The other day, some of my teammates and I were walking on the beach in Mombasa, Kenya where we have been staying for the first half of the month of being in Kenya. When you are a Mzungu (white person) walking the beach in Africa you don’t normally get more than two steps before you are bombarded with locals trying to sell you something they have made.
In other words, you don’t typically go to the beach if you want to relax, but I hadn’t been to the beach yet, so I wanted to see it!
When we got to the beach we were almost to the water when a group of nine boys ages ranging from probably 6 to 12 ran up to us and asked if we wanted to watch an acrobatics show. After explaining to them that we didn’t bring any of our money with us one of the locals started talking to them in Swahili. Then the boys started to put on a show for us. Once they finished their impressive show, they ran up to us and asked if we would make them lunch on the following Saturday so of course we said yes.
Once Saturday rolled around, we prepared the food, which was chapati (basically a thick tortilla), cooked cabbage, beans and Ugali (in mollies words “some sticky white crap”). We loaded up the food and some plates and headed for the beach.
When we got there, the boys came flipping down the beach. We made their plates and they ate their meal with their sand covered fingers.
While the boys were eating a few locals came up and asked to have what was left over, one of them being a blind man. His name was William and he was the sweetest old man. We made his plate and talked to him as he ate. When he was done eating, I asked if I could pray for him. He said yes, so I put my hands over his eyes and said a prayer for William to be able to see the beautiful creation Yahweh has made.
When the prayer was over and he didn’t open his eyes I was slightly discouraged, but once I looked around me, I realized there was a crowd of people standing waiting for me to pray for them. It wasn’t till later that my sweet gal, Gail pointed out to me that even though I didn’t see William’s eyes open and he didn’t gain vision I had the opportunity to pray for people I wouldn’t have gotten to pray for otherwise.
Sometimes I forget that Yahweh has walked my race before and has set things up perfectly so that his Kingdom can be present here on Earth.
I am so thankful for this journey of serving him across the world.
