Bulgaria volunteers. For example, after his 1991 graduation, Paul Springer left Oklahoma for Central America. There, he spent a year helping missionaries. In 1993, Cheryl and Jeff Crouch left for a two-year volunteer assignment in Papua New Guinea. There, they were "house parents" at a boarding school for MKs (missionary children).
To go back even earlier, in 1966, SNU sponsored what is probably the denomination's first Nazarene Missions Team trip. That spring, students and faculty raised money for construction materials. Then, a group of them spent their 10-day spring break in northern Mexico building a church.
Clearly, the ethos out of which university graduates are challenged to give a year to world evangelism has arisen from more than just one person's efforts. . . . [ continue reading ]
-- Howard Culbertson.
| One of Bulgaria's most highly acclaimed novels is called Under the Yoke. It was written in 1894, long before communism came to power. Nonetheless, that title symbolizes well life under communism and how these people continue to struggle with its awful legacy.. . . [ more ] |