John N N Nganga Meditation Of 22nd April 2024 Preparing For Old Age a time to witness.

Day 1

Acts 1:8

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

One of the pursuits of old age is witnessing. Something I am grateful for is getting to old age. Some people fear old age or later years, but as I thought of this one Sunday morning, when speaking away from Nairobi, when my wife sent me a WhatsApp just to inform me that she has arrived at Karatina University on time at her age I was grateful. Karatina University is about 160Kms from Nairobi, and normally I am needed to wake her up. But on her own because we are just the two of us in the house, she was able to make it in Nyeri by eight o’clock. I have just sent her a message, congratulating her for arriving in the University on time. And that is what old age life.

So, like in this incident I was invited to Rwanda, and she in Karatina, we both preach. For there is no baby to look after. Are you getting the point? So, look forward to getting older. But when yours are small ,one of you must remain with the children. But when you get to that other stage, you now release yourself to preach in every direction. And that is what we do with my wife. We are both involved in preaching, she goes to one University, I go to another.

So, it is important to just experience what it means to be at every age. When we were younger, because both of us have been speaking for all the years. One had to be left behind. We are forty-five years married this year. But when our children were small, when she is the one preaching, I hold the baby, when I am the one preaching, she holds the baby. We have always preached together. Many families, as soon as the baby is born, the wife stops ministering. My wife said, but why? You are capable of holding a baby. So, it is very important to understand that we can continue ministering without one giving up except both of you can’t go at the same time.

When the children were young, they really enjoyed moving from one University to another University, until they got to the age of three or four years and it was important for them to be sent to Sunday school, and we agreed, one must take them. These places they really enjoyed. The students played with them, they are so happy, but the sermon is not the child. So, we agreed our children must go to Sunday school. The Sunday school church has a syllabus meant for that age. And so, we agreed now, we will no longer be preaching, going out together, one of us must remain behind to take the children for Sunday school.

When you are married as many years; you realize how short each season is, because you see the first time your children have to be properly in Sunday school is about four or five years. Most churches, Sunday schools, by the age of thirteen is over. They join youth. So, if you are following one church, you are only going to be in Sunday school for eight years. And if you are married for forty-five even if it may not be eight years, it may be about fourteen to fifteen years so is still a small fraction. Yes, it is still a very small fraction.

So, sacrifice, take your children to Sunday school, for that season otherwise, you might preach to others and yours are unreached. Are you aware children are unreached people group? They cannot go to heaven just because they are young. I believe they go to heaven because they are born again. So, you know we are praying for unreached people group, one of these days put the children in that prayer... I do not know if you have heard of the ‘ten -fourteen’’ window. The ten fourteen window is for an unreached people group that is children between four and fourteen. And it is a very important thing because a lot of people are not aware that children are unreached.

And in fact, sometimes school-teachers are not even aware that Sunday school  going is as a missionary to unreached people group. And when you go to a missionary group, you do not talk your language, you talk the language of the mission hosts. And it is not them to learn your language, it is you to learn their language. So as a Sunday schoolteacher you do not talk vocabularies, you look for the children’s language, and communicate also in their language. But some Sunday schoolteachers regard the Sunday school as a time to entertain the children, a time to help the children not to disturb the Sunday service. So, their work is to be baby-sitting. No. You need to understand you are dealing with unreached people group so that when you take the children from church you are not keeping them away from making noise, you have reached an unreached people group.

 

Day 2

Matthew 24:14

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

We are talking about reaching people with the gospel, both unreached people groups and the reached ones. What is the difference between the two groups? An unreached people group is a group that they have some Christians, but they are not self-propagating yet, they still require an outsider to go to preach to them.

A reached group does not mean they are all born again but it means that people know someone who is born again even if they themselves are not born again. There is a self-thriving church by the locals. That is what we call unreached people group.

So, Rwanda for example is a reached area but it does not mean they are all reached. It is only that there are enough churches so that people who want to get saved have somebody who can preach to them. And it is my prayer that you will understand that among your people are many people who do not know the Lord.

