Jesus’ Truth in Kenya

God speaks shows us this Truth in two ways labeled natural truth, which is what is seen in nature and revealed truth which is what is given in the Bible, or through a prophet or pastor. This past week in Namanga, I have seen so much Truth. Let me share with you just one example, how they have revealed the truth of 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 which reads: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” First, I see that they are joyful despite their poverty and illeness. How many times did we see a patient smiling through bad teeth or a bad wound or loss of vision. Whether we are physically poor or poor in spirit, we should “be joyful always” like the Kenyans. Second, The muslims reflect what it means to “pray continually or ceaselessly” through their practice of praying five times a day, which we have ALL experienced, especially the early morning ones. In addition, when I first visited a mosque last year for a world cultures class, I learned from them that the reason they perform a ritual standing, bowing and kneeling procedure when praying is because they believe that they must pray and worship God with their whole bodies. We must also “pray continually” throughout the day and not just with our mouths, but worship God with all that we do, say, and think. Finally, I have certainly given thanks more often on this trip than back at home. For one, I see it in the natural beauty of Kenya, in the hills right outside our clinic when the mist rolls over it to the rain storm right in the middle of our day. I also thank God for the faith of some of our translators or of a little child. I thank God for allowing us to participate in His wholistic healing plan in Namanga. Finally, I thank God every day for His son Jesus Christ who died in our stead, has forgiven our sins and offers us a relationship with Him and assurance of going to heaven to be with Him for eternity when we die. I challenge myself in the next week, to see Truth in the Kenya and in the people who live here, whether Kenyan, Tanzanian, Arab, Somali, Masaii or Kuchuo. Because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and all Truth points to Him. As we identify the Truth in Kenya, then we will start to see the ways that God is already working in Kenya and the ways in which we may be able to reach the people here with the good news of what Jesus Christ has done for us by pointing out the Truth already here!

Spiritual Ministry in Kenya

A brief summary of the 2 1/2 days of spiritual ministry that God allowed me to take part in at the clinic in Namanga:

7/25

Among all the work being done, spiritual work was lacking.

7/26

Spiritually, today was better. Pastor Tom had a prayer chair set up where he prayed for many patients and even led two people to Christ! I also noticed other doctors praying more. Late in the day,I met a 12 yr. old girl Agnes and her three younger siblings. I felt led by God to share with them the gospel using the evangecube after they had taught me phrases of Swahili and other things about Kenyan culture. I explained the gospel in english and only Agnes understood. I asked her to reapeat it back to me using the cube, and she said she could do it in Swahili. So, she started expaining it to her siblings and the other patients in the clinic in Swahili. God was already growing this seed and allowing it to bear fruit. Furthermore, the girl asked to keep the cube so that she could tell the story of Jesus to all of her friends. She had told me that one of her friends was not Christian. Even if Agnes only shares the gospel with this one friend and that friend comes to Christ, it will all be worth it!

7/27

Today was a great day in the clinic. I spent maybe only the first two hours rounding with the docs. I saw one girl who needed an IV drip and a vitamin K injection because she had gotton her tooth pulled yesterday, but her body was not clotting the blood properly. Dave also saw a boy with a mysterious rash all over his body. Other than that, I didn’t see much. The rest of the day I spent with children.

After yesterday and the sharing the gospel with the evangecube to Agnes and giving it to her to share with friends and family, I was praying that God would show me new things today and I was determined not to let the whole day slip away before starting to share the gospel. Agnes came back today, but I started with blowing bubbles. Just like with sharing the gospel with anybody, you must form a relationship. Fortunately, in Kenya all the people, and especially the children are very friendly. So, through blowing bubbles, I formed a relationship with many of the children. They knew my name David Lau and asked me if I knew Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. They also asked me about Obama.

