Power of Thought

Sorry I’ve been away…things have been quite busy with me leaving in a couple days. Today I want to talk about one moment that happened almost a week ago, but it has stuck with me.

Monday, as I informed you, was pray day at New Life. For the whole day there was no school, no work, no food, no anything besides prayer.  Each individual was prayed over. There were sermons, full group prayers, individual prayers, small group prayers – you name it, we prayed it.

There was one prayer toward the end that stirred my mind. After Pastor Shoo preached the final sermon, we all bowed our heads to listen to God. Now at that point, something had been on my mind the past couple days. The more I thought about it, the more sure I was that I wanted to sponsor Angel, a girl at Zoe Babies who is three years old and is the sweetest thing. I visit her every time I am done working with Joy Girls and she is always so excited. We play and play and she speaks to me in Swahili and I shower her in ticklish kisses. So I’ve been thinking about it and I’m pretty sure I can afford it and it is something I want to do. However when
I was listening to God at that moment, I felt a sense of conviction for the first time that yes, I would sponsor Angel.

My sassy Angelic friend

After the moment was over, we were to share our testimonies with Evelyn, the Chief Coordinator and New Life, if we heard anything from God. I paced around her for a while as others shared their testimonies, and finally, when she was about to get up and share them, I sat down next to her and said, “You don’t have to share this one. Please don’t write it down. But I have been filled with a suddenly strong desire and necessity to sponsor Angel, from Zoe Babies. I think you are the one to talk to about this, so do you think we could talk about it later?”

“Yes.” She said. “Thank you.”

I walked away feeling jittery and awkward, but pleased.

Evelyn moved to the stage area to call up those with testimonies. They came, one then the next then the next. They all spoke of visions God had given them: pouring black and white water from bottles into a well; a man dressed in all white with a bloody wound on his knee. All of the testimonies were visuals or words from the scriptures.

At first I felt stupid. Mine was wrong; it wasn’t the response they were looking for. But then as I thought more about it, I realized mine was no more wrong or right than theirs were, they both were simply a product of our mental environments.

Since they were young, these people have been hearing messages of God interpreted into visions and dreams. Since I was young, I have been taught that charity, sharing of love and resources, is a Christian value. As products of these two schools of thought, we were guided to see different things when our eyes were closed.

This is not to take power from the word of God; rather I think that it is a testimony to the power of personal thought.