I spent the month of August in a small town in Kenya called Kaptagat with our ministry host David Cheromei, founder of Grace Family Education Center, a center for orphans where children are educated in school as well as given a home to live in and are cared for. We spent the month at this ministry site working with the children as well as visiting surrounding isolated tribes and sharing the love of Jesus with the people we encountered. I wanted to share a story about a really cool divine encounter that my friend Michael and I had on a walk we took, one of the first days we were there.
While Michael and I were just walking and talking, we were approached by a man who you could literally smell from all the way down the road. This man was stumbling all over the place and slurring his words and it was very obvious that he was very drunk. He had a line of urine trailing down his pants. He began talking to us and we said a few words to him and began walking away and he started following us. He kept trying to talk to us and telling us that he loved us in very slurred speech. We tried to invite him to the church and say goodbye several times, but he wouldn’t stop following us. It got to the point where we just stopped trying to continue our conversation and stopped in the middle of the road and prayed for him. As we were praying, he passed out on the road. All we could do is continue praying. After a few minutes, he was up again and we told him he needed to get help, so we took him to our host David. David invited him to church and also told him about a recovery program he was starting for people who have fallen into alcohol addiction.
The next time we saw Wilson, he was sober and we had crossed paths again walking through the town. He invited us to his house and told us and invited us to tea and he shared part of his story with us. He shared his story about how he had a job as a security guard in Nairobi, but when the economy got rough, he got laid off. After getting laid off, he became depressed because he had a wife and two daughters, but could not take care of them. They were so precious and I couldn’t help but think about how his alcohol addiction was destroying his family. He said that he wanted help and wanted to gain freedom from his addiction. We got to share a little bit about how Jesus brought us freedom from addiction and how he too could have the same freedom. That Sunday, he came to church for the first time and dedicated his life to Christ. He began an alcohol recovery program and he thanked us for taking the time to stop and love him.
To be honest, I am not sure where he is at with his alcohol consumption at this point. He could have fallen back into his old ways, however, I do know that I have seen God give complete freedom from addiction before and I have faith that this is what God has planned for Wilson. God does nothing by mistake. The people he puts in your life and the “random encounters” you have everyday have purpose in God’s design. Your alcoholic loved one is one divine encounter away from recovery. Because this is all it takes. All it takes is a taste of the never ending goodness of God, a taste of his love and one encounter with him and your life changes forever. Wilson’s situation gives me hope. It gives me hope for my friends who won’t submit to God because they don’t want to let go of their addiction. It gives me hope to believe God for what seems impossible, the divine courage to believe God for a miracle even when it seems like things will always be this way.