Later in the day, one of the ladies from the church, Christine, Sam’s mother, came and started to tell the gospel story to the children. Not only did the children know this format of teaching from schools, but the Kenyans ARE a story-telling culture. There were many children at first as she started to share the gospel and I prayed that the children would be receptive and that God would speak through her. It was great to be able to have a Kenyan speaking Kiswahili share with them rather than myself, and just support her through prayer. As she started speaking, some older boys started leaving and pulling some other boys away with them. Alyssa asked them why they left and they said that they were Muslims, not Christians (I didn’t know this until later).

After the stories, Alexa started sharing with some of the Muslim girls and I got to talking with the Muslim boys. There was one boy named Jama who I gave the cube to at the end of the day. He not only knew how to use the cube, but could explain it. However, he was muslim. When he originally requested the cube, I asked him, how can you preach what you don’t believe and he replyed that he believed Christianity, just not the fact that Jesus is God. Well, that’s kind of what Christianity is all about.  However, I think God convicted me the second time I thought about giving him the cube and I figured that it couldn’t hurt to give him the cube, because he told me that he would share it with others. I mean, if God can use our team of doctors, then God, in all His mysterious ways, can certainly use a little Muslim boy to spread His word.

I asked them if they understood and they said yes. I felt that I needed to ask them if they wanted make a decision. So, I asked them if they wanted to have a relationship with Jesus and believe in him. They said no. They said that they are proud of their religion. I repeated that I am not proud of a religion, but that I am proud to be a follower of Jesus or that I am proud to have a relationship with jesus. I was almost surprised at myself that I spoke so boldly and at that moment, I believed it more than anything in my heart. I explained later to Jama that I cannot force anyone to become a Christian by having them go on their knees and praying over them. I told him that it is between him and God and that he ever wants to make that decision to have a relationship with Jesus, than he needs to believe that in his heart and God will know.

7/28

This last day in clinic, I go the opportunity to be an ambassador for Christ to a Muslim man waiting in line to be seen. We chatted for about an hour and after having a friendly argument for a while and going in circles a couple times, we both agreed that God ultimately changes people, that no amount of arguing would change either of our beliefs and that we would pray for each other and for ourselves that God would direct us to the Truth. I continue to pray for that man. And I praise God for that conversation in which I know God was working in is man’s heart as well as my own.

 

Call to Prayer

At 5:24 AM this past Sunday morning, I was woken up by sunrise call to prayer from the small one minaret mosque right next door to the Presbyterian Guest House. As the sound came through the paper thin walls, it reminded me of the similar experience my firstnight in Turkey, when I was woken up at 4:30 AM by the Blue Mosque right outside our hotel window. I remembered how it was these prayer calls 5x a day that gives order and structure to the Muslim person’s day. In fact, I got a sense of it yesterday (Wednesday) morning, when my mind woke up promptly around 5:15 AM anticipating the call to prayer from the mosque. You can imagine, that if you heard it and woke up to it everyday, it would simply become habit and a regular part of your routine. Anyways, as I listed to the five-minute call to prayer, I felt called to pray myself for Kenya and especially Kenyan Muslims: “God, I pray for the Muslims in Kenya. They know about a prophet named Jesus. Would you reveal to them the deity of your son and the saving work He did for them on the cross. For Muslims, Jews, non-religious, native religion, hindu and even Christians who were awoken physically to the call to prayer, would you awaken them spiritually with your call to life, the cross and your son. May the Kenyan people know your Truth and would you use us as your vessels the next two weeks to carry good news to those here who need to hear it. In jesus’ name I pray, Amen.” Then, I returned to sleep.

Spiritual Preparation

I think this missions trip more than any other, I’ve focused on spiritual preparation. This is the most important type of preparation and necessary prior to any ministry. By prioritizing spiritual preparation I am essentially declaring that only as a Christ-follower can I do this; I am not relying on any of my own abilities, but only what gifts and talents that God has blessed me with. What I lack, I depend on God for, knowing full-well that it is his work and plan being carried out in Kenya and not my own. I will be most effective as a missionary when I am trusting fully in Christ for all my needs and understanding that it is Christ who makes the seeds grow; I only sow or water.

