The Lesson of the Lost Hundredth Sheep

My last blog entry led me to reminisce of that time of my life when I was still a very young Christian. Back then, God was constantly teaching me one thing or another (usually two or three simultaneously). For one of these lessons, God took me all the way to London. It was the lesson of the lost hundredth sheep (Matthew 18:12-14 and Luke 15:3-7). I've already learned the lesson in my head, but God wanted me to learn it in my heart.

I had given my life to the Lord in the middle of my senior year in college. After graduating I moved to Baltimore to work at Westinghouse. In Baltimore, I joined Grace Fellowship Church and volunteered to be part of the Youth Ministry. That's when the lesson began.

Every year, Erich, the youth pastor at Grace Fellowship Church, took the kids on a summer cross-cultural missions trip. And each year, Erich asked the adult volunteers to come. That year, Erich had planned a trip to London to work with people involved with the Indian community (people who immigrated from India, not native Americans). It would be an ideal cross-cultural experience for the kids since they would not have to learn a new language.

For me, it was an impossibility. At the time, Westinghouse did not give new employees any vacation until he or she had completed one year of employment.

So, when Erich asked me, I told him that I'd pray about it, knowing full well that I'd pray about it and tell him, "No".

However, for the next several weeks, during my daily time with the Lord, the Bible verses that I was studying, were consistently about God redeeming the lost. (At the time, I was reading through one of the Gospels; I can't remember which one; I think it was the Gospel of John.)

Then, out of the blue, I got reconnected with a friend of mine from college. He's a Christian and during my first three years of college, he tried to persuade me to become one. We lost touch during our junior year because I'd switch major from Bio/chem to Electrical Engineering, requiring me to take a very heavy class load in order to catch up with my peers in the Engineering College. He never knew that I had given my life to the Lord. So, I was pretty excited to fill him in on what had happened to me. As it turned out, he had just returned from a short-term missions trip and he urged me to do the same.

Can these events be just coincidence or is God calling me to take a step of faith and go?

As an immature Christian, I decided to pose a series of "God, if you want me to go, you would..." Each time, God met my demand for proof that He was calling me to go.

Since I did not have any vacation time, I decided to ask my boss, Dean, for an unpaid leave of absence. His answer was a swift "NO". Although it had yet to be publicized, Dean was informed by upper management that we had lost a major contract and the company was planning a round of layoffs. It would be impossible for Dean to hold my position during my leave of absence while he's laying other people off. If I want to go, I would need to resign my position and to take my chances when I come back.

OK, a new round of "God, if you want me to go, you would..."

This time, God offered me nothing. This time, I needed to take a step of faith.

By now, everyone at work knew about the impending layoff and were all jockeying for position.

Those around me knew about my dilemma and my close friends at work were counseling me to not quit. On the day that I typed my letter of resignation, my friends from work were still trying to dissuade me from going through with it.

It was a short distance between my cubicle and Dean's office, but it was the longest walk I've ever taken.

As I approached Dean's office, he stepped out waving a piece of paper, "There's a loop hole! Rodger found a loophole!"

One of the ways, in which the company encouraged their engineers to publish technical papers, was to offer them leaves of absence to work on their paper. Since I had been working on a technical paper, Dean would be able to legitimately give me a leave of absence to finish my paper. Thus, as long as I finished my paper while I was in London, my conscience would be completely free.

So, off to London! Well, not so fast. There's still problem of paying for my regular expenses despite the lost of income during my unpaid absence. And there's the cost of the trip. Just like the need for a leave of absence, God pulled rabbits out of the hat at the very last moment for both.

So, off to London!

That summer was one of hottest recorded in London. As a result of the heat and festering friction between the Indian community and the native Londoners, a minor incident triggered riots in the Indian neighborhood where we had planned to stay.

We were diverted to the east end of London. There, we partnered with a couple of local churches to do door-to-door evangelism.

I had never had so many doors slam in my face, in my entire life. It was hard not to think, "So, I risked my career to do this?"

Disappointment and discouragement did not begin to describe how I felt. When Mrs. Scale, my partner from the local church, saw where my heart was headed, she grabbed my hand and said, "It's time we pray."

Right there, on that street corner, in Leyton, with people passed us on their way home from work, we kneeled and prayed for direction from God.

When we were done and stood up, Mrs. Scale asked me, "Where is God directing you?"

I looked up and down the rolls of identical homes. Suddenly, one caught my eyes. It was just like the other but for some reason it caught my eyes. I continued to sweep my sight across the rolls of identical homes and the same one caught my eyes, again.

"There, let's knock on that door.", I said to Mrs. Scale.

When the door opened, an old Asian couple invited us inside.

In broken English, they told us that they are from Vietnam.

For the next hour, we struggle with the language barrier to present the gospel of Jesus Christ to this couple. It was absolutely futile. Their limited English vocabulary was insufficient to understand our explanation of the gospel. However, the couple begged us to stay until their son comes home so he can translate for us.

As we waited for their son, our conversation shifted to how they came to the U.K. As we dug more into their past and into their background, I was surprised to find out that they were not Vietnamese but ethnic Chinese who had settled in Vietnam. When I revealed that I too am ethnic Chinese, they immediately started to speak to me in Mandarin (the Chinese dialect used in official government business). Unfortunately, being a Chinese-American who grew up in the deep south, I never learned to speak Mandarin (something that my mom warned that I would regret).

At that moment, for some unknown reason, I remembered that one of my great-aunts went to Vietnam during a period of mass migration from my family's region of China. If this couple or this couple's parents were part of that migration, then they would speak Min Nan, the identical Chinese dialect that my parents speak at home.

As soon as I ask, in Min Nan, "Do you speak the Min Nan dialect?"

Tears rolled down from this couple's eyes.

For over a decade, this couple lived an isolated life in this English speaking country (they barely see their son because he worked long hours) and as loneliness was about to overtake them, God sent me to their doorsteps.

That evening, I presented the gospel to this old couple in their native Min Nan Chinese dialect.

I continued to visit their home during the remainder of my time in London.

When I returned home to the United State, I corresponded with them (in English, via their son) through regular postal mail.

Then, one year, there were no reply from them.

The following year, I received a letter from their son, "Last year was a very tough year. Mom and Dad went home to be with Jesus."

To this day, it stills amazes me: the extent and intricate details of God's plan to bring me this couple's doorsteps. The lesson of the lost hundredth sheep will remain in my heart forever.

For the Lord, every lost sheep is a special sheep that he would move mountains to find.