How do you describe an experience as intense as two weeks of travel and ministry and conversation during a Kenya, Africa winter? I could describe in vivid detail the 15-hour airplane trip (just one leg of our total journey) where I once awoke to a 2-year-old Indian girl, who gave up her screaming just long enough to reach down and pet the intriguing white skin on my leg. I could exult in the strength of Kenyan coffee on a cool 48-degree morning. I could criticize the free-flowing and nearly homicidal traffic patterns that had us holding our breath through Nairobi. I could describe the dust kicked up on country roads or the smell of diesel fumes in the morning or even the animals caterwauling outside our windows each evening. But none of those things can capture the majesty of our trip.
Instead, what my mind is drawn to time and again are the moments where we were privileged to see God’s kingdom grow. To be sure, it’s difficult to see such small spurts of growth just like it’s nearly impossible to gauge your own child’s daily growth, but even small pencil marks on the measuring wall are moments of excitement. Our team got to see those daily.
We saw it in the eyes of the children at Korogocho Nyayo who sang with exuberance at our entrance into their school. They sang about our “Awesome God.” They thanked us for leaving our friends and family and homes and businesses to come and visit them in their slum. They said that they saw Jesus in us, and with every ounce of their being, they meant it. Their words melted our hearts.
We saw kingdom growth in the laughter of Peter, the school headmaster, as he threw his head back and gave us a high five. Ironically, it was his tears at our leaving that cemented what we already knew. We came as mission partners, but we left as friends.
We witnessed God’s kingdom grow in the questions of 20 local pastors who discussed how to preach God’s word in Old Testament stories. Through the two day seminar, this brotherhood of light skin and dark re-discovered our common passion for the same glorious God.
How do you capture these small moments of God’s kingdom growth? Would it be too hard for you to believe that we saw it by jumping rope with 3rd graders from the poverty-stricken Mathare slums? Could you believe that we saw it on a soccer field, during a VBS story time, or even sitting in a tin shack sharing the story of Jesus? Does God’s kingdom expand through a VBS craft, making noisemakers to illustrate Joshua’s battle of Jericho or pipe cleaner fish to demonstrate Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000? Would you believe we could see God’s kingdom grow when we described the causes and effects of malaria to a people living without easy access to the world wide web? Would that make sense?
It’s nearly impossible to capture a two-week mission trip in a blog post. The stories from our team will spill out of them for the rest of their lives: “Remember that time in Africa when…” But what I can say is that our team boldly trusted God to enter into the lives of those he loves. Our church family boldly prayed and supplied and supported and cheered for the trip to happen. And we saw God’s kingdom grow. In small (and not-so-small) ways, we saw our King answer our Uncharted prayer – “your kingdom come, your will be done in Kenya as it is in heaven.” Seeing that prayer answered through us captures everything I could say about this trip.
