Rose

I had an amazing experience yesterday. I was able to hear the testimony of a woman named Rose who is from Kenya. Rose brought us her story of first hand experience with all the heartache of people suffering from starvation, no clean water and the Aides crisis in Africa.

The area of Kenya she comes from is dealing with all of these problems. Rose has an amazing story. She grew up in a small village. A missionary came to her village. One thing led to another and small group of people began to have church under a tree. She believed the stories of Jesus. As the church grew they had to move to a bigger tree. Over the years as her knowledge and relationship with the Lord grew she was invited to go to another village to learn even more about Jesus so she could come back and teach what she learned. She told us that in her travels from village to village she encountered people with hunger. Many times she had nothing to give them to eat. But she did have a story to tell them. The story of Jesus. Then when she could she would come back to them with food and more stories of Jesus. I wish I could remember all the details of her story so I could share them with you here. But somehow typing the words would never do justice to what her life represents. In addition to the difficulties facing her country she has also faced persecution from some in her community for her faith in Jesus and her rejection of some aspects of her culture. But she continues to faithfully go where God leads and she TRUSTS what God is doing in her life.

Rose exudes a strength I just don't have. When you live every day dependent on God for protection, survival and wisdom it has a way of producing strength and deep faith. It was a blessing to be in her prescence.

I can't remember a time in my life when missions wasn't important to my family. Both the family I was born to and the family I married into. It brought such joy to see what God had done for Rose and is doing for her people through the giving of money to missions and the calling on a missionaries life to go to Kenya. It was like all those mission brochures and pictures of mission trips came to life for me. It felt like such a gift to be able to be with her. It was so exciting to see how God is equipping Rose to go back and be able to serve her people even more effectively. I'm so grateful God brought Rose to the United States so we could hear her story in person. Her story is so important. I was reminded again how amazing and good God is.