Round 2: Youth weekend @ the tea country

So, it is week two in Kenya. We spend the beginning of the week doing final preparation for another trip. This time we are doing a entire weekend devoted to youth.(Very excited!!! this is what I thrive on!0 There were four men on the trip Chris (Missionary to Kenya), Meshack (Bible collage teacher and Leader of Pure Ways), Phares (a very talented musician and worship leader), and Myself (Justin T. McLean). So off we are and once again through the Rift Valley we go all the way up to Kericho. Just a matter of FYI this is where Lipton gets a lot of their tea from. The land is mountainous, fertile, and very green. It also rains a lot. We arrive and get started with the first session on a Friday night, the music was loud and up beat at times, then became very serious and beautiful as Phares gave a message in music and Meshack shared on authority from scripture. That night many came to make decisions with help from the pastor translating I did my best to handle the decisions that I could. Some of the students only walked down for prayer and some came for first time decision. It was a moment in which I was scared, nervous, and caught off guard. It was a moment in which I had to rely on God totally. It was by his grace that I made it through without losing my mind. The night ended and we went to the hotel for the night and got something to eat. Day 2: I was the first one up to share that morning, I still get butterflies of nervous excitement. Well, we started about a hour late, mainly b/c no one was there until then. Lets just say punctuality is a relative thing in Kenya. After the introductions and music I then proceeded to give a message about Moses as God called him to deliver his people from the hands of Pharaoh. The outline is as follows:
Exodus 3-4:17
"God's Calling and Man's Excuses"
I. The Power of the God that Calls.
  A.His pressence
  B.His name
  C.His Holiness
  D.His Calling
  E.His Methods
  F.His Mission
II. Man's Excuses
  A.I'm no one special
  B.What is they don't believe me?
  C. I'm not a good speaker
III. God's answers
  A.I'm with you
  B. The signs
  C. Aaron
after this message we took a break for lunch, then Chris brought a message on the importance of Treasuring God's Word. We then took another break and went to the hotel for supper. This was the night me and Chris order what was advertised as a hamburger, then the brought us out deli meat on sandwich bread. We only had time to eat what they gave us and drive. We seemed to always be under a time crunch. When we finally arrived at the church that night the worship was lively and had already started. Meshack once again closed the evening with a message this time on "Effect of a Guarded Heart" (Proverbs 4:20-27)  it focused on the heart, speech, sight, and walk/conduct. The invitation was much more organized and focused this time. We rested very well that night as we had to get up early to visit a Girl's school in the morning, where Chris shared on Treasure again. Then we drove back to the church as I shared out of Isaiah 1:16-20 on "Actions of a True Believer" at the end of the message a few came forward and one was the first believer in his entire family. They fed us for lunch and we were off. Back down the mountain we go. On the way we saw a huge at least 3 1/2 ft lizard. Then the fun started. While on our way back they were working on the main road and diverted us through a town and it had been raining a lot. Let us just say there was mud and we got stuck in a mini van for at least 30 mins. Tired and Irritated we made it home safely and had some pizza with some of our friends. Slept well that night. 

The Greatest Gifts

Often times statements are made that it "is better to give than to receive." I would agree that it is and the joy to see on the face of another is just that. There is also the joy that just radiates from me when God allows me to share to Gospel and they pray to receive Christ. It is one of those moments of celebrating with others that really is exciting. I would like to tell you of how I was able to celebrate with my friends in a answer to prayer. For many years now Chris and Lindy have been attempting to have children and even have made multiple attempts to adopt all of these efforts had fallen short. So here is another story to tell.....The second weekend of my trip to Kenya I went with Chris up country to do a youth weekend, while many members of the Karen Vineyard Church (including Lindy) went on a church retreat for the weekend. Well, at this church retreat many of the members got sick due to something in the food. So, upon our return on Sunday Lindy was still not feeling well from the weekend. This continued for a few more days and Lindy decided to go to the doctor. The doctor then sent her for some blood work and everything checked out ok. By now it is a week later on a Saturday night, Chris and Lindy had been skypeing, it was late and the power just had just tripped ( I was already ready for bed) I walked into the kitchen to check on everyone (half awake). Then Chris and Lindy tell me they have something to tell me. They tell me the good news of expecting. I would like to say that I jumped up and down, but I was still half awake. I told them that I was excited for them with a smile on my face a peacefully went to bed. So in the days and the weeks to come I was able to be with them as they told countless others and waited in the lobby while they had the ultrasound. For some reason God sovereignly put me there with my friends in the moment to celebrate with them. I consider that a privilege and it will be one those moments that I will never forget.      

