2 Saints I have Met

2 Saints I Have Met

In 1988 while living in Ecuador, South America we were invited to a church service and met Rachel Saint the sister of Nate Saint.

Something impressed me with this woman who devoted her life to serve the people who had killed her brother, missionary pilot, Nate Saint. You can read more about Nate here. She lived with the Waodani for 40 years until she died in 1994. Nate's son, Steve Saint, became a pilot just like his dad. He and others continue the work among the Waodani today.

During lunch with her she was most interested in our son. Her questions were directed to him. She cared not so much about telling her story, but wanted to know about the interests of our son Dwight. She wanted to know the perspective of a young man from outside. Outside because she lived in very primitive conditions deep in the Ecuadorian jungle, far from civilization.

---

In 1992 while on a visit to the Missionaries of Charity humanitarian facility in Calcutta, I was asked if I wanted to meet with Mother Teresa. She was in residence at the time. That was not the reason for our visit and I did not know that she had a residence there, but I said, that would be nice if she would like to meet me. We sat and talked in a breezeway outside her modest upstairs bare concrete floor apartment.  She was a fascinating, diminutive of stature woman. And our conversation soon turned to my children. She asked question after question about my two sons.
As we were ending our conversation I asked if I take her photograph, and she agreed. Later I was told that was most unusual because she rarely granted that privilege. Here it is released for the first time.

---

So this sets the stage for the two Saints I have met. And my takeaway from these encounters is the same. They humbly cared about others. They both projected the here and now to the future by wanting to know all about the young that I influenced, my sons. 

Their life calling, their life ministry focused on others. They showed a love that transcends human nature. They were both special because there was not an ounce of pride or self serving evident in our conversations. They were both following a calling from God to serve others and were committed to equality of all people.

---

My friend Bud McCord leads the Abide International ministry in Brazil and writes a devotional we share on our Daily Living page. He writes about equality that follows:
“The desire for equality is  a noble goal. Perhaps it is the most noble of human dreams. The search for it, however, has led to millions of deaths and great sacrifice. No matter how many deaths and how great the sacrifices, the dream of equality still seems far away.

Whether the path chosen to equality is the non-violent approach of Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr or the radical violence of Lenin and Mao, time reveals just how hard equality is to produce or sustain. In all of human history has anyone shown us the way to equality?

In all of human history only Jesus had the courage to call Himself the way to human equality  He was neither an activist nor an armed revolutionary. He was something altogether new. He claimed to be equal with God and and He invited humanity to be one with Him and the Father as the basis of equality.  He said all who accept Him are instantly brought into the equality mankind longs to find. Jesus said being in Him would make us equals.”

Rachael Saint and now Saint Teresa of Calcutta both understood this about equality and reflected Jesus in their compassion and caring for those who need to know this Jesus, the Son of God.