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” ~ 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 (NIV).

I hope that this type of preparation will carry over into my missionary work in my family, at Baylor, with my high-school friends, at church and in the future.

 

Prayer

I praise God for Christian brothers and sisters who model Christ to me. One explicit way they’ve shown love and care is through prayer for the trip. At church many people wrote down their names on a list to receive our prayer email. Many people replied to my facebook status about this trip, saying they’d be praying for me. My pastor from Fellowship Bible Church in Waco sent me an email telling me he was praying for the trip. And the past two days, I had two friends pray over the phone for me and the trip, one from Texas and another calling from Argentina! This morning, my grandfather even called to let me know he’d be praying. These are just a few examples of the numerous expressions of prayer support that I have received for this trip.

I truly feel as if each person praying for this trip is partnering with me on this trip and that they are empowering me through prayer to carry out God’s will and the Great Commission in Kenya. They have encouraged me not to neglect prayer either. Yesterday morning before starting our day of packing as well as physical, mental and spiritual preparation, my older sister, Abigail (who’s also going to Kenya) and I prayed together starting our day off right by asking God to guide us and give us energy; God gave us so much peace about the trip and its preparations!

Pre-Trip Literature

As I prepare for Kenya, I’ve been blessed to read two wonderful books, “Jesus, M.D.” by David Stevens and “Living in Color” by Randy Woodley. In “Jesus, M.D.”, Dr. Stevens compares Jesus as the Great Physician to aspects of being a doctor while using anecdotes from his 12 years as a medical missionary in Kenya and as head of the medical branch of Samaritan’s Purse. I’m excited that during the upcoming Kenya missions trip, I will get the opportunity to visit the mission hospital, Tenwek, in Kenya where so many of Dr. Steven’s stories take place.It is a place that God has used and is using for GREAT things.

“Living in Color” offers a great perspective of multi-ethnicity within the kingdom of God from the point of view of Woodley, a Native American. It points out the proper Biblical attitude we should have toward people of other cultures in the Church, as Christians in the world and on the mission field. I hope to apply some of what I’ve been learning in this book to loving the Kenyans in the same manner that Christ loves them. Both books have really helped me to prepare spiritually for this missions trip to Kenya. I certainly recommend these two books for any Christian who wants to have a more godly mindset and live more like Christ. Not only that, but these books are very well-written and both authors share encouraging testimonies from their own lives and the lives of Christians they’ve known.

Personal Prayer Requests & Thoughts

* This blog is also adapted from personal journal entries.

Day 2 “Pre-Field”- July 16

Colossians 1:10 says “And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God…”

In order to bear fruit in every good work, I must have the attitude that this is God’s work and not my own. This is an attitude that I truly want in school, in being a doctor, in being a missionary and in going to Kenya. But, if I think I can do it on my own, then I will surely fail, but with God, all things are possible. These tasks seem so daunting, yet I must continually remind myself that I serve a big and powerful God!

I still pray for unity for our 32 person team who won’t meet until the day we leave. I also pray for myself and my uncertainty over my role on the team, that I would be flexible, trust God, and do whatever He wants me to do joyfully and with complete effort.

Day 3 “Pre-Field”- July 17

The slum area outside Nairobi will be perhaps the poorest area that I’ve ever seen. I pray that God would prepare my heart and mind for that and to still see the people as God’s loved ones. I also prayer that God would open up my eyes to see how He is already present in their country and what parts of their culture already speak truth and point toward Christ. The Kenyans will have as much, if not more to teach me, as I will have to teach them. Nevertheless, I want to be prepared to share the gospel or a personal testimony of how Christ has changed my life with anyone who needs and wants to hear about Jesus.

Preparation

CMDA (Christian Medical Dental Association), the mission organization that I am going to Kenya with each team member a daily devotional book with a week worth of devotions for “Pre-Field”, two weeks of “On-Field” devotions for while we are in Kenya and a week’s worth of “Reentry” devotionals for after the trip. I started the “Pre-Field” ones on Friday and they have really helped me to prepare myself spiritually for this missions trip. I would like to share with you some of my thoughts and insights that I have been journaling about.

