"smoke from a thousand villages"

(This is a long one but worth the read. Feel free to go to the bottom summary points)

When David Livingstone arrived at the missions station in S. Africa in the mid-1800s , there was one thought that drove him, compelled him, and stirred up a passion within his soul. He would look to the north. The land was unexplored, and thus unexposed to the truth of the gospel, that Jesus Christ came to redeem from sin all who would follow and believe in Him for salvation. In the morning sun, Livingstone would look to the vast plains of the north and see smoke rising, smoke from a thousand villages who had never heard.

Livingstone and many other missionaries contributed to the romantic understanding of Africa that I can only understand when I look out at the open plain. It is a feeling I only receive when in the villages. Quiet, beautiful, serene and simple. Sometimes I wonder if Africa as a continent would have been better off untouched by modern life. Sometimes I wonder if this world would have been better off untouched by modern life, the 'noise, hurry, and crowds' that our Adversary focuses on to keep us from a contemplative life.

There is something growing in my heart that both stirs an exciting passion in my soul and an uncomfortable fear in my flesh. It is a greater desire to be a witness for Jesus Christ among those who have not clearly heard, and more specifically among the Muslims of this area. I am finding that my desire to be a teacher of God's word in order to lead believers to maturity is not contradictory, but complementary to my desire to be a teacher of God's word in order to lead the lost to faith in Christ and maturity in that faith. That they are one in the same.

However, I still feel conflicted. Longing with a deep desire to lock myself up in the office and study God's Word, study Islam, study Swahili, drink deep of knowledge and its useful purposes. And yet also longing for a deeper understanding of the people and engaging them with my whole heart.

Question: In one day, is eight hours of study, worth one hour of wise words finding their origin in God and given in a timely manner? (seriously, what do you think?)

In all this flood of impractical thinking, I remember that I've only been here two months. God is leading. God is growing my heart. God is working. God is my shepherd, and I am his sheep. My only responsibility is to hear the voice of my shepherd, and to follow him. The shepherd is the one who feeds, loves, and leads his sheep to the green pastures, the still waters, and even through the valley that we might trust Him in all seasons.

On a practical note, October has brought:
- an opportunity to preach at church on the meaning and significance of the Lord's Supper
- James & Jacinta our national teammates had their firstborn son, Daniel.
an outside bathroom at the Serve Center which will be used a lot once we officially open up to the public. It is our desire to use this place as a resource and training center for the pastors in this coastal region.
- Several teaching opportunities for myself. Worship team Bible study on Spiritual Disciplines, weekly devotionals with the Team, a study with college students in Mombasa over Galatians for all of November, an informal class on Ecclesiology for the church leadership team at Word of Life.
- An increased Swahili vocabulary
- I've been able to get to know some of the other missionaries here and talk with them about learning from them more about evangelism in this area.
- Many small opportunities from sharing Christ on the beach to having lunch with the caretaker of my apartments and his brothers.

Looking back over the month I can see that a lot is taking place. I need to learn not to measure my worth upon how much I accomplish in a day (or in a year or ever for that matter). No one can accomplish much in one day, but in 365 of them a lot can happen. Whether or not it is worth something or just chaff driven away by the wind, is up to God who breathes life into our work and causes the growth. We learned in church last week that we are farmers. A farmer is to work very hard, but ultimately what he does is plant a seed, bury it under ground, and wait for this magical thing called 'growth' to happen. God is that magic. Praise God! Because none of us have any ultimate control over the hearts of men. Growth is an impossible task for men, but farming is not.

Pray that I'd be a faithful and hard working farmer, planting seeds of faith in believers and unbelievers alike with the Word of God and the Gospel of Grace & Peace, today and for the next 20,000 days if my life remains and Jesus tarries.

In Summary:
- I have a greater desire to share Christ with those who do not believe.
- And yet a greater desire to study, study, study
- Right now I'm doing a lot of studying and teaching Bible studies
- I'd like to create a balance by spending some time learning how to share Christ in the villages and building stronger relationships in the church.

Praises:
- Increased learning and adjustment to life here in Kenya
- God's leading and direction in my heart
- An increase in our team unity

Prayer:
- To be a faithful, hard-working farmer
- To walk closely and personally with God and be daily amazed by God's love
- To be patient throughout this first year of ministry and to not put too much pressure on myself

Poem on Missions from a Friend

Go to the people,
Live among them,
Learn from them,
Start with what they know,
Build on what they have.

But of the best leaders, when their work is done, the people will all remark,

"we have done it ourselves."

That sounds great. Pray with me that I might actually know how to do this through God's grace and enabling in my life.

Excerpt on Edwards

The following excerpt is from Iain Murray's book, "Heroes".

"What Edwards Has Left Us"
#4. Edwards' great lesson is the call to cease looking to men and to live to honour God alone.

Ask Edwards what he considered is ever the first need of the church, and his answer is very definite. It is 'humility', for pride is the peril ever nearest to us. It was pride that brought down the Northampton church. It was pride that led the eighteenth century to glory in the delusion of its supposed 'Enlightenment'. And in the way it can turn even the best of things to its use, pride is the most subtle of temptations. Orthodox faith, good scholarship, able preachers, successful congregations - these are all desirable things, but pride can ruin them all.

We want revival, but revival where pride is not mortified will quench the Holy Spirit...

