Since early January, I have searched for a new Lottie Story to share as our thanks for your gifts last year to the Lottie Moon Offering and Cooperative Program, gifts which allow us and IMB coworkers to do what God is calling us to do! This last Friday, I received another precious gift, the opportunity to share a tribute to Joy Mwangi, the wife of our Associate Pastor at Parklands Baptist Church, who died on March 6th after a battle with oral cancer. Joy and Simon were baptized and discipled at Parklands and through Baptist Student Ministries while in college – this is also where they met! As I returned to my seat after representing the mission family and those no longer living in Kenya at Joy’s Memorial Service, I realized that I had just shared the perfect Lottie Story!
--- --- --- --- --- --- ---
When we arrived in Kenya in 1978, I was blessed to work with one of the first couples to come with the International Mission Board to East Africa. On our first Sunday, James and Gena Hampton invited us to the small English speaking church that they helped start a few years before, Parklands Baptist Church. There were many lessons that the Hamptons worked at teaching us – One lesson they taught us by example and instruction was that we as we served our Father and shared our Faith, we were to always be preparing a Kenyan Christian to replace us. One of my greatest praises and joys today is how we have seen this transformation take place among Baptists and the Kenyan Christian family during the last 32 years.>In my current job as an Internet Missions/Prayer Advocate for East Africa, I must often define the word “missionary” to my mostly American audience – For as I seek to help them understand and pray for God’s work in our part of the world, the stories I’m sharing about gifted missionaries are not stories about those who arrived from another country or continent to be about our Father’s work in East Africa, the missionaries in our Father’s Harvest Field are Kenyans!
Joy Mwangi is a great example of East Africans on mission with God. She did what I was taught to do as a young missionary – Joy did what God called her to do and she taught others to do the same, she reproduced herself! We are currently members of Parklands new site on Mombasa Road, and it has astounded me how Joy did not visit us there even once, yet the Children’s Sunday School ministry began strong at our young church – thanks to Joy’s teaching, training, preparation, dreaming, and past hard work! Joy’s work in developing the current children’s ministry at Parklands is far beyond the dreams of those of us who taught Parklands Children’s Sunday School class in the 1970’s! (Added note: This includes one of Joy’s dreams – the huge building at Parklands just for kids!)
Joy also had an amazing ministry at the Nairobi Baptist Centre at Shauri Moyo. She capably did jobs which in the early days were done by missionaries, not only capably, but better as she more fully understood the needs of the students and the community! A retired co-worker who worked with Joy at Shauri Moyo shared: “While teaching at the centre, Joy was always a light, always smiling, wanting the best for her students. It was a Joy to be with her and know her.”
Joy is an awesome example of one who responded to God’s call for workers in His Harvest Field. Joy did “go and make disciples of all nations” – she taught new generations of children and youth all she knew about our Father’s teachings and how to obey and serve Him. She knew that God was with her always and she wanted others to have this precious gift. (Matthew 28-19-20) It was Joy who masterminded the children of Parklands Baptist Church leading our church family into going to an Unreached People group, the Endo, and taking our Good News to them! Joy was a gentle person, but when she knew God wanted her to do something, you knew to join her as she would not give up until she knew she had obeyed her Father.
I’m praising God today for the fact that I and many of my friends and former colleagues could call Joy our friend and that she impacted our lives with her joy and strength and her example of what it meant to be on mission with our Father! And when the day comes that the eternal gospel has been proclaimed to every nation, tribe, language and people (Revelations 14:6), I know that many of those worshipping at our Father’s throne will be there because of Joy’s testimony and work – AND the testimony and work of those that Joy befriended, trained and impacted!
--- --- --- --- --- --- ---
THANK YOU for taking time to read this Lottie Story. Thank you also for being our co-workers in our Father’s Harvest Field as you offer financial, personnel, and prayer support for us and our IMB colleagues! BERT YATES
2011 PRAYER NUDGES FROM EASTERN AFRICA: To receive these Prayer Updates via e-mail, you can subscribe at: http://easternafrica2011prayernudges.blogspot.com/ OR Photo Prayer Nudges can also be viewed at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=351345&id=685050129&l=47f55a92ab – You DO NOT need to be a Facebook member to view these Prayer Nudges, BUT if you are a member, please send me a friend request!
No comments:
Post a Comment