Going to Kenya!!!

In about a month I will be heading to Kenya again for my third church planting trip. I want to let you know how God hooked me into this.

Looking back, I can see God began working on me a long time ago. When I was eight years old (by my closest estimation), I can distinctly remember standing in a pew in the back of Calvary Baptist Church in Rosenberg, Texas during an alter call with my family. At that time, I do not believe I was a Christian, though I had been in and around the church all my life. I can remember, as best I know how to describe it, God compelling or urging to go down to the front of the church to talk with the pastor about Jesus. Fear paralyzed me. Not fear of the pastor or of what people would think, but fear that God would make me a pastor or missionary. I wanted NO part of that, so I stubbornly refused and stayed put.

Fast forward to my college years. I am now a believer in Jesus Christ. Through divine appointment, God connected me with some radically passionate believers and I begin to experience the realities of the things I’ve learned about in the scriptures. The only way I know how to describe it is that Jesus came alive to me. The scriptures jumped of the pages like 3-D. I could really sense God began talking to me at that time and I felt like a bubble that would burst at any moment. I couldn’t keep all the cool stuff God was showing me in. I had to let it out! God really began giving me a passion for sharing both Jesus and His word with other people. This was a dramatic shift in my life beginning to take place.

If I wasn’t a believer, I’d preface this statement with “I don’t know why, but …”; however, I do know why. Since I was a little kid, I’ve always felt compassion for the people of Africa. Now, God has united that compassion for people with a passion for Jesus along with an opportunity to go to Africa for the third time.

On July 4-16, I will be joining a team of people headed for a small village outside of Kitale, Kenya to plant a church. A church building has already been built. A pastor has been trained. People are praying, both stateside and in Kenya for this church that is about to be birthed. We will go mud hut to mud hut, alongside interpreters, to share the great news about Jesus – that we can be made right with God by believing that Jesus took our guilt and punishment upon Himself by dying in our stead. We will also go to schools, prisons, and marketplaces sharing testimonies of how God has impacted our lives. There will be large open-air crusades in marketplaces. They will setup a stage and PA system. Some Kenyans will sing and play music for a long time, gathering a large crowd. Then, several from our team will share testimonies and one of us will get to share the gospel.

I had an opportunity to do this in 2005 and it was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. For the first time in my life, I could literally hear God speaking to me as I was talking to people. I was looking out at a sea of faces of over a thousand people and was just filled with God’s compassion for people. At the end, we saw both young and old people come to know Jesus.

God is absolutely amazing and can use anyone to accomplish His work … even a person like me that stubbornly vowed to never ever be a missionary!!!