Some friends of mine recently went on what we call a faith outreach (or survival outreach)
where we head out by faith to wherever God guides, taking very little with us
and reach out to others with Jesus' message and strengthen our faith.
Here is a reenactment of their journey.
My name is James, and this is a reenactment of a three-day faith outreach
that I did in company with three other people here in Kenya.
We were two Kenyan women and two male foreigners (that is, white guys).
The women were Mercy and Joanne, and the other guy was John.
We started by praying about what to bring with us.
John felt God was saying that each individual should make their own list
trying to be honest about what they felt God wanted them to bring
and about what they may be wanting just because of fear or laziness.
We sorted through various items, and this is what we came up with
apart from the clothes on our backs, a Bible, and a pen and notebook.
Mercy took Vaseline, toothbrush, toiletries, and a novel called Listening.
Joanne took toothbrush, change of clothes, scarf, comb, and a book of inspirational articles.
John took hat and sunglasses, and a hankie.
James took a hat, phone to text others at the base each evening, a hankie, and a backpack.
We also took ten DVDs which we hoped to give out for free as God might lead.
At 10 o'clock, we set off east, following a leading that I received during a listening time.
East can be pretty vague in terms of where to go
but we felt the important thing was just to take that first step of faith and see what would happen.
We discovered our overall vision for the outreach as we walked.
The direction in which we were headed was leading away from the big city, out towards a more rural road
where there were several smaller towns dotted along the way, not far from one another.
I mentioned that it reminded me of Jesus and his disciples preaching from village to village
which inspired all of us to try something similar.
Specific guidelines were as follows.
We would not accept any money.
While we don't feel it's wrong to accept donations, we wanted the message to be really clear in this context.
God is the provider; not money.
We would feel free to ask for water, food, or accommodation as needed.
Unity was very important.
If any of us felt that God was leading us to make a change, we would discuss it as a group first.
During the walk, we passed through a slum, where John found a relatively clean, empty water bottle
and a hardened ball of cooking oil that could be used as chapstick.
John had previously considered bringing a water bottle, but decided against it.
And Mercy's Vaseline had been for chapped lips.
It was as if God was saying that we didn't need to take those things.
At 11 o'clock, we stopped to discuss what type of street preaching would work best for four people.
We decided to focus on the three steps to spiritual revival
that appear in the A Voice in the Desert video of the same name.
We liked the simplicity of the message, while still covering the most important parts.
We would each share a part of the message.
Any time someone felt inspired to speak, they would make a hand signal
and continue where the other person left off.
It was difficult for people to hear us the first time we stopped
since there was a man welding right across the street.
Nevertheless, everybody participated, so there was great enthusiasm to try it again, but in a quiet area.
It's difficult to find a quiet place in Nairobi, but we did our best.
We continued walking east and had a listening time
where we felt led to make a couple of signs with two pieces of cardboard that we found.
The signs worked well, as people showed a lot of interest in them.
Some people asked us what we were protesting.
We continued from town to town, preaching at busy intersections.
We would tell pedestrians and cars that slowed down to look at the signs, "Choose one"
and pointed to the God or money sign.
A lot of people would say money, but when someone would say God
then we would invite them to join us in spreading the Gospel together.
It was if they understood that they weren't really choosing God
because many would say that they were working at the moment.
That is when I would point at the money part of the sign, to indicate what they were really choosing.
By their body language, most of these people showed that they understood
and that they were convicted by this.
We felt like prophets, sifting through the people very quickly as we walked.
We continued this for about 14 kilometres, including listening times along the way.
God kept saying to continue going east and continue street preaching.
Finally, near the end of the day, we reached Ruai
a busy town where there seemed to be more positive interest.
Up until this point, we had only eaten some loaves of bread
given to us by a lady named Ruth, who said she could not come with us, but she wanted to help out.
In Ruai, we passed a long stretch of fruit and veggie vendors
who would call us over and ask us what the signs meant.
We had some good conversations, and a gentleman gave us a bundle of bananas.
A gentleman named David approached us while we were preaching.
I felt his questions were genuine, and his responses showed that he was seeking more.
At one point he said, "I want to follow you guys one day."
I questioned why he couldn't do it right now
and he realized that it was his kids that was stopping him from leaving everything.
I said he could bring his kids with him
and then I felt led to ask him if he was worthy to give us shelter for the night.
He joyfully invited us to stay in his compound for the night. Praise God!
