Kathy, Kenya, and the Krazy Adventure Called Life

​On Monday, May 26, my wife Melanie, son Noah, and I will be leaving for Kenya on mission.  In Kenya, I’m picking up the mantle Kathy threw down for me.  Ok, it was more than a mantle, it was a  gauntlet.  Kathy died before reaching her 20th birthday while on mission in Kenya. She was not brought down by one of the Big Five of the African jungles.  She was brought down by something much smaller and more sinister-the mosquito.  Kathy contracted a very severe strain of malaria and was already too far gone before treatments could be effective.

Karatina is the town just outside of the village Melanie and I will be preaching in. Ngurumo doesn’t even make the maps

Nyahururu is where we will be speaking to missionaries. In Nairobi we will be doing mission with Christian Ministries of Africa

Kathy was my first girlfriend if you can call it a girlfriend in the 4th grade.  She was also my competitor.  She beat me out to represent our sixth grade class in a spelling bee, she was better at Math, she was bester at Science, she was smarter, more disciplined, and definitely loved Jesus more!

In high school we were just great friends.  We shared a love for music and we went on a singing tour in Ottawa Illinois, our hometown,  singing duets for various churches in our town.  Just as she was beginning her college career she took at semester off to go on a short term missions trip to Kenya.  She learned to p lay the guitar so she lead worship and she resolutely set her sites on Kenya.

“If I should die in Africa, I want to be buried with the people!”, she said just as she boarded the plane and waved at her mother.  The words sounded a little dramatic for a short term missionary, but now they have been lifted into the realm of the prophetic.  She did die with the people and she was buried in a pauper’s grave in Mombasa.

It’s been thirty years.  If you google her name, you can hardly find her.  You might find an earlier blog that I wrote about her, but that’s about it.  Kathy died before there was an internet.  There was no Facebook, hence, no electronic pictures, no evidence of her life.

Oh but the evidence of her mortal and eternal existence are so alive in me.  Had she lived I know she would have touched many lives, but in death, she is also touching scores of lives.    It was at her memorial service in Ottawa, Illinois that she threw down the gauntlet for me.  That pretty  little pesky girl who beat me at everything seemed to be calling to me something like this, “Ok, I gave my life in service to God and others, what are you doing?”  The answer was embarrassing.  I was pursuing a career that would help me make money.  Why?  So I could make more money and live the “good life.”  She beat me at life too.  Hers was more meaningful and more significant.  Her mother reminded me a few years ago how she told me she wished I could go to Africa with Kathy to protect her.  I couldn’t protect her from her destiny, however, it was intended by God that we would be linked together in death.  To clarify, I don’t believe God brings tragedies like this on to work his plan in us, but I do believe that “in everything, God works together for good to those who love the Lord…” (Romans 8:28)

Kathy ruined  me that day.  She ruined any happy day I might have had simply pursuing meaningless success.  Her memorial  ceremony changed the course of my life. I don’t remember a word that was said, it was her life that spoke.    I was asked to sing.  I sang these words:  “Oh Jesus if I die upon a foreign field someday, would be no more than love demands no less could I repay…”

Would I really serve Jesus on a “foreign field” someday?  At the end of her service, I broke.  My immature view of life came crashing down.  The superficiality of my dreams were laid bare.  That was the place that I most clearly received a call to a life of service in ministry.

Kathy saved my life that day.  Kathy’s influence led me to seminary and chaplaincy, and more seminary, and pastoring, and finally to Kenya.

It was my joy a few years ago to visit her grave and place a concrete marker on the spot of her burial because the termites had eaten the simple wooden cross that marked the spot.  I contacted one of her Kenyan friends who told me of Kathy’s generosity and how when she was dying she gave her friend her clothes knowing that she wouldn’t pull out of this sickness.

On Monday May 26-June 6 I will be back in Kenya again.  On this trip I will not return to Mombasa as radical Islamists are creating terror in the city by bombing churches in the very city where Kathy laid down her life for a very different kind of God who loves all of his creation.

I will be speak into the lives of missionaries.  My amazing wife Melanie will also speak to them and we will look at the work they are doing to build a Bible School so that Kenyans can be trained to spread the good news of Jesus throughout their country and the world.  I will share Kathy’s story everywhere we go.

We will go to a village called Nguromo where Melanie and I will preach a three day Crusade and our son Noah will lead worship.  We are praying for miracles signs, and wonders, salvations, deliverance, and healing to occur.  We will dedicate a church that we had the privilege of helping to finance.

In some mystical way, just as Kathy and I sang together, and even competed at times, her ministry goes on through my ministry.  Kathy is in my up line.  Every small way that I am able to influence somebody’s life goes to her credit.