I really would like to encourage you, if you are interested in this topic of reaching out, I would like you to read my book The Christian Professional because in it I try to establish that if you are going to reach non-Christians, currently it is the professionals who are going to do it, and they will not do it by just sitting there to be watched. You know a lot of people assume that if you are an accountant in an organization and you are born again, people will see you and get saved. That is not in the Bible. Faith comes by hearing…. Not seeing. Many professionals have changed the Bible. They think faith comes by seeing. So, when they see I am an accountant, and I am so good at it they will get saved is not in the Bible. For anybody who gets saved, you must talk because faith comes by hearing.

I agree actions speak louder than words, so it will be important that your actions are okay, but if you keep quiet, your actions just make them think that people from your province are good accountants.If they see a good girl, they wonder, where does she come from? Eastern province. Haiyaiyaiya, girls from Eastern province are wonderful. You know the Bible says my glory I will share with no one, including Eastern province. So, you must tell them you are not a good girl because you are from Eastern Province, Jesus is your saviour. Faith comes by hearing.

And that is what I try to argue in my book. The other book that you need to pick is called Friendship, because if people, are going to get saved it is friendship evangelism that will win them. What is friendship evangelism? Where you do not just proclaim the gospel! You first of all befriend them. They know you. Once they know you; they trust you, anything you tell them they are willing to listen. And if you are working with people, the method you use at work is called friendship evangelism. It means that you first befriend people, you talk to them nicely. Once they are in your circle of friends, they trust you, they know you are not mad; they are likely to be saved.

But if you just go preaching to people who are in your workplace, they think you are mad, and nobody wants to spend too much time with mad men. So, understand that friendship evangelism is spending time getting to know someone.

Many years ago, the Lord taught me that in the salary I get there is what we call for lunch hour evangelism money. I discovered no one dislikes a free lunch. So, I just go to my workmates and ask, can I buy you lunch? Once we go for lunch and it is me paying, you are mine. When I discovered that method, I discovered, I can reach even my boss that way. I ask him, boss, may I buy you lunch? I have been working for more than forty-five years, I have never seen anybody refusing my lunch. And once you go for my lunch, we do not discuss work matter. I have discovered many, many people finally are opened up by the lunch. When I was working for Shell, Shell paid for my membership in a private members’ club. Shell wanted me to entertain their visitors. And I said, why has God made me join this club? I do not drink alcohol. I discovered it is a place for friendship making. Not many people have been to Nairobi Club. It is about a hundred and five years old. But now even if I meet a cabinet minister and tell him, I want to buy you food in Nairobi Club, they are willing to come because they want to be in Nairobi Club. Once we are there chochote chaweza kutokea, be ready for anything to happen. Anything can happen, because now you have a visitor you can speak one on one. And at Nairobi Club you are not allowed to pay, even if you are richer than me, they do not accept your money. It is my signature as a member they are after. If you are not a member you can’t sign.

So many people come to know the Lord because I have invited them to Nairobi Club or another lunch place. And it is not just rich people. Young people also. After I retired, I wondered, how I was going to meet as many people as I was doing when I was working? Then I started a consultancy firm. And in my consultancy firm I still consult a lot for petroleum industry. So, I would go for a petroleum workshop to train them. Of course, they have no idea that I am born again because they just want to discuss technical issues, which I deliver. Then a young man feels attracted, especially when they hear that I retired in the top leadership of the biggest oil company in Kenya.

And they say to me, waaah, can you mentor me. A young man follows me, Mr. Ng’ang’a would you agree to Mentor me? I would like to become like you. I say, yes, I am willing, but I am going to buy you tea we discuss that further. Now, these days since my income is less I do not offer lunch, I offer tea. You know it is me offering. So, I tell the young man I am buying you tea. I take the young man to the club or to a Java restaurant. Java restaurants in Kenya are popular. And the young man is very happy he is being given tea.

And at the tea I tell him, if you want to be like me, there is something I never told you in the workshop, I am born again. Oh, you are. You see they do not expect people who are born again to reach the top in the career. They expect if you have reached the top you do not know Jesus. I tell them, there is something I never told you, the only reason I was able to rise up career ladder is because I was not like other people. When I did work I did it as unto the Lord. God helped me. So, for you to try to be like me, it will be difficult to promise you that you can be like me when you do not have what I have. I have Jesus. And you know I was still in shock when the first one he would like to be like me and get saved.

