The Greatest Care for the Least

I am so often amazed at the apostolic capacity of some of the leaders we work with. John Omondi's network of churches easily exceeds 2,000 which is impressive by any standard.

But that misses the point of who this young man actually is.

This fact was brought home to me as Brooks and I sat with him and his co-leader Josiah in a coffee shop in Nairobi. Somehow a young teenage girl made it into the restaurant to beg for school fees. Restaurants try to discourage this, but she managed to come in and sit in the booth immediately behind John. Soon she was speaking softly in his ear, describing her needs, and he was listening.

Now, you have to understand that in a city like Nairobi you are surrounded by people with needs from children sent out by their parents to beg, to the severely handicapped, to people who are clearly hungry… such conditions are in your face all day long. And, honestly, it is difficult for us westerners to not become a little callous to this constant barrage of human needs.

So, I was very intrigued to watch how this played out with John and Josiah who live in this environment daily as they were being asked for something by yet one more person. I actually thought that, at best, they might hand her a dollar as a way to dismiss her and leave it at that.

I was wrong.

Instead, they gave her their full attention. They read the school material she handed them. And that was only the beginning. They stopped their meeting with these important Americans (us) and told her they wanted to talk to her mother. They wanted to make sure that the need was legitimate and that the mother was, indeed, ill and unable to assist this daughter. So, they called the mom and set up a time later in the day to go see her. Which, in fact, they did! And they then proceeded to help with a gift of 3,000 Kenya shillings and took the time to pray with the family.

It is hard to describe the impact this had on me and how humbled I was by it all. These are busy, productive, fruitful ministers who oversee teams in 30 counties in Kenya. But this one girl in need had their full attention and they gave both time and money to reach out to one family whom God had put in their path.

More than anything else that these men have accomplished, this is what truly speaks to who they are.

John and Josiah (in order):