ECAN Hope For All Conference

          Today, we are finishing up pretty big conference. We were able to bring in around 300 orphans from all over west Kenya to gather for the past few days at our school in Eldoret, over the week long break. This was something that I've been planning on doing since I began planning my trip here, and when the children first arrived it was pretty much what I had expected. That was until, the power went out in normal Kenyan fashion. I found myself in the middle of a thunderstorm (being the rainy season), with all of these kids, who are being supported by people back home, singing Kiswhahilli songs in a pitch black room praising God. Talk about an amazing experience. These are the places that I have begun to feel our Lord's presence the most. Not in the middle of a sermon, or in hardcore devotional, but in these simple places. These easy to find places where I'm getting to see what He's doing for these children, and how these children can take anything that happens and find some kind of hope in it. "Oh the power went out, well I guess that just means that our eyes won't hurt as much when we finally open our eyes after worship." That's what these children see. Maybe I need to start striving to be like the children that I try to teach.

That Time I Went to Africa

           Today I started a trip that I've been wanting to take for a long time. I am currently on the Horne of Africa, in Turkana. Turkana right in the middle of the worst drought in the current world, and possibly of all time. So we leave this morning at "exactly five in the morning", which really meant that we left around 10 A.M. The first of our trouble started right after we entered Turkana county. The brakes went out. We coasted to a stop and started investigating. The rough roads were knocking us around so badly that it actually cut our brake line. No big deal right? We continue on, making sure that we are traveling slow enough that we can gear down and coast to a stop pretty quickly. So my friends in the car are talking in Kalinjin, so I am kind of zoned out. I kept thinking that I was hearing a flapping noise, but I ignored it as road noise. The flapping continued so I told the driver to pull over again. Problem number two, we had a blow out. The road was actually so rough that we didn't even notice for roughly a quarter mile. Well this is no big deal. I tend to be pretty rough on tires myself and am no stranger to changing a tire. I had even changed one in Africa before. I grab the tool to lower the spare and get to work. Problem number three, the tool that came with the pickup to lower the spare wasn't strong enough to even budge the tire. So at this point in our journey, we are stuck in the middle of the desert, with the nearest town roughly two hours driving time away. Now something that I've been working on pretty hard, lately, is my patience. Honestly at this point, I was getting more than a little upset. Then my friend told me, "Jake, now you have come to Africa, and you are now a missionary." I busted out laughing. It seemed that with one sentence, all of the stress flew out the window. That's when I sat down and just started taking everything in. This is Africa, and I am a missionary. Almost nothing is going to happen perfectly here. In fact, pretty much anything that I will get accomplished is going to be a result of starting out with a really good plan, then throwing that away and improvising until it's finished. Once I realized how absolutely helpless I am, and also knowing that it's perfectly fine that way, I got to see that God is taking care of me. We were sitting there and I looked toward the sun.

 

          I know that it might be kind of corny to say I felt God's presence in a sunset, but I'm a fan of a good sunset. To me it was just my Father telling me that he is going to test me to make sure that I can completely rely on him. So that's what I did. We sat there for a few hours joking around and just taking in the beautiful desert. Finaly a World Vision vehicle drove by and let us borrow their tools. We got back on the road and made it to the nearest town, Loki-something (I can't remember).

          So, now I was a little upset that we didn't make it to Lodwar, problem number four. Then one of the most amazing things ever happened. It rained. Now to be fair, this part of Turkana does get some rain from time to time, the drought is not over or anything like that. Also, it only sprinkled a very small amount for about 30 seconds, but I got to experience rain in Turkana. It probably had no effect on the land here, and it sure didn't give any drinking water, I think that those few drops of water were meant for me. Call it reassurance, or a sign, or whatever, but I know that I'm gonna remember that small amount of water for the rest of my life.



Answers

         To the man who says, "God doesn't listen", I would say, "Hang on a minute". Maybe He doesn't give a yes or no answer, maybe He doesn't give you exactly what you want, and maybe He doesn't even answer the question that you asked. He does answer though. I saw something the other day that said, "If you keep waiting for God to answer you, maybe you should stop only listening for 'yes'." Recently, I've been asking for answers and kept getting nothing. Honestly, I was asking for selfish things that are back home, but they were things that I felt were important. Most people will agree with me that when you are asking for something that seems important to you, and you feel that God isn't answering you, it can be frustrating. I was frustrated. James tells us to "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." (James 1:2-5). I've been ignoring James the past few days. I had absolutely no joy. I kept praying and asking for these things, and was wondering why I was getting no answer. Then God answered. He didn't say "yes" or "no". He didn't not even give me an answer for what I had been praying for. He one upped me. Today God gave Suzy Peacock clean water that has no disease in it. Today God gave us food that we can take to Turkana, Mt. Elgon, and many other places. Today God gave our high school an electronic library that we've been working on for months. In a way I feel that the Lord did answer me. He said, "Come on man. You've got a lot of more important things to do. What would you rather have? Food, water, and education for these kids, or your selfish stuff?" Basically, I was only listening for the answer that I wanted, so God showed me something that I couldn't ignore. Jesus tells us, "Ask and you shall receive" (Luke 11:10). Notice, He doesn't say, "Ask and you shall get whatever you want. I hear that new F-150 is looking pretty good." Now I'm not saying that God won't give us the things that we want. I'm not even saying that we shouldn't ask for these things, but I do believe that we have to have an understand that we might not always get the answer that we want.