I still remember another young man asking me, can you be my mentor? I said, yes. I said, can we meet in Nairobi Club? Before the day came, he rang me and said, do you remember so and so who was in the group? Yes. He also wants to join me in the tea. But you know because I know the subject I want to talk to him about, I told him, tell him to ring me I can also meet him separately. I do not want two people, I want one at a time. So, the boy rang again. He said, you know the questions I am asking you are not confidential, and this guy is a great friend of mine. Let’s just come together. Now I had no excuse. So, I finally had to allow them to come. But I told myself, the guy who talked to me first is the one I am concentrating on, talk to him about if you really want to be a successful professional you need Jesus.

And that is what I did, spent all my time concentrating on him. And finally, I asked, would you really want to be like me? Would you like what I have? Before the one I was aiming at said yes, he wants to get saved, the one I wasn’t aiming at gave his life to the Lord, and then the other one also gave in. They got saved two of them at the same time. This is now over ten years ago, and I have seen others one after the other, one after the other get saved. Even last month another young man again wanted me to mentor him, gave his life to the Lord. And I have seen there is something called tea or lunch hour evangelism, where you are befriending people, out of the friendship comes change of life.

 

Day 3

Mark 8:35

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it?

But why do old people lack to evangelize? What are the excuses that are stopping you from it, because they are just excuses, stopping you from giving your life to evangelism.Giving your life for God to use it to bring people to the Lord is worth it at any age. What are the various excuses that are keeping you from it?

You know, Acts chapter one, the message that we should evangelize is very clear. But you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.

But I want you to just look at the beginning of that Acts 1:8,

but you shall receive power as the Holy Ghost has come upon you.

 

How will you know the Holy Spirit has come upon you? The answer is in the same verse. Because you shall become my witnesses. A lot of people say, I am Spirit-filled. How do I know? I speak in tongues. That is not the reason given here. If you want to know whether you are Spirit-filled, you cannot help but witness when the Spirit comes on you. He makes you a witness, starting where you are ...in Jerusalem. So, if you want to know you have a problem between you and the Holy Spirit, you do not witness. One of the ways of knowing you have a spiritual problem is that you have friends and you have never told them about Jesus.

I do not know whether you come from a farming area. But forgive me town people, me I come from a village. Now, those of us who are villagers understand my example. When you get cows, and they get calves, the calves start growing, then they stop getting milk from the mother breast. They are now eating on their own, as they are jumping everywhere. How do you get to know that a calf has stopped being a calf and it has become a cow? How do you know? I know village people know. How do you know the calf has become a cow?

When it starts wanting to be pregnant. I am trying to look for innocent words to use. Where I come from, we do not allow bulls to do it, we normally have artificial insemination. But the cow behaves abnormally so you know. We normally say the cow is on heat, behaves in a certain way, so you call the veterinary guy to come and apply the artificial insemination. Now, by the time you apply artificial insemination that is no longer a calf, it has declared it has become a cow. It is ready to give birth.

Similarly, do you know whether you are a young or a mature Christian? Easy. Have you started reaching out to non-Christians? That is asking for AI? You need to understand clearly, if you are just happy you are going to heaven alone, you are a baby Christian. The day you become mature you start wanting others to also know the Lord. Are you getting the point? A calf becomes a cow when it starts bringing other cows into the world. You become a mature Christian when you are no longer being discipled, you yourself have become a disciple.

So, you may be born again like me, who has been born again for over fifty years, but even if you have been born again for fifty years, if you do not have a desire... to bring people to Christ, you are baby Christian.

