"Habitations of Cruelty"

This past weekend was the annual missionary conference at Chapel On The Hill here in North Jersey. It is my home church as it is Dave’s, and a loyal supporting church of this organization. It is also where I serve as Associate Pastor, along with my ministry duties here like this blog.

The conference weekend is arguably the most crucial part of the entire church year. The reason is simple. It is the moment where we personally, and collectively, decide on the extent to which we will obey what is commonly known as “The Great Commission” (Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15). Our church has taken that challenge, and command, quite seriously over the years. We have made reaching out globally with the good news of Jesus Christ a priority – something the percentage of the church missons budget clearly affirms.

Our missionary family is what I would call a ‘balanced’ one. It encompasses almost every imaginable type of ministry, foreign and domestic. But as of this weekend, that balance may now be complete, or nearly so. This year, Pastor Paul Anderson led the local congregation on a journey into formerly hidden places that could be rightfully called the spiritually darkest on planet earth.

After sensing a burden from God, he had written a book over the past year, a very difficult and hard book. That work would be integrated into a new ministry implemented at the conference entitled “CUPbearers”. The book itself, “Habitations of Cruelty”, focused on some of the ‘unseen’ children of the world in three specific locations – Cambodia. Uganda, and Peru. In each place, unthinkably evil things are happening with precious young lives who remain invisible to a world largely ignorant of the massive and grizzly reality there.

The book was given out, without cost, to all that just promised to read it. It focused on two small ministries and one brave young lady. All three were involved in doing what they can for children forced into lives of incomprehensible violence and pain – things which may seem like purely fiction in modern America. We were made to consider the child soldiers of Uganda by Grace Akallo, who was one herself until escaping a personal hell on earth. There was the Ralpa House in Cambodia – a ministry that rescues and shares Christ with young girls sold in to the living nightmare of forced prostitution by their own families. Then there was Shama Center in Peru, a sanctuary where young, abused, drug-addicted boys living in streets of Lima can find physical relief and spiritual truth.

After our people listened to the representatives of each ministry, they were challenged to give. Pastor Anderson stated, ”The book is done. I’m not now an author or an activist. God has now called me to be a beggar.” He asked for 1 dollar each week and 1 minute of prayer per week for each outreach. That’s 3 dollars and 3 minutes per week – not much by any standard, especially for those of us for whom the amount would mean little more than giving up one large pizza in a month!

It was a painful and eye-opening few days. And for those who ‘got it’, it was an opportunity to respond to unimaginable suffering in Christ’s name. It was also a way to place a target for spiritual persecution squarely on their own backs, as was mentioned by Stephanie Freed of Rapha House, and as experienced by Pastor Anderson and his wife during the book’s writing.
The title of the book, was taken from a passage in Psalm 74:20 in the Old King James Version:

“Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty." That reveals the crude reality! The surrounding two verses share what must be the Christian response! “O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever. “O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name.” (Psalm 74:19, 21)

It was a different kind of conference this year. It was not that we learned so much more about the horror of a literal hell for people outside of Christ. We pretty much knew that – that's why we have our missionary program. But it was rather a true wakeup call concerning the daily ‘hell on earth’ many now face, not to mention the grim possibly of them later facing a literal and eternal hell.

Yet with that all said, our time together was in some ways typical. We were once again reminded that the only real solution, whether rescuing the suffering on earth, or reaching lost souls for eternity, has not changed. It all begins and ends with Christ’s love on the cross and is aided and furthered when those who know Him care, pray, and give of themselves for His great glory!

Bill Breckenridge