Change the World

A little boy was overheard talking to himself as he strutted through his backyard carrying a ball and bat and shouting, “I’m the greatest hitter in the world!” Then he tossed the ball into the air, swung at it, and missed.

“Strike one!” he yelled. Undaunted, he picked up the ball and repeated, “I’m the greatest hitter in the world!” When it came down, he swung again and missed. “Strike two!” he cried.

The boy paused a moment, examined the ball, spit on his hands, adjusted his hat, and repeated, “I’m the greatest hitter in the world!”

Again he tossed the ball up and swung at it. He missed. “Strike three!”

“Wow!” he said. “I’m the greatest pitcher in the world!”

It would be so nice if we all had the confidence of this young man, but the truth is most of us struggle with self worth or insecurities that stop us from changing the world.

After my second trip to Kenya, I am even more convinced that God’s desire is for us to make a real difference in the lives of other people. He wants to use US to change the world.

I want to thank all of you who prayed for my trip and for those gave financially for my trip. It really humbles my heart to know you had faith enough to support the mission. Thank you.

I was gone for 17 days, but it felt like the blink of an eye because each day was filled with activities and ministry opportunities.

My mission had three objectives:

To inspect what our church has invested this last year.

Land

Buildings

Orphanage

Rescue Center

Bible Schools

Ministry (widows, pastors, leaders)

To provide Pastoral Care

Preaching

Teaching

Encouraging, Empowering, and Equipping the church

To look for opportunities for future investment

New building projects

Ministry (Kids Crusade)

Up and coming leaders who could start new programs

Listen to ideas for future development

I traveled and preached at three different churches, five bible schools, the orphanage in Ogembo, held 3 crusades, lead a youth seminar, visited the homes of many church leaders, and saw multiple salvations - recommitments - and even saw God heal sicknesses.

The trip was a blessing to me and I hope that it blessed the people affected in Kenya.

I could literally talk for hours about what happened during the trip, but since we are not on Kenya time, where church does last for hours, I want to highlight a few stories of people I met.

My goal this morning is to encourage you to lead with Love in your life. The main scripture we are going to study today tells us that Love makes up for practically anything. That we should love others like our own life depends on it. When we are motivated by love then I really believe that we can do our part to change the world.

Changing the world is a massive burden. Really, it’s an impossible burden for any individual. Especially for flawed people. All of us have issues. No one is or will become perfect, and even if you could become a super human fixing the all problems of the world would still be impossible.

But our short comings don’t get us off the hook. As Christians we are told that we have some responsibility to humanity. We aren’t supposed to stick our heads in the sand and pretend that the problems of the world are someone else’s problems. We are supposed to be active in our efforts to better humanity.

The question we should pray everyday is: God, please show me how to be helpful. Life is short and we should all want to end our life knowing that in some way, no matter how small, that we’ve helped. That we give more than we take, that we used what we’ve been given to build something meaningful in the lives of other people.

In essence our scripture tells us how to change the world.

1 Peter 4:7–11 M:BCL

7 Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer. 8 Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. 9 Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. 10 Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: 11 if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!

Love is the key.

Changing the world with love is a powerful concept that has the potential to make a significant impact on society. Love is the foundation of all things good, and if we can all learn to love one another, we can create a world that is full of kindness, compassion, and understanding.

It starts with small acts of love, such as smiling at a stranger, offering a helping hand to someone in need, or giving to those with less. These small gestures can have a ripple effect, inspiring others to do the same and creating a chain reaction of positivity and love.

By spreading love and kindness, we can create a world that is more peaceful, harmonious, and more aligned with God’s original vision.

We all have a part to play. EVERYONE can do something to change the world. It starts and ends with love.

It’s so simple, but yet the condition of the world is maybe worse that it’s ever been. Why?

There are three things that are contrary to the scripture we’ve read today that stop us from doing our part to change the world.

Those three things are Doubt, Apathy, and Blame.

Doubt

What can WE do to change the world? I mean really, with all that’s wrong with the world, how can we make a difference?

Last week, I was teaching at the youth seminar from Hebrews 12 about how as believers we are called to run our race with endurance. To lay down the weights that slow us down. It was a fun time because I showed them pictures and videos of when Sarah Kouns and I ran the half-marathon. They all laughed at the video of me crawling across the finish line.

