She sat down in his office, fidgeting. Finally, he spoke. “Announcing a Bible club meeting is a violation of separation of church and state,” he said matter-of-factly.
“I don’t have any intention of preaching over the PA,” Jessica told him. “I just want to inform students about the location and time of a meeting.”
The principal denied her request.
Jessica researched the issue and was energized by what she read. “I found documentation saying it was legally acceptable for students to lead and publicize religious-based organizations and events on campus.” She presented all her research to her principal, but he again refused to allow the announcement.
Undaunted, Jessica called a law organization known for defending students in similar situations. The lawyers drew up papers—a lawsuit against the district. They sent a copy to Jessica, the principal, and the attorney for the school district. At that point, Jessica worried. “I got scared and doubted my motivations. Why was it that important to me anyway? Why make waves? I thought and prayed a lot about it, especially after the papers had been served. My intention was to assure the principal that he would be legally covered if he allowed the Bible club announcements.”
In the midst of her prayers, she felt God’s peace and favor. “I wanted to create a legacy for future Bible clubs—that others could use the PA system, even after I graduated. I wanted to stand up for Jesus.”
Jessica waited. And waited. And waited until the last day a response to the lawsuit was required before all the parties involved would have to go to court. On that day, the principal called Jessica down to his office. He had softened and seemed humble. “You have access to the PA system,” he said. “And,” he added, “you can use any other venue to advertise your group.”
Jessica thanked him and immediately made her announcement over the PA system to the entire school. She hung posters and handed out fliers. She even set up a table in the lunchroom that advertised information about the True Love Waits campaign (a national group that advocates sexual abstinence).
“I didn’t say much to anyone about what had transpired the previous weeks,” she says. “But I made sure I told people about what a privilege it is to have the freedom to advertise Bible-based religious events.”
Still, Jessica fretted about how her actions had affected her principal. “I worried a lot about what the principal thought of me, so I prayed. My prayers were answered when the faculty voted for me to receive the only available scholarship for graduates that year,” she said. “My principal handed me the award on stage and smiled warmly. I could tell that he approved of me and wasn’t angry.”
Jessica has continued to learn to stand tall. She failed to listen to her parents about a guy she was dating—someone who ended up abusing her. Although the experience was excruciating, she saw God’s protection shielding her. Now she shares her experience openly with others. “I have been able to talk to other young ladies about the dangers of abusive boyfriends,” she says, “and how to recover after a relationship.”
Jessica also has had to learn how to assert herself in medical situations because she is plagued by unremitting seizures and ill health. “I went to doctor after doctor with no answers—dead ends,” she says, “but it led me to study medicine.” While in nursing school, she was able to diagnose herself with hypoglycemia—something no doctor could earlier pinpoint. She is managing her health now.
Jessica prayed through another painful time when her fiancé left. “His life was on a downward spiral. I was spared from a lot of trouble and heartache,” she notes today. Simultaneously, Jessica’s mom was hospitalized. So Jessica helped homeschool her younger brother Jacob while attending college full-time. “God really showed His mercy to me during that time,” she says.
Whether praying for a suicidal acquaintance, standing up for religious freedom in school, or walking through the pitfalls of life, Jessica has seen God meet her in every way—a miracle that keeps her grounded in her faith. And she is gaining the respect of her friends and community.
“To this day,” Jessica says, “I believe if you pray and stand up for Jesus, others will respect you.”
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
(Romans
1:16
)
WEEK TWO JOURNAL
• Do you feel God is “messing up” somewhere in the world?
• What would it take for you to begin to trust Him, regardless of the outcome?
• Do you feel as if you are too much of a “mess” yourself for God to use you in a messed-up world?
• If you could pick a way to be part of His plan, how would you like God to use you?
• What Bible verse or passage of Scripture has been most meaningful to you this week? Why?
norah ashkar
Faith and Film
N
o offense,” said a fellow New York University student to aspiring filmmaker Norah Ashkar, “but I hate Jesus.” Norah had never even said His name. Her class had just finished viewing her first black-and-white short film, and during the ensuing critique one of her classmates quickly took issue with the visual references it contained to her Christian faith. The images were subtle ones—a loaf of bread on a kitchen counter and a nearby box of Life cereal paying silent tribute to the “bread of life”—but they were not overlooked. Her sharp-eyed critic loudly and passionately voiced his disapproval, and soon he was not alone.
While she admits his outburst stung, Norah says she wasn’t particularly surprised by the reaction her piece generated. Her early semesters in the creative community at New York University film school had taught her that tolerance is a widely praised but selectively practiced virtue. “The other students here are tolerant if they like you,” she explains, “but if you don’t fit in, they don’t like you very much. They all believe the same basic stuff, and they expect you to believe it too. If you don’t, you’re the odd man out.”
First drawn to animation as a career, Norah began exercising her creative gifts early. A self-proclaimed doodler, during high school she attended a summer program in animation at the University of Southern California and followed it the next summer with one at NYU, where she admittedly caught the film bug. Then she applied for entrance to both universities and began to pray—not simply that she’d be accepted at one or the other, but that she would be allowed to attend either one.
One of twin daughters in a tightly knit family, Norah comes from a mixed home: her mother is a Christian and her father a Muslim. He did not favor his daughters attending out-of-state schools and was not at all receptive to their growing faith. “We didn’t talk about it,” she says, “ever. We used to say when we were going to church that we were going to hang out with friends. I’m sure he knew
where
we were meeting those friends, but we didn’t flaunt it, so he didn’t ask.”
When the hoped-for acceptance letter arrived from NYU, Norah asked her friends to pray and sat down with her father to discuss her future. To her utter delight and relief, their prayers were answered. He allowed his daughter to move to New York City, and a new adventure of faith began.
