Well I have been traveling the
world now for 165 days and my world race experience has defiantly been life
changing in many ways although I would have to say it has not been as much life
“changing” as life “effecting.” Changing would imply that I had a plan and that
it is now different and that is not entirely accurate. I honestly had no plan
past going on this trip and seeing what God had for me in it and after it. I
believe that I am learning a little more about what Paul was writing about in
Philippians when he spoke of having discovered the secret of living with plenty
and in want. In fact I got to preach here in Kenya last Sunday and I spoke about
this. The secret is to live pursuing God and His kingdom and righteousness and
have no plan or agenda beyond that. Here is what I have found to happen when
you live this way, all things get added unto you and He gives you the desires
of your heart. My desire to travel the world has been given to me as I have
gotten to set foot in 19 foreign countries in my life so far, 17 of them on the
race, with at least 5 more on the immediate agenda. My desire for relationships
has been met in the great friends I have here on the race, in the countries
I’ve visited and the friends that I have back at home in the states who have
been supporting me so faithfully. While on the race I have had times of eating
what ever I want and times of having limited options but I have to say that to
this point I have never been even close to starving. Right now I am living in Kenya, Africa in
a non air conditioned room sleeping in a mosquito net taking showers out of a
bucket and you know what? I couldn’t be happier, more fulfilled or satisfied
with life.
Visiting such a variety of places
around the world has definitely been expanding my world view and my
understanding of who God is. There are several religions that expect a
pilgrimage of their believers, a right of passage of sorts. Ya know, I don’t
think that it is a bad idea. I am not saying that it should be a religious
requirement or anything, because I myself don’t really like “religious
requirements” but I do think that Christians and people in general need to get
out, away from their normal circumstances and see that the world and God are
much bigger than the neighborhood, city, or even country that they live in. In
the Harry Potter books Dumbledor says it well “we must all choose between what
is right and what is easy.” Think about it, easy translates to comfortable and
comfortable is probably one of the biggest enemies of mankind that there is.
Its draw and our desire not to threaten it once attained is detrimental to us
reaching the full potential that God designed into us. It causes us to sell
ourselves so short of what we could really have. We need to get up, get out,
and do something. Now it is true, we are taking a risk. We are risking our
comfort, our security, but are we really? When our first priority is the Lord
than we can do this in all confidence because He gives us a promise. “I know
the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you.”
I’ve now been in Africa
for a little over three weeks and it has been an experience in my life that I
know the Lord had planned for me from the beginning of my life. The people here
are wonderful, strong, genuine human beings. It is strange how I can be on the
other side of the world but feel so at home on Sunday morning worshipping the
same God I always have with people I have only know a few weeks but am already
family with. I have had an epiphany here in Africa
about man, and God’s image. We are made in the likeness of God but in order to
fully see His image we have to see all peoples. Yes I look very different from
every single person here in Bungoma, Kenya but I have learned things about God
and His nature from seeing them, the way they work, play, worship… Sometimes we
laugh and say “is God white, black, Asian, Brazilian..?” The real answer to
that question is that He is none, but all. We are all made in His image but He
is too big and His nature and personality to complex to be contained in one
people group. One more reason to get out and see more than your own backyard.
Another thing I am learning is just
how plentiful the harvest really is. During our couple weeks of ministry time
here in Bungoma and the surrounding area, we have seen over a dozen people come
to know Christ and start a new life with Him. So why does it seem like it is so
much easier to lead people to salvation here than in the western world? Well I
think it is a little easier to accept Christ when you don’t have as much to
distract you and other masters that demand your attention because after all “it
is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
the Kingdom of heaven. You cannot serve to masters, God and Money.” So can only
the less wealthy be Christians? Nope. But it is a different road to the cross
for them I think. I wondered at why it was so easy for some of the people I
have run into out here to accept and understand things about God that it has
taken me years to wrestle through. I think it is just easier for them to see it
because they understand the true human condition of weakness and need for God
because there is much less out here put up around them to hide that fact. I can tell you it is a little easier to trust
the Lord when you have no way to eat unless He provides it and day after day
you see Him faithfully do it. I think in our world we have delusions of
grandeur causing us to think we are responsible for providing ourselves with
everything. But as we are seeing in our own country now, that foundationless
world of wealth can come crashing down like a house built on sand. It has
happened to every great empire and we are not immune. But there is hope. If we
can remember again why we have anything that we have, and not cling to it but
give it away freely in order to pursue a higher calling, all these things will
be added to us again and we will prosper and not be harmed.
