I’ve mentioned in previous posts I spent the summer of 2005 in the tiny Eastern European country of Moldova. I was there on a solo mission partly to earn credit for my masters degree in missions and partly to lead a high school short-term missions trip for the church I was working for at the time. During the 2 weeks the high school students from Boston, MA were with me in Moldova, we spent most of our time living at an orphanage in the middle of the beautiful countryside.  

By the time I was in Moldova, I had been on similar short-term missions trips to Mexico a handful of times and had been to Congo, Kinshasa in Sub-Saharan Africa. Needless to say I had seen poverty before.  However, spending those 6 or 7 days in that remote Moldovan orphanage opened my eyes to a new level of poverty I had not yet experienced. I’ve thought a lot about why there was a noticeable difference between the places I had been and the place I was in Moldova. I’ve come to believe the difference to be that while in Mexico and in Congo, Kinshasa, I was a bystander. I was an onlooker to the poverty. I was a spectator to the mess and not part of it.

But in Moldova, at this orphanage, I lived among them, in their subhuman conditions for that week. Rather than arrive, shake some kids hands, give others hugs, snap a few photos and leave, the Boston high school students and myself stayed.

Moldova has a high number of orphans due to the countries poverty. The simple fact is parents do not make enough money to support their own children. They have no other choice but to send them to an orphanage. The government pours very little resources into these orphanages leaving hundreds of children in the care of 2 of 3 adults who don’t know what its like to have a day off.

This particular orphanage was over crowded with some of the neediest children I’ve ever met. Due to a high rate of alcoholism among Moldovans, deformities and mental disabilities run rapid among the children. The first child I shook hands with when we arrived was missing 2 fingers on his right hand. Others had severe mental handicaps and needs that were unmet.

The warn-out, thin mattress I laid my head on every night was soaked in urine. The facility turned the water tower on for showers once a week. And even then, it was a light trickle of pure cold. The single course for the day was potato soup (simply boiled potatoes in water) on days when the potato farm had enough potatoes.

During my 2 month stay in Moldova, I was hosted by a group of girls who had grown up together in an orphanage. They were all teenagers and had lived together in an orphanage in the city for most of their lives (This orphanage was funded by an American organization and the conditions were much more civilized). These girls remain close friends of mine and we keep in touch often. Five of them are now in the US between North Carolina and Georgia while 2 remain in Moldova.

I will never forget the final day of our stay in that orphanage in the countryside. We had a bonfire going and worship songs were being sung into the night sky. I was seated on the ground with 1 of my host girls beside me. Without warning, she tilted her head and laid it to rest on my shoulder. With an emotional, cracked voice, she softly spoke. “Why did God put me in a better orphanage in the city and why did he put these kids out here in this kind of orphanage?”

This young woman was asking an age old question that knows no boundaries. There are 4 questions that find their way into the minds of nearly every person on Earth. Here are some of the most asked questions among the nations:

►    Q. Where are we? (What is the nature of the world around us?)

►    Q. Who are we? (What is the essential nature of humanity?)

►    Q. What’s gone wrong? (Why is the world in such a mess?)

►    Q. What is the solution? (What can we do about it?)

Have you ever found yourself asking 1 of these questions or a combination of them? Or perhaps you’ve asked all 4 at some point? I know I have.

The good news is that the story of God answers all 4 questions. The story of God understands all 4 questions and the story of God has a solution to the problems they address.

So what are the answers? The following states brief answers that I would encourage you to seek out more when you have the time.

Q. Where are we? (What is the nature of the world around us?)
A. We inhabit the earth, which is part of the good creation of the one living, personal God, YHWH.

Q. Who are we? (What is the essential nature of humanity?)
A. We are human persons made by this God and in God’s own image, one of God’s creatures but unique among them in spiritual and moral relationships and responsibility

Q. What’s gone wrong? (Why is the world in such a mess?)
A. Through rebellion and disobedience against our Creator God, we have generated the mess that we now see around us at every level of our lives, relationships and environment.

Q. What is the solution? (What can we do about it?)
A. Nothing in and of ourselves. But the solution has been initiated by our God through his choice and creation of a people, Israel, through whom God intends eventually to bring blessing to all nations of the earth and ultimately to renew the whole creation.

The God of the Bible is a God of mission. He’s a God who knows our questions, who listens to us ask them and who answers us.

Consider the words of Paul to the Galatians as he reminded them of the ways our God cares and understands these questions:

Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you." So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”        Gal. 3:6-9

When God announced the gospel to Abraham, he ignited his plan to answer these questions and restore his people to the way things were before the fall in Gen. 3.

Here is a brief outline as to God’s plan revealed through his story:

Gen. 12:1-3 YHWH’s redemptive plan revealed:

• This plan is revealed 5 times in Gen. alone (Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4-5; 28:14).
• Gen. 1-2 reveals creation; Gen. 3-11 reveals the problem of sin; Gen 12 – Rev. 22 reveals the solution.
• This plan occupies the rest of scripture, with Christ as the central focus and closing the canon of scripture with Rev. 7:9-10.

I don’t know about you but I have asked all four questions above and the only answer that makes sense is what God reveals to us in his Biblical story.

Have you asked these questions? If so, what provoked you to ask? Are there other questions you’ve seen raised that cross cultural lines? Do you think the answers to these questions are good enough answers?