Jeremiah speaks the words in very critical language. He says, your Word, your Spirit is like a fire within me. I want to hold out, I can’t. Jeremiah is called the suffering prophet. He preached, but he suffered for it. He said, no, no, no. I am no longer going to talk in your name. No. The next time he sends the message again. And Jeremiah was clear, he is not doing it willingly, but he can’t hold. You tell me you have the Spirit, and you are able to hold him out?It cannot be Jeremiah’s Spirit. If you truly have the Spirit of God, there will be many places you will witness although uncomfortable. I still remember in 1988 I went to Britain for a course. Like I told you I was working for Shell, so I went for many courses in London, and Holland, where Shell offices are. And I remember going for a course in 1988 in London. I was staying for three weeks. And I was clear in my mind, God must be wanting me to witness to somebody. We were from fourteen countries from Shell companies all over the world. And I was trying to talk to somebody about Jesus. I talked with a guy from Holland. He could talk English. And I was talking to him about Jesus. He looked lost. The following morning breakfast we sat together.

He asked, John, I now understand you. I had a Bible in my room. I think I understand what you are talking about. In the Bible I saw a guy called Jesus. I said, wait a minute! What did you call him? A guy? But you can’t call Jesus a guy. He said, why not? So, I was in shock because I had never heard that Europeans had never heard about Jesus. Me I thought pagans are in Africa, I did not know others are in Europe. So I asked him, what religion is yours? He said, I am a Christian. How can you be a Christian and you have never heard of Jesus? He continued…. In fact, in the Bible I read about a guy called Moses. I was in shock as a young man in 1988. I did not understand. I started asking him. And he explained as a Christian that he does not have to go to church. So, I said, surely, how can you call yourself a Christian and you do not go to church? He said, we as a family we belong to the church. To prove we belong to the church, we give money to the church. And it is very good in Holland to give money because any money you give to the church is tax reducible. So, it is your choice whether to give some of your money to the church or give to the government. Giving to the church is very useful because if you give to the church, they are going to baptize you in church, they are going to wed your son free of charge and they will bury you free of charge. Can you see the return?

Then my question to this Dutch colleague was, how do you give money to the church if you do not attend church? He said, no, no, no, you do not understand. It is the work of the priest to come round during the week collecting the money. We do not have to go to church. Now you can understand why they have never heard about Jesus because you do not have to go to church. So, I discovered that many churches in Europe are empty but rich because guys are giving money but they do not want to be found in church.

So, from then onwards when I came back to Kenya, telling myself, any expatriate who is sent to Shell Kenya I now know they are unreached people group. I will have to talk to them. And most of them of course came in at a senior level. And I still remember speaking to one of my CEOs, a white man about God. I felt, this guy knows nothing about Jesus. So, I started witnessing to him. Whenever I wrote a new book which I felt had message for him I sent him a copy. One day he got really annoyed and said John let me be frank, I do not read these books. I said, okay, if you do not like reading your wife might read. No, no, no! My wife does not read them either. Surely you have a son. He said he does not need it. Now, I am not giving up. But the guy started going red. You know the wazungus when they are angry the colour just changes. I could see he is really fed up. You know I will throw away the book! No, no, no. It is okay in your house. As I was walking out, the secretary in the secretary’s room looked at me and said, Ng’ang’a, just why do you want to be fired? Exactly why do you want to be fired? I told her, I have a young family, I do not really want to be fired but I also know I have no alternative but to share Jesus with him. It is not a choice. If I get fired in the process it is okay. It is not a choice. Did you hear Jeremiah complaint.? Witnessing is not something you do willingly. The Spirit within you puts you into trouble. But you know God is capable of handling that trouble.

 

Day 4

Mark 10

²⁹ “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel ³⁰ will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. ³¹ But many who are first will be last, and the last first."

 

If you are a Christian, your professional performance must be above board. Since they already suspect you have a lose nut, they will check whether your performance is proper. So, it is important to be needed due to your performance. Now, that is what it means.

Even Paul puts the matter the same way. He says woe unto me if I do not share the gospel. In other words, do not congratulate me for sharing the gospel. I have no alternative. If I do not do it I have a curse. Now, the question is, how come we, we have the freedom to choose whether to witness or not? Unlike Jeremiah or Paul? Only one possibility, the Spirit of God is not resident in your life or alternatively you are a baby Christian. You cannot be a Christian and you are not sharing the gospel with your workmates, you are not sharing with your classmates about the joy there is in Christ. You do not share it just because you want, it is because God wants you to share. And that is what really Jeremiah is saying.

