STARRY NIGHT IN KENYA
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It happened while I was at a remote village in western Kenya for a preaching trip in 1996. I had just embarked on a career in missionary work in Africa. I was staying at the house of a local pastor who invited me to come and speak for his congregation. In the middle of the night, I woke up to use a latrine outside of the house. As soon as I stepped out of the house, I couldn’t help but stop for a while at the awe of a bright moon and starry night sky. Suddenly, I sensed the Lord whispering this statement into my soul: “Your disciples will be as many as those stars . . .” Following that heart-leaping encounter, I lapsed into meditation on God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 15:5 in the weeks to come: “He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’”
[Excerpt continues in Chapter 4.]
If the Lord gives us Africa, China, and America, we’ve got this world pretty much covered with the flame of discipleship, I came to believe. The Lord’s vision did not stop in Africa! His truth was marching on. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. I did not see with my naked eyes thousands of disciples and hundreds of churches springing up when I went over to Kenya first time. But God put his undeniable confidence and assurance in me that the vision of that African starry night would ultimately come to pass.