God Chooses Friends Who Close the Gap

In friendship . . . we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses . . . any of these chances might have kept us apart. But for a Christian, there is, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends, “Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.
~C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves 

For months, I anticipated with unease and trepidation . . . until today when we stood grabbing each other’s hands praying in a circle in Korea at the Lausanne Congress. Until two days ago, most of us have never met. I was given a team of strangers that I did not choose. I was given a Brazilian co-leader whom I’ve never met. But here we are, hugging each other for the first time. That here we are, men and women, spanning four generations and four continents—a Brazilian woman, a Congolese disabled bishop, a Gen-Z gal, a Costa Rican church planter, a Rwandan pastor, a Korean leader, a Messianic Jew, key American thought-leaders, and I, a Taiwanese. Collectively, we were simply known as “Gap#6,” tasked with guiding 400+ people to close the “gap” of the Least Reached Peoples. It is a momentous multi-generational task. But I learned when God chooses our friends, we can close the gap together. 

Two years ago, I had received an unexpected call to re-launch Lausanne’s defunct Least Reached Peoples Issue Network, in anticipation of the Fourth Lausanne Congress (L4) that gathered in Seoul, Korea this past week with over 5,000+ onsite and 5,000+ online participants from 200+ countries. At L4, we as a team of strangers called and gathered those who wanted to collaborate daily to close Gap#6—the gap of reaching the unengaged and unreached peoples with the Gospel. We were overwhelmed when 470 people from around the world poured in through the doors. 

Leading 470 people whom you’ve never met was no easy task. But I watched my teammates—well-known leaders—daily set the 50+ tables with handouts, clean up the trash from previous groups, welcome the participants at the door, facilitate table collaborate discussions, translate into other languages, emcee and pray from the front, and share their decades of experiences. They simply and quietly filled in any gap they saw for our Gap. Out of these daily sessions came many collaborate action teams to spearhead initiatives to close the gap of taking the Gospel to the least reached peoples. 

We began as a team of strangers that I did not choose. We ended as a team of friends that God chose. I learned that when God chooses our friends, we can close the gaps in our spheres. 

As we live out our daily purpose, who are the friends whom we would not naturally choose but God chooses for us?  What gap in your sphere of influence is He asking you to fill? Is it reaching out to a lonely neighbor, an awkward colleague, an international student, or a refugee family that just arrived in your city? When we are willing to step into the gap, the Lord will bring new friends together to fill a gap in His Kingdom. 

Blessings,
Mary Ho

For more information about Lausanne, link here!

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