If someone told me pre-race I would be spending most of my time in Kenya doing door to door ministry I probably would have made my appeal to Peace Corps instead.
We dress up nice with Bibles in one hand and Nalgenes in the other. I feel a little Mormon. People welcome us into their homes and we begin our presentation.
This stuff would have bugged the hell out of me in the states. I mean, even we get annoyed when someone comes door to door to marketing something at us. How dare they interrupt my football game on a Sunday afternoon. Don’t they know I have better things to do than hear about Christ today. Shoot I already know Christ. That’s what we are thinking right? Ok well that’s what I’m thinking.
And maybe that’s the first point I want to make. A lot of us ‘know about’ Christ, but do nothing with it. I felt a little burned having arrived in my first African country and being told our ministry would be door to door evangelism and some construction on the side. My original thoughts were we would arrive on the scene in Africa; ride ten hours into the bush where AIDS is rampant in the community; kids momentarily stop their game of futbol to come welcome the Mzungu’s (whitey’s) with sweaty palms ready for high fives and visible boogers around their noses. I just wanted to see some orphans with HIV to write about. Part of me was actually thinking that. How sad is that right?
I’m being pretty honest here.
I wanted to do ministry on my time and under my conditions.
I had a pre-conceived notion of what door to door ministry always looked like.
A slammed door.
So our team is doing feedback the other night. People are talking about how it’s hard to meet someone and jump right in with the question, “have you met Jesus?� Most of the time we would all prefer to build a relationship for which we could show the love of Jesus. I’m all for the relational, but we use it as a crutch to never actually having to mention His name.
A few of us that night were frustrated after our first day of door to doors. Where are all the orphanages? Jonathan Beckman spoke up about the door to door stuff that makes many of us so uncomfortable at times. He admitted it wasn’t his favorite and that there are other types of ministry he would prefer to do, but commented, “Isn’t this the whole point of the World Race, to share Jesus,� to be in the middle of the world and release the Kingdom? I mean we could hug all the HIV babies in the world at some orphanage and nothing would set us apart from the rest of the world.
It’s a different spiritual climate here. People are open to hearing truth. Spirits are present in Busia that keep people in bondage. People want to hear there is something life fulfilling that brings freedom. So people want Jesus.
We excuse ourselves out of evangelism by twisting scripture to say it’s only for the select few of us to share. You could love your best friend your whole life and have them never know Jesus. See lots of people love. Every major musician has sang about love. Love is a gift. The Beatles sang about “All You Need is Love.�
Wrong.
I will have my chance to go to orphanages, to see trafficking, to visit slums, to feel the brunt of poverty. And what will I do then? People don’t just need love.
People need Jesus.
