Journal Entry – Saturday, November
25, 2017
The road is single lane, and formed with a very distinct crown on it. If a
vehicle gets too far down onto the side, it is very difficult to get it to make
its way back to the top. There is almost no traction on the greasy clay, so
easing the car to maneuver up the slope to the center of the crown takes a light foot on the accelerator
and a patient hand on the wheel.
The guy who drives me to the church from Kisii town is the
same one who came to Nairobi to pick me up in the very beginning. His name is
Amos.
When I heard the rain, I knew that Amos would not be coming
for a while. I did not mind. The days have been long and filled with many
people and activities. I was ready for a break from it all.
I took a leisurely breakfast this morning. The coffee here
is locally grown and roasted, much as it was where we lived in Venezuela and
Guatemala. Here more people drink tea than they do coffee. It’s the influence
from the English in their colonial days. I became also a tea drinker in India,
where the English had also brought that custom during their days of occupation.
But for me, it is coffee for breakfast.
I have not written about the Bible conference that we have had going on every day. I think that I did mention that you should not look at it as if this conference were as one that we would have in the US. It basically amounts to about a four or five-hour church service with about an hour break for lunch.
Actually, it is longer than that. I come every morning from
Kisii town, which is about a half an hour from the church when the road is
good. When I arrive, the service is already going strong. They also have an
evening service after I am gone. They tell me that in their evening service
they discuss what I taught them during the day.
Many people understand English, but many do not, so I always
speak with a translator—actually two translators. It is either Pastor Joel or
Pastor Vincent who translates for me into Ekegussi. That is the local language
of the Kisii tribe. One of the other pastors present translates into Swahili. I
think that these are visiting pastors who are taking turns, but I am not
certain if this is true.
I have been doing a series of studies in the book of Ephesians. Regarding instructions about life in the church, this is one of the most important parts of Scripture. Many of the teachings of Ephesians are very deep and some are controversial, such as the fact that every one of us, even before we have believed in Christ, have first been chosen by God. In fact, it was even before God created the earth that he chose us as individuals.
This of course runs contrary to our understanding of our own
free wills and our own ability to make choices. It seems to us that these two
teachings cannot coexist in harmony.
It is a truth that is beyond us. Many truths become more
apparent as we grow in understanding of the Scriptures, but some things will
always be beyond us; at least they will be in this present life.
Today we may look at this enigma of God’s choosing us as
being controversial, but Paul would not have expected this reaction at all. On
the contrary, he views this truth as a great comfort to us. It actually should be a great comfort to know that
God is not only involved with our lives in the present, but has also been far
into the past. Certainly if we can see this, we can be assured that he will
also be involved with our lives far into the future as well.
Ours is a journey of spiritual growth where turning every corner and cresting every hill will give us new perspective. Reaching some hilltops and rounding some corners gives us further understanding, but there is always another corner and always another hill. There will always be some understanding that exists beyond our vision. There will always be new perspectives to see and new heights to reach.
Some of the teachings in the book of Ephesians are
controversial because they are beyond our ability to understand. They are, in
fact, impossible for us to understand because to do so would require of us to
view them from an eternal perspective.
During the entire conference, I am likening our spiritual
journey on this earth as a climb up to the summit of a mountain. It is only
from a lofty altitude where we begin to have a perspective that can give us
understanding.
From a Lofty Perspective
I told the story to the people of one mountain that I
climbed many years ago. The mountain was flanked by two rivers, one flowing in
the valley to east of the mountain, and the other to the west. I knew from
looking at a map earlier that these two rivers eventually would come together
and become one in a common confluence somewhere to the south.
However, from where I was on the mountain at the beginning,
it appeared to me that this could never happen. One of the rivers seemed to be
flowing in somewhat of a southerly direction, but the other was veering off far
to the west. When I saw this, I felt a great need to get high enough where I
could see the point where these two rivers converged.
As I climbed higher, the clouds began to form. I prayed that
God would keep the clouds away long enough for me to see where these rivers
joined together.
“I need to see them,” I said to the Lord. “It is important
for me to see where these two rivers become one.”
Finally, as I crested the top of the mountain, in the far
distance I could see where the two rives finally flowed together. I could not
see the entire journey of each river. I could not see what hills and what
ridges they first had to flow around, and I could not see what obstacles had
been in their paths, but I could see where they came together. The two more
insignificant rivers became one mighty flow.
With each teaching in our spiritual journey of
understanding, we are climbing a mountain where we seek to see the entire
truth. Some of these teachings may even consist as two separate aspects that
can seem contradictory to one another. One might say that this single truth has
two rivers flowing in opposite directions that seem like they could never
unite.