Pre-Field Day 1: July 15

The boy-scout motto is “Be Prepared”. As an Eagle Scout, I not only do not like being unprepared, but I usually double and triple-check things before going anywhere. Going on this missions trip to Kenya should be no different. 2 Timothy 2:15 reads: “Work hard so God can approve you. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the world of truth.” As I read this passage, I notice two difficult tasks: (1) being one who does not need to be ashamed and (2) being one who correctly handles or explains the world of truth. The former involves placing faith over fear and stepping out in obedience to do whatever God wants you to do. The latter is quite a daunting task that I always fear when sharing the gospel. In order to properly handle God’s word, I need to constantly study the Bible, allowing it to thoroughly, completely or adequately equip me for every good work God has in store for me. I must also trust God to speak truth through me. The final preparation I will need– besides boldness and truth-handling– is cultural awareness and sensitivity which I will try to gain through pre-trip resaerch of Kenya, but more so through careful observation once I arrive there.

Missions Letter & Overview

I greet you with the sincere hope that you are being challenged and nurtured by Christ daily. Recently, I have been pondering what Paul means, “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). First, “to die” is to be deprived of all material possessions, leaving Christ as the sole master of your life. If I treasure Christ above everything else, then if I die, I will be fully satisfied having Christ only. Second, “to live” is to have complete joy in Christ and to help others realize that joy. Thus, in all that I do, I desire to declare with Paul, “that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death” (Phil. 1:20).

This summer God has called me on missions to Kenya with the Christian Medical Dental Association from July 22^nd to August 6^th. Our Global Health Outreach (GHO) team is made up of 32 individuals including medical professionals from a variety of fields and my older sister, Abigail. The first week we will be serving underprivileged individuals in the slums of Dandora, just east of the Nairobi, the capital city. The following week we will visit the rural area of Nyamira, near Lake Victoria. In both locations, our main ministries will be providing for medical needs and evangelism. This year, I have been reminded time and time again that Jesus desires to bring healing to every part of people’s lives, not just spiritual.

As you may or may not know, God has called me into full-time ministry as an overseas Christian medical missionary in a place of greatest need. This past year, God has confirmed His calling to me more and more. Even now, God is preparing me through my medical humanities/pre-med studies at Baylor University and my leadership in the UNITE Intervarsity Christian Fellowship on campus. I have no doubt that God will use this time in Africa to continue preparing me to be a missionary doctor and molding my heart toward His heart and His purposes in this world. I know that I will not only get the opportunity to live for Christ, but I will die many deaths. In other words, I will have to die to the worldly comforts and luxuries that distract me from serving and glorifying Christ with all that I am. However, I know that God’s grace is sufficient for me and His power is made perfect in weakness (1 Corinthians 12:8).

A “Traveler’s” Report

We travelers think alike. As I read Christa Wolf’s 1^st essay, in the form of a travel report, from “Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays”, I can’t help but identify with Wolf’s insights as she explores Greece as well as her journey.

This month, I too have been a traveler. I have traveled through western Turkey and am, at this very moment, wandering north through Greece from Athens to Thessaloniki. After reading Aeschyles’s Oresteia, Wolf becomes fascinated with the character of Cassandra, Apollo’s priestess during the time of the Trojan War. Not only does Wolf become curious about Cassandra’s character, but she also seeks to learn about Trojan and Greek society, the nature of the Trojan War, and the practices of ancient spirituality and religion through Cassandra’s eyes. With this narrow focus, Wolf travels to Greece and develops her own unique method of examining culture and ancient sites. Like Dr. Rhodes in his approach to examining ancient architecture at Corinth, Wolf takes a very empirical, inductive method. Through observations, she generates in her own mind questions about the culture and the people, formulates themes and hypothesis’s and then through the rest of her trip, attempts to test the validity of those hypothesis’s.

