There have been people that have wondered why I go half way
around the world to do missions work when there are so many people in the U.S.
that suffer and also experience poverty.
My experience today in the community of Turkana is the reason why. Our team flew from Nairobi to Turkana, where
we will spend the next week serving.
Turkana is in northwestern Kenya and it is a very hot and dry
desert. It is a very tough and hostile living
environment which receives only 5-6 inches of rain per year.
In Turkana, our team is working in a Missions
of Hope school facilitating VBS with about 860 children. We are also spending time in the community to
meet families in the area and to encourage them and share the love and light of
Christ with them.
On our community
visits today, I met with a family of one of the school children. Some in the family know and follow God, but
they shared that James, a young man of about 20 years old is not following God. He is struggling with alcohol addiction and
this brings him and his family a lot of pain and worry. James expressed that he wants to get better
and desires to know Jesus, but his addiction has a strong hold over him. He was open to hearing from us about our
faith. So, I pulled up a log, sat down
in the hot sand next to him, and told him about the story of Jesus! He listened intently and had some
questions. He had one very powerful question;
he asked “am I different than other people because of my sin? Are there other people in the world where you
live that struggle like me?” WOW, this
young man has never been outside of his small village community in Turkana and
he feels alone in his struggle. He
believes that his sin is unique to only him in Turkana, and may be too big to
remove. James is the reason I am on mission
in Kenya; to encourage him and share with him that he is not alone.
“For
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” the bible says. Through the blood of Christ, my sins, and
James sins can be wiped away. His family
has been telling him this, but I think he needed to hear it from someone that
lived on the other side of the world! .James
said that he would think about what I shared with him and he may come to the
school this week to talk more. Praise
God for a seed that was planted in Turkana today.
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