At this point, many of you have heard that I am planning on going to Nairobi, Kenya this summer with a mission team from my church. You have probably asked me questions about how you can sponsor someone, donate, or pray for our team. You may not have asked these questions because you either don’t care or don’t want to know or maybe you just haven’t heard…I AM GOING TO KENYA!!!!
I am very excited about this opportunity. The closest I can recollect doing something for people in Africa is helping to purchase a cow for the village of Mwandi, Zambia. However, I am excited for this new chapter in my life. I am excited to see what God is going to do while we are on the ground in Kenya and I am excited to meet brothers and sisters from a different part of the world who love the same God that I love, that know the same salvation I know. I am excited.
My family on the other hand are a bit apprehensive of my going so far from home. It’s not that I haven’t traveled before, I went to Ireland at 25, it’s not that I am going to Kenya, though my parents can’t understand why Africa. My response is always the same, “I feel called to go visit Africa and I have since I was helping a mission in Zambia. I just never felt that I could go. Now I have the opportunity to go and I feel as if you don’t want me to go.” To be honest, my family are huge germaphobic people. Okay, so we wash clothing in hot water when I get home, then there are the shots that my family is worried about—vaccines that will keep me healthy. Then it happened…I had literally got my family calmed down…somewhat…and Al-Shabab decided to send in a terrorist to blow himself up and others to kill people. The response from my dad was pretty interesting… "Rachel, you are crazy to continue wanting to go to Kenya.”
Fear started to well up inside me. So what did I do? I came home, pulled out my passport application and looked it over. I said “God, if this is what you want me to do, give me peace.” Peace came. Yesterday as I sat at work, my phone started ringing—and it was a news notification of another terrorist attack—though no one has claimed responsibility. Immediately the same fear started to rise in me, I emailed our team leader and said “this just happened. At this point I don’t think we shouldn’t go, but we definitely need to be vigilant in our prayers, and use wisdom.” Yet, by the very definition, whether someone carries out an attack or not, terrorism is to strike (cause) fear in someone.
Today, I went to church, I told one of our team members about the new attack. I told her that I felt that if things didn’t settle, we’d need to reassess everything, but that we are approaching this entire trip with prayer. Later in the afternoon, I got an email stating that they weren’t sure if they wanted to go with us to Kenya. I wrote back and told them "we need
to trust God. And to pray for our safety.”
I write all this to say a few things about fear and trust. First off, the phrases, "Fear not" or "Be not afraid", occur 103 times in the King James Version of the Bible. If God is willing to repeat something that many times, there MUST be something to it.
So what is fear? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary fear is 1. an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger. Fear is a powerful emotion -- it can grip us with an immobilizing terror (Dreams). It can keep us from succeeding in life. Fear wants to steal your joy, take your courage and leave you cold, naked and trembling. Everyone has a fear… You may have a fear of death, failure, defeat, rejection, or a host of other things.
Yet God tells us to “Fear Not.”
I vividly remember September 11, 2001; I can still smell the darkroom chemicals, I can still feel the canister holding the film in my hand and I can still hear the words of the Graphic Design student, Teresa, when I found out that the first building of the World Trade Center had been hit; I can also tell you my exact response and the response of my classmates all the way down to who was angry, who was scared, who was eerily calm, and who was reactionary. That night, I came home, ten days later, I listened to George W. Bush’s message that we were going to “Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there.It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.” Yet, when I returned home from my friend Bill and Mary’s house, fear gripped me. Now I knew in my heart of hearts that members of Al-Qaeda wasn’t going to come across Mount Ida and blow up my tiny apartment building, but fear that been struck in my heart. That evening, I cried myself to sleep. The next night, I hung an American flag over my window on my door and every night from there on out, like a person with OCD, I checked and rechecked to make sure there wasn’t a terrorist standing outside. Then it happened, a friend who wasn’t nearly as religious as I came to me and said “Look, you are too fearful, check out 2 Timothy 1:7 “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
Rev. Darren Ethier states “Two kinds of fear: Fear that is good - keeps us from driving 200kph, picking up a rattler snake, jumping off the side of a building, or other foolish things that you can think of… and Fear that is harmful - This is the "spirit of fear" mentioned in this particular passage. This fear paralyzes us, keeps us from doing things we could or should do.”