Our present perspective does not allow us to understand how
these two facets of a teaching (two things that to us seem contradictory), are
actually complimentary to one another. We may think that we have scaled some
lofty peaks in our spiritual journey here on earth, but even the highest of
these peaks are mere foothills in our understanding of spiritual matters.
But God does want us to know some of what he has in mind for
the completion of his plan. We ourselves may not be at the place in our lives
where we will completely understand these teachings, but God is telling us
these things so that we can know them and come to accept them by faith.
Although we ourselves have not yet climbed to the altitudes
where we can understand, Paul the apostle has
ascended to the heights of some of these mountains. God had given to him
insights into spiritual truths that go beyond what are attainable through mere
human knowledge. Paul describes his task in this letter as a “grace” that had
been entrusted to him to teach the “unsearchable riches of Christ” that had
been revealed to him.
And why was Paul given these visions beyond the other
apostles? He says that to an extent, these truths have always been revealed to
the “holy prophets and the apostles,” but now to him in a more complete form
precisely because he was the “least of the saints.” This was so that it would not be he who could take the credit for these revelations, but that God would
receive all glory.
In this book of Ephesians, Paul is attempting to describe to
us what he had been shown. He is telling us about what he saw on some of the
mountains that he had climbed. He had received visions with perspectives that
are far higher than we can know. These are things so close to the heart of God
that he was not even permitted to explain to us some of what he saw.
In a passage of another of Paul’s writings, he tells of an experience that he had where he was “Caught up into Paradise (‘whether in the body or out of it I do not know,’ he says) and heard things that “were too sacred for words, things that man is not permitted to tell.”
But the truths that he has
been permitted to share were given to him so that we could know could know the
true purpose of the church. Through the teachings of the book of Ephesians, we
come to understand better how God’s final plan for the ages is that all things
in heaven and in earth will be brought together and accomplished through Jesus
Christ.
Journal Entry – Sunday, November 26, 2017
What now?
Tomorrow morning early, I am to leave Kisii for the seven
hour drive to return to Nairobi. Then it is the plane ride to Amsterdam,
Minneapolis/St Paul, and finally to Wausau, WI.
My sermon today at the Log Church of Kisii was a contrast of
the life that is guided by faith, rather than a life that follows only those
things that we can verify with our senses.
The verse that I based the sermon on was not from Ephesians,
but Second Corinthians where Paul said, “For we walk by faith, not by
sight.” Our learning to walk by faith
does not end when we first respond to the call of God upon our lives for
salvation—at least it should not be so.
This trip to see the Log Church of Kisii was definitely a
step of faith for me. I came with what were few pragmatic evidences that what I
would find when I arrived was as I was led to believe, and also with many other
factors telling me that it was all a scam.
But I did have one other thing. The Lord told me that I must
make the trip. He did not tell me what I would find and he did not give me the
assurance that everything would be as I had hoped when I got here. He only told me that I must
go.
What that meant to me was that I had to face the real prospect of coming and finding no one here. No church. No orphanage. No people.
I have been told that this has happened to others who had been set up to send
money to fake orphanages. I had to face the prospect of returning to my home
and being called foolish for falling for such a scam. It all came down to the
point where I had to accept the fact that I may be called a fool.
Nevertheless, I was sure of my calling. If I did not come to Kisii and see for myself
why God called me to come, I could not continue on with my life as if nothing
had happened. I had to come even at the price of being labeled a fool for being
so gullible.
This was not the first time that I have done something in my
life that was considered foolish by some. I have to admit, when the brothers
from Kisii walked into the hotel where I was staying on my arrival to Nairobi,
there was a part of me that was simply relieved. What I had been led to believe
was true.
But then, I have long tried to live my life based on one
simple philosophy—one guiding principle.
When God asks me to do something, I try to say “yes.”
That’s it. No scholarly and finely crafted statement that
you would print on a motivational poster with a mountain background to hang on
the wall.
But I have said all of these things before—at the beginning
of this trip. Nevertheless, it is good for me to say them again. Repeating them
to myself confirms them in my mind.
So what about my future involvement with the church here in Kenya? Every day, when one of the pastors was speaking, they would off-handedly say, “When our dear Dad comes back,” or, “When our Dad comes back, we hope he will bring our Mum.”
In one of my sermons I mentioned the verse in Acts 18 that says
that Paul stayed a year and six month in Corinth, teaching the people the Word
of God. It was merely a verse in passing. I barely even mentioned it, and I
hope that Pastor Vincent got more out of the sermon than this. But when he took
the podium after I sat down, he mentioned the verse again and said that the
church in Kisii would want the same—that I could stay with them a year and a
half and teach them from the Word.
