Carrier or Treasure?

And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. (1Corinthians 14:32)

I have been reflecting a lot on prophets after a friend asked me to explain a statement he had heard.

And the statement was on the lines like a prophetic gift is absent when not in use. And the example he gave was the fact that Elijah fled from Jezebel so soon after eliminating 850 idolatrous priests as well as ordering back rain after three and a half years.

Had the gift disappeared?

I am sure not.

Let us look at the situation the prophet was in, at least physically.

He had prepared and arranged wood for the altar and then slaughtered a bull all by himself as he could not count on Israel as they were too defiled to be allowed to help him. Then he had separated its parts to enable them to be placed on the altar he also singlehandedly erected from whole stones as God had ordered. (And he had no assistant as God ordered him to get one after the incident.) We then see him outrunning horses after the assurance on his prayer for rain appears.

What do you think the state of his body was? Wasn’t he completely exhausted?

That is the reason God told him to eat well and sleep before engaging him.

He needed a strong and sober body to handle what God was preparing for him.

Look also at John the Baptist. In his mother’s womb, he was able to know when the Christ had arrived. Again during baptism he was able to know Him. How come he becomes uncertain when he is in prison?

Remember what Jesus ordered His disciples after they returned from a very successful mission that you can almost read them praying to be sent again? Let us go to a deserted place to rest.

These bodies are carriers for all those gifts. They are the carriers of all that anointing. And never forget that they are flesh, however explosive the anointing they carry.

Sadly, though by God’s own design and for His purpose and glory, it is treasure of immeasurable worth being carried and dispensed by an earthen vessel. In other words, something of immeasurable worth is kept in the custody of a very fragile (and badly and destructible fragile) vessel.

In other words, this vessel crumbles and does not dent when knocked. Then it can never be completely repaired after that breakage. Thirdly it can destroy the faithful and consistent usefulness of ages just from one ‘successful’ knock.

That is why it is of immense importance that this vessel is delicately taken care of.

And it is the reason I find it comical that a vessel will want to be treated special by similar vessels because of the kind of treasure it holds?

What do I mean?

You are not a better earthen vessel when the treasure you carry is miracles or prophecy as opposed to those with mercy or helps. Each of us is earthen. And all the treasure is from one source. And of course none of us determines the kind of treasure our earthen vessel will carry. And none of that treasure is for our own use, let alone possession.

We will be looking at how to take care of that vessel in our next post

Of Worshipers and Idols

Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: (Numbers 33:52)

Do you like me wonder why God did not issue video previews in His revelation? Why did He use very simple imagery when describing worship to Him?

Why did God limit the creativity of the artisans He had Himself filled with His Holy Spirit to only what He had revealed to Moses? Why would using a tool on stones to make His altar disqualify it from being so?

Why does God seem to have issues with images?

He knows how effective images are to our minds.

Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,… (Deuteronomy 4: 15, 16)

We love images. Like we say a picture is worth a thousand words. And that is where the problem lies.

We have perfected the usage of images to corrupt our worship in the name of worship.

What am I talking about?

I am talking about our videos. In using video to help in worship (whatever that means), we have diverted true worship to the idols who thought to aid our worship.

Let me give a statement consistent with most video vixens or divas (again, whatever that means).

He (or she) enjoys a cultic following.

Break that statement to a layman.

The thrust of the statement is that the person enjoys the following a cultic leader enjoys. And that is irrespective of the message they are carrying.

An idiot will be singing blasphemy yet will always be invited to perform in church because they have mentioned Jesus in their songs (maybe only once), and probably in sport.

Video is the tool the enemy uses to draw true worshippers away from true worship. And the simple reason is that we love images.

And nothing pampers that love than a video.

Have you seen how ‘progressive’ churches run their ‘worship’ as carbon copies of the ones they see on video? Now would I be wrong if I suggested that they are probably worshipping those videos or the images in them?

Have you noticed how believers will so quickly come to the defense of that video ‘worshipper’ when they get caught up in a sin, from trying to explain his motives (yet they only see them on those videos) to condemning the ones who led them to that sin?

