"Go light your world . . . "

Sunrise atop Haleakala

The relationship that light has with darkness was established when God’s spirit moved at Creation.  The Genesis account states that God separated light from darkness.  (Can you imagine what it was like when they were mixed together?)  From that instant on, Light had power over darkness.  (Hallelujah!)  Recently, we have heard and seen many examples of this fact, both in the natural world around us and spiritually. 

  In August, during the Perseid Meteor Shower, at 3 AM one morning several of us went up on the rooftop at H.I., away from the bright city lights to count the “shooting stars”.  Did you know that most of these are mere particles the size of marbles down to the size of grains of rice that burn up when hitting the earth’s atmosphere as far as 60 miles out!  Another dramatic example of the power of light would be, someone striking a match at the opposite end of a blacked-out, indoor football stadium.  It could be seen several hundred yards away.  Isn’t it wonderful that someone entering that same stadium while illuminated could not open a 1 cubic inch container of thick darkness and dispel all the light contained in that same place?  LIGHT ALWAYS DISPELS DARKNESS, even a tiny spark!

There is an oppressive spiritual darkness in many countries of the world especially in Asia and Africa.  These past weeks we have heard many stories illustrating this and the challenges facing the participants from these countries.  It has been so exciting to see how, in the space of 25 days they have come together, and through the influence of strategic, international facilitators, small group discussions, and prayer cells each have formulated action plans for more effective, targeted evangelism through their workplace influence and personal relationships.  To throw out the light of the Gospel.

 At the closing convocation when their diplomas were presented, it was an emotional experience to hear a select group of them share their choral choice of a Kathy Troccoli’s song “Go Light Your World”.  For the last verse, the lights were dimmed and they took out their cell phones and waved around the flickering candles app as they sang.  The “director” was an Armenian pastor participant from Lebanon and the pianist an Indian physician participant.

There is a candle in every soul

Some brightly burning, some dark and cold

There is a Spirit who brings fire

Ignites a candle and makes His home

Carry your candle, run to the darkness

Seek out the hopeless, confused and torn

Hold out your candle for all to see it

Take your candle, and go light your world

Take your candle, and go light your world

I have excerpted a video clip below of the first and last verses sung by them.

 The participants' early morning  group prayers and singing in the garden before taking breakfast 

Leon with Men's Session Resident Coordinator
 on left and Christian Coptic priest from Egypt on right

This shows what countries were represented and how many participants
came from each; also the list of professions represented.  

This takes me to our other recent experience, that of our second trip to the top of the Haleakala volcano mountain at 10,000 feet.  This time we left at about 3 AM to drive up to the summit by about 1 hour before sunrise.  We wanted to catch the first rays of dawn waking up the island of Maui.  We were NOT disappointed at the glorious display of colors and constantly changing array of clouds and rays of sun as it crested the horizon.   How awesome is our Creator God!  I so love the passage in the book of Job, chapters 38-40 where God answers Job’s probing question of where are you God?  There is so much beautiful poetic expression about God’s hand in nature.  In Job 38:19 (CEV), God rhetorically asks Job, “Where is the home of light, and where does darkness live?”   [“if you’re so smart, Job”]

Below, I have pieced together several video clips of what we saw as the dawn broke.

By Saturday, Oct. 29, all of the men participants had left the Institute for their respective countries and our time to pack up after our 3-month service stint at H.I. had come.  On Wed. morning, Nov. 2 we flew from Maui to the Big Island-Hawaii, for a 3 day visit there before starting a week visit in Oahu and our eventual return to PA on November 13^th.