Rejoice in the Lord Always!

As I went on home visits with two of my close friends from California, “Rejoicing in the Lord” seemed to emerge as the theme of the day. But it was a theme that surfaced in the most unlikely places. The first stop on our long walk was at the home of a family with 5 children suffering from eye problems. None of the children can see well, and some are still half blind even after expensive surgeries. The children have to go to a special school, but right now they don’t have transportation money to return. School starts again next week and they are praying for God to provide money to transport the children there. But let me tell you, there was joy in this home. And I recognized it immediately as the joy of the Lord. The half blind kids smiled and laughed the entire time we were there. When I asked if we could sing a song, they immediately asked if we could sing, “This is the Day.” And so we did. For those of you who don’t know this song, it goes like this: “This is the day, this is the day that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made. I will rejoice, I will rejoice and be glad in it, and be glad in it.” We joyfully sang together and I was so blessed to watch this family truly rejoice in this day that the Lord has made. Yes, circumstances are tough, but they still rejoice in this day the Lord has given them and they choose to be glad in it.

After praying with them, we proceeded on to visit my friend Christine. Christine developed a muscle disease two years ago that has totally deteriorated her muscles. It has left her basically paralyzed, and in pain most of the time. She sits in a chair all long day and her six children (ages 3-13) take care of her, carrying her wherever she needs to go. But Christine knows the Lord and truly, the joy of the Lord is her strength. She greeted us with a radiant smile as we entered her home and was so excited to have visitors. As we talked, she shared that in the morning, she had read Philippians 4:4-7. It starts out by saying, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” She smiled and said that she was rejoicing today because God told her to. I asked her what her secret was in learning to rejoice even when life is hard. She just smiled and said, “I can rejoice today because I know that this earth is not my home. My home is in heaven and I am going to live there for eternity. When I arrive there, my suffering will be removed forever and there will be no more pain. I rejoice because I know that my suffering now is only temporary.”

We then began to sing the same song. “This is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it.” Only this time, Pastor Peter began to lead us in new verses. We sang,
“These are the people that the Lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in them!”
“This is the family that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it!”
“This is the lady that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in her!”
“These are the children that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in them!”
“This is the home that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it!”


My cheeks hurt from smiling so much as we sang together. Truly, we have so much to rejoice in. But how often we go through our days and never rejoice in the gifts God has given us. I hummed this song the rest of the day and was amazed at how much joy it brought me. Throughout the day I sang, “This is the meal that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.” “This is the water that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.” “This is the road that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.” “This is the bed that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.” It was so great to remember to truly rejoice in all these little gifts from God. I think if we sing this song throughout our days, it really is possible to “Rejoice in the Lord Always.”

So my challenge to you today is to try it! Try rejoicing in everything God gives you today. If you know the song I’m talking about, sing it! Sing it throughout your day and I think you’ll be amazed at the joy that begins to take over your heart. I want to keep rejoicing. I want to keep singing. I want to be glad in my God and in the gifts He gives. Even as I write this e-mail, I am thinking about you all and am singing about you- “These are the people that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in them!” I hope you’ll join me in this dance of rejoicing! Christine understands this dance. Rizpah with her blind eye understands this dance. Lord, help us learn how to join it as well!

Lessons in Love

At church this morning, David Tarus (our director) told the congregation about a little boy named Hillary from a neighboring village who has club foot. His mom brought him to our training center in hopes that we could somehow help him. Without surgery, he will never walk, run, or dance, but his mom is a widow and cannot afford the costly surgery. David asked the church if we would give sacrificially so that Hillary might have the surgery and grow up able to do all the activities every child loves to do. Before we took the offering, he asked everyone in the church to say together, “Hillary, we love you as we love the Lord.” We declared it together as a body and then every person gave what they could. “Hillary, we love you as we love the Lord!”

Those words pierced me. What would my life look like if I truly loved each person in my life as I love the Lord? Have I ever loved someone as I claim to love the Lord? Truly loved them as I would if it were the Lord were standing in front of me? I don’t know that I have. But this is what God calls us to. Every story I hear about, every person I come across, I am to respond as I would to the living Christ. If Jesus didn’t have a meal tonight and it was in my power to provide food for him, wouldn’t I do it? If Jesus needed surgery so that He could walk, wouldn’t I do everything I could to help? If I heard that Jesus was sick, wouldn’t I go to visit Him? If Jesus walked by me on the road, wouldn’t I stop to greet Him? If Jesus wanted to share about His day with me, wouldn’t I take the time to listen? Wouldn’t I give Him my full attention? Yet these are not always my responses to others I pass during the day.

