“And why have you come to this country?”
“And why have you come to this country?”
The Kenyan interviewing the newly-arrived couple surveyed their passports. They could hear another passenger jet touching down beyond the terminal.
“We have come to serve as missionaries.”
Studying them soberly, his rubber stamp poised, the official offered flatly, “You’re too young to be missionaries.” Chip and Chari Kingsbury breathed a sigh as the stamp thumpthumped each document.
“Okay, guys,” I called to our new coworkers while gathering luggage, “next stop — a wedding!”
After the July 4th ceremony the newlyweds, Moses and Jacinta, made their way home. Together they pressed into pastoral work.
Funds were tight but the Kikuyu couple wholly embraced the mission driving them. Moses’ open-air preaching at the city market – his teaching, mentoring, lifting, challenging – spawned new believers, a number of whom responded themselves in the call to serve. A serious cry for training grew.
“Here we are, Jerry, all the extension materials accounted for.” The Kingsbury’s joining us in the Nyeri work came at the right time. Our friendship deepened. Christian workers caught vision, increased their knowledge, prayed fervently, grew bold. The Lord’s kingdom expanded.
“Okay kiddos, let’s see what the Pevensies and Aslan are up to today!” Nothing fired up our children’s imagination (nor our own) like the weekly ritual every Tuesday with Uncle Chip. Reading aloud one by one, all seven volumes of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles.
Coming years saw Sunday Schools launched as Ann and Chari trained African volunteers eager to nurture children in the Lord.
Creative objects lessons for installing truth were fashioned of raw materials within easy reach. A pile of pebbles, a thorny plant, maize seed.
Young Pastor Moses poured heart and soul into a Pentecostal movement’s Africa work. But labels aside, Christ was gaining a hearing. I link up in a Bible training role – Theological Education by Extension. Sipping chai alongside
Sipping chai alongside X-ray tech Haniel and Civil servant Hector, I watched the T.E.E. trainees apply Biblical truths to hard problems.
Their tackling real issues by prayer and obedience deepened confidence, increased their spiritual influence.
It was powerful change affected through ordinary and not-so-ordinary Jesusfollowers. . . Fallible, limping – and, like the rest of us – continuous “works-inprogress.”
Speaker-writer Jerry Lout grew up in Okmulgee County. A graduate of Preston High School, he completed media training at OSU-Okmulgee prior to his San Antonio college years. He and his wife served 20 years as missionaries in Africa. Visit his website at: www.jerrylout.com, which features his blog entries. Jerry welcomes comments by email at: jerrylout@gmail.com.
©2020 Jerry Lout