The Miracle of Rain of Stones

The long rains have begun. Last Tuesday it was a deluge. We have not seen it rain any harder than that. Just when the rain was heaviest we heard “ping! ping! ping!” – the sound of hail hurtling against our steel roof. With a look out the window we could see it beginning to accumulate on the grass. It was a little larger than pea-sized. Only 40 minutes after the rain started, it was over and the sun was back in full force. In no time all the hail was gone and it was just as hot as before.

Soon after it stopped the neighborhood kids came by the house. I asked if they had seen the hail. Yes, they had, and they were quite excited about it. Most exciting of all – they ate some. It was “nzuri” (good) and “baridi!” (cold!)

Later we talked about the hail in our Swahili lesson. “Mvua ya mawe” – rain of stones – is its Swahili name. Such a thing happens here maybe once a year our teacher said.

Our favorite and very enthusiastic taxi driver had seen it too. “God did a miracle today,” he declared. “He made ice fall from the sky.”

Chapel

March 4, 2009. For months we have been attending chapel services before the beginning of work each day. The health clinic holds chapel at the facility where Peggy works, and the national office where Gordon works holds its own chapel in a nearby building. Most days I (Gordon) feel great about the chapel if I can find the Bible passage and read along in my English/Swahili New Testament. All the better if I know the tune of the hymn and can sing along in my Swahili song book – even if I can’t understand most of the words of the hymn. But the messages and the prayers in Swahili go by too fast for me to catch any more than a few words here and there.

Yesterday’s chapel followed the typical pattern until the end, when I was surprised by a request that I lead the chapel this morning! My friend Mr. Byemero encouraged me to go ahead and do it, even if I only knew two Swahili words. So I accepted the request and later made my preparations.

I spoke from 2 Cor. 5:15-6:1 about reconciliation (upatanisho) – the restoration of people back into a good and right relationship with God like that which existed before it was destroyed by sin. Through Christ’s death believers are made right with God. For this reason, believers no longer consider anyone in the same worldly way they did before.

First, Christ has reconciled each believer to God and has made each believer a new creation. God no longer counts our sins against us. Therefore, we must view ourselves as believers in the same way that God views us. We will make mistakes. But because we know God does not count them against us, we should not either. Instead, as co-workers with Christ we must seek to reconcile and restore whatever has been broken by our sin.

Second, believers now also view unbelievers in a different way. Because God loves them so much that Christ died for them while they are still sinners, so must we love those who don't believe. We have been appointed by Christ as his ambassadors (mabalozi) to carry the message of reconciliation with God. Some ambassadors are sent by their king to take a declaration of war, but not the ambassadors of Christ. We go with a message of peace and reconciliation.

Finally, we should not receive God’s grace in vain. In other words, we should not let God’s grace be wasted. Instead, we should do what we can each day to promote reconciliation and restoration of the world through the work of God’s grace.

My two Swahili words? Mabalozi wa upatanisho. Ambassadors of reconciliation. Big words.