Persecution at the Polls

VotingmachineAs most of you know yesterday was election day here in America.  So as a good patriotic American I went to the polls and voted.  When I arrived at my polling place there were 6 volunteers behind their tables just waiting for someone to show up.  Then I arrived...

I walked in and handed the head volunteer my completed and signed absentee ballot and then the ladies behind the tables made a comment about my t-shirt that I was wearing.  It was my shirt from the Mission Network News that said on the front, "Be a doer of the word".  Obviously the lady was a Christian and she told me about her travels to Africa and how it changed her life.

Then her friend, another volunteer, spoke to me about Indonesia and told me that she had some friends  - in their twenties - who became missionaries there.  It was a great conversation.  I asked her about whether or not she knew anything about the teachers that were arrested and jailed in Indonesia and she didn't.  But the conversation we were having was all about Christian persecution.

I was amazed at how quickly the conversation turned there because I was wearing a t-shirt from a missions organization.

Then it happened, the main head honcho volunteer guy stood up and commanded me to leave the room.  He accused me of trying to sway other voters and proselytizing!  Can you believe that?

The ironic thing is that there was no one there, and the precinct workers were the ones who brought up the issue with Indonesia and Africa.

My take is that the head volunteer, who was visibly angry because of our conversation about Christ and missions, was offended because we talked about Jesus.  Needless to say, I felt persecuted - not like missionaries that are getting killed, but certainly treated rudely, falsely accused and scorned because of the message I was sharing and these precious precinct workers were sharing with me.