Yesenia's Journey in Chad, Africa
Serving as a Student Missonary through La Sierra University at Bere Adventist Hospital from August 2015 to June 2016.
"...because he has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted..." Luke 4:18
It's hot. As the sweat drips down my forehead I am nudged to pray. Pray? Me? Yes, go pray. I go before the congregation and try to see over the white painted, wooden podium. I stand on my tip toes to see their faces, and everyone burst into laughter. Of course, the Nasara is too short that is why they are laughing. I proceed, to bow my head as I feel all their eyes glued to my every move. I say a quick prayer and move swiftly back to my seat on stage. Beside the deconness, there I sat between all the men who were the elders of the church. I sat where the Pastor usually sits. As I sat next to Dr. Olen (he was going to be translating for me), I sat sweating, anticipating the moment I will stand up and preach the sermon for our small Adventist church in Bere.
Let me rewind, for Sabbath I am ready by 7:30 am to go teach sabbath school in two other villages. By the time I am done with that and return back to Bere, it is a bit over 9:30am. Usually I wait a bit and attend the church service which starts at about 10:30am. As I returned from sabbath school and am waiting in our SM hut, Dr. Olen comes in and says, so whose preaching today? In the middle of tying my head wrap I stop and look at him very confused and say, "I don't know." He continues, "well whose preaching today?" The question is directed at me and Vianay, I felt more pressure towards me since I am known as the "Theology" major here. And Vianay and I looked at each other a bit confused. And I look at Olen and ask, "are you joking?" He quickly says, "Nope." He explains how the pastor had double booked himself and left so someone had to do it. I said yes, and he said great and he was gone. At that moment I broke into a sweat and began to think, and think fast. I've had ideas of what I would like to preach but never put anything together, not yet at least. I had one hour to put together a sermon for the church. So I take my Bible and a notebook and leave to my room at my family's house so I could be alone. I sit there for a good ten minutes just thinking. Then I pray. I pray for guidence, mor guidence, and the Holy Spirit. The idea that kept popping into my head was, "Get up." I wish I had more time to prepare but I had to work with what I had. In my personal devotions I have been reading the book of Acts. So that was fresh in my head and so was the story of Paul. Paul's life is truely amazing and if you ever get the chance to spend time reading the book of Acts I would encourage you to do so. When Paul is hit with a light on the Road to Damascus he is confronted with the voice of Jesus. Jesus asks him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" But, what got me is when Paul was down, Jesus told him to "get up." And before Paul meets Annanias, Jesus tells him to "get up" as well. I said in my sermon, when you're down get up because Jesus knows where he wants you to go. But I think the most important part of Paul's conversion is the why he was converted? Why? Why, did Paul so easily obey the voice of Jesus? The reason is because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul was not converted out of fear, but he was converted because there is power in the name of Jesus. There is power because everyone is made right with God through Jesus. Jesus is our advocate. Jesus joins us in suffering and death so we may join him in communion with his Father. That is done through grace. Not because of a man, or a pastor, or a congregation, or the Seventh day Adevntist church, or Ellen white, NO! We are not made right by following the church handbook, or living a perfect Christian life, or following the rules, or obedienece, none of that makes us right with God. The ONLY thing that makes us right with God is the blood of Jesus, that is it, case closed. That, my friends is the Gospel of Grace. We can come to church run down, beat up, drunk, drugged out, in a gang, a failure. We can come to church like Paul, and we are saved because of the good grace of Jesus. But you see this is often heard but not believed, taught but not practiced, preached but not applied. Because the word grace itself has lost its meaning. We don't understand what it feels like most of the time because we don't believe nor understand the depth of the Gospel of grace. I felt compelled to preach this because last sabbath a woman was taken up front and humiliated in front of the church because she had sex before marriage. (I know absurd) So, I tried to jam pack this in like 45 minutes before I had to be at church. I would like to pose a question. What is the point of preaching a sermon? Is it to bring a crowd to tears? To have everyone stand up for an alter call? To play on people's emotions for an hour? To have people think long and hard about how messed up they are and need Jesus? To have 50 people baptized? What is the point, if most of the time nothing changes.... and everything becomes so repetitive. Even at home, I'll hear a great sermon, and then everyone walks out the same as they walked in. They walk out as if they did not just here power! They walk out as if they didn't just here the good news of Jesus Christ. I know so many Christians who are scared for their salvation! To be unsure of salvation is not the Gospel but the exact opposite. To be sure of salvation, the gift of eternal life that is the Gospel truth being practiced in one's faith. Once one gets a hold of the truth you can't contain it! That's why Paul became one of the greatest missionaries there ever was because he couldn't contain the Gospel of grace he was exposed to. Although people thanked me for my words I felt empty. I felt as if the people still didn't believe and that broke my heart. I could be wrong. I just don't want things to go about as normal... as ordinary. I want to see a revolution, here, even at home. The Gospel is alive. What is the point of sermons if there is no change in our lives. What is the point of sermons if there's no change in our communites. What is the point of sermons if there's no change in our cities, countries, in our world! The Gospel has the power to turn this world upside down, we just have to believe it. The kingdom of heaven must come first. Jesus prayed, "thy kingdom come" I believe we are still here to portray the kingdom of heaven. But people may argue, I'm too busy, life's hard, where's God when I need him? Why do.bad things still happen, why doesn't God do something about the evil in the world? I stopped asking God why he doesn't do anything about the evil in this world, because I'm afraid he'll ask me the same thing.
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November 2015
AuthorYesenia Sosa from San Diego,CA. I have a deep love for God and what he has done for me in my life. Because of Jesus love for me that has compelled me to show his love to others. I love my family,friends, and boyfriend Isaiah very much. I love school and I love to learn. I want to give myself in love and service, as Jesus did for me. Be blessed, never forget, you can do all things through Christ who Strengthens us. |