I’ve been keeping a seat warm at Kensington Community Church for close to eight years. I even threw a couple bucks in the basket once in a while. Not every week, but once in a while. Our pastors are very passionate about living life on Gods terms. You know, doing what God calls you to do. Experiencing the abundant life that Christ promised us. They’d often tell stories about regular people that stepped up and got into the game of life. Their lives would be forever changed. I’d find myself thinking how much I wanted that. What ever “that” was. I wanted my life to count for something beyond me. Every time I felt God whispering in my ear, I’d put my hands over my ears and say la la la really loud. Doesn’t everyone do that? It wasn’t lack of faith exactly, it was more like, uh,.. O.K. it was lack of faith. Isn’t it always lack of faith when we don’t do what we know God wants us to do? One week, our senior pastor dared us to pray a very simple prayer, “God whatever you want me to do, I’ll do. Amen”. Guys, you know how it is when someone dares you to do something. I wasn’t going to do it, but it was a dare. I really had no choice. I did, however, throw in a little exception. I wasn’t going to be a Sunday School teacher. No way. Not even for God. I’m just not equipped for that. My prayer went like this; “ God whatever you want me to do, except be a Sunday school teacher, I’ll do. Amen”. Not long after that I felt God telling me something (in a voice sounding strangely like Charleston Heston). He said “Go to Africa, Kenya, into the bush, with a medical team”. This was bad news. I was certain he had the wrong guy. Anything medical makes me queasy. Hospital smell makes me gag. I don’t mean the smell of the I.C.U., I mean driving by the place with the windows up. Ick! Besides, AFRICA?? I replied “Lord, I think you should reconsider, I’d make a great Sunday school teacher!” Maybe I imagined the whole thing. That night Barb, my wife, said to me, “I think we need to go to Africa, Kenya, into the bush, with a medical team. The one going in October.” How do I get out of this? It’s one thing when it’s just in your head, but this was really going to happen. I needed an excuse, fast, and a good one. Nothing came to me at all, not even a lame excuse. We prepared for the trip. I even got shots, twenty or thirty of them. O.K. maybe only six. It seemed like more. Just before we left I found out that I had to carry medical supplies in my luggage. Oh, great! Now I’m going to be an international drug mule. Did you see the movie Midnight Express? It’s the one where the guy ends up in a Turkish prison. As the plane landed in Nairobi it’s all I could think about. Kenyan prisons couldn’t be good. Once again the Lord provided, or maybe no one really cared
what was in my luggage. Customs was a guy reading the paper that obviously didn't want to be bothered. The two weeks in the bush was hot and dusty. Ed cracked the whip, and kept us working day and night. It was the greatest experience of my life. I even got baptized
at Lake Barringo.

I saw God at work in Africa.

That was 2004. I've been to Africa four times in four years with medical teams.

I know it's not just part of our lives, but I believe it's what Barb and I are called to do.

Faith