I still remember this Sunday when I was in form 2. It was the second Sunday of the term in the month of January. So this preacher had come to the christian union and I can’t even remember what he preached about. All I remember is that he invited people for an altar call after the preaching. Not only those who wanted to get saved, but also those who wanted to renew their salvation. I was in the second category. So after a very strong conviction I lifted my hand and allowed Jesus into my life again.
Previously I had gotten saved in class 4. The Gideon’s bible distributors came to our school and after giving us the small Gideon’s bibles they invited anyone who needed salvation to say a confession prayer. I did! But somewhere along the way I lost it. These were probably the darkest days of my life. I still remember how i was irritable, angry and proud. I cant explain how I would manage to throw tantrums at my parents and keep quiet at them for a whole week, and still live in their house without an inch of guilt. It’s a mystery that a kept a grudge towards a friend or two years. I didn’t speak to her for two years! It’s unspeakable just how I wanted to have my way in everything.
Flash forward 2015. I look at myself today and marvel. Just how Jesus has molded me into shape. My pride has been cut into shape. I don’t remember at what point I lost my anger. Neither do I remember the day I started being nice to people, and even considering them better than myself. The work of the cross is purely a mystery!
One thing I remember is that when I said yes to Christ I decided there’s no turning back. I don’t remember a day I contemplated backsliding! Christ did tremendous work in me. I was changed from the inside out. I experienced a new joy. My world view, belief system and attitude was completely changed. You know that Saul to Paul moment! 🙂
It wasn’t easy, though. The pain of being rebuked by God and being challenged from my old ways was quite something. But it was assuring. I felt like how a child feels when the dad spanks it, then holds it on his laps and whispers, “I was punishing sin, not you”. I still remember what one of my partners in crime told me when i expressed to her my desire to overcome the temptation to indulge in secular music. “Tunakuona sana. Ni leo tu.” (We are keeping an eye on you. We know it’s only for today.) That very statement was the source of my inspiration to move on.
In form one I was a celebrated girl in my class. I was this bright chic who is not a snitch. (Many bright students are termed as snitches by the rest) I would manage to hang out with my classmates in the entertainment hall on Saturdays, support them in their crime and gang up with them against the class snitches. I remember hiding a phone for one of the senior girls in form 4. If I was caught, that would be the end of me in that school! Somehow, i still managed to preserve my academic position.
Getting born again changed things. They turned against me. Literally! I remember a weekend I had to spend out of class because of how they would hurl insults at me. No one wanted to see me! The price I had to pay for choosing Jesus! The biggest mistake I had probably done was hanging out with christian union girls! But all these strengthened me. It’s the nature of our faith. It strengthens trials, pain and distress!
It’s been five complete years now. The journey still continues. Turning back is not a word that exists in my dictionary. I have to meet my maker! I look at myself with a smile. Am a perfect mess. Perfect because Christ has beautified me. Am a work in progress. Not yet achieved it all. I still know I have a long way to go. But my confidence lies in this- He who began the good work in me will see it to completion. I owe it all to Christ who has been my rock.
One thing I know- Christianity is real. And even if it was not, I still do not lose anything. As a matter of fact, I’ve gained. But am so convinced it’s real, because it has worked out for me! I sum up my confession with this:
And yeah, it’s possible to walk with Christ. Very possible! Even for a young person. So what’s your story? What are those things that Christ has changed in your life? How has your walk been?
wow what a testimony, I liked the the whole of it but this touche me ” I am a work in progress, my presence makes sence and my future is secure.” for sure our citizenship is in heaven
May I not loiter in my journey to heaven. Heaven is real and so is Hell, its a matter of making a choice on where to go..bleeeessseeeeeeeeeeeeedd!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks John. Share your story too. What are those nasty characters that Christ dealt with?
I’m glad to share my story here too! I am a half-tribe:born of A Luhya dad and a Kikuyu mum, with a elder brother and a younger sister . In the early 90’s when I was around 4 years my dad and mum separated after dad became unfaithful. It was at this rocky period that mum got to know the Lord and get saved. Since mum could not raise us up all by herself (she was and still is a tailor), we had to relocate and be brought up by my grandparents.
