Step 1 : Margaret, the wife of the Pastor who is our contact here in Kenya, walks up to me one day while we were with the Maasai tribe and asks me “will you walk with me”. This was no ordinary question. Something about the tone of her voice and the look in her eye told me that we were going to walking down more then just a dirt road in Kenya. This was true. As we walk she began to paint a picture of her vision for an orphanage that they are beginning to build for orphans that they are already supporting. I saw my future in this place begin to unfold as God confirmed that this is my place this, is the work, and this are the people that He has created my heart to serve. And so I gave my word in that moment that I would return here next year and live in Kenya until the day Jesus told me to leave.
Step 2 : I’m sitting in Francis’s house a man who lives in the IDP camps. If you to hear all about Francis story you can read Chris Zamarriego blog. As this man is pouring his heart and telling us his story of losing everything that he owned, his father being killed, and temporarily losing one of his children I start to cry uncontrollably. I mean like the ugly cry that you only let your mom see, right there in the middle of this mans house… and in front of my team. It wasn’t because of the down right awful things that he and his family went through or where they were living now, but because of they way that he was rescued by Jesus during that time. He said,” I had nothing but the cloths on my back, but Jesus was there and He brought my family back to me. It was then that I saw God”. He got it and it touched me to the core. Jesus is the only thing that lasts. When everything else is gone and life is a mess Jesus was there. I was struck with pure love for Jesus and how beautiful He is, and how I would do anything for Him. Francis went on to tell us about the people God put in his life to help him and get him and his family back up on their feet. It was in that moment that Jesus spoke to me about how He is going to use me to show people in this place who He is. And so I gave my heart to Kenya for Jesus.
