Kenya: Some Takeaways

Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

I have been delighting in the Lord’s creation since my earliest memory of exploring my back yard, my dog Princess by my side picking the purple “berries” off monkey grass and turning them into “soup”. I have treasured the truths of God’s Word revealed in the life experience around us since I was eleven years old, studying the dynamics of how God wants us to relate and connect with each other and with Him. I have sought to live my life to serve Him and serve His people because no matter what I have going for or against me in life, serving Him and others gets me out of bed in the morning. I am keenly aware every day of my life in every pore of my body that my home in the United States of America is a microscopic grain of sand in the greater realm of millions of miles of God’s shoreline of creation. There is more to this world. There is more to this life. There is more to Christ and His plan than I can hope to experience in this one life He’s granted me. Thank God one day I’ll have an eternity because given the little I’ve seen of this world, it will take an eternity to explore it fully when He makes it new again!

I have always desired to see the world. All of it. In the flesh, it’s a selfish desire. At times travel has become an idol in my life, something I’ve worshipped and longed for more than the Creator Himself. But in Christ, in the Spirit, my desire is to see more of God. To not just see, but experience firsthand His unrivaled ability to design in creation. To immerse myself in the people He created to think, live, struggle, and thrive differently than I do, but also in many of the same ways I do. We all need food, water, shelter, love, family, and a million other shared needs across any culture or geographic region. But, we also all need Jesus Christ and the truth of His Word in the Bible. We need to know and understand the depth of Father God’s love for us. We need to know how to tap into the power of the Holy Spirit to help us live our best lives here on earth, to help us embody Christ here on earth, to be His hands and feet to those around us. (John 14:6, Romans 5:8, John 3:16, 1 John 3:1, John 14:26, Romans 8:11, Matthew 25:31-40)

Travel is a family value for Joey and me. Some people choose to spend their money on clothing, second homes, decorating, renovating, or improving their current homes, sports activities, or a myriad of other expenses. One of the desires of my heart has always been to see the world, whether for the fleshly or Spirit-led reasons mentioned above, it is a deep desire of mine, and the Lord gave me a husband who has come alongside me to support that desire. So, we plan, save, and execute on travels I fully realize not everyone has or will have the opportunity to take in a lifetime. I view every trip we are able to take as a gift from the Lord. I view each of them as an opportunity to expand my perspective about and correct my biases about people and the world in general, to gift my children with a grand view of Who God is and of what He is capable, to enlarge our family’s view of how God is working in the world and how we can participate.

Kenya was the first trip we’ve taken as a family that perfectly melded every experience I’ve ever wanted for my children into one “vacation”. But every trip we’ve taken prior to this one was preparing them. My kids are seasoned travelers. Our previous travels taught them how to navigate airports, what to expect, how to comfortably ride on airplanes, cars, trains, bikes, etc., how to observe their surroundings and take it all in and be aware, how to appreciate, be grateful, be helpful, how to not complain, how to pivot and turn every misstep into an adventure not a dead end, how to take a deep breath and just be, see, fill, intake, rest, enjoy, how to plan, prepare, pack and think ahead, how to just keep moving forward, how to see Jesus in the good and the hard, how to trust God to provide and make a way and be our Safety and Security in the unknown. When done intentionally, travel teaches valuable life skills, and I fully believe God will use all of these skills in the lives of my children for His glory even if they choose not to value travel the way Joey and I have in their future. These skills will still serve them well.

Kenya was the culmination of everything I’ve ever wanted my children to experience. It was not a posh hotel stay, but we did get to go on safari. It was not a mission trip where we worked to accomplish a pre-determined task or goal. It was an extended visit with friends combined with a cultural immersion experience. Whatever our friends the Sawyers did, we did. Wherever they went, we went. We watched, observed, and absorbed the way they live their lives on the mission the Lord has led them to build over the past 17 years in Sekenani, Kenya. We watched them oversee each of the ministries the Lord has led them to build in service to the people in this region. They oversee a church, a children’s home, a primary school, a secondary school, a clinic, and now local gas stations that have been branded in hopes their profits will help the mission become self-supporting in the future. The safari we got to experience was breathtaking. God’s creation on display is awe-inspiring, but living life alongside the Sawyers and the Sekenani people was even more deeply impactful.

During our trip to Kenya, I saw with my own eyes how using the truth of God’s Word can build a firm foundation for moving forward in creating a community where people understand how they should act and treat each other. It felt very much how I imagine the early churches in Acts might have tried to organize themselves. Plenty of sinful people still making mistakes but using God’s instructions for how to handle and address those mistakes to move forward. Travis and Laura Sawyer are modern day Apostle Pauls. I’m not sure I saw that so clearly until I just typed it. I’m 100% sure they would not put themselves in that category, but this is what they do on a daily basis.