Pride is the cause of the idolatry that is hateful to God. Congregations can idolize preachers, preachers can idolize congregations. In Edwards' life we are taught not only by his words but by his history, that we are to 'cease from man'. The praise of man one day may turn to opposition the next. We are not to depend on human nature. 'Beware of man', is the injunction of Christ. And the warning is most needed when it seems least necessary.

To the Bible's question, 'What is man?' Edwards knew the right answer: man is 'a leaf driven of the wind, poor dust, a shadow, a nothing'. And of himself he says that he was empty, 'a helpless creature', of small account, and needing 'God's help in everything'.

There is one text more than any other to which the life of Jonathan Edwards leads us back. It is at the heart of the Resolutions he wrote as a young Christian; he preached it in Boston at the age of twenty-seven when he said, 'the creature is nothing, and God is all'; and he delighted in it the longer he lived. The text is 1 Corinthians 10:31: 'Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' To exalt man is to disown the purpose of God that 'no flesh should glory in his presence'. All good is given to believers - all grace, all revival, all redemption, all eternity - that we might be abased and find our all in God. Whatever the hardships, the persecution or the disappointments in things temporal, the churches brightest and happiest days are those in which she is learning to sing, 'Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory' (Psa. 115:1), for this is God's preparation for the world where all will say,

Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen (Rev. 7:12)

I'm Two Years Old.

I'm sitting here in my living room in Kenya under a ceiling fan that was just installed thinking about how I can summarize my first 3 weeks here. As I adjust to life here in Kenya, stick out like a sore thumb, and learn all over again how to do basic tasks I've been doing for years, the theme of the 2 year old continues to come up again and again. Anjela, the Omondi's daughter, just turned 2 this week. She's had 2 years of experience now in Kenya. I've had a grand total of 3 months. So, I'm a two year old? Yep. Exactly. Other friends I have that are just entering the mission field have expressed the same kinds of feelings. One realized that his teammates' daughter knows the English alphabet better than he knows the Arabic alphabet! Hi, I'm Ben Warren. I may look 28 years old, but really I just turned 2.

Reminding myself of this is helpful. I think a large part of me expects to be able to jump right in to ministry here. I feel awkward when someone asks, "What do you do here?" I say, I'm working with Dennis and Serve. They say, "Well what do you do?" I say..."Figuring out what I will be doing" Remembering I'm a two year old takes some of the pressure off of myself that I need to have an established ministry already. Jerry Clark from Denton Bible came out last week. As we traveled around and spoke to many pastors and church leaders, he told me something he had heard from Mel Summrall: "When you come to a new place, you can't expect for the people to catch your vision or listen much to you. First they have to know you, then they have to like you. This has to happen before anyone is willing to follow you or hear what you say."

So this is what I'm doing. Getting to know people. Learning Swahili. Learning how to live in Kenya. I'm a student. I'm a 2 year old. I'm a missionary.

Here are some pictures of my home in Kenya

The Electric Shock of Culture.

From Kenya House Pictures

On Thursday morning, an electrician from the church who also sells used furniture and fans, came to my house to install a ceiling fan that I purchased from him. Once it was up and running I was very happy to have some air moving in the main room. Dustin and I went out to meet with Dennis and came back ready to make some dinner. I grabbed the empty coffee mug on my table and went for the fan's metal regulator box on the wall to turn up the speed of the fan.

"Ahhh!!"
"What?", Dustin said.
"I just got shocked!", I said, in a loud voice one might consider a yelp.

When the electrician returned, he found that the metal box had pinched a wire against the wall, exposing the wire and running a current throughout the entire box. Looking back on it, the shock felt familiar to a shock I received one summer afternoon at one of my Dad's jobs when I grabbed a loose plug by its sides. Both my American and Kenyan shocks probably ended up around the same voltage. In Kenya all the electricity runs at 220 volts while in America it is 110 I believe. So I think I received an American shock by an indirect exposure through the box of my Kenyan fan switch.

The whole situation became a lesson in culture, as I began to question whether or not I was sold a bad fan and taken advantage of, as happens often to people in Kenya, especially mzungus (white people). I don't think I was taken advantage of with the ceiling fan but it brought some interesting thoughts and I'm glad I experienced this little 'shock' in culture.

My question: Is an untrusting attitude just as bad as a deceitful one?

I've been pondering this and I'm not quite sure of the answer. I know that after a while I can easily grow a hard heart to all the people here in Kenya who will do whatever it takes to get your money - either through stealing or through deceit.

My conclusion for now: I would rather be generous and trusting (but not naive or gullible), then be stingy and untrusting. Which character qualities would you rather have? Exactly. I'm going with the former by the enabling of the Holy Spirit.

(Let me know what you think! Do you have any advice for me? Any thoughts. I'd love to hear from you!)

Sometimes we talk about how America's spirituality has declined due to the love of money and its prosperity. You would think that a less prosperous country might be able to have a greater spirituality without this distraction. Sadly, this place is FILLED with the 'love of money' especially in this area which has a high tourist population. Did you know that poor people can be just as obsessed with the love of money as the rich? Last week one pastor in Nakuru exclaimed, "I will not die poor!", as we discussed the validity of the prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel is a different gospel, not the good news of Jesus Christ, because its central focus is not on salvation in Christ, but on physical possessions and money. As we continued to share the true gospel from the Scriptures with this group in Nakuru, the same pastor said, "But what about prosperity?" As if this was something that had to occur for all those who follow Christ. What do you think? Did Jesus Christ experience a 'prosperous' life? Did Paul? Did they die rich men or poor men? Respected by the world or persecuted by it?