Building a Bridge of Trust

In her book ‘Forming Intentional Disciples’, Sherry Weddell wrote about the five stages of coming to know Jesus. The theory is that when people come to know Christ and commit their lives to Him, it is not usually something that happens in an instant, but involves a journey.

The journey begins with initial trust which is when a person is able to trust or has a positive association with Jesus, the Church, a Christian believer, or something identifiably Christian. A bridge of trust is needed. Initial trust can help a person move to the stage of spiritual curiosity, which can lead to spiritual openness, followed by spiritual seeking, and finally intentional discipleship.

In many ways, knowing this helps us feel free to walk with any person at the stage they are at, and allow the Holy Spirit to use us to help them move towards the next stage. God sends different people at different stages of a person’s journey. Sometimes we come in at the beginning, and sometimes at the end.

So the job of a Christian is never to proselytize, but lovingly be Christ to those of other faiths. However, we often fail at this very simple task.

Last year my team along with some local Catholic youth organized a two day summer club for students of a school. On the first day, halfway through the day, the father of one of the students came by the school to pick his daughter up. He was a Muslim. “I have to go to work, so I won’t be able to pick her up in the evening.” He seemed reluctant to take her away, and his daughter looked really woebegone at having to miss the rest of the day’s activities.

I was tired, and distracted by having to coordinate the summer club, and was half inclined to just say ‘Fine, take her and go.’ But something stopped me.

“Where do you live?” I asked him.

The place he named was further than any of the volunteers lived. I hesitated. But then the Holy Spirit gave me a little nudge, and I pushed my tiredness away. What were all my words about the love of Jesus worth if I wasn’t willing to go the extra mile (literally)?

I told him, “I can bring her home.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, his brow lightening perceptibly.

“Yes, I have a vehicle, I can bring her, no problem.”

His daughter took active part in all the activities for the rest of the day, and at the end of the day, after we cleared up, I dropped her home. The next day her dad came to pick her up in the evening at the end of the summer club. He shook my hand warmly and thanked me. He hung around, and then started talking to another one of our volunteers.

“This summer club is different from other programmes I’ve sent my daughter to,” he said. “Others don’t care about our children. Once they kept them standing in the sun all day, and didn’t even give them water. But you people are different. I can see that you actually care about the children. We don’t always trust our daughters to anyone. But I would send her to anything you organize."

He gave us his number and told us, “If you are ever in my area and need some help, please call me. I will be happy to help you in any way possible.” In a world where so much mistrust exists between the followers of different religions, there usually isn’t even a place to begin a relationship. But on that day, a bridge of trust was built.