Chilean Miners Enjoyed Jesus Film

This morning, I read an article from CNN, and it made me smile. This article shares that a member of the Campus Crusade for Christ team in Chili managed to get an audio copy of the “Jesus” film to the 33 miners trapped deep below the earth. This audio of the “Jesus” film sustained the miners and cocooned them in a deeper relationship with God and each other as they lingered … waiting, praying.

I cannot imagine the amount of thinking, pondering, and searching one would do trapped so “securely” in the depths of the earth. Coming face to face with one’s own death and, probably worse, with the death of friends and fellow co-workers must take quite a toll on one’s emotional health. Despair.

That’s where hope comes in and offers light to those in dark places — hope in the form of an MP3 player loaded up with Campus Crusade for Christ’s “Jesus” film. I have tried to imagine the dirty faces, weary eyes, and less-than-healthy bodies of those 33 miners sitting, listening, gaining understanding, and embracing the hope that Christ offers.

Maybe my “imagining” of the dirty faces, weary eyes, and less-than-healthy bodies is made a bit easier because I have seen them up close and personal myself. Two summers ago while my family served in Rwanda, we accompanied a team from Campus Crusade for Christ’s “Jesus” film ministry to a remote village and witnessed firsthand the transformation that hope — and Jesus — makes in the life of others. Though I couldn’t understand the language, the transformation from darkness to light was evident.

I cannot begin to understand the intense moments experienced by those 33 men trapped in darkness, nor can I begin to understand the hard lives experienced by people all around me trapped in darkness. But I do understand Jesus’ ability to provide hope and a future. That’s why He has charged His followers to speak to, write to, and even share MP3 players with the corners of the globe and our own neighborhoods.

It makes me sad that many in the world are mocking the miners and their belief in Jesus Christ; interestingly, those who mock do not understand that their very mocking is confirmation that what the miners experienced and are experiencing is designed by God to draw them ever closer to Him.

I fear that the actual battle for these miners is just beginning because they, like we, live in a world where real darkness can be found all around, and its voices are getting bolder and louder.

Keep these 33 and their families in your prayers.