I remember like it was yesterday. I was sitting in my dorm room, listening to a sermon from my pastor at my home church. As the sermon was playing from the computer, I heard statistics regarding AIDS and poverty that astounded me. I stopped the sermon each time another statistic was spoken to comprehend what I was truly hearing. The statistics were given in real time with a bell dong given as it was said how many children had died of AIDS or water borne diseases just in the time the sermon was been preached. As these statistics grabbed me and captured my heart, I wondered how my eyes were blinded to the crisis regarding poverty all around me. In my wondering, however, God, put in my heart a desire to make a difference. A desire to make an impact in the world around me.
You see, this desire, to make an impact in the world around me has been with me from an early age. I remember my first mission trip was a trip to places around the county around me. A bunch of 20 sixth graders stayed in tents at our church, sleeping on a big field of grass.
I don’t remember much about that trip, but I remember two things that stood out to me. My youth pastor Dave, en route to one of our work site, took 2 of us out to eat to Burger King. Something he probably shouldn’t have done, but he did it anyway. We still dropped off peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to the rest of our group. That memory stays with me as a moment in time in which someone communicated with their words and actions, “You matter.” “You are important. “It made all the difference in the world to this little shy boy with glasses.
Over time, my youth pastor, continued to play an impact in my life as I took in every little word he preached, writing down all the notes I could muster. I was determined to follow the Jesus Dave was talking about, and was determined to give my life over to this Jesus. But without him taking the moment to show me that I matter on one side trip to Burger King, perhaps none of that would even matter. His actions and words lined up with each other, showing me what true genuine faith looks like.
Another memory from that trip was that I was re-introduced to the music of Steven Curtis Chapman. If any of you have grown up in the church, you have probably heard of him or vaguely aware of him. If you didn’t grow up in the church, google him or you tube some of his music. You will find some great gems in his music. Anyway, when I was a little kid, about five years old, I heard his song “The Great Adventure” during Sunday school at church. No great memories attached, it just was a fun song with a great beat for a five year old. However, when I heard the song “Dive”, blasted from the speakers at our camp site, I instantly fell in love with the song as I love the melody, the hooks, everything about it.
I “dived” into to Chapman’s music and over time, bought every one of His CD’s, compact discs- round little discs that play music, for those of you only know digital music. It was a treat every time I got one of his CD’s as I cranked it up on my compact disc player with speakers. I danced along to the music if it was upbeat, and if the music was slow, I slowed myself down to listen to what Chapman was saying. Chapman’s songs rang true to my heart of what it meant to truly follow Jesus, the good, the bad, and everything in between. I don’t what kind of person I would be without Chapman’s music. His music played an impact in my world, shaping my faith into one that desires to follow after Jesus with everything I got.
So let’s go back to that dorm room in my junior year at college, listening to that sermon. I was at a Christian college in Tennessee, studying Bible and Counseling. I wanted to make an impact in the world around me, but didn’t know how that would look like. I didn’t even know if I am truly wanted to be a counselor, I just wanted to make a difference in the world around me. However, with this sermon, God was giving an invitation to make a difference in this world that He brought me into many years ago. At first, I didn’t know what to do. I was dumbfounded at what a junior in college could do to make an impact. I didn’t like the intrusion this was placing upon my life and my so called plans. I asked the mission professor at my college with some suggestions on what I should do, but didn’t find much luck in that. Then I found out about an organization called Blood Water Mission, founded by a Christian band called Jars of Clay. The organization was founded in part, to build water wells in various countries to combat water borne diseases in these poverty- stricken countries.
Then as I found out about this great organization, I found about a campaign called Two Weeks of Sacrifice that was been done on many college campuses. This campaign was designed for college students to give up change they were spending on soft drinks or any sort of snack. Then this change would be gathered up over the course of two weeks, to fund a water well in one of this countries. It was a campaign that maybe even me a college junior could lead, if He could be still enough to listen and obey the voice of the One that called him to follow Him in a New York church in sixth grade. When I got still enough to listen to God, I when to a prayer room my college had on campus. God started confronting my heart with Scriptures about poverty, that I had no choice to respond to the call God was placing on my heart. I didn’t know how this would work out, or even if it would work out. But I was determined to make a difference in the world around me.
So one day at chapel, I introduced this campaign to raise money for a water well. It was an audacious fundraising goal- 2,500 dollars in two weeks!! The school had trouble enough getting to sponsor missionaries over a school year- much less a water well. But as I spoke, a community of people surround me and uplifted me in this goal. I was not alone! God was with me showing his presence to me in real tangible ways. A particular friend named Sarah was a blessing to me, helping me with the administrative side of this campaign. She was the wind behind my wings in so many ways, giving me the encouragement to keep moving forward. Jars and containers were put across dorm halls, longing for poor college students to drop their spare change into. Over the course of these two weeks, I gave various announcements in chapel! This was a shy boy who didn’t know how to speak well- but somehow God was giving him the confidence to speak about a passion God had placed on his heart.
