We travelled for four
days to get to Monkey Bay from Nelspruit, and it was no picnic, but we are
getting more and more accustomed to the type of travel. Our first full day here
was a beautiful one. The house is gorgeous, with Lake Malawi and the beach in
the front yard, and the bay all around. The morning was spent sleeping,
reading, praying, and enjoying the scenery. We met briefly to talk about how
awesome this place is, how great our Chilean contacts Jose and Nara are, and
heard some short words from Pastor Stephen. We prayed for our time here and for
Lindsey and Dave, as it was their anniversary.
Over
lunch Benny, Chris, Holli, and I got to hear Jose’s story. What an unbelievable
story. Emotionally abused by his father growing up (his sisters are blonde
haired blue eyed and he is dark haired dark eyed, and his father claimed the
Jose wasn’t his son), sexually abused by a relative at a young age, didn’t
finish secondary school, wanted to kill those who abused him, joined the army,
got in trouble with his superior, shot himself (missing half of his index
finger on his right hand), ended up in jail for a while. His mother, who was
basically the only one who loved him, committed suicide. The priest at the
catholic church wouldn’t do the funeral service because he said that she was
already in hell. After that he hated God and hated the church, and all he
wanted to do was “join his mother in hell.” He was on the street,
fought in the street, and used hard drugs. He was known as the “king of
the street.” He did this for a while, then one day he decided he’d had
enough of his life.
He went to the highway in his town, and
decided to jump in front of a truck. He was standing in the median sort of
thing, and remembered God right then. He said, if you are real, show me, save
me. He didn’t feel anything or hear anything. He waited for cars to come for
ten minutes, but the highway was empty, which was highly unusual (later he
would recognize this as a miracle and God saving him). The next day a girl
friend of his took him to church, where everyone there immediately separated
themsevles from him, because of his bad reputation. He wanted to feel God, and
for it all to be real, so sat down and bowed his head, then got on his knees.
He said, “Here I am God, humbling myself on my knees, please.” Then
he got down on the floor and laid face down, and not long after was overcome
and simply wept for a long long time.
That day he gave his life to Jesus, and
began carrying a Bible around, reading it all the time, and letting people know
they needed to come clean and follow Jesus. When the guys on the street saw him
with his Bible under his arm they started calling him the “queen of the
street,” instead of the king, but as he puts it, there is only one king
anyway. Jose didn’t finish high school, and didn’t go to college, but he saw a
company’s ad in the paper one day and felt God telling him to apply for their
engineering job. He said to God, “No man, you are crazy, I don’t have any
engineering experience,” but he went in and applied anyway, with the man
behind the desk laughing at him as he handed in his resume. Jose simply asked
him if he could take the test, the guy agreed and not long after Jose got a
call from the president of the company offering him the job.
He worked that job for years, and has walked
with God even longer. Even when God called him to Malawi and he and his wife
had to get a map out to find which continent it was in. Even when God told him
that instead of selling his house, he was supposed to give it away and leave
for South Africa with only two suitcases and barely any money. Even when he had
to get from South Africa from Malawi, had no way of doing it, and had no place
to live in Monkey Bay. God is faithful and provided them with a free car, and a
free camper which they lived in for seven months. They still have the camper
but live in a house on the beach now, which they get to live in for free. It
was rundown when they moved in and the owner said all they had to do was fix it
up and they could stay as long as they liked. There is so much more to this
story, but I simply don’t have time to tell it right now. Hearing Jose’s story,
getting to know him and his wife, and watching them live has encouraged me to
follow the Lord, even if it seems crazy. I hope I can take this to heart and
really live it.
