Dear Friends & Partners,

On my Kenya, Africa JESUS Film Harvest Partner trip this month, each team member took turns daily sharing a devotional thought. Kristi Fenton, a teacher in Washington state, shared the following devotional on the day we saw lions during the safari part of our trip. I hope you enjoy it and that it will speak to you like it did to me.

Blessings,

   

Chuck Watson
chuckwatson@JFHP.org
817-427-4900

The Mighty Lion

As a fan of C.S Lewis and an elementary school teacher, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" has always been one of my favorite stories. Many people are familiar with this story because it has been recently released as a movie. Well, if you ever get into reading the entire set, the story that follows called "Prince Caspian" describes when Lucy meets Aslan, the Great Lion. Maybe this will ring true in your experience with God as it did with mine.

When Lucy met Aslan, he was the size of a normal lion, but when she met him sometime later, he was a lion that was the size of an elephant.

Lucy remarked, "Aslan, you’re bigger."

He answers, "That is because you are older little one."

Confused she replies back, "Not because you are?"

"I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger."

As our JESUS Film team visited the beautiful country of Kenya, Africa, I was reminded of the greatness of God… the Mighty Lion.

If you have ever seen a lion in the wild, you will know what I am about to describe. As our team was wayfaring on the dusty roads of Amboseli on a safari, we were on the hunt to spot a lion. Many times out on the field, we heard rumors of lions, but the real key was to watch the animals surrounding the area. If a lion was present, you could tell because it commanded the attention of everyone—zebras, wildebeests, humans in safari vans. Every zebra had its nose pointed in the direction where the lion would be. Safari vans lined up with their gaze fixed in his direction. And although I could not see the lion, I knew the lion was there because of the signs and signals that pointed to him. This reminds me of how sometimes I do not "see" the great and mighty God, but I look around and I know that He is there because of the signs and signals of His presence. And also I remember the greatness of God and how his majesty does something in us to command our attention.

This experience on the safari parallels an experience that happened to me while working in the Nairobi, Kenya slums with the JESUS Film.

Spiritual warfare was in the air that night. The sun was down and everything seemed to turn a dim gray. I wandered the perimeter of the JESUS Film site and approached the barbed wire fence where some young adults were standing. We talked for a while and then a young man wearing a blue visor approached me. He appeared to be intoxicated.

"Why does God hate Satan?" he asked.

I paused. "Well, what do you think?"

He shrugged with an air of confusion. And as I began to explain about God being love and Satan being the one who hates us, the entire group of chatting women and men stopped and gathered to hear what I had to say. All eyes were focused and ears attentive at the mention of God’s name.

Later that evening, I had a similar experience. I was talking with some teenagers and during the showing of the JESUS Film, one of the girls leaned over to me and asked, "What do you think about all of this religious stuff?"

I began to explain the things I hold as the basic essential beliefs of my faith…and as I did, the teenagers around us stopped talking and leaned in. Their eyes were fixed and their ears attentive at the mention of God’s name.

In Ephesians, it explains so precisely what my prayer is, that my heart be fixed on Jesus as steadfastly as the zebras had their eyes fixed on the great lion… or as silent and transfixed as these Kenyans were at the mention of the name of God.

"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed Him to be head over everything in the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way."

This last week we have been witnesses to many of the great and powerful acts of God. And as we praise Him, we see that our eyes become fixed on Him and what He is doing. One night we saw a man that was completely intoxicated become instantly clear and able speak clearly after members of the JESUS Film team prayed for him. We witnessed God providing a new church building for the Soweto Church of the Nazarene through the contact of a little girl who decided to accept Jesus as her Savior one night. We saw hoards of people drawn to the Film with their eyes fixed on the story of Jesus. We held children and had the privilege of imitating Christ. We prayed over children. We prayed with new converts. We saw hundreds of people come to know Christ. We saw the church of Soweto grow. We saw people accept Christ and then return the next night to join the team and pray with new believers to accept Christ.

The signs and signals were clear to me. We were in the presence of a mighty working and powerful God.

As we finish up the trip with these memories, we may be unaware or unclear about what has been done here because we are not leaving behind a new structure or a freshly painted building, or some sort of visible reminder of what has happened during our JESUS Film Mission Trip to Nairobi, Kenya. But I believe that each of these memories and moments that we have witnessed create an unseen temple—the unseen temple that Chuck kept reminding us of each time he encouraged us about our purpose… Kingdom building.

And as we see what He has designed and created… I stare... and my heart is filled with praise.

Ephesians 2:19-22 The Message

"God is building a home. He's using all of us—irrespective of how we got here—in what He is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day, a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple with which God is quite at home."