There are different experiences that have changed the course of my life. I was ten years old when we left for Youth with a Mission Heidebeek to work as missionaries in Heerde. God had clearly called us as a family and He confirmed it with a one thing in particular which made a big impact on me. You know what I mean…
You get a strong impression that God put something on your heart, but to be sure you ask Him to confirm. A specific scripture, a special meeting, a sign from heaven, anything to be a hundred percent sure that it was not your own idea. My parents had requested a few things, but together with my two sisters I also asked God for something. A Beo had escaped from a house in our neighborhood. This talking bird was precious to own and everyone was talking about it. I believe our town counted 500 families. Everyone lived close together but our request to God was fort his special bird to be caught in our small garden. Now we had birds ourselves and they lived in a large cage so it wasn’t unthinkable that God could make it happen. If he could pull this off, then we would follow Him wherever He called us.
In my experience I waited for hours on end staring out of my bedroom window to see this bird. Sometimes we could see it fly to a big tree in not far from our house where I could see it. After a few days it became sunday and we had to go to church. I didn’t want to go at first because I hadn’t forgotten about the bird. If I remember correctly we even put some bread crumbs in between the double entrance of our bird cage which was in the back of our garden, just in case…
When we came back home later that day there was much excitement in our street. The bird that was lost had finally been caught and you would never guess where it happened. It landed in our garden thanks to the double entrance in our bird cage. I could hardly believe my ears but it was true! God had clearly demonstrated that He can command a bird to go where ever He wanted. Now it was our turn to follow Him where ever He send us. Not long after this we started to practice our English vocabulary. This adventure was about to begin.
The first three months we stayed at Heidebeek. It was like a ‘huge house on the prairie’. My parents did a bible school to prepare themselves for missions work and we went to a local school. After that we went on outreach for three months. It was our first of many missions trip. In our team there were a couple americans, the team leader was a Scotsman. We went to Kenya. We had never been to a foreign country and and my only point of reference of africa was a television show called Dactari. It was about a vet who lived among wild and dangerous animals. That’s were we were going! The teachers at school had given us homework for 6 weeks so we wouldn’t miss out on to much. Summer holiday took care of the rest. I can hardly start to describe how impressive this whole trip has been for a ten year old boy, but it was definitely the beginning of a new life. It was terribly exciting.
First of all it was extremely hot. The sun was so bright that we could burn flies out of the sky with our magnifying glasses. After two weeks we left for Mombasa. We left from Nairobi and took the train straight through the waist lands. Elephants, Zebra’s and monkeys… it was all there in the wild and I remember reaching my head out of the window from this slow riding train. It was magnificent! Once we arrived in Mombasa we left for the jungle. The people there had never seen or touched a white blond person so I was very popular. Something I didn’t mind at all and it was easily to get used to.
Of course we were there to tell people about God. We brought many boxes of food and during a long evangelism service the people all received one of these boxes. Many people excepted jesus as their personal lord and savior during these events. We were doing pretty good. I think God must have been very happy with us. This was a wonderful win – win situation.
One evening when we had our usual family time something weird happened. I was overwhelmed with grief, but It wasn’t like anything I had ever experienced. I had to cry but wasn’t about myself. Deep in my heart I was touched by all the people we had met in the bush bush. Kids without shoes, without food, without a mother and father… the contrast with my own life was so enormous that I could hardly understand what kind of life they lived, but I felled overwhelmed with an certain emotion. As I lay there on my parents bed in tears my dad asked me what was going on… but I was’t quite sure. He finally came to the conclusion that it must be Jesus knocking on the door of my heart, asking me to let Him in. Of course I wanted to do that and this is how my personal relationship with Jesus started, or was it God himself that I had encountered?
Not long ago I came to a conclusion of my own. It was compassion that I felled on that day in Kenya. This form of perfect love comes straight out of Gods heart. It is His Spirit that moves through us and allows us to feel the pain of others and carry their burden. He calls us to action and care out of love. I believe in these moments of true compassion we experience God Himself in us and it enables us to be intimately connected with His heart through His spirit.
Heavenly Father, fill me with your love for the people around me. This is my heart’s desire!
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