Michael III… Conclusion or Beginning?

We say that Jesus preached the gospel, but he did more. He came that there might be a gospel to preach.
~ Oswald Chambers

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. 
~ Acts 1:8

From Michael II…

The answer stopped me in my tracks. She answered like she knew what i was talking about, “Yeah, he’s here.” And she turned back to her conversation at table.

Oh my. What a moment. Couldn’t wait to see how this was about to unfold.

Conclusion (or is is the beginning?) of the story

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So, over the next day or two, Sister Mimi and i made arrangements for me to look at the sponsorship list for the boys at Bosco.  i had played and done crafts with many of the boys, but did not meet any Michaels.  A couple days into the process, she brought the list to the dining hall after dinner.

One hundred and four boys were on the sponsorship list.  i started to work my way through the list.  And, at least at Bosco, it seems that Michael is not that common of a name.  i actually started to worry as i worked my way to through the pages.  But then…  There he was.  Michael!  Quickly, i worked my way through the list.  

104 boys on the list. One Michael.

My doubts just melted away.  What a moment.  

Just a little over a year earlier, this writer had been in the bondage of addiction and attending America’s Keswick Colony of Mercy addiction recovery center.  Decades of sincere Christianity had folded under the power of life-dominating sin.  

Oh, i knew i was free now in Christ.  i knew that the addiction was a thing of the past.  But, i thought perhaps that cleaning toilets at the local church was to be my portion for a while.  It seemed most wise to serve my way back into front-line ministry over time.  And here i was, literally preparing to share the love of Jesus with a kid – that G_d had told me to go meet! – in another country.  

This can only be of G_d.  Surely, His grace is beyond comprehension.  Surely, He makes ALL things new in the life of a man that will merely surrender everything of his pitiful self to G_d, for G_d’s glory and purpose.

So, i signed up to sponsor Michael.  Then… oops.  What now?  Do i just leave the Bible and cross with Sister Mimi or what?  Then, i asked her if it would be appropriate if i met with the boy.  She answered with an enthusiastic Yes, and we made the arrangements to meet the next morning.

The next morning, we ate breakfast, packed up and went over to meet the newly sponsored boys by the main school building.

There he was.  He walked towards me.  Nice kid.  Real normal.  10, Jamaican, shoeless, and a little shy.

We only had a few minutes, so i greeted the kid and asked him about himself.  Real normal answers – that is if you are a lost boy in the third world.  But, all-in-all, he seemed just like any normal ten year old boy.

i told this kid – in 10-year-old language – that i had come a long way to see him.  And that G_d had put him on my heart.  Michael, like most Jamaican kids, knew the basics about Jesus.  But like so many of us in this world, the knowledge seemed only to be intellectual and or cultural.  i then asked him if i could tell him a little story.  He said yes.

Using a little bracelet some of the team had helped make for each of the boys, it went something like this:

• The gold bead means that we we made to go to heaven.  Heaven is a wonderful place where all the hard things that are happening right now will be over.  It is a beautiful and shiny place.  Even the streets are beautiful.  They are made out of gold.  We will get to play, and rest, and have fun and be with Jesus forever!  Would you like to go there?
  
• The black bead means we have a problem though.  There is something inside us that keeps us from going to heaven and being with Jesus.  It is black and ugly.  Not black like the beautiful color of your skin, but like that blackness inside us that makes us angry, or causes us to lie, or makes us think we want to take someone else’s stuff.  Have you ever done anything like that?
    
• The red bead means that SomeOne had to actually bleed and die to pay for the bad things each of has done. If someone did not bleed and die for us, we could not go to heaven.  There really is only One person who could do this for us.  His name is Jesus.
• There was a Cross on the bracelet…. The Cross is where Jesus bled and died for all the horrible things that make us so black inside.
  
• The white bead means that Jesus work on the Cross can make us bright and shiny and clean on the inside. (Note, that i did not talk about “white as snow.” It seems doubtful that that analogy would be effective with a little kid who has never seen snow!).
  
• The blue bead means baptism.  Some do this as children, and some as adults, but we do it because Jesus asks us to do it, and we want to obey Him always and follow His example.
  
• The green bead means that when we come to know Jesus, we begin to grow in him.  Just like all the plants growing around us.  We need to listen to the Sisters and teachers when they tell us about Jesus and the things He did, and the things He tells us we should do.  He teaches us how to pray and we read our Bibles and learn to worship Him.
  
• The purple bead is really special.  As we grow, we learn that Jesus is the most important thing about our life.  He is our life.  Everything we have, and everything about us is about Him.  We realize that we need to make Jesus the King of our life.  He gets to be in charge.  So the purple is like the color of a royal robe.

So, i got to the end of the story… and realized that i had hardly spoken one intentional word. i can’t really remember the exact words.  But i know they were coming out in such a way that they were just right for a 10 year-old.  It was really neat.  i had prayed earnestly for hours beforehand that my words would simply be whatever G_d would have me say to this boy.  G_d answered that prayer.

Oh my.  What a ride, this life in Christ.   Surely, only G_d can do a work like this.  i have never been a numbers guy when it comes to ministry.  But, if He says it, my answer is simply, “Aye Sir. Amen.  What are your orders.”