If Jesus were an orphan and needed $3 to eat today and go to school, would I give it to him? Or would I tell him sorry because I already gave my tithe at church and I’m really in the mood for a smoothie? If He was sick and dying without any money for malaria medicine, would I tell Him to try elsewhere because I really wanted to see a certain movie, and I believe that God blessed me with my job so that I could enjoy the money I make?

The truth is that it really is Jesus who is sick and in need of medicine. It is Jesus on the news who is starving and living without clean drinking water. In Matthew 25, Jesus says, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was sick and you visited me. I was naked and you clothed me.” This wasn’t just a nice thing Jesus said to try to get us to help the suffering in this world. He really is the sick, hungry, and naked person that we hear about and see each day. And every day I show Him how much I love Him by how I respond. For the extent that I love my neighbor is the extent that I love my God. Let me say it again, I only truly love God to the extent that I love my neighbor, to the extent that I love the suffering in this world. If I say I love God, and yet show no love or compassion to my neighbor in need, my actions prove me a liar. I don’t really love God. For whatever I do or don’t do for the least of these, I do or don’t do for Jesus. My love for Him is proved by my actions. 1 John 3:17-18 says that if I have material possessions and see my brother in need but have no pity on him, then the love of God cannot be in me. And if I do not actively love my neighbor who I can see, it is impossible for me to love God who I cannot see. I can declare my love for God all I want, but it’s only empty words until I live it out in actions of love towards my neighbor. Oh Lord, may my love for you and others not just be in words and with my tongue, but in actions and in truth!

Entering Cannan

I told you last month about our “Samaritan Women” who gave their lives to God and are seeking to leave prostitution. Well, the journey and miracles are continuing. I told them last week that I believe they are like the Israelites that God led out of slavery.
Like the Isrealites, they have left Egypt, but are now in the wilderness waiting to enter the promised land. The women have left their line of work, but have not received the loans to start their new businesses yet. My prayer this month has been for God to supply manna from heaven each day to meet their needs during this time in the wilderness. Tears filled my eyes last week as they shared that in fact, God has been providing manna. They wake up not knowing where their food will come from, but it never fails that a neighbor or friends stops by to bring a bag of beans or other food. Thank you Jesus for these daily miracles of provision!

Pray for us as we enter Canaan together next week! The women will receive their loans and will begin their new businesses. I know there are giants lurking in Canaan, but I also know that our God is greater, and together we can take this land!

Meet Mama Sifuna

My heart broke as I entered her hut for the first time. There was nothing. No mattress. No blanket. Not even a pot to cook in. Yet this empty hut is home to Mama Sifuna and her four children.

But though the furnishing are lacking in this home, the love and joy of the Lord are not. Though her husband abandoned them years ago, the Lord has been their refuge. HE has become the husband and father in this family.

I came to her hut for language lessons. She wanted to learn English and I wanted to learn Swahili. So, she pulled out her Bible as a tool for us to use. I had never seen a Bible like this before. It was a pile of loose, tattered pages in a plastic bag. None of the pages were bound, and none were in any type of order. I sat amazed as she told me that she tried to lead Bible studies for the women in the community by reading these tattered pages. She couldn’t read well, and could only read bits and pieces of stories.

On my next visit I bought her a Bible, a bound one.. The thought of that visit brings such a smile to my heart. As I pulled the Bible out of my bag for her, I wasn’t prepared for her reaction. You would have thought it was Christmas. Mama Sifuna screamed in delight, jumped to her feet, and began dancing around the hut. I have never seen a person celebrate like that. She continued dancing, singing, screaming for joy, and hugging me for quite a while.
Mama Sifuna, thank you for reminding me what gratitude and celebration looks like. Thank you for showing me the simple joy of the Lord!

Daily Bread

It started at 5:45am, when God woke me up long before my alarm would go off. I felt Him beckoning me to go on a run with him. As I jogged past the home of my dear friend Betty, I decided to stop in to visit. Betty has AIDS, but continues to see this disease as a talent from God through which she can reach the lives of those dying in this country. I knew that the anti-retroviral drugs were making her very sick and that she hadn’t been able to keep any food down for four days.

Her radiant smile greeted me from her bed and I stepped around the three orphans sleeping on the dirt floor to greet her. Betty was in good spirits. She hadn’t vomited in 8 hours and for this, we praised God together. Our singing filled the small hut and I knew that the pleasing aroma of praise was touching the throne of heaven.

As Betty brought out her Bible to read together, she told me, “No matter how discouraged I get, every time I open the Bible, God speaks to me. Yesterday I read that Jesus didn’t come for the healthy, but for the sick. Imagine! I am the sick person that Jesus came for!” Yes Betty, He came for the sick, and He came for you.

