I have often wondered what it must
have been like to live in a world pre-Holy Spirit. In my study of the Old
Testament this past year, I began to realize there are instances where the Spirit was sent upon certain people in the Old Testament, but He did not reside with/inside God’s
people. God the Father dwelled with His people in the Tabernacle and the
Temple, the Holy Spirit did not dwell personally with the people. He couldn’t.
Their sin separated God and man constantly. This is why constant animal sacrifices
were needed. This is why God promised a new covenant. (Jeremiah 31:33)
When Christ came, God the Son, completely God and completely man, to sacrifice His perfect life in atonement and payment for all sin, for all mankind, for all time, He created a way for God to dwell with and in us. Hence the ability for the Holy Spirit to be sent and indwell the believers of Christ. Ever since the Holy Spirit was sent to indwell the first apostles, He has been spreading and dwelling and taking up residence with believers in Jesus Christ ever since. Where He lives, the fruit of the Spirit can be found. (Galatians 5:22-23) Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These are fruits of the Holy Spirit. Proof He is present and working. Where His presence is lacking, you see less of these fruits.
When the early church began to spread, the Holy Spirit began to spread with each person who believed. The more concentrated the believers in Christ, the more presence of the Holy Spirit. The church grew and expanded. More love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control was experienced in communities where the Holy Spirit resided. I’m no fool. No community is perfect. Never has been. True believers in Christ have always walked the narrow path and been in the minority, but as I’ve mentioned before, God has a miraculous way of multiplying Himself through His people. If there’s just one true Christ follower in your neighborhood or on your street, you benefit from the fruit of the Spirit that flows out of their home in intangible ways you can’t quite explain. Even if you are an unbeliever, the fruits of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life overflow into yours. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control are not attainable without some influence of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing good in this world that cannot be attributed to God. Period.
For centuries now, cultures where the Gospel has been preached and accepted more prevalently have thrived more abundantly. Cultures where the Gospel is persecuted still live imprisoned by their gods, their idols, their false teachings, yet their underground churches thrive and experience a life for which our desensitized American church longs. America and countries where the Gospel is free to be preached take for granted the effect of the presence of the Holy Spirit on the country as a whole. When something is taken for granted, it is often not used, accessed, or appreciated to its full potential. These countries long for, pray for, and have experienced revivals in their histories because believers and non-believers repent of their sins. The Holy Spirit awakens in old residences and fills new ones, and everyone in the community experiences the blessing of the fruit.
Now, imagine a world where there actually were no believers to begin with. Imagine a world where the name of Jesus is completely foreign. The idea of Jesus is completely foreign. Because there is no Holy Spirit indwelling in anyone, imagine what a world lacking true love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control might look like. What are the opposites of each of those attributes? You can read about it in the Old Testament. God alludes to what the world was like when He created rules in the Old Testament for His people that made them different from the surrounding nations. History outside of the Bible records well how the world functioned. Men ruled the women. Women were often viewed as property with no rights. Their use and value were in bearing children, producing heirs, gaining a dowry from marriage, forging alliances by the unity of two families. Think of the atrocities that can arise from such a view of women: rape, incest, female genitalia mutilation, other physical and sexual abuse, and polygamy to name a few.
The god of men is wealth because that is not just how they thrive, but how they also simply survive. What happens when a people become solely focused on their means of survival? They lie, cheat, steal, betray, slander, gossip, murder—all in the name of surviving or getting ahead. These people are unfaithful, untrustworthy, disloyal, petty, corrupt, lack integrity, and often childlike in their thinking. The highest bidder gets their loyalty, wife, child, land, cattle, or anything else they can sell, and you might be the highest bidder today, but someone with a higher bid might come tomorrow, so they leave their job you gave them with no notice and go. Drunkenness and addiction become people’s only hope when their god of wealth cannot be attained. It’s the only place they can escape the misery of their life. Imagine that kind of world. Maybe you can. Maybe pieces of this sound familiar.
The number of children men have is seen as a sign of prosperity and status, yet also a burden to provide and care for. Child labor, malnutrition, neglect, beatings, favoritism of the oldest son—all of these and more are results of this world view, this lack of Jesus, this need for the presence of God to indwell. And these neglected, malnourished, beaten children are the future of the people, so why wouldn’t the cycle persist for centuries? How do you break the cycle? Where do you even begin?
You give them the Truth of Jesus. You bring the Holy Spirit into their midst, and by the power of Christ flowing through you, through the Spirit, you start to hand out the fruits of the Spirit into the six-foot sphere of influence around you. And the little children start to come because the world has not yet jaded their hearts and minds, despite the atrocities they have already endured. Because all any child wants in any culture is to be seen and loved unconditionally. They don’t care about gods yet. They will flock like fireflies to the Light of Love. Real Love. And when the children come, and they are loved well, you begin to win the heart of the Mamas because every mother around the world loves and appreciates someone who loves on their babies, who shows them how to love their babies well or better because all Mamas just want to be better Mamas unless they are deeply broken. And when the women start to come, the heads of the men pick up and begin to watch and turn. Who has their wives’ attention other than them?
