Kenya

Author: art rogers

Wednesday, September 28th, 2005 @ 11:41 am

Now here is a fine young man. You can tell by looking at him that he comes from a fine home with lots of love and care from a Mom and Dad who prize him. He is probably the only child and the center of their world. If we have a problem with him in Youth Group, it will be because he is spoiled by all that comes so easy for him. What can I say? We are hoping that the fact that he and his family attend church on Sunday mornings will be enough to make a difference, but really, he is not going to be an ax murderer or anything. He is destined to see and do great things in his life. His parents are sending him to the best schools because they have great jobs and can afford to do so. We believe that the heritage of his life is bound to be rich, if not spiritually, then at least he will have money, status and will attend and give to the church - which is what really counts, isn’t it?

The truth is that this young man appeared when I googled images of “Kenya.” I don’t know anything else about him other than what the statistics can tell me. Statistics say that one or both of his parents have AIDS or have already died from complications of AIDS. Because he is as old as he is, he may soon get AIDS himself. His body shows that food is scarce, even though he is dressed well for someone of his region. Moreover, if he attends school, it is probably underfunded and the heritage of his life will be that someone took his picture once and put it on the internet.

Mostly, though, statistics say that he probably has no idea that God loves him, wants to spend eternity with him and has made a way for that to happen. If he believes in one god, his idea of God most likely is that he has to be good enough for God to accept him. Heprobably doesn’t think it is possible, unless he is one of the recent converts to radical Islam. If he is a new believer in the radical Islamic movement that is taking rapid hold in Africa, then he believes that if he dies in the Jihad against the “infidels” then he will go straight to Paradise.

And here we sit. Most of us are not even willing to cross the street to share the good news of God’s love, much less put ourselves in harm’s way in Kenya, just to tell this boy something that he probably would reject anyway.

Well, not everyone. Kudos to my friend Stacie who is on her way to Kenya to share the good news. She leaves in a few weeks and her excitement makes me excited. She sees hurt and hurts. She sees need and meets it. She sees lost and proclaims with great joy, “I know the way!”