Monthly Archives: January 2012

In His Presence

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So often in the Word of God we see the very clear picture of Jesus being among the people.  He intentionally walked among the people, He touched the leper and broke bread with the tax collector.  He walked,and we never see Him rushing to the next event or strategy meeting on how to finance or grow His ministry.  Christ spent His mornings alone with the Father and His days with the disciples, being in the presence of the hurting, the needy, and the afflicted.  As I walked the slums of Nairobi, it appeared to me that we could treat it much like the Safari’s. Most marvel at God’s creation, then go home to our lives, showing photographs to friends and/or posting them on Facebook.  When we see the poor or the orphan, we are not just to speak of their needs to others, for first they need Jesus and then they need us.

The Lord knew the most powerful way to disciple the 12 was not to leave them in a building trying to give them a whole new world perspective, but to demand that they follow Him into the world.  It is only when we follow Christ into the lives of others that we see do much of the depravity, especially of those with so little of the world, yet so much of Jesus.  Can you imagine the amazement of the disciples wonder when the widow’s mite was given and how it blessed Jesus?  So too we grow in Christ when we remove ourselves from communities of conformity and place ourselves among divergent and desperate people.  We will find the presence of God in the most unusual people, and ultimately realize an awakening of Christ in us. This past week, among some of the least of the world, I have been in the presence of my precious Savior.  In His presence is fullness of Joy!

Praying for people in San Antonio

Gwen Cornman serving in West Virginia

Making friends in the streets of Bonton South Dallas

Prayer walk in Bonton South Dallas

Being led to the Lord

Galati, Romania is not too far away

I Am Undone

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This last week has been one of the most sobering weeks of my life.  I  have never seen such poverty and at the same time such great faith. The city of Nairobi is filled with four million people with three million people in slums with no sanitation and very little clean water.  The average home is 10 by 12 feet with an average of five people.  The sewage runs openly in the dirt streets next to where they cook and sell their produce.  The filth and smell is unlike anything I have ever experienced.  HIV aids is growing and is claiming the lives of many innocent children every day and represents 6% of the population.  Yet in all of this hopelessness Jesus is more than enough.  The faith of so many of the Kenyan’s in these horrific conditions is humbling.  I must confess that I am undone by their Godliness and contentment.  We asked one of the ladies in one of the worst slums what her dream was for her life and her answer was,”to lead more people to God”. Her dream was not a home of her own or a small business or to get out of the slums, her dream is to be used by God to lead others to Jesus Christ.  We met a group in the slums organized by Feed The Children, who are doing an amazing job here in Africa, who meet weekly to pray for each other and encourage each other in their  battle with HIV aids.  They waited three hours to meet us and then greeted us with amazing worship singing abut the Goodness of God.  They represent counting it all joy more powerfully than any other group of people I have ever seen. We then met a precious lady called Mama Lucy  because of her love for the least and the children of the slums. I had heard her story from a minister friend seven years ago and was now in Nairobi because of her faith.  There’s only one bridge going in and out of the slums behind her house and thugs were raping women and stealing from them when they tried to cross.  She prayed and God told her she was to love her neighbor more than herself.  She began to minister to them and give them gifts and tell them that they needed to do good and not evil.  The leader of the gang told her he would kill her and thought she was crazy.  Then one of the gang was hurt badly and she paid for him to go to the hospital. They began to listen to her because of her unconditional love for them.  Eventually the leader of the Gang was beaten for breaking into someone’s home and taken to the morgue with two other thugs.  They were all thought to be dead.  The next morning he woke up and in essence “rose from the dead”.  His other two friends were dead.  He told us that over two hundred young men have been killed in these gangs in their slum. Mama Lucy was there to walk with him and when he left the hospital he surrendered his life to Christ.  That was seven years ago and daily he and Patrick and Fred have all left the streets and are now seeking to serve Jesus and their community.  Last year Mama Lucy’s son Victor who helps her run her school for the children was stabbed to death by some other thugs in the neighborhood and she suffered a stroke.  She is convinced that this was a test from the enemy to see if she would be faithful to God.  Her answer to the enemy was I trust my God has more work for me to do and may His will be done! I am undone by how much these precious people do for Jesus with so little.  They are truly great in faith.  Hebrew chapter 11 in heaven would say By faith Lucy continued to share the love of Christ with the very people who murdered her son. Pray for us as we continue to seek God’s will for our ministry in Nairobi Kenya.