Let me go through a number of those, excuses. One of the ones we covered is we do not believe anyone is lost or going to hell. Number two, another excuse, personal evangelism is not my thing, not my gift. A lot of people say that the reason why they are not evangelizing is because they do not have a gift of evangelism. By the way, it is true there are people with a gift of evangelism. However, the portion of scripture we read, when the Spirit comes upon you, everyone with gift or not becomes a witness. Yet not everybody has the gift of evangelism. What that means, if there is a mission week, one out of ten will have the gift of evangelism, the other nine might not. But the other nine have been told they must witness even if they have no gift. So, what will happen? When we go for mission, the girl with a gift of evangelism will bring ten to the Lord, the one without will bring two each. Now, if he goes alone, he will bring ten. If the team of ten goes, it will be ten plus eighteen, they will bring thirty-eight. Am I communicating?

So, we are not debating the issue of gifts. It is true, but you see if your two do not come, the church will not grow as fast. So, you do not witness because you have a gift of evangelism, you witness because it is God’s command. So, we do agree there are people with a gift, there are people without the gift. But let me tell you something very interesting; the same people who keep advertising the gift of evangelism, do not also know the Bible is clear there are people with the gift of giving. And those people with gift of giving give until they embarrass you with how they are giving.

But you have never heard a Pastor saying, we are now just about to take offerings. Those of you without the gift of giving let the bag pass. Ever heard a church like that? Why? The Pastor tells everybody to give. Why? The Bible says we should all give, yet there are people with the gift of giving. I had a neighbour in Nairobi who gave and gave and gave. And those years were the years when Uganda was having problems, she would meet a Ugandan in the streets who were refugees in Kenya, the next thing you would find somebody is her house. I said, mama so and so, do you see the danger of strangers? How do you know she is not a crook? But she can’t leave anybody in the streets. She helped many people. In fact, she retired and now has established in a rural area a guest house so that now she does hospitality large scale I normally go to preach there in couples’ retreat. That is her calling. It is a gift.

You know she shocked me because she invited people for a dedication of that guest house, where she surrendered the title of the guest house so that the land, she had bought to retire in has now been handed to a foundation. She said she had consulted the children. obviously, the children had grown and are adults  And they all gave permission. Are you understanding about the gift of giving.

But none of us must stop giving because he does not have the gift of giving. Similarly, you will not stop witnessing because you do not have the gift of witnessing, because God has commanded all of us to do it.

Day 5

Romans 1:9

God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you.

Another excuse is, as long as I lead a godly life, others will see Christ in me and get saved. Commission is fulfilled if we are just living godly lives. That is a lie. You need to balance. Of course, you still need to act in a godly way. Somebody said, your actions are speaking so loudly, I can’t hear what you are saying. So do not misunderstand me. Going to evangelize and people know you are a crook is a waste of time because they can’t listen to you. So, it means you must have righteous actions, but they are not adequate. You must have a voice that gives the reason for your ... actions. It is both needed…not one without the other. And it will be important for you to ask is that your excuse? So that will be an excuse which you need to understand that you cannot continue relying on it.

Another excuse, I am shy. You do not understand me. There are many people that cannot be reached by people who are not shy. They see you from far, you are not shy, they run away from you. You know it takes all types to reach all types. Evangelism cannot be done by the noisy ones alone because you are not reaching the ones who do not like noise. Let me repeat the saying; it takes every type to reach every type. ...

You need to understand there will be big ones and the thin ones. Witnessing. It takes all types to reach all types. So, it means if you are different no wonder you are different because there is a type only you can reach. So , if you are shy there are people you can reach, if you are noisy there are people you can reach. So, you cannot give an excuse that you are shy. Another one says, I am scared. Compared with countries with persecution do you have a reason in east Africa to be scared? I am scared.

This is just like I was scared about losing my job for witnessing to my CEO. It is true I do not want to lose my job, it is also true, if they go back to Holland without knowing about Christ, God will hold me accountable. That is what Ezekiel says. So, let me ask you, why are you fearing? Have you witnessed to your boss? But before the boss have you witnessed to your colleague? Have you witnessed to your subordinates? Have you witnessed to your house girl? Have you witnessed to your neighbour? Who have you witnessed to?