Since when did we become defense attorneys to sinners? Yet they will on the same vein demonize the one pointing that sin out as if they know his motives.

That is the power of images. And that is why I call it idol worship irrespective of the kind of judgment you will pass on me. It will make me a qualified judge of something I know close to nothing about.

Sadly, the world knows about that power. And I know you never ask why advertisers look for these ‘worshippers’ to become the face of their products and services. You do not ask why media houses will offer them those lucrative and highly visible programs when they have little or no knowledge about running them.

You see they are idols. They are worshipped, to put it bluntly. And for mammon that is the strongest point for any product or service. Package a god in your shop and people will be falling over themselves to buy something from you.

In the past, music was appreciated for the message it carried and for musicians its instrumental excellence was added. Nowadays it is the dance. Until churches have become expert in copying those dances in their ‘worship’.

Will we pray that God opens our eyes to this openly open idolatry we are practicing especially in His name?

Scriptural or Not? 3

Where did crusades and door to door outreaches start? I know someone is asking.

I have never taken very keen interest in church history. I will therefore give an educated guess as a student of revival.

When the price for a revival has been paid, God will send conviction through the area targeted by its pursuers.

What that means is that a great spiritual awakening occurs beyond the narrow confines of the structure seeking revival. By structure I do not mean a church building. I mean the ‘church’ seeking revival. And by church I simply mean Christ’s followers in a certain area, many who are not even aware of others’ existence. Only God knows them by name.

That conviction shakes everything in the concerned area, leaving nothing.

That is why liquor dens and brothels close in revival. The fire of God consumes everything in its path, from evil desires to actions.

That hunger for the spiritual draws everybody to a place offering spiritual direction wherever it is. They do not have the luxury of choosing or deciding on the better. Their hunger for the spiritual is such that they will flock to anybody offering spiritual direction.

As things normally stand, spiritual houses (church buildings) and their managers are most times caught totally unawares of the spiritual tenor. This means that they will be suffering from a dearth of the spiritual as they are content with their structure. Remember Jesus and the temple?

The outdoors therefore become automatic venues for instruction. And they will consist of instruction to people who need to understand why they are so convicted. That may explain why they are mistaken for evangelistic campaigns. Many will have had no prior interaction with the God of the Bible and His word and so will be simply babes in the spiritual needing milk.

Another reason is that few, if any, church auditoriums would be big enough to contain the numbers revival would bring into the Kingdom.

Like we see with Jesus and the early church, nobody sent out any invites to the people who would come to those meetings. Their hunger for God’s things and the corresponding spiritual groundwork for revival was the one drawing those masses to the meetings.

I will in passing also mention the tent revival meetings where the church would hold meetings where they would invite revivalists to challenge (more accurately, guide) them about revival. Again these people would be men who have paid the price for revival so that there was no doubt that their relationship with God was one that could be emulated. The church would also be in deep search for revival and so would be ready to pay the price for it. That is why they would set apart weeks to be able to focus on God and His revelation. Remember Ezra?

Contrast that with the characters we invite for our crusades!

I will also hasten to add that that hunger for revival was not driven by material things. It was a purely spiritual hunger.

You see, you can only revive what is dead. It therefore means that those seeking revival had realized their spiritual death and so started calling on God to raise them from it.

Revival is never first aid. You do not revive someone who has fainted. You revive people in morgues.

It is therefore interesting that these days we have churches celebrating revival even without confessing spiritual drought. In other words they want to be raised back to life when they are in their best health. Imagine rushing to the mortuary to be raised to life! Yet that is what many believers and churches today are doing. They are celebrating revival without dealing or even acknowledging their spiritual death or even hunger.

And this is where our generation is getting it wrong. We are copying past revivals without seeking to understand how they came about.

No wonder we are getting away from the scriptures to recreate what past generations got through their spiritual sweat and blood. Sadly, we are using entertainment to ‘do’ it. And we are surprised when nothing similar comes out of our effort.

Then, when it doesn’t work out, we borrow from the world, even from dens of evil and wickedness to attract ‘revival’.