The Power of Prayer

Several weeks ago I can recall of a sermon Pastor Michael preached about prayer. It was directly about the power of praying with expectation. So his challenge to us as members was to ask "God open the door"....and he can tell you that through countless emails that God opened doors in abundance. I prayed that prayer also and the very next night a door was opened to share God's word by ministering to a very Good friend. Take this principle forward a month. I am in Kenya riding in the car with Chris on our way to the boys. Chris tells me "I really feel like we need to pray this morning, would you pray for us?" Of course I did not turn down this opportunity. As I prayed I asked God with expectation to give us someone to witness to. God is faithful and this door would be opened. So back to traveling....We arrived at the church where the Saint boys have school and met with them and it was break time. This usually means foot ball (that is soccer to us that live in the US) and so we began to play out in the field as usual. While we were playing another boy walked us and joined in our game. We then went to go back for lunch and the boy came with us. The pastor ask the boy who he was and said that he could stay for lunch, then he would need to leave. As we were eating lunch the prayer I prayed only hours earlier came to mind. I said "Chris this may be the one we prayed about." So, I took Essa to translate for me. We talked to Bramel about Christ which he had never even heard of before. I had the opportunity to share the Gospel with this young man and he prayed to receive Christ. If you ask me if God answers prayers? I will tell you without a doubt that he does, in his will and with a attitude of expectation.       

To Lake Victoria and Beyond

I arrived in Kenya late on a Tuesday night. After only a few days of getting rested and adjusted, I start traveling. It was early on a Thursday morning we were off again. We began to travel across Kenya. As we travel, I began to see some of beautiful wildlife that this land has to offer. We traveled from Nairobi through the Rift Valley, through towns like Nakuru, the tea country of Kericho, stopping to eat fish on the banks of Lake Victorica (where some Cichlids come from) in Kisumu, all the way up to with in 30 mile of the border of Uganda in Busia, the back down to Kakamega for the pastors conference. It was a lot of traveling in one day. I felt sorry for Chris who did all of the driving and made another trip up to Busia. We dropped Noah off to start building a Chicken farm in Busia while we were doing the Pastors Conference. Well as often happens in that part of Kenya, the weather changed very quickly as we left the farm in Busia. It started pouring and keep in mind we were in a Toyota Noah, yeah that is a mini van. We slid up the muddy mountain road and got back to the tar mat. As we were headed back to Kakamega it started to get increasingly dark. Now we need to stop a minute for context reason.( In Kenya they have speed limits that are rarely enforced, but they also have installed unmarked speed bumps at towns, markets, and other random places. The random places are the ones you worry about.) Ok, back to the story. So as we are traveling these speed bumps are becoming increasingly more difficult for us to see. Next thing you know, it is dark. The only lights around are the ones from the automobiles. So there is this on coming truck with bright lights on...all the sudden we feel this huge BAM! and feel the impact as the van bounces. In short, we hit a unmarked speed bump going reasonably fast with a hole on the other side. The van survived with no broken parts as we rolled into the hotel for the night. End of Day 1. So the next day, we get up early and get the game plan together. We would start with introduction and music, then I would speak, tea time and mandazies (Kenya doughnuts), then Glen would teach until lunch, then I basically the same format until we stopped for the day. So we arrive at a house with a small fenced in yard. (Though to self....ok where is the building, chuch, place we are going to do this? Oh, the yard.....ok we will teach in the yard.) So we start the set up and Chris attempts to teach me some Swahili as people arrived. It was bad and my accent just made it worse. I had to stop. We laughed about it and moved on. As the program started worship was awesome. I understood about half of what they were saying, but it was apparent they were worshiping God and I did my best to keep up. (I miss that music so much) I spoke and did my best as I worked with a translator. Then I found out how good those Kenya doughnuts were. Then Glen began his series on leadership. As I was sitting there  listening to Glen sitting right beside him. A chicken was walking around the yard. A very ugly chicken. It then decides it needs to walk directly between my legs under my chair and behind me on the other side. I did good and kept my cool, but to see the look on Chris' face was priceless. So the program continued as I taught on Examples of Godly leaders and Glen taught on the traits a Godly leader should have. It all went well, other than Glen getting almost hit by a car after we went to eat one night and getting run off the road by a mac truck on the way home. It was a very productive trip and I feel like we encouraged a lot of pastors.    

Conformation before landing.

Well, as if raising the funds and being able to go and return to my job were not enough. God sent me another little message along the way. As I started my journey from (Greensboro) GSO to (Detroit) DTW it was a nice hour long flight, very quick and quite enjoyable. The next flight was a long one across the Atlantic. It was from Detroit to Amsterdam. It was a 8 hour trip and yes there were tv's to watch movies.( Toy Story 3, not bad and The A-Tean, it was ok) There were some of the things which occupied the time. One of the other things I had to do was prepare for the pastor's conference that we would be leaving for 2 days after I arrived. I sat in the middle seat as we rode. The was a older lady to my left and a woman around my age to my left. As often happens in flight I kept to my self for the most part. As I sat and attempted to sleep some, watched a movie or two, then I knew I needed study for the pastor's conference which was coming very soon. I then proceeded to get out my Bible and my notebook  as I studied. Soon after that the Young woman to my right asked me where I was headed. I told her and I asked her the same question. As I was headed to Kenya, she was on her way to Mozambique for missions. Her name was Debbie and she was from Vegas. We then began to talk about how God was moving in each of our lives and arrived at AMS. Another woman that was on plane was going on the same trip with her and they had just met at Detroit. So, the three of us hung out at AMS till our planes departed separate ways. Some would say is was random chance, but I would argue that it was a point of divine providence. Out of all the 400+ that were on the plane, one of those seated beside of me was leaving for a mission trip also, just a point of conformation for me.