Each week, as the money was collected, it was given to the money handling department- I don’t know exactly what it was called. I didn’t know how much money was being given, but God knew- even when I didn’t know! At the end of the two weeks, I was astounded to find out that the whole campus had raised over and above the amount needed to raise for the water well! I was astounded and amazed at how God had used me to make a difference in the world around me. I was determined to find out what my next step was and where God was calling me next in this adventure called life.
In the midst of the work God was doing in my life, God was up to something special in the life of my family. My aunt and uncle, in response to a call God had placed on their own hearts, went to Uganda as missionaries. They were part of a project called Restoration Gateway, whose goal was to build orphanages for displaced children in the ongoing civil war in Uganda. In the midst of this project, my aunt and uncle used a strategy called Community Health Evangelism (CHE)- a holistic approach to ministry- caring about the physical and spiritual condition of people. As I heard about the call God had placed on their hearts, I was also seeing about other opportunities that my home church was doing in Kenya. Both sounding like amazing opportunities- but I ended up deciding to go to work in Uganda for a few months with my aunt and uncle.
However, there was this thing called money in the way of me going. I sent out letters from my college dorm room to a lot of my friends and family. It was basically a full-time job in the midst of my college studies. It was a lot to juggle for a college student. Then my dorm hall- 1st North came up with an idea. They would design a concert using their abilities of singing, dancing, and all sort of hidden talents and abilities- to help me raise money for my trip. It was humbling and astounding that my hall was willing to put a concert together for this boy who just wanted to follow God in the next step He was calling him to follow.
It ended up that I raised over the amount needed for me to go!!! I was exciting to visit an African country and be apart of the work God was doing there. During my time in Uganda, I spent the majority of my time on a compound. One of the things I loved was the red dirt was almost clay-like. I surrounded me everywhere I went- going on my shoes, my shirts- everything I touch it was there! But I didn’t have a care in the world as I was content on serving God wherever He was calling me to serve that particular day. Some days that looked like, helping out with assisting in CHE lessons or Bible Studies, and the occasional painting the houses where the orphans were staying. It didn’t quite matter to me what I was doing.
I also got live in a hut for the majority of my time there, so that was pretty cool. It was a hardened clay structure with bamboo for a roof. I remember going back and forth almost every day with Amy Grant’s song “Takes a Little Time” on my mouth. The song didn’t hold much meaning to me, it was just was the song that was on my mouth throughout my time there. I also got to go on my first safari and see elephants and monkeys and all sort of animals. It was cool seeing God’s creation in all its splendor. However, an even cooler thing was going to see the most, majestic waterfalls I had even seen. I had seen some in the States, but these waterfalls seem to be rushing and gushing with water, reflecting the majesty but wildness of the God who called me to this place during this season in my life.
One of the best times I had was preaching in a village with a team that came down from Texas. The bathroom was a basically a hole in the ground and was very stinky!! I remember being put off by the smell- as it was probably the worst smell I had ever smelt in my whole entire life. On our first day there, we arrived there at dusk with no food prepared for us. But in the middle of the night, they woke us up for our midnight supper. We had our midnight supper over flashlights and all sort of lights. Now that I think about it was perhaps a reflection of what we were experiencing in our hearts at that time. We were coming to bring light in a very dark place, spiritually speaking. We didn’t know what the effect of that light would bring to this country, we just wanted to be the hands and feet of Jesus to this country.
During this time, I preached my first sermon overseas. Prior to this trip, I had only preached for the homiletics class- a fancy word for preaching- I had in college. I preached to a class of 30 students and also Io a small country church of 50 people . I don’t remember having a great response to either time I preached it. However, my sermon on community was a reflection of what God was teaching me about community through my dorm hall 1st North. They came to hear me preach, being a living testimony of the type of community I was preaching about.
Fast forward, back to preaching in Uganda. I don’t remember much about that sermon, or even what I preached about, but I am remembered being humbled that God would use me and my words to draw people closer to Him. It was the first time of many times that I preached in Uganda. I spoke on whatever God was teaching me in my life. It was freeing to be in the center of God’s will. I felt at peace for probably the first moment in my life. My uncle was astounded about my gift and ability in speaking, and even told me maybe I should be a preacher. I dismiss that idea right away. However, I remember one night, after reading an Oswald Chambers devotional from surrender, a call from God to preach a senior sermon on surrender at my college. It was not an audible call, but a sense that this was the next thing God was calling me to do in my life. A senior sermon was typically designed for preaching majors to hone their skills in preaching before a live audience. For me it was different. I just wanted to preach a message that God was laying on my heart to speak of the importance of surrendering every part of our lives before Jesus.
As I went back to college in the fall, immersed in my studies, but also taking my time to study and prepare for a sermon that would bring people closer to Jesus. It was the hardest, but most joyful work I ever did. Then came the cool October day in which I would preach this sermon in front of my peers and teachers. My family came all the way from Maryland to hear me preach so that was pretty special. As I spoke that October day, I was nervous, and my slight speech impediment was evident as I spoke. But even in the midst of that speech impediment, God used me in a powerful way to communicate truth in a way I never thought was possible. For years, I got encouragement from my peers on how it was one of their favorite sermons. I felt confident after that sermon that God would use me to make an impact in the world.
Komentáře