Preaching

          Today, I tried something completely new to me. I preached. I have never given a whole sermon to a congregation before, and I was a little nervious. I wasn't nervious about speaking in front of people, that has never been a problem for me. I was worried that my message might be ignored or misunderstood. I ran into a little trouble when I was trying to find a topic to preach on. There are so many points that I could cover in the bible and I felt a little overwhelmed. Then I realized that maybe this sermon wasn't just for the people in the congregation. I am young and always learning more about Christianity, so why not pick a topic that I struggle with and is important to Christians around the world? I chose to go with leaving sin, and judgement of others. I believe that it is a common misconception that if we are baptised, go to church, and ask for forgiveness of our sins that we can continue to live our lives whatever way we want from Sunday afternoon to Saturday night. This is simply not true. Paul asked the question, "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?". The answer is no. As Christians we are called to leave our earthly posession, and that includes sin. Now we are human, so we will sin in some ways, but that doesn't mean that we don't strive to keep ourselves as pure as possible. I am in no way an example of this, though. There are some sins that we would prefer to not have to leave and just have God's grace cover us. In the same way that I'm sure that Jesus probably would have preferred that we would have just obeyed our Lord's will. Instead he left his heavanly home, lived a perfect human life (inspite of Satan's temptation, the same temptation that we face), and died for our shortcomings. So, with such an amazing gift shouldn't we at least give it our best effort to deserve it, even though we could never reach it on our own?
           Now on to my next topic. If Jesus died so that every sinner in this world could have the chance for salvation, and we are called to strive to be like Jesus, how can we say that one person is beyond saving? Ezekiel tells us that if we see someone who is living a life of sin, and we don't try to reach that person, then their blood is on our hands. That's our responsibility as believers. One example that I like to use is homosexuality. It's a very controversial topic, but when you look at it biblically, it's very clear as to our responsibility. Simply, we are called to love everybody. We don't have to like what they do, or even like the person, but WE ARE CALLED TO LOVE THEM. Jesus doesn't say love them, unless they are gay or jewish or mean or anything like that. He just says love them like I love them. In Roman's, Paul talks about how bad the sin is in Rome. The very next chapter he tells us that if we judge people, the Lord will surely judge us. None of us are pure, therefore none of us can judge. On top of that, we are told that sin is sin. If you tell a lie to your friends, then you have sinned. If you commit murder, then you have sinned. If sleep around, then you have sinned. None are greater than the other, with the exception of blastphemy against the Lord. The dictionary definition of blastphemy is to claim the Lord's powers for oneself. Judgement is the Lord's power, and the Lord's power only. So, my personal interpretation is that when you judge someone, and say that their sins are too bad and you don't need to try to minister through love to them, it is blastphemy. Now that might be a very literal, and extreme interpretation of it, but to me it scares me. It scares me because I know that I have judged people. For example, an alcoholic in the street here. There are times that I don't want to talk to that person because I know that they will just ask me to buy them alcohol. Why not take the time to do what I am called to do and at least invite them to sunday service? How about an American example. Everybody has seen that man under the overpass with a sign that say something that you cant read because it's too small. You know that he is asking for money, and usually you make up a reason to ignore that person. "He'll just spend the money on beer", or, "He could be dangerous", or "Why doesn't he just go get a job? I have a job and work hard for my money.". Why don't we just take ten minutes out of our day to give him a ride to subway and buy him a five dollar meal, then before you go, tell him that we are Christiams and invite him to church? I don't think that it means that you succeeded or failed if he shows up on Sunday or not. I think that just by extending the offer, you have done exactly what Jesus calls us to do.