In the same way, I came to Turkey and Greece with a purpose of learning about the rich religious and cultural histories of these countries and also applying it to my understanding and appreciation of my own religion and culture, and its history. Through previous literature and classes (especially the BIC), I have developed my own focuses, just as Wolf did with Cassandra. Then, actually coming to these countries and observing the people and the sites, I have been able to develop my own style of analyzing history, similar to that of Dr. Rhodes and Wolf. Because of this, there arises in Wolf’s Travel Report many observations that I identify with and that you, if you have ever traveled (better if you’ve been to Greece), might also appreciate. So, I will leave you with some quotations of her observations, questions and themes that she generated from them:

“Did Homer and the others who handed down the cycle of legends about Troy suspect that in following the myth they were helping to conceal the actual facts?” (155). What separates story truth from happening truth? How do we determine what actually happened in history? What is truth? How do we find it? How do we separate truth from lie and half-truth?

“Not only victors but victims, too, climbed up to the Acropolis. Man and beast, they took turns on the altars of the temples which stand superimposed or side by side…It was the same with the gods: the earlier god, the earlier goddess were always sacrificed to the later.” (158).

“Something more powerful than grief has engraved itself in these beautiful cheeks [of the korai maiden statues]: acid rain, polluted air…I understand the overcrowded, hurrying, homicidal, money-chasing city that pumps out smoke and exhaust fumes, trying to catch up in a few years with what some of its Western sisters took more than a century to achieve. I understand: You, the need of the present-day city, were not compatible with the need of the stone maidens with their serene, proud bearing, who supported, for more than two thousand years, the canopy over the grave of the snake-king Cecrops, founder of Athens…Was there, is there, and alternative to this barbarism [of the modern age]?” (159). What does it mean to respect history? How do we live in the present and prepare for the future, without destroying the past? Is there a “right” way to preserve historic objects? In what way do the needs of tourists and the needs of a city contribute to the destruction of history?

“The dignity of eating, in countries where you cannot take it for granted that everyone will be able to eat his fill every day; where avarice has not yet been able completely to suppress the gesture of hospitality, which, even if it has a price, meets with a ready welcome.” (161).

“We foreigners are all the more dependent on it because here we have no command of words, are incapable of deciphering even the signs outside the shops, must rely on pictures, smells…The fact that I lack words here: doesn’t this mean that I am losing myself? How quickly does lack of speech turn into lack of identity.” (161) To what extent to language define us?

“The mere fact that I do not know the language gives me an inkling of the possible terrors of exile. When did it begin, this unfortunate habit of trying out foreign cities to see how it would feel to live there? The question is, When did the feeling of having a homeland disappear?” (162). Where is home? What does it take to accepted or alienated from a foreign society? Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish novelist (Istanbul: Memories and the City and My Names is Red) lived in Istanbul his whole life and even now lives in the same house that he grew up in. Despite all its flaws, he stayed there because it was home to him.

“The old curses seem to have lost their effect; almost suffocating in the tainted air of the overcrowded buses, fatigued, dripping with sweat, we are incapable of wishing for anything but that it be over.” (163). There have been many instances on this trip where external factors, tiredness, stress with homework, hunger and body temperature, have kept us from fully enjoying and experiencing the sites that we visited.

“So there is a man named Antonis to go with the voice on the telephone, who thinks of everything for us, arranges everything, takes care of everything. Who knows everyone here and spends his days telephoning a dozen people on our behalf.” (165). I include this quotation, because it reminds me of our tour guide Cenk who did indeed to everything for us. Have you ever had a team leader or tour guide that took care of all the details so that you could enjoy the trip?

“Before and after the tourist season he [the old man who is sitting in a shack at the entrance of the ancient Amphiareion] sits here for weeks without seeing a single person, we are told. What is he guarding? A tract of antique ruins, overgrown with greenery, surrounded by a wire fence and almost all far too heavy to be stolen…Maybe the spirit of place has molded him.” We saw these people at every site, the ones who sell and take tickets.