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"I'm just a simple man" |
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“I am not rich, I did not go to school, I don't know much,
I don't even know how to pray”
Mwangi, a young married Kenyan man with four children, is the worker in the home of ICM-staff, Greg and Deb Snell. With his warm winning smile and handy helping hands, he quickly became "family" to them. When they hosted a Purpose Driven Life small group study in their Nairobi home, they naturally invited him to attend, giving him his first Bible and a copy of the book.
One evening after the course was over, he knocked on their door and poured out his heart.
You know, I learned many things in the course Greg said. I grew up Catholic but did not know very much about Jesus. Purpose Driven Life has helped me so much. I am just a simple man. I never knew God would love me. But now I know that God has a purpose for my life and I can pray.
I want to tell you something. When Greg took my wife to the hospital to have our baby, they told my wife Mary she was HIV positive and that they would give the baby some medicine to help her. I did not know if I had it too. We were so shocked. It was very hard for us. We did not know what to do. But we knew God had a purpose.
But I knew God loved me and I learned I needed to pray. Later Mary and I were watching a pastor on television when he said, "I know there is a young couple, who are married, who have HIV-AIDS. I want them to stand where they are and I will pray for them to be saved and to be healed."
We knew he was talking about us, so we stood in our home and were saved. And you
know what? We went back for testing and the HIV is gone. We do not have it any more.
I now believe that God can do miracles and that He can do them for me.
You know when I was reading in the Bible that God could give me faith that could move mountains, I thought "No, I can't say to Mount Kenya, move from this place to another place. But then I knew that my mountain was HIV-AIDS, and that because I believe and have faith, God can and did move my mountain."
Yes, hundreds, maybe thousands of couples watching TV that day in Africa fit the description of a young couple needing healing. And maybe the doctors read the test results wrong to begin with and they never were infected with HIV. Or maybe..... Our list of Western logic can continue. But so what? In our skepticism we often miss the point. We are quick to question and explain away. While in Africa most are quick to believe.
Is Mwangi a "simple man" to pray? To believe God for the impossible? If so, maybe we all should be such "simple" people. Mwangi believed. Mwangi prayed. God honored his faith. Maybe we need to join with the man and say, "I believe, help my unbelief." Maybe we
 should join the ranks of "simple" men like Mwangi and pray believing, Miracles do happen...
in Africa and at home. Start expecting. Start asking.
Greg, Deb and Mwangi Family
Greg Snell first traveled to Africa in 1982 invited by World Vision to visit drought areas
in Northwest Kenya. Greg heard the call to leave the business world and commit his life
to missions and three years later found himself at Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, MN. After
graduation in 1990, he began a five year term as mission's minister in his home church, Colonial Church of Edina, with the idea he would eventually leave for Africa.
In 1995 Greg and his wife Deb joined International Christian Ministries and moved to Kenya. Greg and Deb are now seconded to Purpose Driven Ministries and serving a
term in Kigali, Rwanda.
"I have a vivid memory that I recount often of the very first time I met one of the founders of ICM, Phil Walker. Deb and I sat with Phil and his wife Debbie on the porch of his house in Kitale, Kenya and talked about our dreams and about the vision we had for training pastors in Africa. There are lots of ways to go about training and I could tell at once that my 12 year quest for my place in Africa was over. I looked at my watch and we had been talking for only 15 minutes. I just knew ICM was the place for Deb and me. Deb felt much the same way and we walked away from that meeting pretty much in shock. How could it be that simple? It was a done deal and we have never looked back. We have been with ICM for ten years now. We could not conceive or even dream all that God would do in our decade with ICM. What an adventure!" Greg Snell
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