This is what Travis and Laura have done on the mission. They started in the church, preaching Truth and Light on Sunday, then living during the week according to how the Scripture says to interact with others, spreading and shedding the fruit of the Holy Spirit everywhere they stepped.
And the children came. So, they built a school. Because somehow the people figure out a way to afford schooling for their children. Many children are even sent away to board at their schools even at a young age. Families know at a minimum their children will be fed and housed. In the poorer villages and towns, most family homes only consist of 1-3 rooms in a house. These rooms are the size of modest, American walk-in closets with 2-3 children sleeping in a full-size bed. Sending the children away to school if they can just makes sense.
So, the Sawyers started Mara Christian Academy on the mission, and they are able to educate the children in Christ and academics during the week. I'm not sure how many of the children who attend are actually sponsored by Travis and Laura themselves, but I know they do their best to meet the needs of as many children as they can. They try hard not to turn any away who come in dire need. Many of the families of the school children began to attend their church on Sunday. The fruit of the Holy Spirit continued to spread.
Over time, the Mamas recognize the Sawyers are helping. The Sawyers are giving their children something they cannot provide, so they send their children to them for help. Girls in need of haven and safety. Girls escaping early marriage and other abusive acts. Girls in need of food and shelter and a safe place to heal from heinous acts. So, the Sawyers started a children’s home for girls. They hired a local social worker who advocates for the children and is a liaison between the families, the government and court cases, and the Sawyers on the mission. Her name is Miriam, and now I’m crying because the significance of that Biblical name just hit me as I typed. Miriam watches over the children. The children escaping atrocities. She advocates for them and finds them safe space, just as Miriam did for Moses in the house of Pharoah. Some coincidences are just worth smiling about and praising God for being involved in the simplest of details.
So, the children are coming, and the Mamas are coming, which means the men are coming now too. The Holy Spirit is blowing and passing out fruit everywhere it spreads. I’m not sure the order of operations from this point forward, but the 35 acres of the mission now holds a complete primary school with a secondary school being built. The mission will educate children ages 4 through grade 12 when all is built. The Sawyers added a medical clinic, school boarding buildings for girls and boys, a kitchen to feed all the children, a laundry to clean all the clothes, a bath house for the boys and the girls, and boarding for all their staff. They started a training academy for anyone in the community who wants to be trained in how to study and teach God’s Word. Travis meets individually with the men interested in being discipled and teaches them how to preach. Because many of the girls who graduate are not in a safe position to return home yet, they built the Haven where some can live a little while longer until they feel they can leave and thrive safely off the mission.
Travis was able to obtain his permanent residency within the last year, so he now has the ability to buy property in Kenya. With this ability, he worked to brand a gas station called Ten31 to be run off the principle of 1 Corinthians 10:31. The profits from every gas station are funneled directly back into the mission after paying employees with the hope the mission can become self-sustaining over time. I want to expound on this idea more in another blog, but my point is, the Spirit is moving in Sekenani, and the harvest is multiplying. It’s beginning to multiply outside the city boundaries of Sekenani.
Families, children, youth, young men and women, old men and women are coming to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is taking up residence in their lives and in their homes, and they are learning how to rightly read, understand, and teach God’s Word. Many women are given audio Bibles in their own language, and while they cannot read the words yet, they can quote you the truths of God’s Word because they listen to it non-stop everywhere they go. They carry this Bible in a little zippered pouch like a necklace around their neck, and they listen while they haul water from the well back to their homes. They listen while they wash their clothes by hand and lay them to dry over bushes. They listen while they nurse their babies and work to cook for their families. They listen and the fruit of the Spirit is feeding this impoverished community. In some ways, some of these women are more full and more alive than many women I meet in the States. Their physical poverty mirrors our spiritual poverty and vice versa.
Oh, the conviction of taking for granted my access to the Word of God in my own language, in my own home! Woe is me for taking for granted the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life, for choosing to do my own rowing instead of putting up the sails for Him to blow.
“Lord, forgive me. Forgive me for my callous heart, for my desensitized eyes, for my deafened ears. Forgive me if I have quenched, grieved, or ignored the Holy Spirit in my life. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Help me see the offensive ways in my life, so I can turn away from them and back toward You. Thank You for the gift of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Thank You for still working, always working for Your children’s good and Your glory. Keep working, Father! And if I can help, open my ears to hear, and I will go with a grateful heart because You haven’t given up on me yet!” (Colossians 1:11, Ephesians 4:30, Psalm 51:10, Psalm 139:24)
To find out more information about the Sawyers and the mission, please find them here:
Website:https://straightupmissions.com/
Facebook: Straight Up Missions, The Sawyers in Kenya
Instagram: @sum.travis @laurainthemara
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