Dusty feet

The rainy season is at its end, and the hot sun now beats down on the dry, dusty road. Because our team has finished all the available work for the four Habitat for Humanity houses, we are back to our first job—making hollow blocks. Because we now know what we’re doing, I split the team into two. Half work the bricks, and the other do house-to- house evangelism with our translator, Jai.

House-to-house evangelism is as simple as this—walking down the dirt street and asking people if they have time to hear the good news of the Bible. Responses vary greatly. Sometimes, we immediately are invited in, the word of God is received, and our listeners become brothers and sisters in Christ. Others will listen but with every word going in one ear and out the other. The most frustrating is when a person is sitting outside, doing nothing, but says in Cebuano, “I’m busy working.” I wonder about the multitude of excuses Jesus’ disciples faced when he sent them out.

When Jesus sent out his disciples, part of the charge he gave them was this: “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town” (Matthew 10:14-15). These words echoed in my heart as we continued to walk down the street, being denied and rejected from place to place. But God provided us with a household whose members were willing to listen to the good news. We will have opportunity to have another Bible study in the house of Norma.

Jesus wasn’t kidding. The passage about shaking the dust off your feet became a reality to me. What is even scarier is the reality of God’s punishment upon sin. Those who die without Christ spend eternity without him. Jesus knew many would reject the gospel. He said: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that lead to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only few find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

May we examine our own lives to see if we are on the narrow road that few find. Then, we must be faithful in sharing the message to those on the broad road, never stopping, but continually sowing seeds. Where the gospel is rejected, the dust of our feet is a sad, mute testimony to the words of the Savior.

Dan Black, a student at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, is serving with a Nehemiah Team in the Philippines, in association with Habitat for Humanity.