I’ve had many laughs while reading blogs or hearing about people in Africa
Who only had five minutes to prepare for a two hour sermon.
How is that even possible?
Well tonight I laughed at myself.
No, I'm not in Africa anymore
but I sure had my Africa moment.
We will be going to a birthday celebration tomorrow night.
That sounds cool. What do they do at birthday celebrations?
There will be songs and the gospel will be preached and then the birthday boy will cut the cake.
So it’s pretty much like church?
Yes, it’s like a service.
Ok so do we need to preach on anything special?
No, just preach the gospel.
This was the dialect between the pastor and our team the night before the celebration.
It was the day of the birthday celebration and it was my turn to speak for the night.
I had about four hours during the afternoon to write out a sermon.
However, I instead got henna and skyped with dad.
Somewhere in between I decided I would speak on being a servant based on John 13.
We arrived to the house for the birthday celebration
and the pastor asked who would be giving the birthday blessing.
Wait blessings?
What happened to preaching the gospel?
How am I supposed to preach on a boy’s birthday?
We all quickly realized the sermon I had prepared was not going to work.
Time for an audible.
Ok, three songs to decide what to speak on.
And go!
So I prayed.
God just use me.
Say whatever you want through me.
He reminded me of a sticky note in my Bible that had Genesis 1:27 and Psalm 139 written on it.
And then he pointed out Ephesians 2:10 and Galatians 1:15 to me.
I quickly made my sermon notes.
I was ready to go.
Whatever happened, would happen.
May God receive the glory.
I began speaking and got to one part where I began to talk about the sand at the beach
And I realized this was a fresh thought in my head.
None of what I was saying had ever crossed my mind before.
I had no clue what was coming from my mouth.
Clearly God was just using me to speak to his people.
I got to the end and could only shake my head in bewilderment.
God you are so faithful.
Thank you for using me.