Or don’t you like me wonder what disco lights have to do with the Gospel? What effect does a smoke generator produce in a religious service? What about dance and comedy troupes? We even have seeker sensitive churches!

We have become so desperate for numbers that we are borrowing a leaf from the evil one to keep them in just like he is able to maintain his numbers in those dens of sin.

We forget that people will follow life and light wherever it is. It does not need any packaging.

No danger is adequate to keep a thirsty animal from the only source of water in the desert. The presence of a lion is not enough deterrent for a gazelle to stop visiting the only waterhole.

That is the same with the spiritual. We create baits because we are lacking in the life that the world is looking for. We think people are coming for those attractions and become frustrated when they do not stay despite all our efforts. They came for life and left when they found entertainment.

The Gospel is its own packaging. Let that sink.

It means we ought to clarify what is the Gospel and whether it has absorbed us.

Scriptural or Not? 2

As you continue looking for verses to prove my last post and assertion wrong, I want us to look at the insane cost implications of following the unscriptural route.

And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece. (Luke 9:3)

In simple terms, Jesus commanded His disciples to take absolutely nothing when they went for missions.

Everything, from their security (stave or staff) to an extra article of clothing, was the responsibility of the man of peace.

(By the way, man of peace is a word that that has been coined to describe what Jesus expected from the communities He was sending His disciples to)

Jesus therefore expects nothing of those He sends on mission except their spiritual preparation and availability?

The rest would be dependent on the household that will receive him and the message he carries.

No wonder the judgment due to the one rejecting the messenger was to be so dire. You see, rejecting the messenger means rejecting the message, and of course the Originator of it.

They were not to plead to be taken aboard. And they were not to do advance diplomacy to scout for the man of peace. They started their journey to the place they were sent to.

Another important thing to mention is that the messenger did not dictate on the kind of hospitality he would receive. He took whatever he was given. He was not expected to demand or even expect preferential treatment. He ate what they ate, slept where they slept and simply lived as they lived. The only difference was that he had a message he was bringing to them.

Contrast that with the way we do ministry and missions today.

A pastor automatically expects special treatment (remember the Pharisees and scribes of Jesus’ times?)

A mission is a capital intensive venture. Look at the amounts being wasted (I am using this word with my last post as a basis) planning a mission. In fact the budget spent on the survey itself can support a genuine missionary for years. Yet very little actual mission work results from those thrusts.

Look at the amounts of money being spent on ‘hiring’ a professional evangelist to preach in a mega crusade. Look at the monies being spent hiring or buying sound equipment and also hiring instrumentalists and ‘worship leaders’ (dance troupes and psyching singers). Yet the only fruit is decisions, decisions that have no impact on church attendance or societal transformation.

As we were discussing my friend mentioned a crusade where there were more decisions than the total population of that area.

What is God saying about the way we have been doing our evangelism? Are we willing to change it to be in tandem with God’s revealed strategy?

To make the point clearer, suppose with me that this call came in our times.

Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work that I have for them.

What would it entail? What kind of budget would it require? How much giving would it require before the two finally set off for their mission?

That is how far we have strayed from God’s order of things.

Like the Pharisees, we have substituted God’s word with our traditions. And we will look at those traditions in a later post.

Will we pray that God makes our hearts willing to agree with His vision for reaching the world with His good news? Will we change our methods when they do not agree with His?

Scriptural or Not?

I want to challenge us to look at things we have always done and never questioned.

As usual I will challenge us to look at the scriptures for answers, ready to discard tradition if it stands in opposition to God’s word.

Where do we get scriptural justification for evangelistic crusades?

What about door to door evangelism?

We were discussing this with friends and were at a loss to find any justification for the same, the Bible pointing in a completely opposite direction.

The Bible consistently points at identifying a man of peace, accepting his hospitality and dwelling there as long as you are in their village/ city. And it is the same whether you are looking at the Old Testament or the New.

Could this be the reason we have been unable to evangelise our world even as it continues becoming a global village?