But then he said this, “He would first need to go back to
America to get Mum.”
It is always “Dad and Mum,” or “Daddy and Mummy.” I have
been thinking a lot about this and at first felt a bit uncomfortable with it,
but I have grown used to it and I see that they actually mean it. They
sometimes refer to me when introducing me as their “mentor” or their “good
pastor.”
So what does all of this mean for the future?
I have no idea. This was not something that I sought, nor
did I ever see it coming. I do know that any further involvement that requires
my presence here would also require the Lord to move many pieces of my life.
But the Lord has already shown me in this experience that I
should never come to the point where I say my life is settled.
And I thought that it was.
Journal Entry – November 27, 2017
(Nairobi Airport)
Once again I find myself sitting in an airport waiting for
my flight. We left Kisii early this morning—Pastors Joel and Vincent, the
driver Amos, and myself. They delivered me to the airport with extended
good-byes and prayers. We were all a bit saddened at our parting. These brothers
in Christ have also become my friends.
But now I am eager to return home to Vivian. It is late at
night and despite my tiredness, I am ready for this trip home to get underway.
In my years of flying, I have learned to develop almost an altered state of
consciousness when I travel, where I just let the check-in lines and airline
schedules happen at their own pace.
I have found that if I am impatient, or if I let myself become angry at the pace of the movement of the lines, they move no faster. In fact, they seem to slow significantly. So I simply move along and occupy myself with other thoughts.
At the conclusion of this trip, I am sensing is that God is
telling me that I am to enter into this work of beginning an orphanage for
those children who attentively sat and listened in church, and who also
participated in the worship service. If so, this will be an entirely different
kind of work for me. I have never before have had children as the focus of my
ministry.
In my experience overseas, I have worked mostly with pastors
and church leaders, and I have seen many kinds. Many pastors with whom I worked
seemed to me to be among the most humble men of the earth—called to serve and
expending all of their strength in serving their people.
But others were of the most prideful that I have ever seen.
They only became pastors because of the recognition and standing it gave them
in the community—something like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day.
At one time in the life of Jesus, the disciples came to him
and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
Before answering, Jesus beckoned a little child to come to
him, and then he said this to his disciples: “Whoever humbles himself like this
little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a
little child like this in My name welcomes Me” (Matthew 18:1-5).
Perhaps as my final chapter on this earth, God is leading me
into the most important work of my entire life. He is calling me to serve these
children who were rejected by society, many of them rejected even by their own
mothers. Yet each one precious in His sight.
“Whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward” (Matthew 10:42 ESV).
Journal Entry – January 14, 2018
(Back in my home)
It was 27 degrees below zero in Tripoli, Wisconsin this
morning (that’s about –33 in Celsius). We canceled our regular service at the
Log Church.
This morning I received an email from the Log Church of
Kenya. Since leaving Kenya about two months ago, I have communication with
Pastor Joel from that church at least two or three times per week. His letters
are not usually about present hardships that they are facing, but they
sometimes are. On some occasions, like this morning, he tells me that they and
the orphans who are in their care have had to go to bed without having eaten
the entire day. They go to bed with stomachs completely empty.
Today is Sunday, but since we are not having church because of the extreme cold, instead of the regular sermon that I post on my blog, I am sharing the letter that I sent to the people at the Log Church of Kenya.
Dear Pastor Joel
and beloved people of the Log Church of Kenya,
Mum and I are very grieved to hear
of your most recent needs. We are so sorry that you and the orphans again are
going to bed after a day of no food. Every day I am praying and wondering what
God will have me do. I would like to be able to tell you for certain what those
things are, but as of yet I have received no definite direction from God.
I am not able to simply keep
sending money. God has not given me great amounts of money. Last year I was
able to sell two cows to be able to come to you with some gifts, and I have
determined that I should once again next year dedicate my cows for the benefit
of the orphans and the church there in Kisii. However, it is in the months of
September and October when I am able to have the meat processed to sell.
I do not have a large herd. Seven
animals, only two or three of which can be butchered and sold next autumn.
I would like to come again as I did
last year, but I do not yet know if God will direct me in that way. The airline
ticket price is very high. Financially, it would make more sense to just use
the money for the ticket and send it for your use. But this cannot be that kind
of relationship.
Ours cannot be a relationship based
on sharing money. It can only be one based on sharing Christ. This is how this
relationship has begun, and this is how it must continue.