Although she tried to prepare for what she felt would be a lack of spiritual support in her newly adopted city by e-mailing churches in Manhattan and putting out feelers for connections with other believers, Norah acknowledges that it was difficult at first to establish a network of friends. She laughingly remembers what she calls “the day I met my first Christian at school—a volleyball player from San Diego in a Switchfoot T-shirt.” Seeing the shirt promoting a Christian band, she approached him and asked about his faith. When he said he was a Christian, she quickly replied, “Me too” and recalls that he seemed as relieved to find her as she was to find him.
Slowly, Norah began to piece together a web of like-minded fellow artists, both within the university and outside it. “I attended a Campus Crusade winter conference,” she says. “That helped me connect with some other folks I might not have otherwise met, and things just sort of grew from there.”
Soon Norah became a regular at transFORM, a monthly meeting in Manhattan where Christian artists gather, both to interpret popular culture and to show one another their work. Along the way she also met established believing artists such as New Yorker Makoto Fujimura, founder of the International Arts Movement (IAM) and a presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts. These interactions with artists of deep faith and strong influence had a profound impact on Norah and offered plenty of life-giving encouragement.
Her continued association with peers in the art world has taught Norah that excellence in her craft can give her a hearing where her faith alone would likely prevent her being heard. “They think they’ve heard the truth. They think they know it. But many of us who believe are talented too. We’re good artists, and in this environment, talent is respected.”
In her classes at NYU, Norah’s goal is to show up, work hard, get assignments in on time, and be supportive of her fellow students. Her work ethic and positive attitude have already found favor with some of her toughest professors—including ones whose beliefs are strongly opposed to her own. She’s found a mentor too—an NYU instructor who has observed her diligence and believes in her talent. That association led to her first paying job as an artist—a summer internship as an office/production assistant on an MGM film featuring Steve Martin as the Pink Panther. It was Norah’s first film industry paycheck, and she was pleased to have had the opportunity to earn it.
Norah will finish her studies soon and wonders what the future will hold. She’s chosen an industry that she admits is not at all sympathetic to her beliefs, and she knows the way will not be easy. “But this is the dream God has given me,” she affirms, “and I’m going to follow it.”
She offers this advice for other aspiring artists who might come after her: “Work hard. Don’t be afraid to go for your dream. Find a group of friends whose support you can count on, and be an encourager for them too. Most of all, trust God, and put your focus on following Him.” She says, “I learned this verse a long time ago, and I’m finding out every day how true it really is: ‘Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world’ [1 John 4:4
NASB
].”
Norah not only believes it—she’s counting on it to sustain her in a world that hates the One she loves.
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
(1 John
4:4
)
brett trapolino
God’s Open Door
T
he assignment: move with your husband of eight years and your three young children to a place you’ve never seen. Adjust to the unfamiliar rhythms and practices of a Third World country, and learn a language completely unknown to you. Live at first with a young pastor, his wife, and
their
small children in a home barely big enough for them. And for an added challenge, prepare for the birth of your fourth child in a place where modern medical facilities are severely limited and infant mortality is high.
This is not a nightmare. Instead, it’s the very scenario that causes Brett Trapolino’s eyes to sparkle with joy, and the corners of her mouth to turn up in a shy but easy smile. She confesses that while she is unsure about what God might have in store for her, she’s thrilled at the prospect of following Him into the unknown.
When Kirby and Brett Trapolino married, neither had any idea that they might one day live in Ongole, India, partnering with local believers to support and serve an orphanage, a Bible college, and a church-planting ministry. Kirby met Pastor B. Samson, head of what is now Peace Gospel Ministries, when he was single, and Samson was the twenty-year-old son of a beggar, preaching in the slums of Southern India. But the two men formed a bond that would change both their lives.
“Kirby helped me by raising funds in the United States,” says Samson. “He encouraged me to press on in the Lord, to dream big, and to believe that the Lord could do it, even though I was living on three dollars a week as a slum pastor.”
Kirby continued to support Samson’s work and to visit India, even after he and Brett married and began their family. In the States, the young couple launched a business together, moved to the suburbs, and began to serve in their local church. But over time, the land and people that had captured Kirby’s heart nearly a decade before began to call Brett too.
And the time seemed right to go. Peace Gospel was supporting thirty orphans in three temporary shelters and had trained seventy-six full-time ministers and planted forty-two churches in remote villages. Bible studies were being translated into the Telugu language for the first time. The Trapolinos’ treasure had been invested in India, and their hearts were ready to follow it there.
“Even while we live in the here and now,” says Brett, “God is always preparing us for the next thing. What we’re living now—this is not it. God wants to give us other comforts. He wants us to know mystery, to trust Him, and to wonder. I’m hungry to fulfill what He has made me to do, and He’s redefining what greatness looks like to me.”
Having grown up Catholic, Brett says she had known about God since she was a child. But it was in college that her faith in Christ became real to her, although she readily admits that she struggled with an eating disorder and with periodic bouts of depression. A theater major, Brett remembers participating in a guided exercise in one acting class that became a personal turning point in her life. “Someone is waiting for you,” the instructor said. And as Brett moved toward that “waiting one” in her imagination, she says simply, “It was Jesus. And I knew that it was Him.”
When she reflects on her journey so far, Brett says, “God has shown me so much mercy. When He has a purpose for someone’s life, it will not be thwarted. He’s given me many second chances. I probably shouldn’t even be alive, and I’m the mother of three, expecting another baby and facing a huge change in life without the kind of fear I might have once had. But I believe that what the Bible says in 1 John is true: ‘Perfect love casts out fear’ [4:18
NASB
]. This season for me is about hearing Him in the small things—about learning to serve, to stay hidden, and to esteem others more than myself. I love what He is teaching me. And I want to know Him more.”