Could we be dissipating all our energies and resources doing something the Bible never told us to do? Could this be the reason that even with all the decisions we continue recording nothing happens to bring more people to church or even change the spiritual tenor of society?

Have we commercialized the Gospel, running it the way we do successful businesses? Are we using fleshy (mammon) standards to gauge our success as evangelists?

For your discussion let me suggest this;

The way we do our evangelism is unscriptural. This means that we can never expect a spiritual harvest therein.

The fact that we have done it for generations that way is no reason for us to continue in error as God will never support our erroneous practice.

God is only bound to His word. Never will our traditions move God otherwise.

Let us share those verses. I am waiting to be hit by them, even knocked to sense.

And in closing let me ask something I have addressed earlier.

Where in the Bible is Christ called someone’s personal Savior?

God bless you

Evangelism

I had this dream

I was needed to start and oversee a long term evangelistic thrust in a city far away which would need my presence weekly.

I would require loads of money on a weekly basis as I would be going there by sea, a substantial journey. But cost is never an issue to God, the source of that burden.

I then found myself in that city with partners doing a survey of sorts.

As we were winding up, I remembered a church I had ministered to on the other side of the city. I decided to call them so that we meet before we left their city.

Of course they hastily prepared a seminar for my team to train them on evangelism, something I had done the last time I was there. They had even prepared materials and charts on the same as we arrived.

I started examining the materials they had made as my team went about teaching the many young people who had come.

There was a chart in the shape of a huge tree with tentacles explaining the impact of evangelism from one person to the next, generations down the line. But it was in the shape commonly used to explain multi level marketing.

Then the training came to an end and I was given money to distribute to the trainees for attending the seminar.

I was chagrined. How does one get paid for attending evangelism training? I refused to be part to that, even vocally so. Then the dream ended.

I then got to reflect on evangelism with respect to our faith.

What is Christ’s take on evangelism?

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall BE witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

We BECOME witnesses.

Witnesses are not coached, unless their purpose is to defeat justice. Witnesses simply are. The power of the Holy Spirit makes us better witnesses, not more polished ones. And we become better through the transformational power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

God pointed me to another passage, John 15. And it is the same even here.

Let us look at verse 5.

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

It is our connectedness to Christ that enables us to bear fruit.

It is worth noting that plants do not struggle to bear fruit. They just need to be rooted in the right soil and they will produce fruit.  They do not sweat or do push ups to improve their production. Their only need is to be rooted.

Then, from their scents to their sap they will bring out what distinctly defines them.

As a student who learns from everything God brings around (many people wonder why my e-mail is gitumastudent) I find nature being an excellent tutor of spiritual things.

On my ministry to the Coast the other day, I saw a felled baobab tree, huge. Standing, I was much shorter than its diameter.

But it had already started sprouting other babies everywhere.

I was told that a baobab tree will never dry by being cut down. It has enough water inside it to nurture a forest even in a drought.

The only way to make sure it does not grow back is by digging deep into the trunk (standing or felled) and poisoning it. Then the sap will be poisonous to the new sprouts. The other one is to burn it, an almost impossible feat considering its size and the amount of water it contains.

What does this have to do with evangelism?

Everything, I may say. A healthy tree will automatically bear fruit. A healthy tree will endure hardship and adversity.

It is only when you poison its makeup that it can stop bearing fruit.

You see, evangelism is the natural outcome of a healthy Christian life just like a plant will naturally emit the scent it was created with. It is not an activity in which we expend our energies to perform. Evangelism is what results from a life lived in close fellowship with God. One verse is instructive.

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: (1Peter:3:15)

We give answers because we are asked questions. And the questions will be prompted by what people will see as the outflow of our connected life.

Paul did not win his jailors to Christ by holding crusades and evangelistic thrusts into the prisons. He was a prisoner who happened to be living right with God, jailed for that precise reason. Look at this.

But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places; And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. (Philippians 1: 12 – 14)

Paul was a different kind of prisoner because he was connected to Christ. Anybody in his vicinity who needed to get saved knew exactly where to run to for eternal life. And of course any conversation originating from him was from the sap of that connectedness.

