River Gospel

June 22, 2008

Answered prayers…

A wise friend of mine (g) challenged me about a year and a half ago to pray the armor of God over myself everyday. Sometimes I have been faithful in this, sometimes not. But as of recently, I have been. And as I am praying these verses from Ephesians 6, besides just declaring them over myself, I try to think of something specifically applicable that relates to that piece of armor. Well, as you probably know one of the pieces is to “shod my feet with the readiness of the gospel”. This one has challenged me for the past few months because although I am a “missionary”, my purpose for being here is the share the love of Christ through teaching Phonics. Plus I am really blessed to be working in a place that is founded on Christ. So, I do not always find myself with the opportunity to directly share the gospel (though I am constantly trying to be faithful to the quote- “Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary use words”- and am sometimes successful and sometimes fail completely). So, of recent, I have been praying for more opportunities to share the Gospel, whether with a street kid, a boda boda man (the motorbike-taxi’s here), or a Muslim friend.
On Saturday, Haley and I walked down to a little river that is very near our house, hoping to find some kids swimming or just have a little time to sit peacefully by a river and read. As we approached you could hear the little cries of a kid shouting, “Mzungu, Mzungu” and all eyes went up. Well there were only a few eyes because no one was swimming but some teenagers were washing clothes and collecting water. Being friendly I greeted them, hoping for a fluent English response. Success! “Hello. Hello. How are you? Fine. Well done.” Then I asked where all the swimmers were and proceeded to converse about how there was a fence being build that would block my trail to the river. After some more taking the students invited us to come help them wash, which started another conversation about how to get to the other side of the river bed (since we were on two opposite sides), which eventually led to a few of them wading waste deep through the river to meet us. They didn’t seem to care that they were wet. We were just making small talk when a girl, still on the opposite side of the river bank said, “Excuse me, madam, are you a saved? I want to be saved but want to know more about Jesus.” What? Things seem just too easy over here. Would that ever happen in America? I think even if someone wanted they would be to prideful or embarrassed to admit that they were not yet sure that they really were a believer or not. So, I invited her to come to our side so that I could tell her more about Jesus.
What an awesome answered prayer and so unexpected. Be ready in season and out of season and that I was by His grace. So, Haley and I sat down with about 7 students and shared that the Bible has bad news and good news and that it is by faith ALONE in Jesus ALONE that you are saved. We answered some questions. There was even a boy there who was Muslim but sat to listen. (While across the bank there was a Muslim girl who began making loud noise as we sat down. When I asked why, they said she was a mad/crazy girl, but then told me that it was really because she was Muslim and knew I was telling about Jesus). It seemed that the girl who first asked the question had already trusted Jesus as her savior but had some confusion as to whether you could lose your salvation (answer being NO). We then had a little fun taking pictures together and dancing and singing. Such a sweet and memorable moment for the Kingdom. I pray that God would continue to water and grow the seeds that were planted.