This poem is based on my personal life experiences as well as an occasion in the Bible:  Acts 16:6-10.  In this passage, Paul is desperate to get into Bithynia, but the Holy Spirit won’t allow him to enter into that countryside.  So, they (Paul, Silas, and possibly Timothy) go down to Troas and there Paul has a dream about a Macedonian man, beckoning Paul to come down to him.  Paul determines that God wants them to minister among those in Macedonia, so he goes…it’s there that he meets Lydia, and she and her whole house are converted.

The place where it seems God has not and will not allow me to go is Nepal.  I’m not sure why, but I think that door is shut to me, and my only impact is on lives here in the US and prayer.  BUT, God has replaced the burning passion for Nepal with a dream and desire for China.  This is my poem to that…describing the oddity of such a transfer of feelings.  It’s beyond my will, but I know that I must go.

May 26th, 2004

These dreams of mine
I give to You
My heart and eyes
Settle on Nepal

Yet my ears hearken
To a shushed voice calling
Still, not weak
Steady from the East

My eyes look north
But are drawn eastward
As if in a dream
Where is it from?

My foot steps north
Yet falls in the East
My arm reaches north
But is grasped from the East

Macedonia has a new face
The eyes, thin
Faces yellow
Eyes yearning for love.

Sarah ><>