First Communion (the power of the Lord’s Table)

From A Scent of Water, p. 92, by Nancy Ashcroft, WEC missionary from England

The account of the new Karen Christian’s first communion. The Karen is a tribal people of Thailand.

After the baptism (first baptism in the Karen of Thailand church) we were all to gather on my porch to observe communion. I longed that this time of remembering His death until He comes again would be a time when we could all be aware of His presence.

I did so hope that in our gathering together, just a tiny group, we would be aware of Him. I so hoped that His body broken for us would capture our full thoughts. I longed that His blood shed on the cross would assume importance in all our lives. But I knew that is was most unlikely that we would have the sacred atmosphere in which such a contemplation and awareness are possible.

We could expect to have 4 babies all crying at once and several toddlers and older children trying to quiet them.

We did not own the lovely sort of communion sets that are used at home (England). There were cases of tuberculosis, thus we opted against the one communion cup. So we used every glass I owned. The elements were grape Kool-aid and cakes from old flour. I could hardly believe that the Karen were going to be able to see the eternal reality behind those symbols for there seems nothing sacred, nothing venerable, nothing hallowed about the common tray of drink and bread.

But I had never been able to put myself in the place of the spirit-worshiping Karen who walks in dreadful fear and awe of the sacrifice bleeding in the hands of the spirit doctor. I did not know that just the reading of the familiar passage, “The Lord Jesus, the same night He was betrayed, took the bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat, this is My body, which is broken for you; this do in remembrance of Me..’ And after the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, ‘This cup is the new testament in My blood; this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me,’” would send thrills of understanding through the group. Others had told me since of their first communion and its electrifying effect on them. They knew already that the Son of God had died for them, that in His death He reconciled them to the Father. But it was seeing the bread broken in the hands of the one leading the communion service, it was seeing the red liquid, that caused Calvary’s bleeding sacrifice to become real to them. Then the ugly offense of spirit worship with its blasphemous counterfeit sacrifice became their greatest shame.

I had told the gospel stories and the parables of Christ. I had explained the picture charts and the flash cards, but it was the picture of communion about the broken bread and the cup that would get past ears that only wanted to be entertained and eyes that wanted to be charmed. The communion service was going to speak to hearts.

We were a pitiful and despised handful that made up the Maw Dta church family. But the testimony we had to give would not long be despised…..In the next few months, how God would surprise me, doing what I never anticipated at all.