A Man of God

Recently Duane Murray went to East Asia on a short-term trip. While there he was able to partner with Nathan, a recent college graduate who has committed two years to serve in East Asia.  Below is the story from Duane about serving with Nathan.

Nathan is like a duck in water.  He is so at ease there.  The environment, the humid temperature, the food, the language and the cultural differences are no big deal to him.  It was impressive.  He set our team at ease in so many ways.  The other two guys are great, but Nathan is definitely leading this pack with humility.

Two other things in particular really impressed me.  First, he led the Sunday night Bible study with a new local believer and his friend, who is not yet a believer.  I learned later that they rotate the leadership role every week.  The method of Bible study they use is to read the scripture and ask questions that lets the locals be led by the Holy Spirit to discover the truth.  Our western teaching style is to expound on what we have gleaned from scripture.  Like chewing up food and then presenting it to our listeners.  This certainly a gifting of the Spirit, but this study invited them to discover the truth for themselves.  Of course, no one told our team about that.  Sometimes we couldn't help ourselves and we kept interjecting good but deep water content.   I began to recognize how Nathan and the other guys kept giving the floor back to the locals.  "What do you think this passage says about Jesus?" He would ask the young believer with a gentle smile.  We were a little slow on noticing, and Nathan was patient with us and respectful.  He showed such discipline and maturity. 

I talked with Nathan about this later and learned that this discipleship method is what the missionaries have taught them.  It's solid and has such good wisdom with it.  Nathan is learning discipleship from a discipler.  It's impressive to see in a man of his limited years.  He seemed more like a multi-year veteran.  I had to keep reminding myself that he has only been there since September.

The next noteworthy observation was seeing Nathan pour into his tutor.  He gets tutored in on Monday, and then he goes over the Bible with his tutor at another meeting in the week.  He invited Isaac to come with us prayer walking in a village on our last day in CZ.  I was two rows behind them and listened to Nathan share with care and love more about Christ and the most High God and the word.  "Maybe God is making himself known to you by..." he would gently suggest.  Starting a phrase with "maybe" is a non-confrontational approach to sharing ideas that the Chinese commonly use.  He was speaking through the filter of cultural relevance his hope in Christ.  It was beautiful.  I believe God is going to reap a harvest through Nathan's deep investment and it was encouraging to see him minister in this area!