The Answer to Our Anxieties – Be Still

Kornel Crnković and I walked into the kitchen of Pastor John Goldfuss’s house on Thursday, March 12, to find David Smith, Director of Open Door Baptist Missions, watching the chapel broadcast from Bob Jones University on his laptop. We were in Lodi, Indiana, for a mission conference with the Waterman Baptist Church. Steve Pettit, the BJU President, announced, “Classes will end this Friday, March 13, and will resume online on March 30, following Spring Break. On-campus events are canceled from March 14-May 1.” The night before the NBA had announced that they were canceling the rest of their season. There was talk at the time about canceling the NCAA basketball tournament. We looked at each other, stunned, not knowing what to say. Everything was changing so quickly.

Kornel arrived in Greenville, South Carolina, at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 7. We hit the ground running. We had services on Sunday morning at Palmetto Baptist Church in Powdersville, my home church, and at Faith Baptist Church in Easley on Sunday evening. That church supports the Crnkovićs. Pastor Tom Fuller’s wife, Karen, was Tanja’s roommate at BJU.

On Monday we had lunch with Tim Keesee, director of Frontline Missions International. Tim has been with Kornel in Croatia, and they have been friends for around twenty years. If you see Tim, ask him about the grenade that Kornel gave him. Later that afternoon we left for Kentucky and spent the night in Richmond.

Tuesday, thanks to a friend getting us half-price tickets, we visited the Ark Encounter in Williamstown. We spent the night in Indianapolis, Indiana, at Good News Ministries thanks to an invitation from Patricia Camacho, a sweet Uruguayan friend who serves as director of the Health Clinic. If you have followed the newsletters, you know that Kornel’s church is renovating a building that was purchased last year. I wanted him to see the potential for using a church building, not just on Sundays, but all throughout the week.

On Wednesday, we stopped by Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Indianapolis to meet with Pastor Chuck Phelps. His church doesn’t support Kornel, but it does support Julia Alvarez (Uruguay), and Marco and Gwendolyn Nuñez (Mexico). We met with him in his office and discussed the Indiana governor’s decision to limit the size of public gatherings, which was going to affect their church and require live streaming their services. We enjoyed a good time with him at lunch.

We then traveled to Waterman Baptist to begin their mission conference, “Go and Make Disciples.” The pastor had invited David Smith and me to speak. God’s providence was at work as Kornel was going to be in the States at the same time and that church has supported them for many years. David stayed with the pastor and his family, and Kornel and I stayed with Bob and Ann Russell. We also were able to have lunch at Cracker Barrel with Pastor Jeff Augustus of West Terre Haute Baptist. Kornel had said he wanted to visit a Cracker Barrel, a first for him, and it did not disappoint.

We had a busy schedule planned for the next few weeks. We were scheduled to be in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on Sunday. The following Wednesday, we were scheduled to be at Morningside Baptist Church in Greenville. Our annual EMU board meeting was going to be that Saturday. On Sunday, we would be at Kornel’s sending church, Hampton Park Baptist in Greenville. We also were making final arrangements for his plans to be in Westminster, Maryland, at Calvary Baptist Church. We left for Tennessee on Saturday morning following a Ladies Brunch at the church in Indiana. It was snowing for about an hour-and-a-half of our drive. We made it into Kentucky and stopped at a Bob Evans, another first for Kornel. Every time we would stop for a meal, Kornel would log onto the free Wi-Fi. He then would video chat with Tanja back in Croatia. Every time that they talked, we were eating. I know she was afraid that he was going to go back to Croatia as big as a house.

On Sunday, we visited with another supporting church, Oak Ridge Baptist Church, pastored by Bobby McCoy. This church faithfully supports the Crnkovićs and Tim and Cheryl Chapman (Peru). Due to the Coronavirus, attendance was down a little. It was a joy to also see several familiar faces as students from the Appalachian Bible College Chorale ministered to us in song during the morning service. We enjoyed a great time of fellowship with the pastors and students, several who are missions majors. Word then reached the young people that their college had just decided to send all of the students home and move to online classes for the rest of the year. It was a very sobering time as tears flowed while they were packing the van to head out of town. Kornel and I hung out at the church for the afternoon and then shared the ministry of EMU International during the evening service. After supper with the pastor’s family and a couple of other personal supporters, we traveled to Sevierville to spend the night.

We were hearing rumors that flights were about to be canceled and borders of countries were about to be closed. I was up until 2:00 a.m trying to see about arrangements to get Kornel back to Croatia. I was up at 6:00 a.m. to continue the search for opportunities. At 7:15 a.m., I called Joan Jensen for help. She and Ken had been in Uruguay and were supposed to be on their way home. I figured she would be at the Miami airport. Actually, they had come home early, and she was still in bed. I know how tiring that trip home is and how little sleep you get on the plane, so I felt terrible, but I needed her to work her magic and help us get a ticket for Kornel to fly out later that afternoon. After several hours on the computer and on hold on the phone, she was able to get him a flight that afternoon. We hustled back to Greenville to pack his things. He arrived at the airport about an hour before his departure. His flight to Washington D.C. left a little early. The same thing happened for his flights to Germany and then to Croatia. It appeared that they were trying to make sure the flights all got through before they began closing airports and canceling flights. It was an answer to prayer that he was able to get home when he did as shortly thereafter, airline travel became much more difficult, and the borders were being closed. I know Tanja and the rest of his family are glad to have him home. He will be under a government-mandated self-quarantine for the next two weeks. It will be a good opportunity to read all of those books he took back with him. Also, he can exercise and work off some of those kilos he added with all of the good meals we ate with our ministry partners.” View photos from Kornel’s trip by following this link: https://emuinternational.org/kornelusa/

The Answer to Our Anxieties – Be Still

How quickly things change. Now our government is recommending and, in some cases, mandating the closing of non-essential businesses. Group sizes are being limited and people are encouraged to quarantine themselves even if they are not sick. As the death toll continues to rise and nearly every corner of the globe is affected, we are facing an official global pandemic. God is doing something. There is no question about that. But, what? He is exalting Himself among the nations.

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10

It was the words to Psalm 46 which were the inspiration for Martin Luther to write “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott.” Today we sing Frederick Hedge’s translation, known as the familiar hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.”

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea” Psalm 46:1-3

On Wednesday, March 18, my son and daughter-in-law awakened in their bed in Salt Lake City, shaking from a 5.7 magnitude earthquake, the strongest since 1992. Just four days later, Kornel and Tanja felt their bedroom shaking in Croatia as Zagreb, the capital city, was hit by a 5.4 magnitude earthquake, the strongest in 140 years. When the ground beneath you literally begins to shake, you find yourself completely vulnerable, but because we recognize God’s sovereignty, we need not fear. God is present with us in the middle of our trouble (vv.1, 7, 11).

The Psalm is composed of three, three-verse-long stanzas and two refrains (vv.7, 11): The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

Verse 10 commands us to “Be still.” Set against the context, this isn’t a command to just pause, but to stop striving. In times of distress, we want to do something. We want to fix everything. Like the hamster on the wheel, we want to run faster. God wants us to stop and trust. If you are like me, this doesn’t make sense. Doesn’t God know the earth is quaking right now? Doesn’t He know that “the nations rage, the kingdoms totter?” Yes, He does. And despite everything that is happening around us, He will be exalted in all of the earth. The answer to our anxieties is not to be quarantined and know that He is God, but to be still, stop striving. “The body they may kill; His truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever.” †