I’m sorry I haven’t blogged in a while, but I have a great story to tell.
This month is something we like to call manistry. It’s a whole month where all the men on my squad become a team and we live and do ministry together for a month. Get it? MANistry. Sorry, I love puns.
Anyways, this month we have been working and living in a preschool that is set up to give free education to children in the surrounding village. All of the little kids come and we teach them english and then they also get a free lunch. A lot of these kids are malnourished, so that lunch is most of the times the most the will have to eat for the day.
It’s a really cool ministry that our host has set up. The other days we go to surrounding towns and hold soccer games and afterwards we will give the gospel. We also have movie nights at the preschool where we set up this HUGE projector and show the Jesus Film…or X-Men:P
That is cool and all but I want to tell the story of how all that came to be. None of it would’ve been possible without Jarvis Msonda.
Jarvis grew up in Malawi but went to college in South Africa to be a pastor. He learned English there and felt that God was calling him to be a missionary. After returning home, some of his friends organized a missions trip to Zambia, which is a neighboring country. They were going from village to village spreading the gospel when Jarvis saw something that he would never forget.
He saw something tied to a tree and it terrified him. He couldn’t tell what it was from how far away he was, but he didn’t want to get close enough to find out. So he turned around and started to quickly walk away.
That was when God told him to go back. It didn’t makes sense and there was no way for Jarvis to know this, but his decision to obey or not would change his life forever.So Jarvis turned around and hesitantly walked back to the tree. What he saw shocked him more than it scared him.
There was a little boy tied to the tree.
The boy was not recognizable as a human that’s how unhealthy and malnourished he was. Jarvis was outraged and asked around to find out what was going on and why this was allowed to be going on, but everyone would run into their house and lock the door.
He nearly broke down someones door to finally get the truth. The boys parents had died two years ago and the boy was left alone with no family or anyone to rely on. He would break down and get angry or start crying and talk to himself. The villagers took this as a sign that he was talking with the spirits of his dead parents and that he was being used by demons, so they tied him to a tree.
The boy had been chained to a tree for two years. Two years.
They would throw scraps of food to him and give him some water to keep him alive. He was 18 years old but his body had degenerated to that of an 8 year old. He couldn’t walk or talk. All he would do was kind of mutter and then have an emotional outburst.
Jarvis got the police from a nearby town and freed the kid, but someone had to take care of him. Jarvis and his friends who were with him had the boy committed to a mental institution, which was supposed to help.
Jarvis came back a few months later to check on him and found him chained to the bed. So Jarvis decided to take matters into his own hands and take care of the boy himself. Jarvis went through all the trouble and paperwork to adopt the boy and he took him home! That sounds awesome, and it is, but Jarvis was just a single guy right out of seminary, and now he had a kid with serious special needs to take care of. Jarvis knew that God had a plan for his life, but never would have imagined that it would look quite like that.
Jarvis spent the next two years taking care of the boy. He pretty much didn’t leave the house for those two years because the boy required constant attention. But the boy made progress. He got to the point where he could walk. Very slowly, but he could walk. He could talk a little and he could even feed himself.
Everyone in the village knew about Jarvis’ situation and how hard it was and they did there best to help. They would have bible studies and worship nights at his house so that he could participate and so many other things.
The boy became a blessing to the community. They said that they would always remember the boys smile. He brought so much joy to so many people. The boy passed away in his sleep two years after getting adopted. After living a life filled with so much suffering, an obedient man was able to share with him what life could be like when it is full of love and compassion.
Jarvis is an evangelist and goes from village to village training up people to be leaders and to make a difference, and so we would come along too. He does not enjoy telling this story, and he tears up as he tells it every time. But that is why I wanted to tell this story, to shine a light on what it really means to be a leader.
Leadership is all about influence. Everything we do or so influences people whether we realize it or not. Every decision we make has repercussions that we really can’t imagine, and it’s a leader who realizes that there is no such thing as a small decision. Small decisions lead to big decisions, and it’s our big decisions that tend to define us.
Imagine if Jarvis would not have turned around after his encounter with the boy. He would never have met the boy who brought so much joy to his life. The boy would have passed away chained to a tree, never knowing love or Jesus. Jarvis never would have been inspired by that boy to start his ministry that ministers to little children and keeps them healthy. He never would have realized his gift for evangelism. We would never have come to stay with him or even heard him teach about leadership. And you would not be reading this blog right now. All of that stems from a seemingly insignificant decision…and we make those every single day.
Everything you do or say is important! It’s all about influence. And as Christians we are all called to be leaders. ALL OF US. We all have so much influence. If you have seen It’s A Wonderful Life, then you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t seen that movie, then put down whatever you are reading this on and go watch it! A leader is someone who realizes that, and a good leader is someone who uses that influence to point people to something important, to inspire people to care as much as they do and to give everything they have for that thing. And I for one cannot think of pointing anyone to anything more important than Jesus, the giver of life and of life, who calls us to follow Him by leading others to him.
I hope that people can find Jarvis’ story encouraging, and that they would be even more encouraged by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and what he has done for them. Next time God invites you to follow him, and you don’t know why or how, it might even look scary and be very inconvenient, I suggest you listen. You probably won’t end up with eleven missionary guys on your front doorstep, but I know you will do something incredible:)
