Editor's note: Logan Henry was offered a spot on a mission trip to Kenya by non-Nazarene friends of his family. Read about the life-changing experience in his own words.
I wanted to go on a mission trip but I was not sure if this was the right one. So, I prayed for God to give me a definite yes or no because I am not always the best at decoding His will. After I prayed I continued reading Romans chapter 10 for our Bible study later that night. “And how will they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, ‘How beautiful are the feet of the messengers who bring good news!’” Romans 10:14b-15 (NLT).
That is what I immediately read. Obviously God wanted me to go, but the astounding thing is that Romans 10:15 is the mission statement for the ministry I was going to go with. God knew even I could not miss that.
So three months later I was on a plane to Nairobi, Kenya, falling asleep off and on. I was with five people I had never met until the day before. I was going out of the country--way out. I had no idea what I was really going to be doing the next two and a half weeks. Oh, and I had never been on a mission trip before. I was way out of my comfort zone, and I knew that was where God wanted me. After all, when does anything good happen in comfort?
The first day we drove from Nairobi, which is on the east side of Kenya, to Webuye, which is on the west side. But first we stopped at Miracle House in the Miseri slums. Miracle House is a school that helps support some of the children in the slum, and they teach them how to be loving, compassionate people like Jesus. The kids there were incredible.
One boy, John, told me that he liked to sing, so I asked him to sing for me. I told him that I too love to sing, I am a musician after all, and so he asked me to sing for him. A few minutes later he found out that I played guitar so I was ushered out to the mutatu (van) to get it. In no time at all I was playing guitar and singing to an elementary school rave. They were singing and dancing and only letting certain people in the room. We left all too soon.
We arrived in Webuye where we were stationed for most of the trip. Everyday was full of surprise and wonder. One day we went to Bussia, Uganda, to a Christian school for orphaned children. The neat thing about this place was that it was in a community where almost everyone belonged to another religion, but many of the children’s guardians sent them to the Christian school because it was such a good school. So these children are already taking the Truth out to their community at a young age.
The children there had prepared songs for us and we spoke, sang, and did dramas for them. Then we got to go to “recess” with them. I played netball, which is a combination of basketball, soccer, and rugby. It is ironic that it is called netball because there are definitely no nets. Anyway, I played with a bunch of teenage Ugandan girls. They were FIERCE. I played sports from kindergarten to my senior year in high school and they were more intense than any players I have ever met.
One day we went to Mt. Elgon. There was a lot of civil unrest there and many of the people living there are displaced from their original villages and homes. Many of them had seen their family and friends get killed because of the problems. But, they had more faith than anyone else we encountered. We went to several different churches around Mt. Elgon and each time we saw what true worship was. People were praying out loud, singing at the top of their lungs, shouting praises, and some even stomped out the devil. I mean these people got it. We go on mission trips to advance the Kingdom and encourage others, but no one was more encouraged than us by the people of Mt. Elgon. Words truly cannot describe the feelings of reliance and love of God that these people have.
We spent a lot of time walking around neighborhoods and going into people’s homes, talking and praying with them. The Kenyan people are very friendly and love visitors, so it was no problem to be invited into many of their homes. Now there is no insulation, no carpet, no upstairs or downstairs, no kitchens or bathrooms, nothing that even an impoverished American home would have. So how are they so much more joyous than us? Anyway during our “house-to-house” ministry we got to talk to a lot of Kenyans. The highlight of my trip came on our first day of house-to-house ministry. We went into the home of a woman named Melissa and I got to pray with her to ask Jesus into her heart. That is when I realized that there could be no better feeling than introducing someone to their Heavenly Father. It is something I will never forget and will hopefully get to do many more times.
After two and a half weeks of ministry in Kenya we realized that with all the schools, and churches, and houses we went to we got to share the Gospel with over three thousand people! We got to see children as well as adults raise their hands to accept Jesus and we got to be encouraged by the faith of Kenyans. We got to be Jesus to some and got to experience Jesus through others.
Kenya is a truly beautiful place with truly beautiful people. It is no question that God is moving and doing radical things in Kenya, and I am so thankful to be a part of it. I lost my American God and gained the Creator of the universe on my trip. I will never forget it.
Bwana Asifiwe (Praise the Lord).
-- Logan Henry is a business and music major at Southern Nazarene University. He is passionate about God and music.