My Father’s House

Jonathan David Helser is a worship artist/preacher that I have been come to enjoy while on this trip. He has incredible wisdom and understanding about the love of God and just how intimate He is with us. In one of his sermons/talks he was speaking about how he wanted to leave something/provide for his wife when he is gone both in death and while on tour. Next he tells about how he built his house with that intent. He wants his children to be able to look at the house with its hardwood floors and see their father’s handiwork. He then says that God did the same thing for us in His creation. God left little (or big) things in His creation when we, his children, look at them we can see our Baba’s handiwork. This past Friday I got to see some of Baba’s handiwork.
 
Ryan and I decided to go and have a little adventure as boys last Friday. There is a rock field a couple of kilometers away from our house and after a quick walk and piki-piki ride we can arrive at a giant playground. So we had a free day, woke up, said let’s do it, and headed out.
 
When we finished our cramped piki-piki ride and arrived at the rocks our eyes lit up and blank faces turned into smiles like it was Christmas morning. I think back on that moment and try to imagine what God was doing. I can just see His big smile as two of His sons sat there excited to play on what He had made. The scene was like an earthly father building a swing set for his kids. And just like little kids Ryan and I played on our swing set our heavenly Father had made for us.
 
All day long we climbed to the tops of rocks only to see another one to conquer next. It was insanely fun. Then it got better. Kids began to run up from the fields below and join us. At first there were 10 and then 20 and then 30 and finally we had 37 little African kids running and climbing all over these rocks with us. It was one of the coolest times I have ever had. One of the kids with us told us that people would often climb the rocks and preach from there, so we joined the club. Ryan and I would be on the tallest rock yelling in Kiswahili “JESUS LOVES YOU!” Then we would be quite and hear a soft “Hallelujah,” from the fields below. We kept that call and response for a good 10 minutes and then headed down.
 
While we were walking down with 37 little African kids we drew some attention. One person we caught the attention of was an old lady that waved for us to come over. We walked over and had some words translated through the kids and found out that she wanted prayer. Prayer, that is it? Well of course we can do that.
 
Now imagine a stereotypical African mud house with a sheet medal roof. Then place inside the tiny house an old African lady, two white 20 year old missionaries and then a small army of 37 African kids aging from 1-13 years old. Now imagine them all praying.
 
My mind still is and always will be blown away at that image.