God wants to encourage us to face our fears. Tonight, I was telling my prayer team that I found it very interesting that prior to choosing to join the mission team that is going to Kenya, I wouldn’t have heard about the terrorists attacks—not that I wouldn’t have cared, but it wouldn’t have bothered me as much. Matter of fact, I feel like this is happening because Satan is scared of what can happen when we step off that plane in Nairobi. This battle, these attacks are not an accident. They are deliberate attacks from Satan—this battle is spiritual in nature, Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” We are in a spiritual battle.
Matter of fact, I will echo Rev. Paul Hammons when I quote “The conflict is over authority. Jesus has all rightful authority Colossians 1:16-17, “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” He even created the angels, but Satan (a fallen angel) rebelled and attempted to steal His authority and was cast out of heaven. Now Satan wants to control your life and mine. Every human being that has ever walked the face of this earth has taken part in this spiritual battle. 1 Peter 5:8, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Satan is a thief, he is coming to try to devour us—to keep us from coming to Kenya, to keep us from telling someone that God LOVES them and that HE sent His only son to die for them.
Every night when I pray for this trip to Kenya, my prayer is “God start having someone tilling the fields of people’s hearts in Kenya, then send them our way! You have people already picked out that need 5 people from the US, to tell them that they are loved by an almighty God.” I am already praying for people’s salvation. Equally, I pray for each member of our team. I pray that God will help calm our hearts, our fears, our uncertainties. I pray for our hosts, our friends and family left here in the US. I also pray for our safety while we travel to and from Kenya, I pray for protection over each member of our team-whether we are traveling in the country or at our lodging. These prayers have given me great peace over going to Kenya.
One of my friends asked, half-joking and half-serious, “what happens if there is a terrorist attack in Kenya, while you are there?” All I could think to say is “If something happens, I was doing what I love…telling people about Jesus.” Paul Hammons writes “When we open our eyes, we see the Lord... And we are reminded that He is always there, just as He promised in Matthew 28, “I am with you always even unto the end of the world.” There is something about being in the presence of someone who is stronger than we are, that soothes our fears. (A child in a dark room – in the shadows there are all shorts of scary things, but when mom or dad is there the fear goes away).” Luke 12:4, “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!”
Finally I want to look at one of my favorite passages of Scripture. In case you didn’t know, I love the book of Isaiah. In Isaiah 43, the Israelite children are told “But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. 3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. 4 Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. 5 Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. 6 I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, 7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.
I love this scripture, especially verse 2, here God promises that he’ll be with them. At the worst moments of their lives; at the moments when they’re under the greatest pressure, he’ll be there. First there’s the general expression: through the waters or through the flames, but then that’s broadened to make it all encompassing. He’ll be there in the specifics: when they pass through rivers; when they pass through flames. No matter how bad it gets he’ll be there protecting them. Notice though that he doesn’t say they won’t get wet, or singed. But he does say that the flames won’t consume them. Sometimes we expect God to protect us from any harm at all. It’s like God has this magic spell that puts a shield around us to keep all the evil of the world away. But he doesn’t promise that, does he? He doesn’t say they’ll never have to walk through rivers or pass through flames. In fact it’s the opposite. He says they will experience that sort of trial. But he’ll be there beside them when it happens. And he’ll make sure that the experience doesn’t destroy them.
Zephaniah 3:16-1716 On that day they will say to Jerusalem, "Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands hang limp. 17 The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”
We have much to fear. Unlike my youthful fears of Great White Sharks in our swimming pool, the threats against our country, and for some, our loved ones, are real. But God would not have us be paralyzed or panicked by our fear – but wants to quiet us with His love.
Remember He promises that though you walk through difficult circumstances—even if it’s a mission trip to a far away country – they (the circumstances that cause us fear) will not overtake You – and He is with you.
When you feel afraid...
1. Cast your cares upon Him.
2. Take refuge in Him.
3. Replace anxiety with thoughts of God.
4. Keep an eye on eternity. AND
5. Listen to God’s word to you.
Bring it all to Him and let Him carry you.
If you want to donate to our Kenya Mission Trip, you may make a check out to Clarksbury UMC, write Nairobi in the Memo and mail to me--please contact me at the1witnessblog@gmail.com for mailing instructions. All donations submitted to the church are tax-deductible.
If you do not desire a tax deduction, you may donate at paypal.me/rachelanders or at givesendgo.com/sendmetonairobi
If you do not desire a tax deduction, you may donate at paypal.me/rachelanders or at givesendgo.com/sendmetonairobi
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