Alfrine

          About a week ago, I met a child in a small rural community called Samabul. His name was Alfrine Kipllangat, and he had a birth defect called cleft pallate. I would be lying if I said that when I first saw him I picked him up and played with him and kissed him like I would with any other baby here. I'm completely ashamed to admit that when I first saw him, my stomach knotted up. I have never actually seen a child with a cleft pallate before, and it broke my heart. I told the parent's that I might be able to help their child, and got their permission. When I went home that night, I was pretty mad at myself. The only contact I had with the child came when I shook his mother's hand and my hand brushed his arm. That is completely out of character for me. Usually, I have a sea of children around me who I am hugging and wrestling and playing with. I know that because of that, there was no way that I could ignore this child. I had all of the arrangements made at the hospital, and was assured that if we bring the baby in the morning, he would have his surgery that day. They showed up the next day and we waited for the doctor to come. He showed up around five hours later. We spoke with him and another doctor, and they both cleared him for surgery. When I asked what time the surgery would be, the doctor said that we would have to do it the next day, because it was too late in the day to set up a surgery. I kindly pointed out that we showed up at the time that we were supposed to and had been promised that we would be able to have the surgery that day. I was upset because Samabul is an hour and a half from Eldoret and it was expensive for the family to make the trip. The doctor basically said not my problem. I once again kindly pointed out that it was because he was the one that we had been waiting on. Not my problem was once again the response. We showed up the next day as early as we could. We waited for 12 hours before Alfrine finally had his surgery. This time I was not so kind. There was one point where he had went without feeding for about eight hours, and was becoming dehydrated. When he was coming out of surgery, I was planning on pulling the doctor aside and giving him a piece of my mind. Then I saw something amazing. Alfrine's mother came out of the surgical theatre, with the one of the biggest smiles I've ever seen. She was carrying her son who was barely coming our of anesthesia. I saw a father who had been waiting nervously, see his son. They were both just sitting there staring at him. I saw Alfrine, and understood why. Every feeling of anger before vanished completely. They were replaced with the knoweledge of the fact that my agenda means absolutely nothing. God is going to do his work on his time, whether I want it faster or not. All that mattered to me at that point was seeing what God had done with Alfrene, and it was great. I honestly belive that there are times when God is laughing as he watches me run around becoming more and more upset that things are moving to the way I believe they should. Then right when I am about to break he shows me his power, and it just blows me away.

God's Pretty Awesome

So a while back I posted about a guy who asked me for money for medicine, and I told him no, then yes. To be honest, I was praying that he would use it to buy his medicine and food, but I was thinking that he was probably just going to spend it on alcohol. Well today I went back to the store that I first met the guy at. As I was walking in the gate, I saw the man, and from my point of view it looked like he was just sitting in one spot begging. I started to round the corner to go talk to him and see what he had actually used the money on. When I came around I saw that he was shining shoes. When he saw me, he jumped up and ran over to me. Now I don't speak much Swahili and he didn't speak hardly any English, but I had gathered that he used the money to buy a shoe shining kit. Now he has a job, looks a whole lot healthier than he did when I first saw him, and he has gotten the medicine that he needed. I'm not going to lie, I honestly gave him money out of guilt, and then selfishly I was worried about what he was going to do with the money that I think I still considered "mine" (even though nothing is mine in this world). God, very unselfishly, said, "That's ok, Jake. Let Me show you something amazing." I went home today with joy in my heart, not because I had done anything great, but I think that today God revealed to me a little, tiny bit of how awesome He is.

Time

          So I've been in Kenya for a week now. I have enjoyed every minute and every second of being here. I am seeing things that hurt, and I would definitely say that I am living in a hard place. There are children who are starving, old people who are sick, and just people who are hurting. In the midst of all of this I believe that I'm thriving. A child comes up to me on the street saying he is hungry and I give him some food. For years I have heard stories about people doing that and I believe that I might have become a little used to hearing things like that and it didn't seem special, but now I get to see the look on that kids face when he has a plate full of food in front of him then he get to take some more back home to his brothers and sisters. That is more fulfilling than anything that I have done in my life.
         In the middle of all of this I am still finding myself struggling with something. Time. I have always seen time as something that I had plenty of and never had to fight with. I you've ever been to Eastern Africa then you might know the expression, "Americans have watches, Africans have time". Basically it means that almost nothing works on a schedule here. I'll give an example. I was preparing to leave for a few days to go travel with Larry Wu and a few other people to see a few different programs in western Kenya. I was at the high school, Suzy Peacock, where I am doing a lot of work, when I came across a girl who was having a hard time walking. The caretaker for the girls and I took her aside and asked her what was wrong. She showed us her foot and found that she had a horrible infection. Her foot was incredibly swollen and feverish, as was she. It made my stomach turn. She was being very brave about it, but I could tell that she was in a lot of pain and wasn't feeling well. She had been to the doctor who had given her some medicine which was pretty much some homemade Advil. I knew that I could get some antibiotic for her in town fairly quickly. I started calling Francis and the other man who had a vehicle and was trying to get them to come pick me up to get the medice. I kept getting the response, "I'm headed that way". By the time someone actually got there, it was about 7:30 and all of the drug stores were closed. The next day I had to leave for Bungoma, and didn't get to see that girl for a while, but I sure did have here on my mind and in my prayers the entire time I was gone. When I returned one of the first things I did was to go and check on her. She was doing so much better. The swelling had gone down a lot, her fever was gone and she wasn't in as much pain.
          "African time" can be very frustrating, but I think that it's a chance for me to grow also. It is telling me that everything doesn't always have to happen on schedule. The lesson that I am learning is that God's schedule is a million times more important than mine or anybody else's and no matter what I do or am able to do His will is always going to prevail. Oh, and a little prayer never hurts.