Mission Bite #62: Compassion over personal gain

"One Iranian refugee family with three young children started video chatting with me weekly. I met them online through my husband's short-term mission trip to Turkey. I helped them practice English using Bible stories and songs. One week, I shared the story of Jesus sending his disciples out in a boat among the wind and waves of a storm and then his calming the storm to rescue them. Later that day, I learned their personal experience of Jesus in their boat. This family, like many others, was desperate to leave Turkey and travel to Greece. They bought a rubber raft for the journey. After some distance from shore, the raft sprang a leak and the father tried to row back, but he lost one of the oars. With much prayer, they managed to return to the Turkish coast.

After they got out of the raft another refugee said to Mohammad, 'You can sell the boat and make some money.' Mohammad, realizing how the damaged raft could endanger another family as it had his own, took a knife and began to cut up the raft. "Way to go!" said another refugee in response to seeing Mohammad's quick choice of compassion over personal gain."

- Pat, CBF field personnel, U.S. Persian Ministry