At the end of the message we had a powerful time of prayer and God really ministered to the youth. As we were finishing up, I felt moved to ask them if anyone had any questions.

One by one they asked pretty typical teenager questions, but there was one girl in the back who stood up to ask me a question. It was a question that rocked my world.

I almost couldn’t answer her because in that moment I felt powerless to help her.

I found out after the meeting that this girl was 14 years old. She was an orphan, had no education, and really no prospects for the future. Pastor Benard told me that the year before she had been starving. And one day a man approach her and offered her 100 shillings if she would have sex with him. She was so desperate to eat food that she agreed. He paid her the $.70 and left her pregnant.

She was able to eat that day, but had no idea that her life just got much more complicated. This poor girl was in desperate need. Thankfully, she has been attending the cornerstone church in Rongo. They are helping her as much as they can.

That day, she stood up holding her baby, and she asked me if God would forgive her for sinning because she had fallen down in her race. My heart broke for her because I could see her genuine fear that God would reject her because she sold her body for one meal.

I was able to tell her that not only does God forgive her, but He loved her with and everlasting love. I told her that God loved her baby and that child was no accident to God. I gave her a hug, and I could tell based on the smile on her face that she was a peace with God.

The rest of the day as I ministered to the youth, she was there. She was attending to her baby the whole time. Feeding, burping, and doing what moms do for their children.

Every time I looked at her, in the back of my mind, I was thinking of all the other girls in that country who were being abused, impregnated, infected with HIV, all for something as simple as a meal.

I felt powerless to help.

Powerlessness is doubting in our ability to bring change. After all, how can we help these desperate girls? Massive injustices and social problems exist and it’s true that one person can’t fix them all on their own. No one person can. But that fact does not mean that we can’t do SOMETHING.

We doubt that we can do anything because we perceive our limitations to be too great. Bringing change has nothing to do with your ability, identity, or value. It has nothing to do with how smart you are, if your good enough, famous enough, or powerful enough.

It’s more about rejecting the lies of doubt that keep you from doing SOMETHING. We must focus on what CAN be done, and not focusing on what we CAN’T do!

This girls life and her child hangs in the balance of whether or not we are motivated by love or by doubt that our actions make a difference.

I hate to think what would become of that young mother and daughter if Cornerstone Rongo was not there. Our church has invested in Kenya to reach that girl.

Isn’t that worth the effort. Isn’t she worth our prayers? Isn’t she worth our giving?

Don’t doubt your ability to bring change to the world.

Hal Donaldson, the founder and CEO of Convoy of Hope said, “When our belief in a mission is stronger than our doubt in ourselves, we will find ways to contribute to the cause.”

1 Peter tells us to love each other as if our lives depend on it. - I would say that not only do our lives depend on it, but the lives of others depend on whether or not we walk in love.

Don’t doubt that you can make a difference. Just start doing SOMETHING.

Doubt will stop us from changing the world.

Apathy will stop us from changing the world.

Apathy

Apathy is telling yourself, the most important thing is making it through this life and ending up in heaven - what happens to everyone else is their business. After all, change in this terrible world is impossible no matter what I do, so why should I even get involved.

The problem with this way of thinking is that it is in conflict with the Word of God. It’s not how God wants us to live our lives. We aren’t supposed to turn a blind eye to the problems of the world.

I’d say it’s impossible to love God and hate the world. If you love God, you also must despise hunger, injustice, poverty, racism, abuse, human trafficking, and much more.

God hasn’t given up on the world, we can’t either. We must remember the words of James who was teaching the church about how we are responsible in making a positive change in the world.

James 1:27 NLT

27 Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

It’s easy to forget about those in distress when we are focused on our own problems.

The first morning I was able to minister at our Cornerstone location in Rongo was a great morning. It was so nice to see familiar faces, but it was also so great to see how much the church had grown. After I preached for the first time, I was outside the church handing out candy to a crowd of kids. A girl came up to me and asked for me to come with her because she needed to tell me something.

She was 11 years old, she was wearing a dirty white dress, her teeth were discolored, and I noticed she was crying. So, I told her we could talk right then.

She told me she wanted to thank me for saving her life! I asked her how I had saved her life because I didn’t even know her!

Last year when I was visiting I learned that a woman named Dorothy had a death in her family who lived in Uganda and someone blessed her with a plane ticket to make it to the funeral. The problem was that, in typical Kenyan fashion, she didn’t think about how she would make it back home to Kenya. This woman was a widow with no money, home, or resources of her own.

