God's Power Through the Storm

Throughout our spiritual walk we have many conversion experiences. My first was when I became a disciple at the age of 18. When I was baptized I was overjoyed to find my relationship with God and to see what God had in store for me. It was obvious how God had orchestrated people to come into my life to show me the way to Him. My faith was fresh, my heart was eager, and my life had found new purpose.

Then life comes along… college, dating, career, marriage, and children. Each phase of life has its own conversion experiences. To some extent, being a disciple became more of a habit and lifestyle. I have often thought that because I have chosen to follow God, that life should be good and the storms minimal. But that isn’t always the case…

A little over a year and a half ago, I experienced another life changing event. After 20 years of marriage in the Kingdom, I was now a divorced, single mother of three teenagers. I was crushed. The landscape of my life and spirituality had taken a drastic change.

As I cried out to God, I realized that I had a decision to make. I could blame God, become bitter, and potentially destroy the faith of my children; or I could cling to the Word, open my heart to the women around me and beg God to carry me. I chose the latter.

Hebrews 11: 1 -“Now faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

I definitely wasn’t seeing how I was going to fare in this storm. Through my tears, I begged God to speak to me through His Word. Each day as I read, God showed me that He could identify with every emotion I was experiencing. Rejection? Betrayal? Loneliness? Yes, Jesus had been there.

I saw how God hurt with me, and the Psalms became a balm for my broken heart. I would call the women in my life to share my attitudes, feelings, and tears. They patiently listened and cried with me. I borrowed their faith because mine was weak. They helped me to stay focused on God, and to trust that He was preparing my children and me for something better.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

I begged God to not let the circumstances shipwreck my children’s faith. My heart was breaking as I watched my kids wrestle with why this happened. I begged God to work in their hearts as they navigated through a situation that most Kingdom Kids will never experience. But I had to realize that God too was preparing their hearts through this storm.

As time moved on, I also had to look at my heart. Relationships don’t occur in a vacuum. What was God trying to show me about relationships in general, and especially with Him? I began to realize that I had hurt God by allowing the circumstances of life rob me of complete intimacy with Him. This conversion brought me to a deeper understanding and tenderness with God that I had never experienced during my walk as a disciple.

Wounds take time to mend. Seeing how God has provided for and carried us through this experience continuously helps my heart to heal. I have watched my children grow in their relationship with God and they have felt the love and support of the Kingdom like never before.

I Peter 3:6-7, 9 [6] “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. [7] These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. [9] for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

But as with any conversion… the power is in seeing God transform the hearts of others. Despite the circumstances, the power of the Jesus’ sacrifice moved the heart of my 17-year-old daughter, Jenna. On July 14^th, I was able to baptize her into Christ. I could feel God embrace me and I knew all the pain and tears were worth it.

I am still not on the other side. Despite the storm, I have learned to embrace the struggle. While it has been the most difficult thing I have ever experienced, I would not change it. The conversion in my heart and my daughter’s are too valuable. I continue to pray for humility and to be an example of love and faith. I have learned that I cannot control what happens to me, but I have the Spirit to guide me as I deal with it. I have chosen God, and His sacrifice – it is all I need.

"They Call Her Blessed" and "Who Stole my Heart?", Two Women's Days in Nairobi

In this year’s women’s day, the theme was “…they call her blessed…”. It is mainly derived from the book of Proverbs 31: 28 which reads, ‘Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband too and he praises her.' We were mainly focusing on parenting with a realization that how our marriages are doing affects how we parent our children.

The event was on the 11^th of November but I cannot fail to say briefly how the preparations were and especially the previous day, the 10^th. In this last quarter of the year, the theme for the entire church has been ‘Costly stones of Fellowship’ and honestly it was evident in the preparations. There was a clear evidence of the spirit of unity and fellowship as everyone was hands-on, helping out with the preparations. Earlier on in the months the choir and the dancers had been practicing diligently for their presentations on the women's day. The most outstanding was this sister who had a six months old baby and was so willing to be in the dance. She would come for dance practice, put her baby somewhere to sleep as she danced along with the others. Talk about a heart of wanting to be used by God no matter the situation.

