On April 6th we had a combined service with our sister church in Athi River town after the main services at Bible Baptist. The thrust of the service was to honor our co-laborers and friends Peter and Gladys Kasamba, and to bid them farewell as they go to Tanzania to serve as missionaries. The church planned a meal for everyone and afterwards we had special singing, testimonies, and preaching.
Being asked to preach, God directed me to speak on the time when David and his outlawed men came back to Ziklag only to find that their family and possessions had been captured by an army of marauders. In the pursuit of chasing after the bandits, some of David’s men were left behind by the brook in order to watch over the extra stuff. After David and the other men finally caught up to the crooks and recaptured their things taken, some of the men who went to the battle complained that the men who were left behind should not partake of the spoil. David, however, said that was not right and that all of the men should share in the blessings of their efforts together.
That is how it is with missionaries going to a faraway place to battle with the enemy. The people who are left behind but still help the missionary should share in the blessings that God allows the missionary to partake in. In other words, we who go and those who stay should all partake in the blessings that are obtained for the glory of the Lord.
In my final illustration, I pulled out an old Swahili Bible that I was first given when coming to Kenya some 26 years ago this month. I used that Bible to learn Swahili and God allowed me to use the Bible to show several people how to be saved including Bro. Peter Kasamba in 1984. I told Bro. Peter that God had impressed on my heart to give him that very Bible to take to Tanzania where they also speak Swahili. So now he can show some other man how to be saved and train that person in the work of the Lord. Then he can give that same Bible to that preacher, and the cycle can continue. In time, and as God permits, this simple Swahili Bible could be influential in bringing many to Christ. The Kasamba family is planning to go over to Tanzania for their first term sometime this week. Thanks so much for all of you who have been praying for them and who have helped them to go.
Jerry Novak, Kenya