The Devil is Scared!!!! I am a Threat!

If given the opportunity I could speak for hours about our experience in Kenya.

 I would gush over the stories of working with the Orphans and my love for little Abigail.

I could talk about how much I admire the lessons learned from our Fundi Richard or laugh retelling the story of how the some of the men told me I was brilliantly strong and It’s a shame I was married, as I would be worth Many Cows!

But one of the greatest lessons I learned from Kenya, didn’t really start to settle in , until our arrival home.

Before I share, let’s take a quick look back to an evening tradition for our trip. Every night after dinner, and once the dishes were done, Team Amani would settle into the living room and share a devo and debrief. Each night one of the members would lead a devotion and then guide a discussion about that day and how the trip was going as a whole.

During the month of September, a number of women’s from our church attended a woman’s retreat. That weekend the theme was fearless. We dove into the life of Peter, and watched how all his failures in life, continued to carve his character and develop him into a man that the church would be founded on. Following the retreat I had felt rather strong about wanting to learn more about who Peter was, and what he had to say later in his letters to the early church. Little did I know this would be very applicable to my time in Kenya.

If you wouldn’t mind opening your Bibles with me to the book of 1^st Peter chapter 5: 1-11.

To the Elders and the Flock

5 To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

5 In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,

“God opposes the proud

    but shows favor to the humble.”[a]

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

This section of scripture was the focus of my devotion one evening. We had talked about how humbling this trip has been for many of us. We spoke of how though we might suffer a little as Christion’s, our rewards in heaven were far greater. But the Key verse I focused on was

 Verse 8- 9.

8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

For many years as a teen I worked for a Christian summer camp. Working on the front lines on ministry you learn first-hand about spiritual warfare and attacks that often hit your ministry. Well during my time there, one of our speakers told us something pretty amazing about this passage that has always stuck with me. Did you know that when a Lion prowls around roaring, that it is actually a sign that he is scared. When Male Lions feel there is a threat to his territory and his Pride, he walks around his Land roaring, to make himself seem bigger then he actually is. This is to try to scare off any threats on his territory.

So the Devil walks around roaring like a lion. Why? Because he is scared of the good work that is being done by the ultimate power!  So as we learned in camp, when everything seems to be going wrong and you feel like giving up, its often at that point we would remember, “the Devil is scared! I am a threat! SOMETHING AMAZING IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN!”  Sure enough within 24 hours of it all hitting the fan, a camper would come to Christ, someone would rededicate their life or something amazing for the Kingdom of God would shine through.

Praise God for roaring lions!

What does this have to do with my trip back home? Well as you can imagine we all had many stories we were excited to share with our friends and family. We had spent the past 11 months prepping for this trip and were so excited to come home and share with co- workers about what Christ had done!

Well , while sitting in the Kenya air port I checked my email for the first time. I had an interesting email from the COO and my Executive director to give them a call before I returned to work on Monday. Well to make a long story short, while I was gone, the Ebola virus became a hot button topic in the states as you well know. Due to the media and inflation of fear, Our Trip to Kenya became a discussion topic at not one but 3 of our branches that I work for. There was this great fear passing along from our customers that I would be unsafe to return to work.  It became so bad, that one person called up our CEO demanding the names of all the people who traveled with me, so that he could call up their companies and demand that we all be quarantined for Ebloa.

Sadly my company was stuck between a rock and painful hard place. The only option they has was to ask that I work from home over the next 21 days, to make sure that I would not be harmful to the 16,000 customers that come to our buildings.  I was labeled as a threat, and honestly started feeling very Dirty. What was silly about all of this was we were over 3,500 miles away from the nearest country that had this Virus. To put it bluntly, I had to cancel my trip to Disney world, because there were reports of someone being sick in Alaska.

As you can imagine, my spirits were crushed. I was angry for being punished, for other people’s lack of 4^th grade geography. As my brother put it, I wanted to walk around smacking people with an atlas to knock some sense back in them.

That night I got some sleep, cleared my head and took some time to breathe with God.
Its then when I heard it. Did you miss it?
If you listen…. You might hear it…. It’s a roar in the distance.

“the devil is scared! We are a threat! Something amazing is about to happen!!!!”

You know when you look at life with that perspective, everything becomes exciting.
God did amazing things while we were in Kenya. And the Devil doesn’t want us to share our stories.
Well tough luck, My God is bigger than any media frenzy!

So my goal for the next 21 days? Share our story as much as possible. Spread the good news that God is alive in our Country and across the world. Continue to focus on the identity that God has created me to be which is a child of the King. I also plan to use this time to educate people about Africa and how big it really is!

As I close I want to go back to the Sermon the Caleb preached on right before our team left.
In a world full of Unknown viruses, school shootings, terrorist attacks and war, we have to admit that we live in a scary place. But fear can be one of our greatest enemies.  We cannot allow fear to dictate our lives and paralyze us from going out and spreading the good news. At all times I pray that we remember..

Philippians 4:6-7New International Version (NIV)

6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.