Originally written on 7.7.13
In Kenya, where my name is pronounced “Auntie,” churches abound. There is a church every few feet and on Sundays you can hear the resounding boom of a sermon and enthusiastic handclapping all around you like a warm hug. Churches abound, but so does poverty. Poverty is everywhere here. We walked down a long dirt road to church. Children played with sticks and stones while their mothers, often carrying babies on their backs, went about the morning’s chores. The house where my team is staying this month might not have a working faucet, but we have a fancy squatty potty and electricity for a few moments in the evenings if the wind isn’t too strong or if the generator doesn’t decide to break. [Update: our neighbor has graciously let us hook into his line to share electricity. So now if it’s not raining too hard outside, we have lights!]
It genuinely amazes me how, in the midst of owning nothing, the people of Moi’s Bridge find delight, disciple, passion, and purpose in the Person of Jesus Christ. The conviction I have seen solely within the last two days is enough to make me question my own commitment to the Lord. Am I really committed? If I were in the same situation would I react in the same way- with hope and trust and faith in the Lord to get me through? And if struggles and suffering remain would I continue to praise Him and find delight in His Name?
I have a feeling that these next three months of immersion in this culture of praising the Lord “all the time” is going to change the very fabric of my nature and my relationship with my Savior. “God inhabits the praises of His people,” so when we praise Him in the storm, He comes and stills the storm. But not every storm in our lives is commanded to be still- and when this happens we, like Peter, simply reach out and take the outstretched hand of Jesus- and He will walk with you over the storm.
A few highlights of that first church service:
"Anointing is power; it ushers you into authority.”
“Speak greater things for your family. Decree and declare.”
“Live long to see your labor increase and multiply! Live long to worship the Lord and do His will! When you open your mouth, Christian, words of life come out… and multiply!
“When you walk with someone with eternal life, it magnifies your power. LIFE visits you and death cannot win!”
Yes. Yes, I believe I’m going to leave Africa deeply, deeply changed.
Bwana Asifiwe.
