A Life in Mission

“Its hard to do anything but wait, when there’s no other option!” I added. I was talking with Gary and Wendy at the lunch table. Earlier that Sunday Pastor K had come by so we could discuss some things regarding 2CBN. He was one of the 2CBN board members, but he hadn’t been able to come for our earlier board meetings because of his job at the Union Office. He was able to come on Sunday and so we had arranged for a meeting with all the board members that were able to come, which was going to be most of them. However, Pastor K was the only one that actually came! Here in Africa you can’t expect the same things as we do in the US! We discussed many things regarding 2CBN that we had already covered with the rest of the board members. We spoke of the volunteers that were interested in being a part of 2CBN. We had been made aware that video equipment in Kenya is a hot item and many Kenyans are dishonest, and that we needed to take precautions and keep an eye on the equipment so it didn’t grow legs and disappear! We realized the need for someone who was reliable and trustworthy who could help instill in the volunteers the values that are needed in true dedicated service to the cause of God.

“I think if we can get someone from another country such as the US who has these values and can come and direct the operation and watch the equipment… someone like Daniel who has the knowledge about media, this would be a good thing.” Pastor K also saw the importance for someone to come to oversea and direct the project. Gary responded, “Well if you can find a wife for him then he might come!” Needless to say, I was a bit surprised to hear him say this, although I had to admit to myself that in the past times I had gone overseas, I often found myself lonely and immersed in the culture. Now being immersed in a foreign culture isn’t bad by any means, but after a long time without seeing any fellow Americans that I could relate to, I would begin to wish there were other people from the West that I could relate to. Although if God led me to stay somewhere for a extended period of time, as a single person, and without other Western individuals to relate to, I would be willing to do it. But currently God had me working for MissionTV and I didn’t see Him leading anywhere else, except for short term projects like the one with 2CBN.

Gary went on to say how it would be a good place for a young couple who could live in a house with the volunteers and where the studio could be located as well. We had found such a house, and it had seemed to be a perfect opportunity, but when Gary and I had gone to see it the previous Friday we realized that it was right off the end of the runway of a nearby airport, where planes were always flying in. We realized that this presented some significant challenges of sound proofing, along with the possibility of doing lots of work, sound proofing and blocking up windows, and then still hearing the plane noise! Another factor was the amount of the room available for an actual studio space… It was not unworkable, but quite limiting. So we had started looking at other options. After considering some other options we knew that in the long term having a house where we could have a studio in part of it, and house volunteers in another part would be ideal because this way they wouldn’t have to worry about transport to and from work and having to deal every day with all the hassles of traffic jams! So this still being our long term plan Gary mentioned the possibility of having a couple to watch out for things at the studio keeping the project on track, and offering spiritual leading for the volunteers.

If this was God’s plan for me, then of course I was willing. But something was definitely missing! As many nice girls as I knew I still didn’t know which one God had for me. (still true!) I have seen some people wait until their mid 30s or till 40, but I was unwilling to wait that long… However I knew that I wasn’t qualified to choose for myself, God had to choose for me. And in this I had to be content to await God’s timing. Also God had given me a specific burden for documentary storytelling through video, showing the needs of the mission field, especially the unreached fields. If I were to settle down here in Kenya, then this would remain a dream for me, and it would remain undone here in Africa until someone else felt the burden and picked it up.

I thought of the time when I was talking with Gary about what the needs of Africa were. There were many projects in Africa ready to launch, but I didn’t know exactly what was holding them back. He said that he just needs the right people to come to be pilots, to be nurses, and media people. I realized that the need was huge. And of course coming to work in Africa is not without challenges, but I saw that there was a big need for the right people. People that God impressed to go were needed. Some had come, and had been more of a challenge than a help to the people who they were there to assist. I knew that we didn’t need just anyone who wanted to come for these projects across Africa, we needed the exact people that God wanted to use for the job. And yet I knew that time is short and so I prayed that these people would come soon.

I knew that even though I might get lonely when I went to the mission field, there was still work that had to be done. For me to avoid that work or to become focused in seeking to gratify my desires would be selfish. I knew that it didn’t matter how I felt, God still expected me to answer His calling, which was to seek and save those souls lost in the darkness and to inspire others to do the same. For now I decided I would make this my focus and even though I had wasted His time in the past, I would attempt to make best use of the time that He had given me to work alone.

I prayed that God would provide someone for this 2CBN project to direct the program who had proven himself honest, and who was more mature than I spiritually. Whether this person was to come from a foreign country or to be found here in Kenya, I prayed that God would make it clearly evident that it was His choice.