On Saturday the 10^th, the venue was a beehive of activities, disciples everywhere doing something to help make the day colourful and successful. This year round, we decided to do our own cooking instead of having outside catering services. Of course it was not going to be easy. It required faith and willingness to serve. Our very own sisters at church who are caterers offered their services for free. However, they were not on their own. There were many sisters who came in large numbers to help chopping, sorting, cleaning and whatever else there was to be done. A sister commented how for the past 11 years of her discipleship life she has never served or been involved in the women's day but this was the first because there was an opportunity to do so.

I cannot forget to talk about a special group of about 15 brothers in the campus ministry who spent the night in the church building, which was the venue, also chopping, sorting, cleaning and on the eventful day helping out in lifting the heavy cooking pots and being willing to be sent here and there. May God bless their awesome young hearts. Also present were brothers in the choir who set up a band at the entrance to entertain and welcome the sisters and our visitors. May God bless their hearts as well.

Sunday the 11^th was awesome. The ladies were looking good and ready to be taught. The choir did so great and the dance did not disappoint. Truly we were well equipped on parenting. Several sisters shared their lives. A sister, Caroline spoke well about how to find balance. She is a married, a mother of three children - a four year old boy, a two and a half year old girl and an 11 month old boy. She is also a full time employee and a deaconess in the church. How she balances all that was very encouraging and she did great to encourage the newly weds who are having children and mothers at large.

Another sister, Judy really encouraged the single parents in her sharing. She talked about raising her son, who is 18 years old now, as a single parent. In the African culture, it is so easy for a single parent to feel like they need someone to help them raise their children. Her sharing helped the single parents believe that they can be their best in raising up their children singlehandedly of course with the help of God. A single parent commented how she is diligently looking for a job so that she can start living with her son who is currently with her parents. After the whole event, several ladies came to speak with her asking several questions on how to raise their children.

Then came Jennifer, a sister whose husband is not a Christian yet. She started by reminding us from the scriptures that inspires her to raise her children well in 2 Timothy 1:3-5. With this passage, she showed us that it is clear that Timothy was raised up by his grandmother and mother who was thought to be a single parent. She not only raised him up but brought him up in Christian faith. She encouraged and inspired us how to give all our children attention individually. She however doesn’t use her situation as an excuse to raising her children well. She gave us many practicals on how to spend time with our children and she said it starts with respecting our husbands. Among the practicals were, knowing their love languages, their likes and dislikes, having fun times, family devotional, attending their church and school events, discipling them, among many others. Because of her hard work in raising them this way, God blessed her this year and two of her teens were baptized in August and September respectively. Another sharing was from Mary and her daughter Esther who is 16 year old. They also shared about their relationship. Esther clearly confessed that her mum is her best friend. I would say, their sharing gave many hope that we can win the hearts of our children where they can feel free to share with us the good and the ugly. At the end of their sharing, they had surprise notes which they read to each other. It was very emotional.

We also had our very own two professional counselors teach us a few things on parenting. One of them, Ann, spoke about personality development of our children from childhood to being young adults. She enabled us to see that when we do not allow our children to transition well, they experience problems in their future lives. We really needed to hear how our children transition in these stages. All she talked about was very useful and I personally got so much information on what to expect and how to go about it as my child grows.

Lastly was another sister, also called Judy, talked about child abuse. Her talk was so awakening as she gave us the reality of this situation. In Africa, this happens a lot, and mostly, not many want to talk about this topic. In fact, it is sometimes considered as taboo to even talk about it, for the sake of saving someone’s image and sometimes so as not to bring shame to the family. She also made it very clear that a big percentage of abuse to children is done by close relatives or people they relate to and trust a lot. She also gave us some signs to look out for in the mannerisms of our children in case this happens. This was very scary and so it was very helpful for her to talk about it to the many women who had attended. She did well to prepare us on how we can avoid these situations from happening and God forbid if they happen, how to go about it. At the end of her short talk, I personally gathered so much information and knowledge and I purpose to put it into practice to protect my girl from experiencing this with the help of God and I believe the same with the other parents.

