She is an amazing lady and has turned her home into a "mission house" where she invites any missionaries or people doing "God's work" to come and stay for free. She was an awesome host + her son Robert (who is the same age as us).
She has been a missionary to the United States and to Northern Ireland - both times just following God's call on her life even thought it seemed "crazy" and she was able to see many miracles along the way, since both were humanly impossible. God definitely used her in big ways to see people come to know Him and to spread His fame.
she lives a "missional life" in Kenya even though i bet she has never heard that phrase. she follows Jesus more extravagantly than we do even though she has very little. God has used her to change and bless so many lives!
Maggie is a great example of how God uses our small actions to do powerful things.
Maggie was born in a slum. if you don't know what a slum in Kenya is like just google it... or Wikipedia "Kibera" or look it up on YouTube. Crystal and i wanted to visit one, but not even Kenyans dare go without armed security.
Maggie was born in one of the largest slums in Kenya and grew up there. This means she had NO CHANCE... humanly speaking.
Her Dad died around the time she was born so she never knew him. Her mother had nothing. in the slum they had nothing. Her life that began in extreme poverty was destined for disease, an early death, prostitution, or at best a life of begging in the slums with living conditions that would make most of us vomit.
Then when she was 8 years old God rescued her. Her life changed dramatically because of a "small" action. One of her father's old friends showed up at the slum. She was telling me the story and said this man came who she had never seen. He said "I heard what happened to your father and I wanted to help?"
This man had enough money to take 1 of the 5 children and "adopt" them and make sure they could go to school. that 1 child was Maggie. she went to school and worked hard and even graduated High School. She even went to University. She even became a nurse. God has used her to bless so many other lives... including ours.
all because 1 man wanted to help. his action was powerful!
Abraham is another example.
he is in his 20s and works for 410 Bridge. He grew up in Naivasha, Kenya. He told us that when he was 10 years old a lady came to his village from Texas. She was on a trip with Living Water International and they were putting the 1st well in his village!
She gave him a coloring book and taught him to color. She taught him about what the coloring book said and it was about Jesus and how Jesus died for Him and wanted to be His Savior and change His life.
Because of that lady from Texas and that coloring book she talked to Abraham about, he became a follower of Jesus as a 10 year old boy. now he is a missionary with 410 Bridge and God is using him in powerful ways to change the lives of Kenyans AND Americans.
he told us a really awesome story that the men in his village used to tell. i want to share it with you, but i've already written too long. so, i'll save it for another blog on another day. his quote to sum it up was simply:
"You don't have to understand divine things. You just have to obey the call."
That's awesome. Just ACT. follow what God is leading you to do. leave the powerful part to Him. you never know how your small actions will be SO POWERFUL to change someone's life.
*on this note i can't help but think about Erick Base Kiria. We are going to meet him in just a few hours (Monday morning). He is an 8 year old who lives in Tharaka, Kenya - an extremely poor village. Erick is a boy much like Maggie who really had no hope.
But some kids around his age in Upstreet decided that wasn't OK. They decided that it's not OK for him to grow up without a chance to go to school. they decided it wasn't OK for him to die as a child from some preventable disease. They decided it wasn't OK for him to die without knowing about Jesus.
so, they did something about it. God had blessed them, so they sacrificed some of that money God has blessed them with and send it to Compassion to support Erick. He has a new life now. He has hope.
Tomorrow Crystal and i get to meet him and shower gifts and blessings on him and a bundle of letters from the Upstreet kids (which i crack up laughing AND cry while reading!). we get to see and experience and hopefully capture his new life... the POWERFUL change that the small actions of kids have made in his life!
pretty stoked to meet him. will definitely be posting ASAP about this experience!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment