GOING DEEP
Saturday, March 2, 202 4— Rehema Guest House, Kitale Town, Kenya
It is baseball season at home. That means that when I wake in the morning I reach for my phone to see how my favorite college coach and team (Chris Curry and his Little Rock Trojans) did. Yesterday at Belmont College—extra innings win with a home run by a pinch hitter off the bench.
I hope you didn’t close out the journal?! I know, you checked in to see how our ministry day was and how you pray for us today. I’m getting to that…
A season is not one in one game. There is a grind. A team must gel, connect, begin to play as one.
Each player brings a unique skill set and gifts to the table. The coach’s job is to recruit the right players, then get the right players in the right positions, and then…make sure they are in the lineup when you need them the most.
Yesterday, Coach Curry (Chris) made the coaching move that makes you look like a genius. 10th inning. Game tied. Point to that hitter on the bench that has not been in the lineup yet this year. And of course…he strolls to the plate and hits a home run.
As I read of my son’s success this morning, my mind immediately went to our visit yesterday at Light Feeding Academy in Kakamega, Kenya.
Last years visit was not quite as enjoyable as todays. Last year, Madame Rebecca has just died. She was the matriarch of our entire feeding station and school ministry in Kenya. She wrote the curriculum. She recruited the teachers and workers. And, she did the hard job of “managing the game” on a daily basis. She had put the right people in the right places with the rights skill sets. The smiles on the kids faces in our feeding programs are the scoreboard in this game against hunger, poverty, and disease.
Last year, I sat in the office and looked into the tear filled eyes of a scared, hurt, widow who had just been called off the bench to replace Babe Ruth. In fact, when I sat in the Light Academy office Madame Everlyn would and had not even sat behind the desk in Madame Rebecca’s chair since her death. What a difference a year makes!
Today, the kids were especially charged up. The air was electric from the time the LandCruiser cleared the gate. No stuttering with memory verses. No faltering with lyrics of worship songs. Classrooms clean, bright, freshly painted and radiant with the love and discipline from excited, motivated teachers.
Each stop at a feeding station with a U.S. teams means there is a presentation of songs, scriptures, poems and dramas by the students. I have seen more than a few. Today’s program was different.There was…an attitude in the students. The attitude was: “I got this! If you don’t believe in me, just watch me and I’ll prove to you that God loves me and has equipped me to be the very best version of me that there is!”
And that is exactly what I told the kids and the staff.
A win like the one yesterday over Belmont College is the kind Coach Curry could build a championship season from.
A day like I had yesterday at Light Academy is the kind I might be able to finish out this series in Kenya with.
God loves every servant He has. And the death of his saints are truly precious in His sight. But God has a very deep bench. And He is masterful at putting the right person in the right spot at just the right moment. I have never seen Him make a better lineup adjustment than when he replaced Madame Rebecca with Madame Everlyn.
The team from Germantown Baptist has left Teresa and I in Kitale. They are making their way back to Nairobi for their last day of ministry before a midnight flight back to the U.S. This team has served God and honored their church with excellence on this trip. Usually, on a trip with a team of adults there is at least one team member that is a “problem.” That person didn’t make the roster on this Germantown team.
This was an exploratory trip for this team. They are looking for God’s piece of their third-world mission strategy. I hope we are it. We sure could stand to deepen our bench.
Your prayers = our fuel.
By, grace, your brother,
Mike Curry
Eph. 6:19-20