I cannot forget to talk about Josephine, who literally cracked our ribs with a comedy on the mistakes we make as parents. Also was a group of mothers with their girls who entertained us with a poem and included in the poem was also a mother- in-law with her daughter-in-law.

Honestly, it was a day well spent as we even wanted more. It ended well and people fellowshipped as they went home. The total attendance was about 600 disciples and 404 visitors.

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory because of your love and faithfulness (Psalm 115:1)”

Women's Day no.2: Single Women

In this year’s women’s day, the theme was “Who stole my heart?”

What a lovely theme that prompted the singles to want to answer this question. Everyone was looking forward to answering this question including the many visitors we invited. The event was on the 18^th of November.

With this Women's Day, adequate preparations were done. The choir and the dance did their best to make the day great. On Saturday the 17^th, there was also a beehive of activities as different sisters came to help serve in whichever way they could. The campus brothers were very available and willing to spend the night at the venue to help in preparations for the following day. They actually spent the night. I am personally still blown away by their hearts of service for the two consecutive weekends.

The day started with rain, and we kept praying that God would still make the day great despite the rains, and He did. The choir started us off with their lovely voices and I was so proud of them. The dance was awesome and it made all of us want to join them.

Several sisters shared their lives. To begin with, Lorna, shared her life as a teen. She made it very clear to the teens and all of us in the crowd that what stole her heart then was a longing to get to know what the world offers and also to get to be famous in the world. As a result of this, she got into so many things that she terms as her sad past, amongst them getting pregnant as a teen. She finished by being so grateful that God has stolen her heart now and she urged the teens to be godly and to allow God to be the one who steals their hearts. She is now a single parent of two, a boy and a girl and she is so grateful that God gave her another chance and the privilege to get to raise her children in the church.

Catherine was baptized as a college student and has been a disciple for the past 23 years and is still single. She shared that the reason why she has pulled through is having life to the full and real friends who constantly stand by her side. She also shared that it has not been easy but she has chosen not to put her life on hold waiting for a husband, children, a job, a degree and many others. Her sharing was very encouraging to all the sisters who have been single for a while in the kingdom. Many of them commented that they would like to have life to the full and not put their lives on hold.

Yet another sister, Sarah, shared. She was once a disciple, who fell away, got married, got a child and the marriage ended up in divorce. She realized that she was still missing something and she needed God desperately. As she shared, it was clear that in the beginning, even when she was in the church, she was not content and Satan used it to take her out of God’s church. She came back to God and got restored about one and a half years ago. She is now a happy single mum, raising up her child in the church and content being single until God desires otherwise. She pleaded with all the singles to hang in there no matter what, to know that there is nothing in the world to take them out, and to allow God to steal their hearts.

Lastly came Lucy who has a health challenge which she discovered shortly after being a disciple. Nevertheless, she has chosen that it is God who will steal her heart. She has been a disciple for 16 years now and still single. At the end of her sharing, which was very emotional, it was clear to all of us that it is God who has stolen her heart.

We then had our speaker, Betty who wrapped the whole event by showing us from the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 1 and 2 that what steals our hearts is meaningless, a chase after the wind. Neither the quest for wisdom (studying more), nor worldly pleasures (not denying our eyes anything), nor wealth should steal our hearts. By the end of her class it was clear to all the singles that God is the only one to steal our hearts. What a convicting, transforming message from God.

As the day ended it was so clear that God was with us. Even though it started by raining it ended so bright. Out of about 180 single disciples who were present, we had an attendance of more than 200 visitors. It was a women's day with a difference, full of transformation and giving purpose to this life. As a result of that many women have started studying the Bible.

“To the man who pleases Him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes 2:26”

To God be the glory.