Saturday, Dec. 30 pm

Gary Haugen

How can the Christian faith be relevant in a world of suffering? This question haunted Gary Haugen, and tonight he shared with the Urbana worshippers how he searched for the answer and how he has attempted to demonstrate the answer to those who suffer.

He began his speech with a pop quiz for the audience. "What is 20,000?" The multiple choices were

A. The number of participants at Urbana 2000.

B. The number of children taken into forced prostitution each week around the world.

C. 1/500th of the children held illegally in bonded slavery in India.

D. The number of people murdered each day during the worst weeks of the Twandan genocide.

E. All of the above.

Unfortunately the correct answer is "all of the above." In the face of so much cruelty, it can be extraordinarily difficult to believe that God is good. Gary was encouraged by his InterVarsity chapter at Harvard to wrestle with this quandary. He found that he was unprepared by his life to answer the question. Raised in a beautiful and happy home, he knew little of the needs of the world and how to make a difference. Fortunately, Gary told us, God loved him enough to show him how. Gary asked God what his plan was for helping the suffering, and God revealed that we are the plan!

God's plan led Gary to South Africa and other parts of our hurting world to seek justice and healing for the oppressed. He desired that God would send him to the places where people were having the hardest time, so he could be part of restraining the hand of brutal oppressors.

Quoting Matthew 5: 14-16, Gary reminded us that we are the light of the world and our good deeds should bring glory to God. "Where does light shine brightest?" Gary asked. In the darkest places! If someone were to light a match in the well-lit Assembly Hall, we could hardly notice it. But if the Assembly Hall was in total darkness, continued Gary, we could not help but see the light of a single match. The logical response to Gary's initial question is that Christians, with the utmost relevance, can bring the blazing light of hope and rescue in Jesus Christ to the dark and suffering places of the world!

How many are 20,000? The number of Urbana participants is 40 times greater than the number of people who saw the risen Christ and then went out and transformed their world. Just what can Urbana participants accomplish with God's power?

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