You know, every one of us needs two friends: friends; minimum. Number one, you need a Christian friend who is helping you in nurture to grow in the Lord. And I am not talking about a Pastor, I am talking about a friend, somebody you can be free with, somebody you can be open with, somebody just like you but he loves the Lord. But all of us need a target person to witness to. That is the whole of your life. You must always be having non-Christians whom you are praying for, fasting about, and talking to.

You know in the University we used to discourage those who ate at a certain table only for the holy people... Now that kind of a CU is not a dead CU, but it is a dying one. Because soon enough even these ones backslide, then they will be fewer and fewer. You need to be the kind of a CU that does not come to the holy table. They spread themselves to many tables where they are unreached. and whenever you are eating you are talking to them about Jesus. Holy grounds are for dying Christian Unions. The same thing with you. This church, everybody here who is born again must be having non-Christian friends, non-Christian relatives, and he is certainly praying and reaching out to them.

When that one gets saved, move on to another one, that one gets saved, get another one. You must always, as a way of life, having people whom you are befriending to bring them to the kingdom. When I was in first year in the University of Nairobi, the Christian Union, our chair told us, you must relate well with Christians and non-Christians. Why do you need to relate with Christians? In order to socialize. Socialize is to have somebody you are free with, somebody who can pray with you, somebody you can share your needs with. That is socializing. But you must also relate with non-Christians so that you evangelize them. So, we were told, with Christians you socialize, with non-Christians you evangelize. Never evangelize with Christians and never socialize with non-Christians. You never sit with non-Christians to socialize. Every time you are with a non-Christian, maybe you are discussing a very hard sum but at the back of your mind you are asking, God, We were in the same class, I never understood them but this non-Christian did. He understood it so nicely. So, you ask the non-Christian…Do you ever thank God for being so clever? So, the chemistry has opened the door for witnessing.

Day 6

Romans 1:16

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

So, you need to be conscious that you relate with all but with Christians you socialize, with non-Christians you evangelize. Never let yourself change the tune. Some Christians have relatives who are not Christians, but they are not evangelizing them, they are socializing with them. There is a problem there. Are you aware that I may be a Kenyan, but I am closer to Rwandans I have been speaking to than my cousins? Because with your cousin, if he is not born again, he believes system you do not support. He says let’s do this cousin and your reply is I can’t do it. I am from Kenya but when a Rwandan start talking, since our views are based on the scriptures, we agree. So, you need to understand that even with the relative, you must know clearly your relative is not as close to you as somebody who knows Jesus. So, you do not socialize with relatives unless those relatives are born again.

And that does not mean you do not love your relatives. You love them so much that you are seeking ways of bringing them to the Lord. So, I am not saying you do not interact with them, I am saying that as you relate at the back of your mind there will be a reason why you are doing so is to win them to Christ.

So, all we are trying to deal with is that the excuse for not witnessing. That I am scared. It is not a good one.

But the one that I think is not very false is the next one. I do not know how to witness. That I think is a valid excuse, but it is only valid for about a week because once you are saved somebody can show you how to witness. You may not know how to do it the right way just now, but if you are willing to learn you will learn. Join the witnessing class in your church or join others who are witnessing. And that is one of the things I will recommend to the board of any church, organizing a witnessing class. A witnessing class is not a class that is doing what I am doing, challenging people to witness. A witnessing class teaches about how not why.

You are first taught how to witness, then go with somebody who knows how to witness, and they witness as you watch. And you say nothing on the first day. You see him asked questions, you say nothing. The next time you go together, when some questions are asked, your leader knows the kind of questions you can handle. They say, my partner here is my teammate, let him handle that. So, you participate. By the third or fourth outing, it is you taking more of the witnessing and your trainer is getting less. In about four months you lead the team. Then after that you start going on your own but coming back to report to your trainer. Is that possible?

