Witness

After attending a 4 week church program on fundamentals of the faith, today was the day the rubber met the road. In pairs, we were to go out and tell the good news to a certain location around Nairobi CBD, and report back in 3 hours. I was paired with a young lady and dispatched to university hostels. We picked a particular hostel, went to the top floor and began knocking doors. Outcome?

• Most guys actually will listen to the gospel message outlined in a simple, non-offensive and straight forward manner. The four spiritual laws work!
• The decision is the tough part for most but in our case, 2 guys actually said the sinner's prayer. Others however retained the booklet to make the choice by themselves on their own time.
• Others simply weren't interested. At least no one was rude or unruly. But some just played us, asking that we come back after 10 minutes, when they were nowhere to be seen.
• For those who were already believers, it was good to hear about their walk and to pray for any need.

Some highlights from the rest of the pairs:

• One team came across a guy in Uhuru Park. He had been brought to Nairobi from Kitale for a job a few days before but was abandoned. So he slept on a bench, then the next day was mugged. He figured all this was God's retribution for not believing. The team took him to OTC and paid fare for him to go home.
• One pastor came across a guy who said that God had told him that a pastor would come to see him that day about salvation.
• Others got a lot of information about people's view about God, Christianity, our church etc. Guess people do know a lot. And people do not know quite a lot either. And we do not know quite a lot about people either.

Some thoughts:

• Truly the harvest is great but the labourers are few.
• How will they hear unless someone is sent?
• Sharing the gospel should be as easy as telling someone about something you love e.g. Man Utd, fiancee, M-Pesa etc.
• Love is the greatest thing one can share. So many are in need of love expressed simply by concern.

Blessings.

Year of the Rabbit?

Happy New Year Folks!! It's not too late, is it? Well, this is the year I thought would never come. I kept telling her "next year, next year", kumbe I was setting myself up. So this is the series of events that characterized the start of 2K11, the year of the Rabbit :-)

Office:

One sunny morning as I head into jobbo with my workmate, I tell him I'm headed to the cafeteria to grab breakfast. And he retorts, "Bado hujapata mtu wa kukutayarishia breakfast?" I indicate that that was the project for 2011. He, in wisdom and experience, states: If you want a resolution to stick, do it in January...

Home:

I flip open my Bible one evening, hoping to find some soul respite after a hard day's work. My eyes catch a verse I'd never noticed (despite having gone through this whole book twice before).

As a young man marries a woman,
so your children will marry your land.
As a man rejoices over his new wife,
so your God will rejoice over you.
(Isaiah 62:5)

City:

Figuring divine destiny, I decided to scout various outlets around the city that dealt with "facilities that facilitate the facility". Funny enough, I hadn't carried my wits with me at first, because I stood outside the doors and then walked away, struggling to deal with shortness of breath along with other emotional challenges.

Finally, I got the strength (a few days later) to get in and enquire on what I was looking for. The pressure now shifted to choice because of the different shapes and designs. I finally settled on one I hoped would be the right one.

Family:

On the designated day, I received a morning phone call from family abroad with an enquiry as to when the announcement would be made. Of course how this call coincided with the chosen date is beyond me. Another coincidence was my family in the country also asking me about the announcement, on the same day!! The coup de grâce was my own father calling to check up on me and as I spilled the beans on my plan for the day, he goes something like "I thought about it too a few days ago..."

Church:

Seems the entire universe was aligning itself towards/against me. The church service leader, while announcing the start of another pre-marital counseling class, asked dating women to look into the eyes of their gentlemen and ask them "It's of how?" Thank God, she hadn't arrived by then!!! Strangely enough, the preacher's final prayer mentioned something about someone delaying a lady for too long...

Execution:

It was a simple plan really. We went looking for ice-cream at Galleria, and not finding a vendor within, went to the nearby Creamy Inn. I asked her to go find a place to sit while I waited for the ice-cream and as she went outside, I stuck it deep inside her cup. Since the place was quite crowded, I asked that we take a walk back to Galleria. Long story short, she hadn't found it by the time we'd gone round so we sat in the car.

Then she said "Babe, what's this?" And then...