The Road Less Travelled, Cont...

The second remarkable fork in the road that I was able to hear about was this young man in the picture above. His name is Yohana (John) and he is a Maasai man from Loliondo. It's a Maasai village near the Serengetti. He told me he wanted to come to my house and talk with me about a need that he had. Now, this has become a regular thing here and it often pertains to money. He came by and sat down and we began to talk. I asked him what he needed and to my surprise, he started talking about his little sister. He told me about his family. He was very sick 10 years ago with some kind of heart complication. He went to the Doctors in Loliondo and no one could help him. So, travelled here to Arusha, but still no doctors had anything they could do for him. He returned home and his family prepared for his funeral. he was ready to go home and die. But, somehow, he heard about a man across the border in Kenya that would pray for people and they would be healed. One last change to live! He talked with his mother about making arrangemments to go see the man, and so he was coming out of Maasailand where he lived to Loliondo town in order to find a ride to Kenya, when all of a sudden he saw the very man that he was going to see in the town of Loliondo! He approached him right away and demanded prayer! The man prayed for him and right there his heart condition left. He knelt down and gave his heart to Jesus and returned home to his family who were still in the midst of his burial arrangements. When he got home he told everyone to stop. He had been healed and now he loves this one called Jesus so much because he was so gracious to him! soon afterward, his youngest sister, Mary, began to come to church and found Jesus to be exactly who her brother told her he was. Another brother didn't like that they were going to church, but he came one day with them also, and he met Jesus and was changed. Soon followed his mother, but his father to this day is uninterested in anything having to do with these things. This is why Yohana was at my door. He came to ask for prayer, not for money. He came to ask if I would pray for his young sister, Mary. Mary is away at boarding school because a group from Denmark sponsored her to study and she loves it. However, there is a man in the village that has already made an arrangement with Yohana's father for a bride price for Mary. Mary is 17 and doesn't want to marry yet, but she just wants to finish school. She wants to keep learning and to be ready to marry when it is time and to choose for herself what kind of man she will marry. Their father is fed up and has sent her messages at school calling her home. Now, in about a month, there is a school break and all of the students have to return home. The moment Mary steps foot in Loliondo, she will be grabbed from the side of the road and locked in a room until she is married. Then, she will be kept in that room until she has been impregnated so that she is no longer allowed to attend school. Yohana was making plans to go home a few days before the break to tell his father that Mary should be allowed to stay at school and not made to come home and marry. He wanted prayer because he didn't want all of this to happen to his youngest sister and he was going home to tell his father so.  I heard Yohana talking in my living room and all of a sudden I began to think about my youngest sister, Melissa.  I thought about her when she was 17, how beautiful she is and was, how smart she is and all of the plans she had then.  I remember the young man she chose to be her husband and how happy she is now in her family, what a wonderful man she has chosen herself and how much they love eachother still today.  If I were in his position, I'm not sure I would have the same composure he afforded in my living room.

The reason I write about Yohana is two-fold. First, is to ask that you would join me in praying for Yohana and Mary. Pray for the Lord's favor and his protection for both of them. The second is to say that every decision we make counts. This young man is on staff here at YWAM as an evangelist and he is incredible. Somebody 10 years ago decided to make a trip to Loliondo and God had put some incredible things in motion for Yohana in that man's decision. I'm sure he has no idea what the fruit is from that one short prayer he prayed so many years ago, but the ripples are making there way all over Africa. Now, as we think back about some of the places we have gone for the Lord, maybe some have felt insignificant, maybe some of seemed like we didn't get to see much happen, but everything is sacred. Every decision counts. Every seed planted matters.

And now for your viewing pleasure.... Yesterday evening it was just about to rain and the sun was setting.  I looked out the door and there was sweet little Hailey taking in every bit of the sunset that she could.  I couldn't help but take a picture. 

And below we have a praise report!!  Praise the Lord that all of you are praying!!  Because this little guy below here just happened to be crawling across our living room floor this week and someone caught a glimpse of him.  We killed it before it could sting anyone.  Thank you for praying for us, thank you Lord for protecting us from danger!