Remember in Acts 16 the jailor rushing in with the question ‘What must I do to be saved’? Whose altar call was he responding to?

His need met people connected to the life he craved.

Paul’s responsibility was simply point him to his Savior.

That is evangelism simplified.

Why than am I an evangelism trainer? You may be wondering.

I will use a passage many people use wrongly.

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; (Ephesians 4: 11 – 14)

The responsibility of our calling is to prepare believers to become better ministers and witnesses.

The purpose of that verse is not to give particular people offices and titles as God does not look at us with titles but functions.

There is an effective witness and there is a powerful witness. And of course there is a fake witness.

Remember Stephen giving his defense and people close their ears and shout because they could not resist the power of that witness?

I will continue training on evangelism. But I will not shy from emphasizing that the witness must BE before he is trained.

What do I mean?

One must be being transformed by the Gospel to properly qualify to be trained on evangelism. One must be a growing disciple to even need evangelism training.

It is possible to harden someone against the Gospel by training him to evangelize before he is properly connected. He may start counting the stars of the conversions that occur as he evangelizes that he completely forgets that he also needs that conversion. He may also start thinking that those conversions (decisions, actually) are an indication that he is already converted or qualify him for heaven on their strength. And that is very dangerous. Remember Matthew 7: 21 – 23?

One must be walking with God (connected to the vine) to be able to bear spiritual fruit.

How are we connected? I know someone is asking.

Two basic essentials: God’s word and your obedience to the same. It is as simple as that.

Let me elaborate a little.

By the word I mean a wholesome intake of the same. I do not mean the snippet and selective reading of the same as you will then get what you want as opposed to what God gives.

Knowing all the promise verses in the Bible is not the same as knowing the Bible. Knowing the eschatological calendar is not the same or even similar to knowing the Bible. Having all the sermons of all the famous preachers is not the same as knowing the Bible. I am writing this as a preacher.

Only a consistent and complete intake of the whole Bible comes close to knowing the Bible as you only have the Bible as your text and the Holy Spirit as your teacher.

I do not despise preachers and teachers as I am one. But I know enough about God to know that He never employs brokers for His revelation. I also know from experience that the clearest one is able to hear from God is directly proportional to the consistency and amount of Bible one consumes.

You see, God can only bring to life (rhema, inspire) what is already in you.

It is sad that there are pastors who do not consistently read the Bible. But it is equally sad to hear of a believer who does not read the Bible for himself.

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17: 17)

Our sanctification is the product of our intake of God’s word.

The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple. (Psalm 119: 130)

But above that, we must swim in obedience to that word. It makes no sense to know the word just for our profession. That sanctification is effected by our obedience.

We must be sold out to obeying God’s revelation as we read His word. And we must make all the effort to ensure that God’s word defines us. Otherwise explain this verse to me.

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. (Joshua 1: 8)

We can’t meditate on a word that we spend a few minutes each woeek hearing about, or even a few minutes daily reading. We can not have that word as vomit (forgive my crudeness, but allow me to illustrate) if we spend more time watching movies or news and reading comics and novels than we do it. We will never vomit something we have not swallowed.

We cannot be speaking the word as the verse commands if we have not consumed it. We cannot meditate the word if we spend more time feeding our minds and hearts on other fare. And that is the reason we have these very strange doctrines. They are the product of a hybrid heart that feeds on the world mostly taking morsels of scripture to validate the same since the mind has no capacity of vomiting what it has not consumed.

That is why I will always be producing and giving out reading plans to help believers establish the discipline of consistently reading the Bible. And I always ask whoever needs to ask me for one, or more to start a reading club with friends for fellowship and accountability purposes.

It is the reason also that I offer Audio Bibles when God provides as it is good to listen to the spoken Bible. In fact, I put it on when I sleep so that any time I wake up I am listening to it. And I believe the mind is not completely dead when I sleep and so there are benefits for the same. Incidentally there are many free ones online for someone who needs to download. But if you are near me, I can bring you the download to save in your gadgets.