Like Paul, they received a very distinct call on their lives over twenty years ago. Like Paul, they have counted the cost and suffered through living conditions, sicknesses, betrayal of the people they came to serve, and many other hardships over the past twenty years. Like Paul, they are trying to teach a people who have zero basis for understanding who Jesus Christ is. Like Paul, they are the example of Christ among the people to whom they minister. The ministry starts and stops with them at the moment. I suppose these statements are true of each of the apostles in the New Testament. Paul just happened to have penned the most books. Like Paul and the other apostles, the Sawyers are working hard to train the people in God’s Word creating more disciples who rightly understand, so the massive amounts of heresy and false teaching prevalent among the people can be battled and defeated with the Word of God. Travis is training young men and Laura the young women just as Titus instructs in hopes they will go out into their community and continue to dispel lies and spread truth. This has not happened overnight. Decades of counting the cost, planting the seeds, obeying despite the suffering have been invested, and God is unquestionably moving and working in the tiny, poor town of Sekenani. You can see it, and you can feel it when you’re there.

And despite the lack of American comforts, it was refreshing and peaceful to do life alongside people making decisions based on the truth of God’s Word. When inconveniences occurred, like the dryer not working, I watched them do their best to fix the problem, but it did not consume their attitude, their schedule, or their outlook. (Like it would mine.) They just hung the clothes out to dry on a line and kept moving forward. When people didn’t show up on time, they didn’t get mad or upset or let the irritation of someone else’s lack of responsibility affect their attitude, they acknowledged the setback, but in the end were grateful that what needed to get accomplished eventually was accomplished.  Acting and reacting this way, in even the simplest of irritations is a Biblical response. Not worrying, being anxious for nothing, working hard, but trusting the outcome to God—these are Biblical principles. (Matthew 6:34, Philippians 4:6-8, 2 Thessalonians 3:10, Proverbs 16:9) And these are just the small things! Travis spent a full day rightly adjusting gas pumps to insure they were giving customers the promised amount of gas for the said price—making sure they were using just scales. (Proverbs 11:1) Sarah counsels children all day. She openly corrects their misbehavior with love and firmness while encouraging and instructing them in how to make things right with those they wronged. (Proverbs 22:6) Both of them go to war with injustice, but not in an angry-I’m-on-a-mission-watch-out-here-I-come kind of way. No, they just gather all the people together who need to hear truth, they speak it plainly with love and authority backed by Scripture then set clear expectations for success and outline the consequences of failure. Then they follow through. There’s no impassioned pleading or scolding or guilt-trips or passive aggressive maneuvers. Just truth spoken in love. And they speak this way to everyone—adults, children, their own children, co-workers, employees. Oh, the joy of living in a world where you never have to second guess someone’s motives! It was utterly refreshing and convicting. (Ephesians 4)

After doing life with them for eight full days, I believe they are capable of living this way because they spend as much time living the truths of God’s Word as they do reading, studying, and teaching the truths of God’s Word. How much they fill up with God’s Word is equal to what they are capable of pouring out plus more because we know God is capable of multiplying the little we bring to the table. But it only makes sense the more there is to multiply the larger the result that is multiplied.

For example, in honesty and comparison, I read God’s Word, study, and teach it at the level of maybe a 4, and I watch God multiply Himself through me into a 400 level in the world around me. The Sawyer’s are intaking, studying, and teaching God’s Word at a level 10, and God is pouring Himself into their community at level 1,000 because the more you’ve invested to multiply, the more the Lord multiplies. (Matthew 13:8, 23, Matthew 14:17, 20-21) It’s not that they’re holier Christians or people. What they believe and how they choose to live is not unattainable. It is, however, a direct result of the amount of time and energy they spend reading, studying, and teaching God’s Word. Period. It’s that simple, and that convicting.

I have so much more to share about this trip, but I’ll choose to stop here today, and leave you with these thoughts to ponder as I have:

-Why do you choose to invest your time, energy, and money the way you do? How does it bring glory and honor to God?

-Where in your life can you make more space for the things of God? What can you sacrifice—be it time, energy, or money—to increase today your intake of Jesus over yesterday’s intake? Can you choose Christian music over pop? Can you choose a more God-pleasing show to watch? Could you not play that video game, and send an encouraging text instead, or simply sit in stillness with Jesus for just a moment?

-Who did you talk to today about Jesus? About the things of the Lord? Conversations about God were never meant to be contained to just inside churches and Bible studies.

-How much time have you scheduled to read, study, and teach the Word of God? How does that amount of time compare to other priorities in your life?

-Are you even convicted at all yet, reading any of these questions? I am. By every one. If you feel no conviction, what does that say about the state of your spirit and your relationship with Jesus?

The deepest desire of my heart is to please the Lord with my life, to live in such a way that His Name becomes great, and I disappear while reflecting His glory, purpose, and relationship with His creation. Any other desire He chooses to grant outside of this is just favor and blessing and good gifts from a Good Father. 

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