A day ago, we visited Pastor Florencio’s church in Uyawi Town, Kenya. Pastor Florencio is both a pastor and one of the youth leaders on staff with SLAM of GOD Intl. The drive to his home was incredibly bumpy. Our whole team—along with Kenyan and Ugandan staff from GOD—traveled together in a group of small vans along dusty dirt roads. As we drove, I looked past the dust and dirt kicked up by our van and caught glimpses of the beautiful Kenyan landscape and the stunning lake near which this town is situated.
I found myself wrestling with a question: “In a place so breathtakingly beautiful, why is there so much brokenness and pain?”
We had just finished facilitating a SLAM week in the coastal region of Kenya, in Mombasa, where youth from all over the country had gathered—and once again, God did an incredible work in their hearts and minds, as well as in the youth leaders who attended. But I also heard stories from these youth—stories about the circumstances they grew up in—that brought me to tears.
It’s hard to just “move on to the next thing” in ministry when you’ve witnessed the depth of need in a place. I think of the orphans we visited with our SLAM team—some of whom were emaciated, neglected, and underfed. I think of the widows we met who lacked basic necessities like food, clean water, a bathroom—or anyone to care for them in their old age. I remember the gorgeous coastal land, littered with trash and feces, where children still ran and played.
Our team did our best to meet some of these individual needs—and it truly blessed people. It gave them a glimpse of the love and compassion of God through our simple obedience. But as we drove away, I kept seeing more—more pain, more poverty, more injustice, more unsanitary and heartbreaking living conditions.
By the time we arrived at Pastor Florencio’s church, I felt conflicted and burdened, yet still open for God to teach me something.
What I experienced at that humble and most hospitable church service was Pastor Florencio’s powerful testimony. He shared how God had placed the calling to plant a church on his heart. Despite significant opposition at the time—and not enough funds—he said “yes” in obedience. He began holding church services in his own home, trusting that God would bring people.
He shared how it started with just a few children joining in for worship and praise. Then five, then ten, then twelve, then fourteen, then nineteen. He just kept trusting that God would bring growth—that He would lead people to become part of the community Florencio was faithfully building.
I saw his faith in that testimony. I heard church members share their names and a little about themselves. I saw their faith in joining something so small in its beginnings—but so full of potential for God to use.
I realized that God just needs His people to say yes with faith. In this region, Florencio and his community are becoming that light and hope of God. God will use them. And the brokenness and mess in that place? It will be tended to by His faithful laborers.
The same is true for the youth who attended SLAM. They learned that they can be God’s hands and feet. They learned they can serve in their own communities.
I learned that faith sharpens our eyes to see hope in people—not just in resources, outcomes, or even in ourselves. Faith invests in people. It sees them as vessels God can use to bring His light into the world.
I honestly can’t think of anything more humbling than the servant-heartedness I’ve witnessed on this trip—demonstrated by people who come from the most humble conditions and are allowing God to use them to help lift others out of those same conditions.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”
Yet God has given me so much hope and faith on this trip—hope in the faithful people from Kenya, Uganda, and even the U.S.—who are saying “yes” to God, being empowered by His Word, and living out His will on earth as laborers for His Kingdom. And so many people are coming to know God through their love and obedience. They’re experiencing His light in their own lives as a result.
Praise God!