Sometimes
it takes God leading me into certain situations and environments to make me
realize I am not in control of anything.
In a “do it yourself” culture, this is completely counterintuitive. As our team sat together after dinner
tonight, I was reminded of several things: God is sovereign, God is in control
of everything, God heals, and we are commanded to share the hope of Jesus
Christ. How prideful I can be to think I
have any healing power physically. How
arrogant I can be to think I should be able to heal anyone who comes to
me. Only God has the power to heal. Even if I played a small role, God is the one
who gave me the capacity to do so.
However, even as we diagnose, prescribe medicine, clean wounds, pull
teeth, educate and counsel, these things are so temporary when I consider
eternal value of a healed soul. It’s
keeping this eternal perspective that encourages me to keep going even when it
seems so tough.
Life
is not supposed to be comfortable or easy.
If so, why would I need a savior?
In a country with so much, we really have so little. My perspective changed when I realized that a
Kenyan I talked with would not want to change places with me for anything. They actually pray for us and understand what
we lack—faith. They have the proper
perspective. Our materialistic, busy
lives have resulted in weak faith or no faith at all. That was me and still is me. I went through life planning and getting
everything that I worked for—or did I?
How could I have been so ignorant?
The answer—pride! In a country
that seems so poor (Kenya), they are actually so very rich. They depend on God for food, clothing,
shelter and healing. They don’t need me
or my ability or my money—they need God!
It should be that simple, shouldn’t it?
God
continues to show himself to me. Each
time I come to Kenya, I learn something new about God, about myself and about
my sin. This trip has been no different. It’s not easy to be away from my wife and my
kids. It’s not easy to fly for over 20
hours to “work.” It’s not easy to be in
a country with different sights, smells and sounds. I don’t understand or speak Swahili or
Kikuyu. But I am humbled to serve, and
serve with, my brothers and sisters in Christ (Kenyans and Americans) with one
mission: to glorify God. I am thankful
for this opportunity to serve and pray that my perspective will be on eternal
things only. Thank you to those who have
supported us and who are praying for us!
Ryan
Voelkert, Dental
Team Lead