“And so we came to Rome.” -Acts 28:14b
To me, that short verse is the culmination and the whole point of the Book of Acts. Paul has just spent roughly the last 15 chapters having everything in his life go wrong. He starts off his Christian walk with a bang, when Christ appears and causes Paul to go blind. His luck doesn’t really pick up, as he almost gets stoned shortly after in Chapter 14. (The crazy thing is once Paul gets stoned, he gets up and goes back into the city where he was just stoned! WHAT!?!)
He goes on to disagree with his best friend, Barnabas, and then winds up in prison several times. His life pretty much sucks the big one. But he keeps going. Why? Because God told him he was going to Rome. God promises him Rome.
In Chapter 27, Paul finally sets sail for this elusive city. As a reader, you get excited for him, thinking, “It’s about time!” But then things get really crazy. He sails through a storm, his ship sinks, he gets bitten by a poisonous snake, and gets accused of being a murderer. But after 3 months, he gets on another ship headed for his promised land.
And so he came to Rome.
A year ago, God promised me I would go to Africa. I didn’t know why or where or when; I just knew He had promised. I thought this meant I should move there as soon as possible, so I tried many many different organizations and programs where I would live and work in the Dark Continent. But none of them panned out; everything kept falling through at the last possible moment, often in weird ways. By late September, I was at the end of my rope. I was frustrated and was ultimately like, “Fine, God. Whatever. You told me I was going to Africa. Fine. I’ll go however You want me to go, but I’m over trying. It’s Your responsibility to get me there.” I’m sure God smiled at me in this moment when I finally surrendered to His plans for me.
Almost 8 months later, I touched down in Nairobi, Kenya. I can’t even begin to explain to you what I felt. By the time I had physically walked outside the airport, I had already wept, sung, danced, hyperventilated, and thought I was going to vomit. No lie.
So clearly, I’m excited to see what God has in store for me here. Even more so because this month I was called to step up as a new Team Leader. Now, I don’t know what God will actually do here. Maybe nothing. Maybe He brought me here just to show me that He is oh-so-faithful. Or to remind me that all things really are possible through Him. I don’t know. I just know that God fulfilled His promise to me. I just know that God is incredible. I just know that I love Him even more for giving me this gift.
