Learning
How Strong My Daddy’s Grip Is
When Paul is talking to God in 2nd
Corinthians about his weaknesses and God tells him that even in his weakness
God is made strong. When you put that in
perspective of real life it really is true in our weakest times God seems to be
there always, but as Christians are we supposed to be weak or strong? What I
have come to realize is that the more we are humbled to how small we are the
more we realize how big God is, that’s when we draw close to our father and go
deeper into his brilliance. It’s like a brain freeze of a realization it hits
me and I forget how powerful it is until it hits me again. The more I grow
close to God I see my job is not to become a bigger, stronger, more perfect
Christian, it’s actually about me making myself less and putting everyone ahead
of me! Jesus is awesome and his light shines so much brighter when I’m not
trying to figure out where my glory is! But instead through the possession of
Jesus in my life show people how glorious he is.
When
my team and I left Busia Kenya in May 2012 I was curious to see how the Street
Kid ministry would do without us there. We left the ministry in the hands of a
man named Cornel who would be working under a Church in Busia Kenya. The deal
was that the Church would help cover food cost and form a committee for the
sake of being a strong, organized, reliable, consistent program. In turn my
team and I would go back and raise support in order to come back, buy land, and
build a rehabilitation center for the kids. After a working a summer at an
amazing Jesus filled camp in the hills of Northern California, and doing two
semesters at the University of Alabama I
returned as promised but what I saw was
not what was promised. In fact the ministry that my team and I had left was
barely hanging in the mix. I had not broken contact with Cornel so I was aware
what was going on but to see it with my own eyes on that magnitude was a
shocker. Cornel was left to feed 40 kids two times a week, pay medical bills,
transportation for the kids that went home and many other things without
support from the Church. So we talked to Pastor about the issue we heard the
pastors dream that he wanted land, his church to grow, and for classrooms to be
built. The problems were A. We came to Kenya for the street kids. B We did not
have building a church for 64,000 in our budget C. We came for the street kids
because got sent us to help the street kids. It was in our second meeting with
Pastor that we made clear our goals were the same as they were a year ago and
he did not do what he promised us he would. So we told him not to worry because
it was in the past. To make sure that did not happen in the future we wanted to
work with the church but we wanted to be responsible for the kids. We figured it
would take a little pressure off his back. He was fine and then the issue of
land came up. We told him the land was going to belong to the ministry, and it
would be in the ministries name. That’s when things went downhill. We don’t
know what plans Pastor had for the land but he was angry that we were not
putting it in the Churches name. So long story short we are not working with
that Church anymore. Cornel was pulled in front of the congregation and
banished from the Church and I was told not to come back. All because of money not being in the hands
of the Pastor but it being in the right hands.
So
we clenched on to Jesus’s hand and moved forward! And oh boy did Jesus rock our
worlds. We were able to meet with the founder of a Street Kid ministry that has
been running strong for over ten years and has over 100 kids! They directed us
on how to get started as an organization, who to contact and just blessed us
with encouragement. They informed us we made the right discussions regarding
the land and the Church and that God was really with us! Amen to that! So we
kept our heads up and kept the ministry running from our house. We were able to
start a soccer team with the kids and play local orphanages. We were blessed
with the help from 12 missionaries who were working with the Church we got
kicked out of but still insisted on helping us (ironic) J. And now with a month of work done we are
moving into the next stage of the ministry we have a meeting with the district
children’s officer of Busia Kenya on June 5. In the meeting we will start the
process of becoming a FBO (Faith Based Organization) with the Kenyan
government. It may take a couple of months to fully be labeled but until then
we will be able to work towards finding the right land with the right price and
the right foundation that can one day support the dream God has given us for
the ministry. We have been looking at land the past month but we know that God
will provide in his time not ours. Once we are ready to rock and we get the
land then the process comes to farm and build.
Our Kenya team for the month of June was great. Brad, Whitney, and Casey
all did an absolutely amazing job at helping get everything off the ground.
Though Cornel and I are sad to see them go we know that they are going to do big
things in the next chapters of their lives.
As for Cornel and I we
have just said by to the team in Jinga, Uganda! We head back to Busia tomorrow,
and we are super excited to see what God is going to do next!!
Thank you for your
support and prayers! Our hope is that your world gets turned upside down by the
radical radiant love of Jesus Christ. Amen
Haden Hallman
