There I was, the only muzungu (white man) for miles standing before a congregation of over 800 Kenyan church members. I was about to preach to them a message that I was actually unenthusiastic about for the audience I had. I was speaking about healthy living and the guidelines we find in the Bible and I was confident that they already knew the message well. I prayed that God would help me in the moments before the talk. I needed inspiration and fresh insight to get beyond the rules that nobodies excited about, past the stereotypical apologetic sermon, to share a message of God's love revealed in His Word and experienced in my life.
All I want to say is that somehow God provided. He made the topic come alive as Satan's counterfeits were exposed and God's unmatched blessings were revealed. The way to an abundantly healthy life became clear: commit yourself ad submit yourself to following God's Word. Science is has finally understood why it is unhealthy to eat pork, thousands of years after God commanded us not to eat it. There's probably a reson I grew up hearing of people getting sick because of eating crab meat, oysters and so on. God told us to drop it in his Word before we were born. It's clear to me that soany are suffering because they don't know the truths of God's Word.
The Word is an amazing gift that needs to be shared and studied. It needs to be spread wide. We need to dig deeper. We need to pray big prayers in accordance with the Bible and expect answers that will shock our confused minds into a new reality. If we trust in God, He will show up, he will do miracles. I believe it.
May God forgive me for the years I've only dabbled in His Word, in prayer and in applying it to my life. I want to live for Him now and to trust His Word that is filled with thoughts far superior to my own.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow that He could inspire someone like me to preach with power. All scripture is so useful and He is glorified in it. May we move from skeptical scoffers to faithful witnesses. God bless Kenya, God bless Africa, God save the people o this world from the deep deception of Satan into the freedom of God's own truth.
-Nick
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Our Anniversary!
It was a special day for my wife and I. It was our 730th day of marriage (also known as a two year anniversary). It's almost like it was a holy day for our relationship where we pulled away from the rest of the group a tad to focus more on each other. We had some sweet moments at lunch time at a table for two by the pool. A couple of members of the team even served us the samosas (probably the best I've ever had) without us asking them. We have an amazing team.
Sadly we lost a dear member of our team today as Rob Lloyd, our Share Him day block manager from Hawaii, left us in Eldoret to rejoin his church group in Chuka where they are finishing up their campaign. Before he left God used him to bless us with a very thought provoking worship called the "buts of the new testament." It was about how we as Christians shouldn't have an "if only" mentality that looks back on our lives with regret, rather we should have a "but now" mentality that is filled with hope for every new day. He also helped us to cut down four sermons that are coming up so they wouldn't be so long or confusing. He worked on these from four o'clock in the morning. He is a great example of a servant leader. We took pictures and had some closing thoughts and hugs and sent him down the bumpy road to Nairobi.
As far as preaching and preparations go it was an interesting day too. We needed to get two sermons ready so we could travel to Kisumu the next day for a safari and still be ready to preach after a long day of fun, sun and travel.
The sermon prepared for the first night was called, "Your Day in Court." This was the first sermon I've ever preached where a person came down to the front during the sermon and started yelling and raising their hands. My site is in a cool location because it is right out in the open air in a field next to a small town with lots of shops which enables anyone in the area to hear the message and see the presentation because of our loud speakers and our big screen where we show a movie about Jesus before the presentation and a slideshow during the sermon. The hope is that many will hear the message and be drawn in and that seems to be exactly what happened with this man. When the yelling man first came and all throughout the sermon and the appeal I didn't know if he was filled with a spirit because he was raising his hands and speaking a language I didn't know or what. But I found out as he and many others came down for the appeal that he was filled with a different kind of spirits. He was drunk and yelling "I repent" in the local language.
Pastor Maiyo, who is also my translator helped me to take a picture of the man and informed me that he believed this man would soon be in the church because he had seen many others come that same way.
Praise God that Jesus covers us in the judgment and doesn't reward us according to our mistakes, but now he claims us as His own when we respond to his invitation for forgiveness. May we renew our commitment to our Lord and savior now and pray that many more will come to Jesus through these campaigns in Kenya and around the world.