Together, we ate our daily spiritual bread as we read God’s word and prayed together. But I knew Betty needed physical bread as well. She needed bread to take with her morning medication, but there was none in the home. So, I ran to find some bread, and upon returning with half a loaf, Betty joyfully ate it.

I smiled as I walked home that morning. My 5:45 wake-up call had been so that a child of God could receive her daily bread. God cares about our needs– both spiritual and physical. Thank you God for providing bread today, and thank you for allowing me to be part of how you provided for Betty

Simple Extravagance

God, thank you for the simple extravagance I see in this place. Life is simple here. You are all and are in all. There are no T.V.’s, no shopping malls, no frantic schedules to distract us from you. And there’s no one to turn to besides you. No counselors, no self-help books, no welfare, no pain killers. In the simplicity, you are here. And you dwell here in breathtaking extravagance. In the rushing Kipkaren River, in the glowing fireflies, in the faith and love of the people, in their worship, and in their overwhelming hospitality.

Thank you for the simple extravagance I see every day: The widow’s egg placed in the offering plate. The accapella worship that fills the mud hut church. A soda in the lantern-lit hut of Peter and Ruth. The hug of a radiant ex-orphan who has received love and can now give it out. The celebration dance of a princess freed from the bonds of prostitution. The shrills and dancing of an abandoned single-mom receiving a Bible for the first time. The three meals you provided for me to eat today. Things that are so simple, and yet so extravagant.

Simplicity and extravagance. This is what Jesus offers us, and this is what He calls us to. It’s simple: He loves me. He loves me more than I will ever be able to comprehend. And He wants me - more than anything, He wants ME. He wants intimacy with me and to live in this intimacy for eternity. And for this love, for this intimacy, for this relationship, He gave His life. That’s the story. It’s not complicated. My God loves me and He gave His life so that our love could be. And yet the simplicity is wrapped up in extravagance. The truth is simple, but it is extravagant. What extravagant love that would go to any depth and any length to pursue me and to capture me. This love, this romance, this God, is more extravagant than I’ll ever fully realize. An extravagant God designs the sunset each evening, extravagant love held Jesus bleeding on the cross, and extravagant romance wakes me each morning as my risen Beloved beckons me to dance with Him.

My response must be equally simple and extravagant. It’s simple. I must give Him ME - all of me. He asks for my life. I’m His now; I belong to Him. Bought with a price, I’m no longer my own. Every right laid down, every dream surrendered, every plan submitted, and every moment given to the King of Kings. It’s not complicated. This God, must be my everything. He is to be my life. No other masters, no other lovers, no other idols, no other gods before Him. The simplicity of it is extravagant. Extravagantly, I am to pour everything I have into this love. I am to pour out my all at the feet of this King, just as he extravagantly poured out His all for me. As Mary broke her alabaster jar at the feet of Jesus, so I too must break my “jar.” Every dollar saved, every ambition, every dream, every talent, every moment is to be extravagantly emptied at the feet of Jesus. It means risk; it means sacrifice; it means suffering; it means laying down my life.

This is the road Jesus walked and this is the road He calls me to. Will I learn to live it? Will I learn to live in the extravagant love of my God? Will I see the extravagant romance surrounding me that should make my heart skip a beat and my countenance glow? Will I rest in the simplicity of God’s love for me, understanding that it’s forever and constant? God IS love. That’s all I need to know. As I rest in this extravagant and simple love, the complications of my life, of this world will fade. And then will I respond in simple extravagance towards Him? Will I give Him my all? Will I lavish my praise, worship, and love on Him with reckless abandon? I pray I will.

As I leave Africa this summer, I want my life to take on a new mark of simple extravagance. I want to learn to live simply. Simple in my abandoned devotion to God. Simple in my love for others. I want my lifestyle to be simple: the amount of clothes I own, the food I buy, the activities I do, the things I spend money on, what I find delight in, what brings a smile to my face, what I expect from others, what brings me contentment. May all of these things be simple. But may extravagance accompany the simplicity. As I simplify my wardrobe, may I extravagantly clothe the naked around the world. As I choose a peanut butter and jelly sandwich over an expensive meal out, may I use the extra money to feed those without food today. May I extravagantly love and give to others out of my commitment to simplicity. May I be extravagant in my hospitality, in my generosity, in my encouragement of others, in my servant hood, in my listening, and in my sacrifice. Above all, may I be extravagant in my love. Continue to lead me my God. Lead me in this dance of simple extravagance!