David has two kids and does not live with his wife.
The compound had three other houses: one for David's parents, Elizabeth and Moses
one for his older brother Samuel and his wife Beatrice, and their three kids.
One kid, called Favor, had suffered from pneumonia when she was only nine months old
which had stunted her growth.
She can't speak or walk, even though she is three years old.
The last house was for a brother, I think, who wasn't around, so we never met him.
David called all his family to his little shack to introduce us to them and to share what we were doing.
They seemed to be a typical churchy family, but we later found out that some of them were seeking
and thirsting after God in non-religious ways.
The whole family welcomed us, and David cooked a wonderful big meal.
David's mom cooked even more food, with more on the way.
John and I had to say we couldn't eat anymore because it was too much. They laughed at that.
During dinner, we shared with David and Elizabeth.
Elizabeth spoke mostly in Swahili, so Joanne and Mercy mainly conversed with her.
After dinner, David invited us to stay at his parents place, since it was much bigger.
It was after 10PM before we had dinner, so we did not get to bed until quite late.
But we slept very well after quite a long day.
Tuesday.
John and I got up around 8AM the next morning
to find Mercy and Joanne already sweeping around the compound.
In the daylight, we could see that the compound was a beautiful place
with trees and flowers everywhere, and a peaceful silence about it.
It was something that is hard to find in the city of Nairobi.
John and I got into sweeping and gathering trash to burn.
At breakfast, we had our morning Bible study and listening time.
The whole family (apart from Moses senior) joined us in both.
Most Kenyans are used to church being very loud and over-the-top.
However, to our surprise, they shared (for the most part) very practical, simple lessons.
Samuel (the older brother) in particular, said he enjoyed the style of Bible study that we do
that is where we read the chapter and then go around and share our thoughts.
In other words, everyone participates in the reading
and then everyone gets a chance to share a lesson while the others listen.
We felt Samuel was very sincere.
After the study, John, Joanne, Mercy, and I had a private discussion about whether or not we should stay on.
John had a leading to stay, in order to counsel David about his relationship with his estranged wife.
He had said a lot to us about his wife
so it seemed God wanted us to spend some time showing him that we care.
Once we decided to stay, we helped to pick a lot of maize off the cob, so the family can grind it into powder.
It was very communal, in the sense that a lot of people were involved
and we were able to spend a lot of time with David's family and all the kids.
The kids were on holidays, so they were around the whole day
and I was very impressed by their discipline and good manners.
They helped us clean the yard, pick the maize
and even participated in the group listening time during the morning Bible study.
They were very quiet, and even followed along during the study.
After three hours peeling maize, John, Mercy, Joanne, and I went away privately
to discuss plans for the Bible study that evening, and how best to counsel David.
We had a listening time, but we did not get anything specific about counseling David.
But I had a leading to do Matthew 12 for the Bible study.
When we shared with David, he was very humble about accepting the counsel that we gave.
Before dinner, we had the Bible study on Matthew 12.
Good thoughts were shared by both David and Samuel.
It seemed our presence was getting them slowly away from a religious way of thinking
and back to Jesus and his teachings.
After the study, we had a nice dinner and went off to bed.
Wednesday.
We had a 7AM study with just the four of us
and shared dreams and leadings that seemed to indicate that God wanted us to leave.
When we told Elizabeth that we would be leaving after breakfast, she was sad and strongly urged us to stay.
David also pressured us to stay until the next morning.
I personally felt they were fighting against what we felt God was saying.
However, John mentioned how Jesus was constrained to stay in a town once, and he gave in to the people.
It did seem like Elizabeth and David, as well as the whole family
genuinely appreciated our presence, and were benefiting in some spiritual way.
This opened my eyes to the possibility that I needed to be more open to God speaking through them.
We had another listening time, including David and Elizabeth.
David and Elizabeth were still saying for us to stay.
Mercy didn't get anything, and Joanne shared her own feelings of wanting to stay.
John and I stayed silent.
Elizabeth also shared that, on the morning of the day we arrived
she had had a leading from God that she would receive visitors that day.
Later, when we were alone, I shared a vision that seemed to indicate us staying
and John shared a Bible verse that seemed to indicate the same thing.
The vision I got was of us having a Bible study, with the topic being very crunchy.
The idea being that we give them a harder message before we go, which would mean we stay on longer.
Also, before the listening time
Elizabeth showed Joanne and Mercy how a dream that we had thought was telling us to leave
could have been interpreted as relating to us staying.
