This week, 410 is featuring guest blogs from Newspring Church, one of our amazing church partners. Click Here to check out more about NewSpring.
Over the next two weeks the NewSpring blog will feature a post from one of our owners who travelled on a recent trip to Kenya. Just like everyone who goes with our church to Kenya, God rocked her world. This post is part one in a four part series of posts about what she learned.
My prayer throughout my week in Kenya was “Lord, remove me from me. Bring to the surface anything that needs to be revealed that doesn’t need to be part of me.” And that He did. It wasn’t fun. It still isn’t – He revealed a lot about my heart. I have lots to work on.
While in the community, part of our group helped with the feeding program at the school. Some gals from our team joined forces with Jennifer, Agnes and Josephine – the ladies at Ereri Primary School who do this every day. This week was different for them because not only were they preparing lunch for all the students at the school, they were also preparing lunch and tea for a group of pastors and tea for families of special needs children. Plus, they had a bunch of clueless white gals slowing them down!
It was in this small kitchen, through these three amazing ladies that I saw a different side of serving. It was not about the actions, not about the doing, most definitely not about the recognition, but about the heart.
My heart is and has been so, so selfish. So self-absorbed, so full of me – and God, in His gentle, super patient way shows up, answering my prayer to remove me from me by showing me how beautiful the hearts of these three women are. So pure. So joyful. So selfless. So beautifully full and overflowing.
Before serving the pastors, Jennifer, Agnes and Josephine called a few of us into the small kitchen. Gathered us around the pot of boiling water, held our hands and prayed over the tea. They were embracing this opportunity to minister to those around them. To view it as an honor instead of a chore. And God whispered … “Jesus served others. Agnes, Jennifer and Josephine serve others. Why don’t you?” It was this simple prayer that God used to show me how ugly my heart has been towards the act of servant hood.
I have found myself thinking many times that I don’t want to serve others. My excuse – it’s not my love language. How arrogant of me! I’m all about the five love languages but let’s just put those to the side for a minute and realize that if we want to be more like Jesus then serving others is part of that. The problem hasn’t been my love language, it’s been my heart. Lesson learned (learning) – I want to be more like Jesus. Jesus served others. I will serve others. Period.