Thursday, February 17, 2011

Generations

This past Tuesday night I was able to spend some time with a group of our students at Egerton University, just outside of Nakuru. The group gathered in the JFK commons, we drank tea, ate cake and I shared some thoughts with them. Our campus director, Jonathan and his group of key leaders are doing such a great job of brining in our 1st year students (freshmen) and investing in their lives. Its fun to not know faces and meet them for the first time. Its fun for them to have no idea why they've gathered to hear me speak because their connection to the ministry is not me, but our staff and student leaders. And its really fun to hear how they came to be apart of the ACO ministry. I met one young man who door was knocked on during orientation week, when he answered two of our 2nd year students asked if they could come in.
I loved how he put it; "I come from a very simple life. We have no electricity at my house, and we go and get the water from the river to cook, clean and drink. When it is night, we sleep and when it is day we work or go to school. I was alone in my room, I had light and water down the hall and was just sitting waiting for something. When the knock came, my life changed. They told me the story, invited me to Bible study and we've been at it ever since. This guy (pointing to one of our 2nd year students who leads a Bible study) he's my mentor, he's my father in Christ."
I got chills! This young man was apart of the GENERATIONS that we long for, talk about, plan for, train for and invest in. This weekend he'll be apart of the One Day gathering for students led by our campus staff at Egerton. I'm praying that he'll get to see three generations of disciples that are ahead of him (Sophomores, Juniors & Seniors) and be excited about carrying on the tradition of knocking on a door next fall, introducing a young Kenyan man from the bush to Jesus, and begin to teach him what he's learning now.
Earlier in the day I visited our new Community Partnership at Njoro Central High School. The school is about 5 minutes from the Egerton campus and is a new site for our students we are discipling to invest their time in. The high school is 5 years old, has 196 students in grades 9-12. Our ACO staff person in charge of community partnerships has done a great job in preparing the way for the Egerton students to get plugged into the lives of these high schoolers through Bible studies and mentoring. They principle who showed us around was so excited about their newly completed science lab. She laughed nervously when I told her that I blew up my lab station in high school because I didn't pay attention to the instructions and just started mixing chemicals.
She said, "bwana Tom, you must be a Peter. One who jumps in faith and realizes what you're doing in midair or a few steps in." I smiled and told her that was the best compliment I'd ever been given.
Have you jumped today?... In the Faith that you hold so dearly, that you sing about on Sunday mornings in worship, in the book that you carry in your hand or that sits on your bedside table filled with stories of jumping? Another GENERATION has the potential of promise because two sophomores knocked on a door not knowing what was on the other side. I wish I had the Faith of Peter most days. Do you?

1 comment:

  1. WOW, Tom such an awesome post. Brought tears to my eyes. You are fullfilling Dad's dream that ACO go on and flourish. I am so proud of you and Kerry. Love you all so much!

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