Still, at this very moment, you are
all hungry, and that saddens me.
Please know that Mum and I are
praying about this very present need of yours and also be assured that if God
directs me to do something, I will certainly obey. I have lived my life saying
“yes” to the Lord, and I will always live my life in that way.
We would also like to be able to
help the orphans be able to attend school and will continue to pray about that
need.
As for the present moment however,
I pray that God will provide food for you. Our prayer is that you will see the
fulfillment of the promise that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at
Philippi, “My God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory
in Christ Jesus.”
These are not empty words. I also
am bringing your needs before our Savior and Lord.
Your Dad and Mum in Christ, Pastor
Don and Vivian
Despite my recent visit to Kenya and the confirmation that I received of the reality of the situation of the people there and the orphans under their care, I am still praying for direction on what course I should take.
Postscript: (Written four years later)
After four years this work of the orphanage is continuing.
Through these years we have seen God provide so that we have been able to build
a very nice dormitory for the children, whom when I first visited, I saw had to
sleep on a dirt floor.
We have seen God provide so that these orphans who once
lived by going through garbage heaps now have food most days. We have seen God
provide so that we are able to pay the school costs to send them to school. And
we have seen God provide so that we have been able to install an irrigation
system so that they will now be able to grow some of their own food and to be
not so dependent upon outside sources.
We have seen God provide through a locust infestation,
malaria outbreaks, covid restrictions, food insecurities, through flood and
through drought.
All of this has also been a great learning experience for
me. It has taught me not only about the provision of God, but the calling of
God upon my own life. It has taught me much about my own sense of values, and
my own complete dependence on the provision of God for my own life.
It has taught me that my retirement years are not years in which I shift my transmission into neutral and coast until the end of my life. There is no precedence to this type of thinking in the Bible. All of the prophets, all of the apostles, in fact, all of God’s workers remained active in their ministries until the end of their days, or at least as long as they were physically able to do so.
Paul said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
God has shown me that there is still much to be done. After working at
several ministries overseas for many years, I will have to say that, in some
ways, this present work in Kenya has been the most difficult of any of them.
But perhaps the greatest thing this work in Kenya is
teaching me is about the importance of enduring to the end. The Bible speaks a
lot about endurance, and all of us are entering a time in our lives when the
ability to endure under trial is becoming increasingly important.
Jesus told us that the time will come when we will be hated
by everyone because of his name, but the one who perseveres to the end will know the blessings of God (Matthew 10:22).
He said that “Because of the multiplication of wickedness,
the love of most will grow cold. But the one who perseveres to the end will be
saved” (Matthew 24:12-13).
Our relationship with God does not end when we raise our
hand in church and pray a silent prayer for salvation. That is the beginning.
The true disciple of Jesus is one who continually follows, and one who learns
to persevere in any circumstance.
We are living in difficult times in our nation, a time in
which the teachings of Jesus and the apostles are not only being questioned,
but touted as being either obsolete or even false. Increasingly, many are
actively promoting the rejection of the values and the standards for living
that we are taught in the Bible. It is a perspective that is appearing not only on
the two coasts of our country, but even in our own small communities.
In our society, we are increasingly being taught that good
is evil, and that the teachings of Jesus are nothing more that intolerant
indoctrinations. This has all been the cause of some very bad decisions in our
government. If you have not seen this, then you have chosen not to look.
The easy thing to do is to acquiesce to these new standards
of morality, thereby saying that what Jesus and the apostles taught us are a
matter of adaptation to changes in our society. In these days, not all who
today claim to be disciples of Jesus will remain faithful, because they have
not learned to endure.
God’s calling to each of us may be different in nature, but we are one in purpose. All of us are to be his representatives here on earth. We are here to serve at his pleasure, and we are here to serve until the day when our work is finished.
It is not the servant who chooses the time that his work is finished, but it is the master whom he serves who determines this. It is not we who decide when to call it quits, it is our Master.
It is then when he will say to us, “Well done, you
good and faithful servant.” But we will not hear those words until we have
finished our task.
To do that, we must endure to the end. We cannot simply
coast along in our lives, living for the pleasures of the world rather than the
pleasures of God. We cannot acquiesce to what the world determines that we should do
and how the world determines we should think.
Despite any differences in the nature of God’s calling for each of us, his purpose for us all is the same: we are called to remain faithful to that calling and we are called to endure until we have completed that calling.
“See to it, brothers, that none of you has a depraved heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God. Rather, encourage one another daily, as long as it still is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
We have come to share in Christ if we endure to the end.” (Hebrews 3:12-14)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.