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 Elfriede Volk |
 What do you see? |
WHAT DO YOU SEE?
June 28 2014 / ShareHim in Philippines - Manila, May. 2 - May. 17 '14 #629by Elfriede Volk
Personal Testimony of Elfriede Volk.
The ShareHim campaign had been exhilarating, but it was a long, tiring flight home. I had taken my glasses off and tried to sleep. Now, as we were landing, I reached for my specs and tried to put them on again. But I couldn’t. One ear piece had come off.
As I have always had poor eyesight and now have macular degeneration, I am dependent on my glasses. Without them everything is a blur. So we made an appointment with the optometrist the next day, and then, prescription in hand, went to the optician. As she was showing us the various frames, Heinz, my husband, told her about our latest mission trip.
“Do you have a chance to send containers overseas?” she asked.
“Yes, through ADRA, a relief agency sponsored by our church.”
“The reason why I’m asking,” she said, “is because I have a storage facility full of frames and sunglasses, some costing as much as $200 apiece. As they are out of style, I cannot sell them, but I have to get them out of storage. Would you be willing and able to see that they get overseas, where they are so desperately needed?”
With my old glasses repaired, we went two days later to pick up the frames and glasses. We had taken the seats out of our van, and every available inch was jam-packed with the carefully packaged opticals. There were even boxes crammed between the bucket seats, while I held others on my lap.
We were just about to leave when the optician came again with what looked like framed pictures. “Here, perhaps you could use these too,” she said, putting them between me and the door. The protective padding of one slipped aside, and I could see the reflective surface of a mirror.
When we arrived home, Heinz opened my door and took the mirrors so that I could get out. The boxes of frames and glasses we left in the van to take to the ADRA warehouse the next morning.
“Where do you want me to hang this?” Heinz asked after he had unwrapped one of the mirrors. I looked and gasped. It WAS a mirror, but more than a mirror. In the center was the face of Christ.
To me this picture/mirror epitomizes our ShareHim campaigns. As I present the Gospel messages, I pray that people will not see me, but will see Jesus in all His beauty, and will want to accept and reflect Him too.
Not long ago I met a man who had recently received his doctorate in theology. “I don’t do ShareHim,” he said. “ShareHim is for lay people.” But it was lay people to whom Christ gave the Gospel commission.
I thank God that we have men who have the necessary erudition to witness to the highly educated upper echelons of the world. But I am even more grateful that there was one who cared enough to put the message of God’s love in such simple terms, that even a child can present it and share Him with the uneducated masses.
As I have always had poor eyesight and now have macular degeneration, I am dependent on my glasses. Without them everything is a blur. So we made an appointment with the optometrist the next day, and then, prescription in hand, went to the optician. As she was showing us the various frames, Heinz, my husband, told her about our latest mission trip.
“Do you have a chance to send containers overseas?” she asked.
“Yes, through ADRA, a relief agency sponsored by our church.”
“The reason why I’m asking,” she said, “is because I have a storage facility full of frames and sunglasses, some costing as much as $200 apiece. As they are out of style, I cannot sell them, but I have to get them out of storage. Would you be willing and able to see that they get overseas, where they are so desperately needed?”
With my old glasses repaired, we went two days later to pick up the frames and glasses. We had taken the seats out of our van, and every available inch was jam-packed with the carefully packaged opticals. There were even boxes crammed between the bucket seats, while I held others on my lap.
We were just about to leave when the optician came again with what looked like framed pictures. “Here, perhaps you could use these too,” she said, putting them between me and the door. The protective padding of one slipped aside, and I could see the reflective surface of a mirror.
When we arrived home, Heinz opened my door and took the mirrors so that I could get out. The boxes of frames and glasses we left in the van to take to the ADRA warehouse the next morning.
“Where do you want me to hang this?” Heinz asked after he had unwrapped one of the mirrors. I looked and gasped. It WAS a mirror, but more than a mirror. In the center was the face of Christ.
To me this picture/mirror epitomizes our ShareHim campaigns. As I present the Gospel messages, I pray that people will not see me, but will see Jesus in all His beauty, and will want to accept and reflect Him too.
Not long ago I met a man who had recently received his doctorate in theology. “I don’t do ShareHim,” he said. “ShareHim is for lay people.” But it was lay people to whom Christ gave the Gospel commission.
I thank God that we have men who have the necessary erudition to witness to the highly educated upper echelons of the world. But I am even more grateful that there was one who cared enough to put the message of God’s love in such simple terms, that even a child can present it and share Him with the uneducated masses.