| |  I am back from Kenya. Back to the routines of life. Yet, somehow I am different. I want to live in the memory of what I discovered. I want to be different. Live different. Never forget. Time keeps moving, fresh experiences take over new days. I keep struggling to hold onto it. God did awesome things in Kenya.
We arrived in the village of Soy to the new, empty church building. It was built by local men who were very proud of their work. They happily told me they would be attending regularly! After worshipping with men and women from Uganda, who met us there to share in the mission, I set off with my translator on a path through a field of enormous corn stalks! Though I cannot see them from the trail, there are red-mud huts scattered through out the giant corn stalks. Some squarely shaped, like houses with tin roofs, others round with thatch roofs. I would have never known this is a main path from many huts to the village shopping area. Don't visualize a plaza or mall, but an area of small plywood structures, fresh potatoes, onions, hanging whole portions of meat, occasional live goats, cows and sheep.
As my translator, Timothy and I, walked the trail, I found myself scared! I confessed to Timothy my fears, who asked, "is this your first time to Africa?" In humble fear and trembling, I answered, "yes." He wanted to know if I had shared the gospel before. Sigh... When I told him I hadn't shared the gospel this way, never went out into the community sharing with people, he didn't understand. I explained I liked to share the gospel with people after
I had gotten to know them, developed a relationship. He didn't understand why I would hold back this priceless message, but said, " It is ok, you will feel better after the first time." We stopped on the trail and prayed.
Timothy led me to our first home. A man without shoes, wearing tattered clothing stood with a small tree branch in his hand, keeping a cow from eating the surrounding corn. After an introduction, I shared the message, shared
from the Bible what Jesus has done for us and offered that gift to him. He told us how he struggled with drugs and alcohol and couldn't stop. My heart flooded with emotion. I told him I felt certain God sent me to talk with him! The first person I talked to, hand picked by God. We shared something, we were the same. Stuck in our sin, trapped, not able to see the way out. I shared my story, my bondage to drugs and alcohol. Before trusting Jesus I couldn't stop. When I trusted in his death on the cross, his death to pay my penalty, asked him to help me live for him, I never did drugs again! I told him if God could change me, God is able to change him too. I asked him if anything was keeping him from trusting in Jesus today. He tearfully responded, no. He prayed with us, recognizing his need for the Savior, Jesus.
God prepared our meeting for both our benefit. I left our encounter with monumental confidence in the Lord's ability to do what he had planned for my part in the mission, he left with a new life ... Eternal life!
 A shoppong area in one of the larger city areas. It is similar to the one in the village. |
| | Posted 8/24/2007 4:00 PM - 11 Views - 4 eProps - 3 comments
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