“What do you think about the Mayan calendar and 2012?” The young lady asked in broken English. I realized that this was definitely a Divine Appointment. She was sitting on the aisle seat with one seat in between her and my window seat. No one came to sit in that seat, and so we had started to talk. She was from Italy and headed to Kenya also, to help with something at a library there. In talking with her I realized that she didn’t know too much English, but realizing that Spanish is quite similar to Italian I sometimes fell back on the few words I know in Spanish to get a point across or to ask a question. She asked me what I was doing in Kenya, and when I mentioned mission work she asked what denomination I was. I told her that I was Seventh Day Adventist. Asking her what she was I learned that she was Catholic. But she said she knew a little about SDA, but didn’t know much about what we believe and how it compares with Catholics beliefs. So I explained to her about some of the things that we believe starting with the things that we have in common, then explaining some of the differences and how we take the Bible as supreme authority. I gave her some glow tracts I had and she read them right away, then continuing conversation. I knew that somehow God had arranged that we were both on the same flight sitting in the same row, with no one in between us!

I answered the question carefully explaining that I wouldn’t be surprised to see something happen this year, but quoting Jesus where he said that if possible even the elect would be deceived. I them pointed out how almost all of the world’s religions are all looking for some bright shining one to appear to them. “This is a reason that we have to be careful” I explained, “because Satan would love to take advantage of this, and the Bible says that he appears as an angel of light.” “Ok, I don’t think that 2012 is going to be the end of the world” she said. “Yes you may be right,” I answered, “but I don’t think we have much time left in this world just the same.” I went on the explain how Jesus said that there would be wars and rumors of wars, and famines and pestilence and floods. And he said that all these things are just the beginning of sorrows. I told how the word in Greek for sorrows is actually the same word used for the contractions of a women giving birth. The contractions come more and more often with increasing frequency, the same is true as the end of time comes closer. We definitely are seeing an increase in natural disasters, and wars and the things that Jesus predicted. This all points to the fact that the time left on this world is very short and now is the time to study to know what is truth. If we wait, we may wait too long.

When we finished talking I leaned back in my seat to rest. It had been a long day and the night before I hadn’t got much sleep either on the plane from Atlanta. That plane was just stopping in Amsterdam before continuing on to Mumbai, India. I thought about the lady I had met just before boarding in Atlanta, and how that was a divine appointment too. I could see that she was Indian, but I asked her where she was going anyway and she said she was headed to Mumbai. So I told her I’d been to India and we got to talking… I talked a little about the need that there is over there, being careful because I figured that she was probably Hindu. But come to find out she was Christian! I was surprised! It’s not many random people from India that I’ve met in airports and such that are Christians! This is rare! She said that disciple Thomas went to India in the early Christian days, and she believes that she is a descendant from some of those that he converted… So I started sharing my burden for the unreached in India and how they have no opportunity to know about Christ. She replied saying that she didn’t think that God would necessarily send someone to hell because they didn’t have an opportunity. This seemed like an unusual point of view to me… I acknowledged that there was some truth there, but that we need to do our part, because Jesus commanded us to tell them. She mentioned also about how sometimes things can be difficult and sensitive working among the Hindu people. She lives in the US with her husband who is from the US. She said, “Well I do my part, I send my tithe so they can hear.” I affirmed that that is good, but I pointed out that she has an advantage that I don’t have. She knows the language, and she knows the culture and is able to relate to the people in a way that I can’t. So I tried to just encourage her to do what she can to reach people there using the background that God has given her. I pray that God will continue to lead her in that direction.

I woke up when one of flight attendants came by and gave me my meal. I had requested vegetarian meals and they brought the special meals before they went down the aisle with the regular meals. We were getting close to our destination of Nairobi, we were about an hour and a half out. After eating my meal I saw the sun was beginning to set. The bright saturated colors permeated the west sky as the sun began to sink behind the horizon. I looked at the flight info again and saw that we were getting closer to Nairobi. I realized that I might never see my Italian friend again, and suddenly I felt I had to talk to her about another thing that made the Adventist message special. I had already talked to her some about the Sabbath and how we take the Bible as supreme authority in everything. But I felt that I needed to talk to her about the message God has given the Adventists for this time. So I turned to Revelation 14 and started to explain the three angels’ messages focusing on the last one and how at the end of time God is going to have a people who keep all 10 of the commandments. “God has sheep in many folds,” I explained, “but He’s given the Adventists a special message to bring people back to the Bible”. Then, realizing that the ten commandments that she knows are different than what God wrote on Sinai, I turned to Ex 20, and started to show her the ten commandments from the Bible, explaining that there was a change back hundreds of years ago, and that that’s why her Catholic Bible isn’t the same. She was happy to learn, and so I suggested that maybe when she gets back home that if she wanted we could arrange some kind of Bible study so she can learn more. All at once I realized we were landing! I had been so focused on the conversation that I didn’t keep track of how close were were getting. We taxied in from the runway, and came to the gate but before parting God impressed me that I should pray with her. She had asked me about prayer earlier and I realized that she may not have seen anyone pray before like we pray. So I prayed with her asking God to guide her as she studies and that He would reveal to her new truths from His Word. “Amen”, I said, she crossed herself, and then we parted to disembark the plane.

It’s Divine appointments like these that make working for God worth it! It’s so fulfilling to talk to someone and know that the words you speak are not your words! When God speaks through you, it’s an experience like nothing else! Don’t miss out!