Friday, December 31, 2021
Witness: Shirley Cromwell
Scripture: 1 Samuel 3:8-9
Weekly Theme: Proclaim
Our vision team to Kenya consisted of 10 Methodists from across North Carolina. We were accompanying a local pastor to his weekly Bible study on this day. We stood in a grassy field in the middle of Nakuru, Kenya, and watched the young street boys appear on the horizon. They gathered in a group and prayed a blessing over the loaves of bread. Then they began to devour the slices of white bread – stuffing it into their mouths till their cheeks were full. As I watched, one of the younger boys looked up to me, held out his bread, and offered me some of his precious meal. My eyes filled as I smiled and declined, he continued to hold the bread up to me, and our guide encouraged me to take some.
Our group was so touched that we began emptying our backpacks of our daily snacks…granola bars, Hershey Kisses, M&M’s, even chewing gum! They ate it all with great abandon. We sat together in the grass and shared our meal, and heard a Bible story in Swahili. Then we had a prayer while holding hands in a circle. As we broke apart, we presented them with frisbees. Several of the more agile in our group showed them how to throw them, and soon they were all running around laughing and yelling. As we drove away, they waved fervently, and the team was strangely silent as we waved back…
As I reflected on this experience, I thought I would probably not have been so generous with my bread if I had been the starving one. I realized that this precious little moment in time was indeed life-changing. Sometimes God calls us in small but definite moments. On that day, I knew “He touched me, and now I am no longer the same.”
Daily Prayer: Dear God, please heighten our awareness of the powerful little moments and gentle nudges that come from you that keep us on the right path. Amen
Discussion/Reflection Questions:
- Reflect upon when you felt a powerful moment or gentle nudge that moved you to serve.
- Have you ever reached out to help those living in extreme poverty?
- You may not be ALL you can be but are you on the way?
Lake Deaton at Home 
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