Hostile

The climate is so harsh here.
Nothing survives on its own.

All the plants have to be constantly watered for them to actually grow and produce, and the animals wander around eating garbage because there's nothing for them to graze on like grass or straw.

The only things that thrive are thorn bushes and sadistic looking birds that have no natural predator because they're poisonous.

Women spend the majority of every day holding back the tides of hunger and thirst on behalf of their families while the men fight the land for a meager yield.

We're less than 50 miles from the equator which means the sun is extremely hot, scorching every drop of water out of the ground and leaving it dusty and cracked.
When rain does come, the land is so dry that it cannot absorb the water, causing flooding and carving deep ravines that cut off villages from civilization.

Even the rain so desperately needed is dangerous if the ground is uncultivated.

We are living on the edge of the desert; the only reason this place survives is a river that paints a green strip through the desert.
The only people who live further out in the desert are the ones who can survive and who've lived there for generations.

Even the Kenyan government doesn't bother to maintain a presence any further north than this.
We cross the last checkpoint at the river south of town and from there to the border of Somalia is wilderness.


The people have become like the environment in order to survive.
The soil of their hearts is hard and thorns of disbelief and bitterness easily choke out new spiritual growth.

The gospel can't be simply tossed out on unprepared hearts; the way must be made for God to move.
Whether through relationships in which they can see the reality and power of Jesus, or through God directly revealing himself, a salvation is not a quick or simple matter.
A lifetime with one worldview, one way of thinking and living cannot be exchanged for another in the blink of an eye (barring a miracle).

Often even after the truth has sunk in, a person needs time to come to terms with the change required in their lives, and to understand the implications of following Christ wholeheartedly in this culture.

A Muslim who rejects the faith of his family and country is an abomination and disgrace.
He is immediately cut off from the protection, support and love of his family in hopes that such a harsh reaction will force him back to Islam.

Those who still refuse to deny Christ are harassed and persecuted intensely.
The choice to follow Christ is not a decision to make lightly; the cost is high in such a place.

But men and women in places like this around the world still choose Christ daily.

Why would someone abandon everything to embrace persecution and hardship?

That is the question I want my life to answer.
That is why I am alive!
That is why God sends his followers to places that are so harsh and unwelcoming.

We are all called to leave everything.
The cost is high anywhere you go...lose your life so that you may find it.
Lay down you life, take up your cross and follow Christ.
May I be a testimony to the reason Jesus could ask for such devotion.

Matthew 16:24-25
"Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."

John 14:6-7
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him."