In Kambia, Sierra Leone!
To the glory of God, I arrived in Sierra Leone 12 days ago and then travelled on to Kambia. The original plan was to come in July, but I had to wait out the Ebola crisis. There were also a few days of panic after I found out that my passport had to go biometric before my travel, but, praise God for His mercies, a helper was found who took us through a nail biting, two-month, although bribe-free process of getting it.
Praise God for my family and friends who contributed financially and in many other diverse ways to help me raise my air fare and initial missionary support for this trip. If you would still like to help, please contact me for further details. I have to pay for my own upkeep here as well as pay for the services of a lady who will help me round the house.
For the one year that I will be here, I will be teaching Sunday School, training more teachers and helping out in a newly established mission school in Kambia. The name of the organisation is Givers' World, where a church and a school have been growing for the past 5 years. I have already been praying about the next step; what God would have me do after this year is passed. Do pray along with me.
It has been exciting seeing, old faces - the children have grown so much. I have met a few additions to the family and some new people as well.
I will eventually have a place of my own, but that place is not ready yet. For now I am staying with another lady missionary who has graciously allowed me into her home.
Please pray for good health for me at all times, and that I will hear God clearly in all that He is saying to me. I ask also for utterance, that the things I say will be inspired by the Holy Spirit. Also pray for my protection. Yesterday I managed to kill a scorpion that was headed straight for my feet as I sat on my bed. God bless you all.
In Him,
My preaching debut! Experiencing God's love!
Henry was a troublesome preschooler. He knew the Lord Jesus as his Saviour, but he just wouldn't sit still and was always causing some form of commotion in the classroom. His teacher who had just come out of training did not know what to do. All her cries of 'Henry sit down', and 'Henry stop it' fell on deaf ears. This went on for some time, until one day the teacher spoke sincerely to Henry. She put her arm around Henry's shoulders and told him, "Henry, you're my friend you know! I like you very much. She let him be the leader of a marching song once, and that was the last time Henry ever disturbed in class. He was transformed from then on. Love! It's the most powerful force in the world.
God is love! V 9 of our passage says “By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”
Let's just concentrate on God's love for a minute. God is love! It is not possible to separate love from God. That is His nature. That is who God is, and our human minds cannot even understand it completely. His love is unconditional. His love is infinite, it has no end. He wants relationship. He wants you. Jer 31:3 says I have loved you with an everlasting love. That is God talking. He says, "I love you". I love you ... Child's name, Adam, Eve. But the world seems not to receive His love. How come? Why is it so difficult for the world to believe that God loves them? Why would people reject the gospel, which is a simple 'God loves you and wants you to come to Him'? Why would even believers find it hard to accept that God loves them? One factor is Satan's lies. He's been lying from the beginning, and believe me, he's very good at it. He started in the garden of Eden, and he nailed it the first time! "God isn't interested in your welfare. Why would he leave you in this horrible situation? Why hasn't he rescued you? To Eve he said, Why doesn't he want you to eat the nicest fruit in the garden? He's keeping the best thing away from you. Eve believed his lies, and the whole world has followed suit. His best lie is "God doesn't love you". sound file?
YES, OCCUPY TILL I COME!
Jesus'
words still echo in our ears today: "Occupy till I come..." This phrase has become so popular, and easily
rolls off the tongue, but what’s the real meaning?
Let's
read the story in question, from Luke 19:12 onwards.
12
Therefore He said: “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for
himself a kingdom and to return. 13 And he called his ten servants, and
delivered them ten minas, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. 14 But his
citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have
this man to reign over us.’
15
“And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then
commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him,
that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. 16 Then came the
first, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned ten minas.’ 17 And he said to him,
‘Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have
authority over ten cities.’ 18 And the second came, saying, ‘Master, your mina
has earned five minas.’ 19 Likewise he said to him, ‘You also be over five
cities.’
20
“Then another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put
away in a handkerchief. 21 For I feared you, because you are an austere man.
You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’ 22 And he
said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant. You
knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping
what I did not sow. 23 Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at
my coming I might have collected it with interest?’
24
“And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to him
who has ten minas.’ 25 (But they said to him, ‘Master, he has ten minas.’) 26
‘For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who
does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 27 But bring here
those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them
before me.’”
A
similar story in Matthew 25 starts this parable saying: "The Kingdom of
God is like this!", which is such a profound statement. That could translate to say, "This is
all that the Christian's world is about."
We are to occupy this world until He comes. What then does it mean to occupy for the
Master?
I
believe it is the same thing that God has been saying from the very beginning.
Remember what He said to Adam and Eve in the garden? “Be
fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the
fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that
moves on the earth.”
Genesis 1:28. God is saying the same thing today. "Fill up the earth with my
seed." Not just physical seed as in
people having many children, but spiritual seed, which involves us, His
children, harvesting lost souls into the Kingdom. God wants us to fill the earth up with His
children!
What
about what Jesus said when He was leaving the earth? His last words were: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on
earth. Go therefore and make disciples
of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded
you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matt 28:18-20
I
would say our work is cut out for us! It
is spelt out so clearly! Sadly, today
what we see in the body of Christ is indeed discouraging and difficult to
understand. Christians are busy building
their own empires and have developed tunnel vision. We are praying for our own houses to be
built, and we are forgetting God's house!
God may sadly be saying to us the same thing He said in Haggai's
time: Then
the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4 “Is it time for you
yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?” 5
Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways! Hag. 1:3-5. What
an indictment! May God help us to be
truly kingdom minded!
This
is what Jesus said to His disciples and asked them to pray about: “The
harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of
the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. This is found in Luke 10:2. Can we pray that prayer? And who are these labourers that the Lord
wants to send into His vineyard of the world?
May I put it to us that the Lord is calling each and every one of us?
Yes, He is! "Oh, but I'm
working", you say; "I can't go."
"I'll just pray," or
"I'll just support a missionary financially." Well, both of these options are laudable, but
Jesus commands us to go! He commands us
to go!
Ok,
so you are currently employed in an office.
Instead of complaining that there are no Christians in your office and
frantically looking for a new job, just hold your peace. There is your mission field right there. Let your light shine, that their hardened
hearts may see the love of Christ. Speak with your life, and tell with your
mouth about the glorious salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do something extraordinary for the Kingdom!
When
your church organises missions to the hinterlands, participate as fully as you
can. The experience may be just the
thing you need to get going.
That
person sitting next to you on the bus, or that taxi driver who picks you up
often, have you ever stopped to ask yourself if they know Jesus? Those children who always make a nuisance of
themselves in front of your house, do they know the Lord? Unpleasant as it sounds, children die in
their sin as well. What can you do for
the children?
On
the other hand, have the people back in your hometown heard about Jesus? Can
you minister to your people group? Is God calling you to that? If he has called
you to pack bag and baggage and go, then know that He who has called is
faithful and He WILL supply your every need.
As
an individual, how do you think you can live
I obedience to the Lord's command?
Occupy
till I come, that is what the King expects of us today. Seriously, ask yourself, are you truly having
dominion wherever you go? Or, has fear gotten the better of you? On that day, will you hear the Master say: 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been
faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into
the joy of your Lord.'
Or will you suffer loss?
Brethren, let us think on these things!
Occupy till I come,
see that the work is done,
Labour in the Vineyard
faithful ones.
Feed the sheep, help the weak, be My
hands and My feet;
See that the work is done, OCCUPY
TILL I COME!
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