Of course it means you have to look for time, not during church time. You can agree on Sunday afternoon after church, you will be going together. But it requires to be a department created in the church whose job is to train people in witnessing. And you can agree that in my large church have a lint to class size for each cohort. When a church I know started they were  doing a hundred per cohort. But that means you have to have many trainers. So if your church is smaller, you can aim at ten. The trainers are only ten. And they are not taking a class bigger than ten. So, it will be ten every three months, by the fourth month they have helped you to get feedback. Every three months you are starting a class. By the end of the year, can you see how the group becomes bigger the class can become bigger because out of every graduation some of them will become trainers. So, your group gets bigger and bigger.

Why do this? You cannot keep telling people witness, witness, and you are not telling them how. That is not the way Jesus did it. He took twelve and spent three solid years teaching them how to witness. But the church today is just challenging people to witness. It is important but not adequate.

I know the route God took me. I still remember when we were in Alliance high school, when a missionary teacher was our trainer. In our high school days, most of the high school teachers were whites. And there was this one who was a Christian. I am using the wrong term; he was under the commonwealth system that was giving support to commonwealth countries. But he was a Christian. So, although he was a professional, he befriended us in the Christian union and put us in the school van on Sunday afternoon, to the city, and dropped us in Nairobi in a place called City Park. Then he gives us Bible tracks, Christian tracks. We stop at a place where paths in the park are crossing, and then we had a guitar, as we start shyly singing. Some of the people, when they are passing, stop. When they stop, those of us with tracts start giving them out. I still remember being a village boy, city was frightening ,I still remember having those tracts and I thought if I give them to this city stranger, he might beat me up. Then I discovered it is not so difficult after all.

The next visit the legs were no longer in fellowship. I was able to share my tracts with them. And that must have been 1972. So over fifty years ago. And that is what trained me to witness to strangers.

So, to expect that others will just witness, and nobody helps them is to fail to see the benefit that my teacher, Fred Williams gave me. And onwards, even after I left the University, whenever I am going for ministry, I always carry a young man with me. We are always going together with someone who needs mentoring. As I am growing older, now some of them are the ones who drive me as we go. Like preaching two and a half hours away, it means two and a half to three hours of talking to the young man. Those are six hours of mentoring by the time you are back. And it is important for us to start reproducing ourselves, those of us who already witness. That is what we are talking about.

If your church is going to grow, it will not grow through crusades and we are not suggesting you stop crusades. But it is friendship evangelism, one on one that grows a church. And where you do not have to be a deacon, to witness. Every born-again person in the church will be involved in witnessing to his friends and relatives. So, I am suggesting to you that it is not too much to admit that training is important.

Day 7

Romans 15:16

to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

 

Another excuse people give is, they might ask a question I can’t answer. You know this is also true. This is probably the biggest reason people give as to why they do not witness. And it is true that the person you are witnessing to may ask a question that you do not know the answer to. However, if they are interested in knowing about the Lord, then they are also probably willing to let you find the answer. So, you tell them, I do not know that answer, give me your telephone number, I am going to check it up and ring you. He now understands you are not different from him in terms of memory. It is very important to admit you do not know the answer because Number two, it gives you second chance. It allows you to think over time and gives you a second chance after you pray. Thirdly, when asked a difficult question it is education opportunity for you. Because once you find out the answer, it is not just him who will benefit, you will also benefit. Can you see what I am talking about?

So, you cannot fail to witness because of fearing difficult questions. You do not have to know everything. You know some of the people you are witnessing to are backsliders? They know some things better than you and like the Samaritan woman they are not willing to admit. So, it is important to understand that you also do not have to have the answer. So, you go to people and it does not matter what kind of question is there.

Now, it may be expensive to ring, but these days emails have come. So, I am saying that is not an excuse of one having or spending our time on. It will be important that you deal with whatever question they asked.

Another excuse, I do not speak well. Moses used that excuse in Exodus 4:10. So if that is your excuse, you are not original, you are just copying Moses. He told God that he was not able to speak well. God’s reply was that He, God, wanted Moses exactly as he was. And we talked about that. So, as He is instructing you to go, He already knows that you normally speak English in Kinyarwanda and you are speaking to somebody who wants to speak good English. He knows. It might be because of your bad English; people will get saved. Because you see you are not doing an English exam. Witnessing is not an English exam. So, it will be important for you to understand.

