LIFE LESSONS
Life Lessons and Afghanistan Rick McKinley
As I sit down to write this article, I am being inundated with phone calls, texts and emails. Far, far more than usual. I am right in the middle of a developing project—providing soccer activities for the Afghan men, women and children recently relocated to a military base here in the U.S. Close to 10,000 Afghans are living on this base, and a door has been opened for our organization to be there with them. We have been handed an opportunity to demonstrate the love and hope we have in Jesus Christ. Last week was our first attempt at the base. My responsibility is to organize these weekly events, recruit 15-20 coaches who can spend two to three days each week on the base, and to figure out the logistics of taking care of those coaches while we are there. Something I could have never imagined myself doing just a few short weeks ago. I am thrilled to bring joy to these people in major transition, but not always sure if I am equal to the task. The thought of what Afghanistan and its people are currently going through is difficult to even get my head around. I have literally wept as I watched the footage of people desperate to escape their own country. True, Janice and I have recently gone through transitions in our life—some that we have felt were pretty significant—but they pale in comparison! For us these transactions have been • The COVID pandemic, isolation and mask-wearing • The death of two of our parents within two years • Passing the mantle of leadership to the next generation • Selling our home of 23 years, where we raised our children • Moving farther away from grandkids • Searching for a new home, in a ridiculously competitive market • Finding a new church • Making new friends • Meeting new neighbors • Taking on a new role of leadership and responsibility Even as I read these, they seem so common, so ordinary. But I know their reality in our lives, and that all these transitions were and are full of emotions, some painful at times. I don’t mean to diminish the transitions that we all go through. Transition can be hard. Change can be difficult. Yet, I must stop and ask myself, “if I’m not learning, not trusting God in these experiences, how can I offer hope to those who have lost everything?”
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As I look to load up the van tomorrow, and head back to work with these refugees, I reflect on some of the transitions we’ve recently gone through in our life and hope I can reflect God’s glory to those who we will meet.
Loss Janice and I continue to grieve the passing of her mom and my dad. Losing a parent is not easy, and yet we know we don’t mourn without hope. First Corinthians 5:53, 54 reminds us that in the process of loss, there is an exchange. “For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’” (NIV). Realizing that our parents gave up life in this fallen, broken world, but received something far greater, has provided a sense of comfort in the separation death caused. I have no idea what the people of Afghanistan are experiencing in all their recent losses. Almost everyone we spoke with last week have relatives still in country, unable to escape. I also know that many of them are now in a place, in this country, where they can be exposed to people who follow Jesus. As we talked with several people last week, they are anxious about the future, but they are also deeply grateful for the freedom they are just now beginning to experience. Will the body of Christ be a vessel that carries something far greater and more lasting than anything Afghan refugees have lost?
