Habari Yako! (How are you?) It’s difficult to sum up all that happened in a week of trauma and emotional healing training. And as I reflect on the mission it’s difficult to see what we gave over all we received. The mission was to offer Trauma and Emotional Healing Transformation to people who work in counseling and pastoral areas. People who have much trauma and emotional pain to work through in their own stories. Our team taught for around 20 hours over the course of a week. Topics included emotional regulation, parent modeling, addiction, grief, loss, forgiveness, and shame. But what did we really give?
My hope is that the people we taught will take that information and share it with others. Don’t get me wrong – we saw many people receive healing from past trauma. Some transformation occurred through Trauma and Emotional Healing training. Things they had yet to work through, or in some cases didn’t even realize they suffered from. But what we received from these beautiful and joyful people will radically change my life. And now I have a renewed worship for our good and beautiful God.
I watched for a little over a week as person after person poured out their heart to God. I watched them dance and sing and praise God for all he has done and will do in their lives. For the first time in my walk with God, I even joined in the dancing and the singing. As I began to praise Him with my entire body, I realized the importance of whole body worship. Furthermore, many times it seems like we are constantly struggling against the two forces at play in our culture.
On the one hand, we have the body or the flesh. This part of us is where the sinful nature resides, and as such, we become ashamed of it. Or at least pretend it doesn’t exist, working to silence it’s desires. On the other hand we have the Spirit. The part of us that is pursuing God, that loves righteousness and realizes our need for Jesus. But what if I told you that God wants us to be one whole being? Not divided within ourselves, with many parts. But rather, the body and the Spirit together in harmony – worshiping the Lord with all you have? That is what I witnessed and learned to do.
The people of Kenya are not only so very faithful, but so full of love for the Lord. They have so much joy as they work tirelessly to serve others. When I think of Kenya, one of the words that comes to mind is hospitality. Y’all think you have hospitality here in the south? Well they have hospitality too – south of the equator in Africa. Everyone opened their lives and shared all they had with us. We were fed, we were given gifts, we were loved beyond all expectation.
People went out of their way to offer us little bits of things from home to ease our culture shock. Even though in most cases that meant an all day excursion on their part to find the thing. Which meant they had to deal with crazy traffic, find and pay for parking, go through security checkpoints, haggle their tail off, go back through security, and deal with more traffic. Just to get us some ice cream as a treat. Of course if they would have asked we would have told them not to go through the trouble. But they didn’t bat an eyelash or think twice.
So my two major takeaways are to worship the Lord with my entire body. I’ve got to stop fighting against this idea. The Spirit needs to be one with the body as we give everything to the Lord. I am going to praise him with my whole being. And more importantly I am going to learn to be an even more humble and selfless servant of others. I will complain less and give more.
In major ways, I have not just the people of Kenya to thank and love. But you, the people who prayed and supported and generously gave. You are the ones I have to thank and extend my sincere gratitude. So thank you prayer warriors for covering us with words of protection and peace and purpose. Thank you supporters for always making us feel as though you were genuinely excited for us to have this opportunity. And thank you for those of you who gave generously to make this trip happen. It is only by the grace of God and the work of His hands that stand here today. I am a man who has changed for the better. In the words of some of my favorite people – Asante Sana. Na kupenda. Pamoja. Thank you very much. I love you. We’re together.