Halfway through nursery school, my dad reconsidered taking my siz and I back. So, off we were to Nairobi where we schooled at my dad’s place together with my step-mum’s kids. He managed to raise us up till 1997 (I was in class three and my siz was in class two then). We spent the whole of first and second terms of 1997 out of school. In third term, mu mum decided to take us back for good. We were back to shags where our grandparents graciously took us back.
Those were some of the most painful days. Being separated from my dad, and now mum was really painful. I started having health complications early 1998 and would be glad since that meant being with mum. However, after recuperating that meant going back to shags and moving on. Siz seemed to have settled well, and my bro had already surrendered to the worst. It seemed as if I was the only one still attached to my parents ,especially mum.
During the holidays I would wait for mum when she came visiting and would make sure i have my stuff stacked on her bag on her way back to Nairobi. And it did succeed on a number of occassions. I longed to be with my parents. But not always. It was this time that i was confronted with the fact that we were poor-else, why would mum not be with us?
And that drove me to working hard. I was a bright student since my formative years. i topped my classes since class one to class eight, except on two occassions where i was second position.
My grandparents encouraged me to work hard. It was somehow a crime for me to be found in the kitchen with my siblings and relatives at night. I had to be on my books. It felt unfair at times, especially when hearty laughter would come from the kitchen, while I was in the sitting room squinting to read all by myself!
But it was a blessing in disguise.(I look back in hindsight and see that it was rather unfair for my relatives not taking a keen interest in my cousins’ and my siblings’ education) Come 2002, and I had done my very best. I had scored some 400 marks to secure myself a place in Njiiri school! I was the 3rd best in our division, the first to perform so well from my school in those times.
Everything was on my side, though I still had to be sent home on my very first day of reporting as a form one. The future was bright, and I could now take it by the horns.
On my second time of reporting mum reminded me to go to CU once I had settled in school. I did not know what CU was. The closest I had gone to spiritual things was attend Sunday service with my grandma back in shags. It had the advantage of forcing me to take a shower and put on ‘Sunday Best’, otherwise-no shower for the better part of the week! So, mum’s suggestion was something I had not heard, but I did heed. I knew that she somehow meant well.
But God in his mercy had orchestrated that that first weekend of our reporting would be the School’s official Weekend challenge. Jammed in our assembly hall that used to be so full and stuffy was me with all the excitement my village could muster the hope of a bright future and the excitement of having some wonderful time in church! Until the preacher took to the podium.
I do not remember what scripture he used but God did use him to reveal to me my own sinfulness. I remember sitting there and realizing that my problem wasn’t that I came from a poor background, had a father who had abandoned us and a mother separated from us as she struggles to raise us up. These were symptoms of a disease-not the disease. The disease was sin. And just like the rest-just like my dad, just like my mum, before the got saved. I too was a sinner. I was a sinner before God, even though I was a hero in my village and family. Sin, my own sin, was the problem, not merely the poverty I had lived with. It mattered less whether I was bright or not very bright if sin had not been dealt with in my life.
Then I heard the good news. Jesus came to die for sinners. I deserved to die to pay for my sins. But he paid the price for all who would believe in him. Would I believe? I was too timid to lift my hands, but deep down I knew God had found me. When the CU officials announced that all who gave their lives to Jesus to meet the following day in one of the classrooms, I was there! My burden had been lifted the previous night and I was gaining courage to join with the brothers. 15th February, 2003 was the night God found me!
And he found me at the right time; just before I could get trapped into school life. CU fellowship used to take place on Sato’s during entertainment time. Please remember that I was a village boy. The very sight of a giant screen was a temptation enough. But the warmth of the fellowship trumped over the desire to literally gawk at the screen. Sweet were me Sato nights where we could sing and pray together!
Being now in high school, I had the opportunity of visiting mum over the holidays. There I was reconnected through God’s goodness with one of my childhood friends who had also gotten saved. He took me to a fellowship that became second home. All my holidays would be spent in church. Our days would be full of activities that allowed for no idleness. And there I got three of my lifelong friends whom we’ve journeyed together!
At just the right time God saved me!
To deny God’s grace is to rubbish repentance. Indeed, man’s greatest need is the reunion with God as He punishes sin on the cross.
Blessings to you John.