Words cannot express the blessing the Love & Respect
team encountered when using Sensible Shoes and Ephesians 5:1-2 as a means to
enter into door-to-door evangelism. I think I speak for us all when I say the
focused gift and Scripture gave us all a greater degree of comfort and
confidence when inviting people to give their lives to Jesus. As a team, we
reported almost 40 people who gave their lives to Christ and in the Ganda area,
we learned that all those who were prayed for came to the marriage conference
every day and continue to attend church on Sunday. Praise the Lord!
I invite, no implore,
the team to write their own blog posts from their experiences because the
stories were amazing. But what I can do is share my experience with you.
Mary and I went to Pr Peter’s church and school in a village
just outside Watamu. Being a school, there was no shortage of shoeless children.
The group was divided into two with Mary leading worship and sharing the
message of walking in the way of love (Ephesian 5:1-2) in one area and me in
another. Following the worship and message, teachers selected children in need
and we were blessed with water and soap by which to wash their feet as we
prayed and prophesied over them.
While I cannot speak for Mary (though all the hugs she was
giving may speak for itself), I was so blessed by the team I was with. This
beautiful woman from Pr Owino’s church almost knocked me down to “get the
blessing of washing these children’s feet.” In other words, Surprised by Hope
is leaving a legacy with pastors and church leaders in serving by example so
much that they won’t even allow us to do the ministry at times. That act of
kindness blesses me more than words can say. We have been focusing our Sensible
Shoes efforts in the coastal area of Kenya for a few years and believe that the
children we pray for will be spiritual strong towers for their community as
they grow. Having the present church leaders model the way speaks volumes about
what God can and will do here in the future.
Pr Peter, in all his wisdom, set aside a few pair of shoes
so that we could visit a specific family who lived quite a walk away from the church.
The extended family lived all around this father of five who was thought to be
a curse because he was unable to find work and keep his family well. We shared
the Word about walking in the way of love and invited him to give his life to
Jesus. Nothing like a huge pile of pastors and a few wazungu to intimidate you
into accepting Christ. However, the look on his face told me exactly what to
say next. “You do not have to be a better person to accept Jesus as your
savior. You do not have to clean up your life or even change anything. He loves
you just exactly as you are.” A wave of relief washed over him and he knelt to
the ground as he accepted Jesus. One of Surprised by Hope’s goals is to be sure
the pastor is supported by us and that we (the wazungu) are not the center of
the event. And the pastors gladly prayed over and loved on this man and his
family. And, oh ya, the shoes. You blessed this whole family with Sensible
Shoes before we left. What if we didn’t have the shoes? We might not have even
gone to this man’s home.
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