Another excuse I do not know how to start a conversation about the Lord. I still remember my daughter, when she was young asking for help to learn how to swim. I did not know how to swim myself and she wanted to be taken to the Nairobi Club .When I went there, I saw it is written, Children must be accompanied. And so, I had to learn how to float before I took her there. But that is a story for another day. But finally, she came. Within no time she could go to the deep end, and I am still floating in the shallow end. She asked me to watch her dive from the diving board.She was still a primary school person. I asked, are you sure? Yes. Come and see. So, she would go to the diving board, and swing the diving board. Sometimes she would be at the diving board swinging, swinging...but not actually diving. I am watching. Five minutes, she is still swinging the board. I say, you told me you are diving, not swinging.

That is how witnessing sometimes goes. You go to witness, and you never dive into the water. You are just swinging the board. When you are talking about the president, talking about football; that is not witnessing, it is swinging the board. And a lot of people go, and they start talking about Arsenal, eeh, how the game went. That is called swinging the board. Witnessing happens when you finally talk about Jesus. You need to understand you do not call it witnessing and yet when the people who teach you how to witness tell you, it is called breaking the ice.

You never came to swing the board; you came to swim. So, it is important to understand what we are talking about. One of the easiest methods I know is to just ask a person what they believe about God after swing the board by discussing on their area of interest, then move to how that area relates to being a Christian.

Like for men, you ask them, which team do you support in Europe? Now, men are willing to talk, and they can give you a lecture on why they support Arsenal. The task now will be to remove it away from Arsenal talk. But you have already started. It is not you talking, it is him talking. Find a way of moving it from Arsenal to the game of life, which cannot be played on a football pitch, it is played by relating with God. So, what I am trying to get you to see, is breaking ice is important to move to the real things.

So, this is an excuse which you can go over.

Another excuse, I do not have a good testimony today in this community. I am afraid my friends will remember the bad things I said last week. As far as your past is concerned, you can share about how God has changed your life. Use your former life as a testimony to what God can do in a person if they give their life to the Lord. Do you remember last week what you saw me do? The Holy Spirit convicted me, I cried like a baby. When you are a Christian and you do something wrong, the Holy Spirit gets hold of you, As I am sharing this testimony with you, it is not because I am a good man, it is because I am a forgiven man. ...

So, you do not allow the fact that your past is rotten, to stop you. Your past is rotten, it is true, but you know it is also forgiven. And that is what you want to share with others about, and it will be important to deal with that.

Another excuse, I do not have time. If you have time to watch TV, time to do Facebook and twitter, and what are the others? Hanging out with your friends on Friday night. I know you are probably very busy, but I ask you a question, who isn’t it? Yet we spend our days around people with whom we can share the gospel. So, the solution of people without time is to witness to people who have made them not have time. Do you get the meaning? If you have no time, do not go to people far away... share with the ones who are claiming to have time for. Even if you have no time because your father keeps calling you, go to your father and witness to him. If your problem who is staying all the time with you, witness to your boss.

So, it is possible to organize yourself. I started preaching as soon as I left campus yet I was interested in also getting married. I had no time but there is always possibility, for important issues time .

In conclusion , witnessing, number one is sharing the Lord Jesus ,not talking about Manu, in the power of the Holy Spirit, not in your own power, but leaving the results to God, because the arrow has already hit the antelope, it will fall dead ahead. It is important not to be worried about results. You have prayed for a person, you have witnessed to him, that is enough. I told you, you cannot convict him, you can convince anybody but only the Holy Spirit can convict. Convicting is not the work of man. So that even when people get saved, do not be proud, none of the ones getting saved, did so due to your prowess.It is when the Holy Spirit takes your words and brings a conviction to the person.

Maybe I have not even mentioned your excuse as to why you do not witness as a way of life. You go to preach when you are asked to go to preach. ... but the many opportunities God is giving you for witnessing you do not witness and you have an excuse. What excuse? Would you like to take your excuse to God in prayer, tell him, this is why I do not witness but I need your help. I am admitting that your Word is clear, all born again people are supposed to be witnesses but I am not witnessing.

Do you want your life from now on to be a life of friendship evangelism, reaching people who are next to you, starting in Jerusalem? All the days of your life.

 

 

 

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