The first church service that I went to in Malawi was the Flood, which is a nondenominational
Church that was established here by some people from California (I thought that was interesting). It was a fairly small church that was about half white people (mzungus) and African people. The pastor’s name was Sean and he spoke on how we need to be the light in the dark world. Additionally, he touched on how we are God’s winning team, which he made sure to include a picture of Ghana after they won over the USA. It made for an interesting segway. Anywho that day they had a special guest from Colorado, who shared his amazing and touching story. This was his story: he was raised in a dysfunctional family, who soon divorced by age 11 (if I recall correctly, he also was a believer during this time). During his teens, he fooled around and chose to do stupid things (things he did not go into detail). He kept going to church yet had pressing hardship within him. Feeling he couldn’t talk to someone in his church without judgement, he continued this way for a while until one day he was able to confide in someone. He was on his way to spiritual healing and growing in his relationship with Christ. His last act of moving things behind him was to get tested for HIV/AIDS. In the end his results were positive. He said that he was mortified. The things he did in secret were now out in the open. He went on to talk about how he was worried whether a woman would want to marry him and how he met his wife. He talked about how there were several times where he was close to death and God pulled his through and provided. He shared a certain instance where he had lost so much weight and was so sick that he couldn’t sit up in bed and his doctor said he should make a will. He had only strength enough to flip open the bible, which flipped to Psalms 27:13-14. It says,” I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!” Shortly after he read this verse, he got much better and proposed to his girlfriend of a year (who is now his wife). He told of other challenges in his life, one where he feared that he had given HIV to his wife (which turned out to be negative), and another such as the question of children. Happily I say that his wife and he talked to doctors and found there was a way to have children without HIV transfer. This was the story of a man who at many times could have died, yet God had a plan and a purpose for his life. He thought he’d never get married, yet he did. He almost died, yet he didn’t. He thought he’d never be able to give his wife children, yet now they have two beautiful children. He is a pastor and him and his wife are highly involved in HIV/AIDS awareness all over the world. It’s amazing to see how God can work in amazing and miraculous ways. NOTHING IS TOO SMALL or LARGE FOR THE LORD. Something he said that stuck with me was “we are just little stories among God’s big story.
Focal verse: Psalms 27:13-14
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