Nick Snell
Sadly we lost a dear member of our team today as Rob Lloyd, our Share Him day block manager from Hawaii, left us in Eldoret to rejoin his church group in Chuka where they are finishing up their campaign. Before he left God used him to bless us with a very thought provoking worship called the "buts of the new testament." It was about how we as Christians shouldn't have an "if only" mentality that looks back on our lives with regret, rather we should have a "but now" mentality that is filled with hope for every new day. He also helped us to cut down four sermons that are coming up so they wouldn't be so long or confusing. He worked on these from four o'clock in the morning. He is a great example of a servant leader. We took pictures and had some closing thoughts and hugs and sent him down the bumpy road to Nairobi.
As far as preaching and preparations go it was an interesting day too. We needed to get two sermons ready so we could travel to Kisumu the next day for a safari and still be ready to preach after a long day of fun, sun and travel.
The sermon prepared for the first night was called, "Your Day in Court." This was the first sermon I've ever preached where a person came down to the front during the sermon and started yelling and raising their hands. My site is in a cool location because it is right out in the open air in a field next to a small town with lots of shops which enables anyone in the area to hear the message and see the presentation because of our loud speakers and our big screen where we show a movie about Jesus before the presentation and a slideshow during the sermon. The hope is that many will hear the message and be drawn in and that seems to be exactly what happened with this man. When the yelling man first came and all throughout the sermon and the appeal I didn't know if he was filled with a spirit because he was raising his hands and speaking a language I didn't know or what. But I found out as he and many others came down for the appeal that he was filled with a different kind of spirits. He was drunk and yelling "I repent" in the local language.
Pastor Maiyo, who is also my translator helped me to take a picture of the man and informed me that he believed this man would soon be in the church because he had seen many others come that same way.
Praise God that Jesus covers us in the judgment and doesn't reward us according to our mistakes, but now he claims us as His own when we respond to his invitation for forgiveness. May we renew our commitment to our Lord and savior now and pray that many more will come to Jesus through these campaigns in Kenya and around the world.
Nick Snell
Monday, August 8, 2011
Thoughts from Kenya!
Greetings from Kenya!
What a journey this has been. Since our last post Deanne and I have moved to Philadelphia where we have been constantly on the move. We worked in a literature evangelism ministry with about 30 others and God blessed us with great success and many stories and miracles.
Now nine of us from the summer program we did have flown to Kenya and are preaching to the locals of Eldoret.There are actually many Seventh-day Adventist Christians here that seem to be much more excited about the gospel than the people I commonly meet in the good ol' USA. These people are inspiring!
Being here and prepping sermon has actually allowed me more free time and internet access than the busy, busy summer program permitted. It's amazing how when you really do put God first some of the other things just fall away. It was interesting to talk to one of my group members here today. He ended his Facebook account because he wasted too much time on there looking at many, many pictures and so on. I told him that didn't think Facebook was bad but pointed out that our priorities determine how much time we spend doing what.
Working in ministry full time with many others who are extremely committed has been a great blessing to me and has added so much quality to mine and Deanne's lives. We get to celebrate our two year anniversary in Kenya! God is so good and I'm looking forward to going on many more adventures with Him.
I pray that all who come across this post will seek God first and see Him add amazing gifts and goodness to your life! I'm not financially rich as some of the locals wish I was but I have all I need in Jesus. Amen!
Nick
What a journey this has been. Since our last post Deanne and I have moved to Philadelphia where we have been constantly on the move. We worked in a literature evangelism ministry with about 30 others and God blessed us with great success and many stories and miracles.
Now nine of us from the summer program we did have flown to Kenya and are preaching to the locals of Eldoret.There are actually many Seventh-day Adventist Christians here that seem to be much more excited about the gospel than the people I commonly meet in the good ol' USA. These people are inspiring!
Being here and prepping sermon has actually allowed me more free time and internet access than the busy, busy summer program permitted. It's amazing how when you really do put God first some of the other things just fall away. It was interesting to talk to one of my group members here today. He ended his Facebook account because he wasted too much time on there looking at many, many pictures and so on. I told him that didn't think Facebook was bad but pointed out that our priorities determine how much time we spend doing what.
Working in ministry full time with many others who are extremely committed has been a great blessing to me and has added so much quality to mine and Deanne's lives. We get to celebrate our two year anniversary in Kenya! God is so good and I'm looking forward to going on many more adventures with Him.
I pray that all who come across this post will seek God first and see Him add amazing gifts and goodness to your life! I'm not financially rich as some of the locals wish I was but I have all I need in Jesus. Amen!
Nick
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