Life Change Happens While Serving Others

BY RON GURNEY

On a Glenkirk mission trip in May 2006, God and the Kenyan people simultaneously spoke to me. In Nairobi, Kenya the Reverend Judy Mbugu is a phenomenal person. She founded the “Homecare Spiritual Fellowship” in Nairobi. Our mission team visited her and that ministry.

Rev. Judy had a vision, and she put together an interdenominational fellowship of born again Christian women. The program has grown from twenty-five people to twenty-one branches in Kenya, Tanzania, Canada, and Zimbabwe.

All of the women who attend in Nairobi have suffered abuse and need psychological counseling. Not one woman is turned away. Most come from the Kibera slum on the outskirts of Nairobi which happens to be one of the largest slums in Africa.

Rev. Judy holds a prayer meeting every Thursday from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. We were there on a Thursday, and we attended the meeting. It is a jubilant affair with singing, clapping, laughing, praising, dancing, and testimonials.

Eighty women attended along with two men, Steve Sharp (from our team) and I. After forty-five minutes of liveliness, Rev. Judy said, “It’s time to hear from the men.” She called on me. I was startled, as I never expected that I would be speaking to a group of women in Nairobi. God had a plan. He worked through Judy.

I went forward having no idea what I was going to do or say. Judy handed the microphone to me. I still had no idea what was going to come out of my mouth. God did.

I remembered a line from Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life that states, “A human being lives an average of 25,550 days.” I expressed Rick Warren’s statement and went on, “I am sixty-nine years old, and if I am a real statistic I have about ninety days left on earth. I can either let my life drift by or I can do God’s work. I am going to do God’s work.” I suddenly choked up and I had to stop. That had never happened to me in any public speaking I have done. I placed the microphone to my side and looked away. I gathered myself and said, “I am getting emotional.” I swallowed a few times. I got myself under control, finished with a flurry and sat down.

The moment became surreal to me. That ten minute segment ranks in the top of two of my personal life changing moments. In fact, I am getting flushed as I write this just thinking about that short period of time.

If you ever meet Rev. Judy Mbugu, you will never forget her and the work she does for women in Nairobi and across Africa. Thank you, Judy, for calling on me. Thank you, God, for having Judy call on me. I do hope that something happened to the women that morning because it certainly happened to me.

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