I remember asking how much the ticket was to get her home, and since everyone back at home was asleep, I made a quick decision and agreed that our church would pay the cost. Thankfully, once folks woke up here, they also agreed and they sent the money.

I never thought about this woman or the situation again until the day this 11 year old girl came up to me crying.

She told me that the widows name was Dorothy and she was this girls grandmother. While her grandmother was away for three weeks trying to get back home, this young girls family had fallen apart. She lost her parents and she and her siblings were sent to a horrible orphanage. But when her grandmother came back home. The church figured out how to get the family back together. They build them a very small mud home and they were reunited.

They still have massive challenges, but this girl was so grateful to our church because we didn’t look the other way when there was a need. We stepped up without a second thought to how it would impact an entire family.

I was so great to meet this family. They gave our church a gift to thank us for our generosity.

Picture of Dorothy family.

The truth is that by not looking the other way we were able to help a family in desperate need. They are still incredibly poor and will have challenges in life, but they are together and that was enough for them to be forever grateful.

Apathy is choosing to have intentional ignorance to the problems afflicting the world. We don’t want to know about troubles others are facing because once we know, we feel guilty for not doing something to change the problem. $400 changed this family. We will never miss that money. But they will forever be changed.

Deuteronomy 15:7 (M:BCL)

7 When you happen on someone who’s in trouble or needs help among your people...don’t look the other way pretending you don’t see him. Don’t keep a tight grip on your purse.

We’ve all been guilty of doing just that - no one can point fingers at someone else. But when we make deliberate steps to avoid someone in need, we are proving that we just don’t care.

Ignorance is just another form of apathy. We must seek out those who are in need and show them the love of Christ. We can’t help everyone, but each of us can help someone.

What stops us from changing the world? Doubt, Apathy, and finally...

Blame

Have you ever helped someone just to find out that they are back at your doorstep asking for more help?

We want our gifts, time, and abilities to be used to produce results. When we don’t see the results we want, we get tempted to throw in the towel and give up.

We end up blaming the person who needs our help our even the situation that is causing the problems. It can be frustrating to try and make a difference in the world especially when things don’t immediately change.

One great ministry that was started by Missionary Pam Smith is the New Life Rescue Center. She heard from a local Pastor about a local tradition in which the tribe would mutilate young girls genitals. It’s a horrible thing they do - they round up girls like cattle, and march them through the streets and up a mountain. Once on the mountain they perform a witchcraft ceremony that ends with horrible results.

Well, Pam Smith is not afraid to make a difference in the world. She started rescuing girls, hiding them away from the people who wanted to harm them.

I had the great honor of meeting Lydia. She was the very first girl that Pam rescued. She was only 13 years old when she ran away from home. Pam found her a sponsor and that sponsor stayed with Lydia all the way through college. Today, Lydia is married to a man of God, she works as a teacher, and is probably one of the most joyful people I’ve ever met. Oh, and she’s expecting her first baby in November!

Everything she says ends with a smile and an infectious laugh

Picture of Lydia

What a success story! Pam currently has over 50 girls in the rescue center who are living in a building that was paid for by members of this church! It was such a blessing to go to their dorms and see that they painted the whole building bright pink.

Many of you in this church sponsor a girl for $50 per month. I must tell you, THANK YOU. These girls LOVE you so much. I spoke to most of the girls and they have great plans for their future just because they know that you are supporting them.

It would be easy to look at this backwards cultural condition and say, that’s terrible, but it’s there own fault. They should know better. It’s not my problem.

Or maybe we could say, the government should do something, after all it’s illegal to perform such terrible acts on a child.

But what does God tell us?

Love each other as if your life depends on it - I think about these poor girls. There life depends on the love of others to help them.

Pam currently has 12 girls without sponsors. She is paying for them right now in faith hoping that she doesn’t have to turn some away.

There are more girls who are desperate to join the program, but right now they are struggling to help the girls who are already there.

Another thing about blame. If you can’t support financially right now, DON’T blame yourself either. Just do all you can with what you have now.

I was blessed to find out that a person from our church who has very limited means is supporting three girls. What a blessing.

We can change the world when we walk in Love, doing all we can, and turn from apathy, doubt, and blame.

I have so many more stories:

Laura.