I also buy a radio and modify it to become an Audio Bible (I completely disable the radio and everything else). Unfortunately I only have Kiswahili and English Audio Bibles. We can talk if you also need one. Of course I have a few partners who will step in to offer Audio Bibles or some money to help in making them free especially for those who are unable to afford even the price of the radio and memory card.

Some older people have issues reading the Bible due to their eyes (I am already there). Again I look for cheap, many times unwanted gadgets (tablets especially) because they are out of fashion or are unable to do certain tasks. I then install as many Bibles and Bible Study applications in them. They will then give the price of the tablet as I have the Bibles and they can be downloaded online. And there are a few vernacular Bibles there too.

I feel that is where we should start in our evangelism.

God bless you.

Garbage In, Garbage Out 3

Let us look at another dimension to my last message. And I want to look at believers who are young in age.

What are we doing with those uniquely gifted and talented in our churches? How do we treat a youngster with a silver tongue or excellent instrument mastery?

Do we treat them like the children they are or do we think their gift makes them instant adults?

You see, we are killing children and youth when we start treating them as adults because their gift is exceptional. We choose to forget that they are still children without spiritual muscle to handle that exposure.

Yet we know that even in the secular where there are no holiness standards, exposure to the limelight early is destructive in the later years. Many child stars rarely make it in life as their stardom becomes a block to a balanced life.

It is even more destructive in the spiritual realm.

Why did God order the priests, who were born into the priesthood and lived in priestly cities start ministering at thirty? Though ministry was in their makeup and they were introduced to it since birth, God knew they would not be able to handle the pressures their ministry required.

What makes us think that a teenager is qualified to be made a leader just because they are gifted?

The other day I heard on radio a child (less than ten) being introduced as a bishop and given a lot of time to ‘minister’ on air. Incidentally many people thought that it was a good thing without realizing that it could actually be an abomination as we are killing an innocent child with adult responsibilities he has no capacity of handling.

Though Samuel started hearing God’s voice as a child, we do not see him getting the limelight before he became an adult. I am sure Eli protected him when he realized that probably the reason his children blundered was because they were exposed to the ministry responsibilities too early. Jeremiah was also called as a child yet we do not ‘see’ him before his adulthood.

And do you wonder why Jesus started public ministry at thirty yet He had given a glimpse of what He was at twelve?

Incidentally, I think this is the reason the Bible forbids women from ministry leadership. And stop deceiving yourself that the verse was directed at particular people and culture. Look at these verses.

But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. (1Tmothy 2: 12 – 14)

Do you realize that the verse points at creation before the fall? It means that that was God’s order for His creation.

Exposing women to ministry leadership exposes them to things they were not given capacity to handle.

Let us be careful lest we kill people God entrusts us to nurture.

Yet it is important to point at the source of the whole matter.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28: 19, 20)

We are not making disciples. That is the reason we are jumping at pre-cooked ministers, however poorly cooked they are. We are scared of the sacrifice required to walk with the children God gives us to raise that we are jumping at adopting a neighbor’s child without realizing that he will be like ours that we have neglected.

I thank God that He connected me with very old people to walk with me as concerns public ministry. They would come for me when schools close so that we then would be involved with ministry, from open air meetings to camps as one of their own. Then I would be part of their discussions and history.

That is why I understand so much about the East Africa revivals; from ’39 to ’49 to the 60s because I walked with those old men who got saved then. That is why I felt as if I had arrived home when I went to Kampala and heard a church sing ‘Tukutendereza’ perfectly in its native tongue.

Those old men were not scared of walking with me, giving me adequate opportunities to minister as one of them.

Incidentally that is what I feel God has called me to be doing in this my old age as I have explained elsewhere on the blog.

If you are a young man God has called to ministry and you feel the church is killing you with responsibility because of your gift instead of nurturing you, pray that God connects you with someone who feels strongly that it is dangerous for young people to be given adult responsibility before their time. If you do not get someone, please connect with me. I already have a team with the same vision.

Otherwise you are likely to become a statistic of the fallen giants.