The lesson of the dream was that we had unfinished work to be done
which we had interpreted as going back to preaching and offering free work
but God could have been saying to stay and finish what we had started here.
We also recalled how in Jesus' instructions to the disciples
he said, "Go not from house to house", and wondered if that may apply to this situation too.
Taking everything into consideration, we decided to stay
with the understanding that we would be giving them a very crunchy Bible study in the evening
along the lines of the three steps to revival that we had been preaching on the walk the first day.
The rest of Wednesday was more relaxed than it had been on Tuesday.
We did more sharing before lunch.
Then after another chat after lunch, John and I decided to have a nap
due to Monday's journey still taking a toll on us, piled on top with the long nights and heaps of food we'd eaten.
After the nap, the four of us took a few hours to work out the Bible study in the evening
organizing who would share which points, and what we would say.
During this time, a disagreement arose between us, and it took about 40 minutes for us to sort this out.
Looking back, I think I was giving in to laziness a bit on Wednesday, enjoying the comfort of being at the house.
For example, we could have gone out during the morning and afternoon hours and preached in the town
and still had the Bible study in the evening.
I feel bad about this.
We then relaxed a bit with the kids before it got dark, dancing and playing hide and seek
which they really enjoyed.
As it happened, the evening Bible study did not start until 10PM, after having had dinner
since we were waiting for David's brother and father to return from work, as they had shown a lot of interest.
Once Samuel and Moses arrived, we got right into the Bible study, and we laid it all out for them.
We turned up the heat full blast.
John was a little nervous about how the family would take such a strong sermon
but the earlier leading seemed to indicate that this is what God wanted
and to our surprise, they responded reasonably well.
Samuel shared that we really challenged him
with the idea of working for God full-time, and not working for money.
He mentioned that he has been having a battle for some time about whether he should just quit one day
and start working in the ministry full-time.
He also recognized that it was the fear of not being able to provide for his family that was holding him back.
We tried to encourage him to remember that God can and will provide for you and your family
if you step out in faith.
He was encouraged by this, but his wife, Beatrice, was still afraid of what would happen to her kids
if her husband stopped working for money.
She brought up a lot of the usual arguments against living by faith
like, "What will we eat?" or "Where will we sleep?"
and I could see Moses (her father-in-law) flipping through his Bible, looking for a verse.
I assumed he was going to try to back up what Beatrice was saying
but instead, he turned to 1 Timothy 6 and read from verse 5 to 10.
He ended it by saying to Beatrice, "Right here, this finishes the discussion."
David shared a thought about coming and visiting us once we leave
and said he would look forward to working with us...although time will tell.
All in all, no one was willing to start working for God and not money on the spot
but we ended the Bible study on a positive note, with promises that they would stay in contact.
Just before going to bed, John and I were given seven hundred shillings, which is about seven dollars.
John and I were caught off guard and accepted it without thinking about the rules we made at the start
so we left it on the table in the morning, with a note thanking them
but explaining that we are decided beforehand not to accept any cash donations over those three days.
Thursday.
The next morning, we were up quite early, around 5AM.
Mercy needed to be there for her kids, as her husband had left that morning on a trip.
Elizabeth insisted on making tea and bread for us, for which we were thankful.
After she prayed for us, we headed out the door a little after 6AM.
Our plan was to board the public service buses and preach on the way back to our meeting place.
The conductors (who are the people who collect the money from the passengers)
are often quite friendly toward preachers, and will not ask them to pay
in recognition of the service they provide via the preaching.
After several attempts failed of both hitchhiking and asking to preach on buses
Mercy finally found a conductor who was willing to let her preach.
The rest of us (Joanne, John, and me)
were fortunate enough to get a car to stop and take the three of us to the meetup spot.
This was particularly a blessing because I was feeling sick that morning
and wasn't looking forward to a bumpy bus ride.
Praise God!
Unfortunately, Mercy had become so engrossed in her preaching
that she missed the meetup spot and went further ahead of us.
Nevertheless, we were able to meet up again and walk back to the house together
where we shared our experiences with Jude.
That is the conclusion of our three-day journey of faith.
We hope you enjoyed our adventure, and that you will also be inspired to step out in faith.
If you would like to become part of this movement of people
who have forsaken everything to dedicate themselves completely to living as disciples of Jesus
contact me at the address on screen
and I'll try to put you in touch with a community of disciples nearest to you.
God bless you.