I am living an amazing life that is rewarding because I am in the “God changes lives” business.  Thoughts of Kathy no longer bring me sadness, but only joy.  Thank you for saving my life.  Kathy had signature sayings and one of them was, “Christians never have to say good-bye they just say see you later.”  I will see her soon enough. But until then, I am going to do anything and everything short of sin to introduce people to a God who is so loving and compelling that he can put meaning into meaningless lives, make beauty out of ashes and even turn terrible tragedies into triumphs..athy was my first girlfriend if you can call it a girlfriend in the 4th grade.  She was also my competitor.  She beat me out to represent our sixth grade class in a spelling bee, she was better at Math, she was bester at Science, she was smarter, more disciplined, and definitely loved Jesus more!
In high school we were just great friends.  We shared a love for music and we went on a singing tour in Ottawa Illinois, our hometown,  singing duets for various churches in our town.  Just as she was beginning her college career she took at semester off to go on a short term missions trip to Kenya.  She learned to p lay the guitar so she lead worship and she resolutely set her sites on Kenya.
“If I should die in Africa, I want to be buried with the people!”, she said just as she boarded the plane and waved at her mother.  The words sounded a little dramatic for a short term missionary, but now they have been lifted into the realm of the prophetic.  She did die with the people and she was buried in a pauper’s grave in Mombasa.
It’s been thirty years.  If you google her name, you can hardly find her.  You might find an earlier blog that I wrote about her, but that’s about it.  Kathy died before there was an internet.  There was no Facebook, hence, no electronic pictures, no evidence of her life.
Oh but the evidence of her mortal and eternal existence are so alive in me.  Had she lived I know she would have touched many lives, but in death, she is also touching scores of lives.    It was at her memorial service in Ottawa, Illinois that she threw down the gauntlet for me.  That pretty  little pesky girl who beat me at everything seemed to be calling to me something like this, “Ok, I gave my life in service to God and others, what are you doing?”  The answer was embarrassing.  I was pursuing a career that would help me make money.  Why?  So I could make more money and live the “good life.”  She beat me at life too.  Hers was more meaningful and more significant.  Her mother reminded me a few years ago how she told me she wished I could go to Africa with Kathy to protect her.  I couldn’t protect her from her destiny, however, it was intended by God that we would be linked together in death.  To clarify, I don’t believe God brings tragedies like this on to work his plan in us, but I do believe that “in everything, God works together for good to those who love the Lord…” (Romans 8:28)
Kathy ruined  me that day.  She ruined any happy day I might have had simply pursuing meaningless success.  Her memorial  ceremony changed the course of my life. I don’t remember a word that was said, it was her life that spoke.    I was asked to sing.  I sang these words:  “Oh Jesus if I die upon a foreign field someday, would be no more than love demands no less could I repay…”
Would I really serve Jesus on a “foreign field” someday?  At the end of her service, I broke.  My immature view of life came crashing down.  The superficiality of my dreams were laid bare.  That was the place that I most clearly received a call to a life of service in ministry.
Kathy saved my life that day.  Kathy’s influence led me to seminary and chaplaincy, and more seminary, and pastoring, and finally to Kenya.
It was my joy a few years ago to visit her grave and place a concrete marker on the spot of her burial because the termites had eaten the simple wooden cross that marked the spot.  I contacted one of her Kenyan friends who told me of Kathy’s generosity and how when she was dying she gave her friend her clothes knowing that she wouldn’t pull out of this sickness.
On Monday May 26-June 6 I will be back in Kenya again.  On this trip I will not return to Mombasa as radical Islamists are creating terror in the city by bombing churches in the very city where Kathy laid down her life for a very different kind of God who loves all of his creation.
I will be speak into the lives of missionaries.  My amazing wife Melanie will also speak to them and we will look at the work they are doing to build a Bible School so that Kenyans can be trained to spread the good news of Jesus throughout their country and the world.  I will share Kathy’s story everywhere we go.
We will go to a village called Nguromo where Melanie and I will preach a three day Crusade and our son Noah will lead worship.  We are praying for miracles signs, and wonders, salvations, deliverance, and healing to occur.  We will dedicate a church that we had the privilege of helping to finance.
In some mystical way, just as Kathy and I sang together, and even competed at times, her ministry goes on through my ministry.  Kathy is in my up line.  Every small way that I am able to influence somebody’s life goes to her credit.
I am living an amazing life that is rewarding because I am in the “God changes lives” business.  Thoughts of Kathy no longer bring me sadness, but only joy.  Thank you for saving my life.  Kathy had signature sayings and one of them was, “Christians never have to say good-bye they just say see you later.”  I will see her soon enough. But until then, I am going to do anything and everything short of sin to introduce people to a God who is so loving and compelling that he can put meaning into meaningless lives, make beauty out of ashes and even turn terrible tragedies into triumphs.