Well, that's a first!

It's been an encouraging week in ministry. Three things happened that I've never witnessed before. They all happened at College Ministry events here in Mombasa. For the last 18 months or so, working with college students at Fellowship Baptist Church has been my primary job. It's a lot of fun, especially when the sort of things happen that I'm about to share with you...

First, rewind to Tuesday night. I write a Bible Study for our Tuesday night meeting, and lately we have had an attendance of about 20 students. We're learning how the Gospel can be applied practically in our day-to-day lives, and for the last couple weeks, we've been talking about forgiveness. Last week we discussed how God forgives us. This week we talked about how we need to forgive others. We asked questions like, "What if God forgave us the way we forgive each other?" The answer: That would be bad. So we thought of people in our lives that we need to forgive, and imagined what it would look like if we offered that person radical forgiveness as God asks us to. One of the students actually walked out of the study because, and I quote, he was "too convicted" to stay. He knew it was right, but, much like Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men, he couldn't handle the truth. That's a first! I'm sad for this student, but glad the study is hitting so close to home.

Second, move ahead to Wednesday night. We were all up in Dennis and Allison's apartment where Dennis was teaching on leadership principles. He asked the students to share one practical way their life has been changed this semester through College Ministry. Ben was there, a young guy who had been on my mind all semester because I knew he didn't own a Bible. None of us had any spare Bibles to give away, but I kept thinking that we ought to buy him one. Just goes to show how ignorant I am. Ben raised his hand and said, "The most practical way my life has changed this semester is my priorities. If you had told me four months ago that I would spend my own money to buy this (he waved a brand-new Bible up in the air), I would have laughed in your face!" He bought his own Bible! I know it was a big sacrifice for him, so it will be special to him - more special than anything I could have given.

Third, fast-forward to Friday morning. I have Swahili tutoring with Jackie once a week. Jackie is a pharmacy student and College Ministry leader. This week my assignment was to teach her a Bible lesson in Swahili. I talked to her about Mary and Martha, and about the sin of worry. As it turns out, she didn't know that worry is actually a sin. I got to teach her a lesson about worry vs. trusting God (in Swahili!), and she had one of those light-bulb moments that make all this missionary stuff worthwhile. It was my first Swahili light-bulb moment!