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Friends United Meeting |
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July-August 2005
Practical Discipleship
By Gladys Kang’ahi
I have come this far on a long journey. It is a journey of faith that connects me to everyone else and affirms my need to hear other people’s stories. All of us are members of a global community, which is the community of Christ. We need each other’s support. We need sisters to listen to our pain, to share our hopes, to tell us that there are dreams to be dreamed and realities to be changed, and that we can do it. We need to look, we need to listen, we need to speak and we need to touch. We encounter each other as a people of faith with faith in ourselves and faith in each other.
Each one of us has a wealth of experiences to share. We need therefore to affirm each other’s gifts, to affirm each other as full human beings created in the image of God. We need to listen to other people’s struggles. We have been growing and we need to look forward to growing further in our understanding of ourselves as a people who have a task, to make this a better world as we continue to minister…
My present occupation as United Society of Friends Women-Kenya Presiding Clerk has increased my knowledge of God’s ministry through women, and continues to expand my experience. The joy of serving and working particularly with women is great.
This ministry is quite unusual in the twenty-first century. Why? Because now we have both young people and mature men and women who are striving to serve. Quite often now, we move as the Spirit leads and, of course, the Spirit leads all of us differently. Some of them have gotten the correct call and others are there because they heard a voice calling, and thought it was the correct Voice.
Isaiah 6:8 (AV) states, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?…Here I am; send me.”
When you hear the voice calling out for service in the ministry, you need to stop and check thoroughly, and be sure that you are the one being called, and that it is really God calling you to serve. Examine yourself to be sure that you are ready for God’s service and that you have the strength to soldier on. Do you have the wisdom and the heart to repent of all the things that might obstruct your service? Do you have the heart to forgive even the unforgivable? Do you have what it takes to love the unlovable, to walk and talk with those you think are your enemies? Will you be able to see everyone as belonging to the community of God and not otherwise? You must have a heart that comes with a sense of respect.
Traveling in the ministry means that you become a leader, and a leader serves in whatever capacity is called for. Being a servant in the ministry of God is like driving a car; when you drive a car, you have passengers seated and traveling in your vehicle depending entirely on your driving skills. This therefore calls for a sense of capability, availability and reliability.
Leadership is about becoming a servant. It is such a long journey; therefore, it is not about prestige, it’s about commitment, and you must get involved completely: spiritually, morally, physically, and monetarily.
My call to the ministry came gradually yet steadily. At first I was hesitant, because I knew this meant walking in the opposite direction from my family and friends, choosing all that matters rightly in my way of life. I undertook the call, and before I knew it, I was heading step by step into the unknown. I have sometimes been torn apart, but most of the time I have had a wonderful and most fulfilling experience…
I started traveling in the ministry intensively in early 1980; it has been extremely exciting. I remember sometimes, when I was due to travel, how apprehensive I became. Occasionally, I wondered and worried about the ordeal of travel, especially in light of the fact that our roads are not the best. Sometimes I would be torn up about leaving home and my young family behind for very long hours or several days.
The words of the Twenty-Third Psalm have traveled with me always. “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” God is there for me, to provide wisdom, to lead, to give me peace even in very difficult situations, to worry for me when there is so much ahead of me. With God I rejoice whenever there is something to rejoice about. My purpose is renewed whenever it is thinning out. I am mindful, not mindless. God repairs and sustains my shock absorbers when they are unable to sustain me any more…
Between 1997 and 1998, my daughter was terminally ill, and she needed all my love, time, care, presence and prayers. That is when I was truly tested. I had to choose between being there for her and going out to serve. It was such a difficult time. I would need to tell my God in prayer, “Now, God, I am going out to serve you, and you will take care of my family and my patient,” and God did just that. Oh, how wonderful and faithful God is! This experience taught me to live more deeply rooted in the Lord, and I have kept searching for sources of renewal in our God. I have learned to rely on the Lord completely and trustingly.
One day, I remember, an elderly woman member and leader of the Friends Church came visiting on official duty in my meeting. She congratulated me on my new duties as a leader in the church and added on a light touch, “There happens sometimes strange things when you take up leadership in the church; you may be wealthy or rich then, comfortable financially or so, but my friend, these two (wealth and ministry) never seem to walk the same way somehow.” Having heard of that sentiment earlier on, whenever I encounter anything like it again, I know I need to go on my knees and pray, reminding the Lord to get in touch.
One of the first projects I worked on was helping my monthly meeting of Langata grow. I evangelized and watched the meeting grow spiritually, until we grew also in numbers. I have been part of this church for such a long time now. The kind of community care and love shown to me has encouraged me all along and helped me to get time to pay special attention to other persons with a call to the ministry. Many a time God helps me to seek, open and explore others’ talents and gifts, and I am glad many of them get to put their gifts into full use. This kind of support has continued to help me soldier on.
I have come this far, first and foremost because of God’s grace; secondly, because my family has proved to be fantastic, supportive and caring. I want to say here that they are a blessing. Thirdly, the community of God with which I work, co-laborers in Christ, has been overwhelmingly supportive. At the end of the day, it is never possible to reach every person, to meet every need: it is impossible to finish God’s work. But we trust God always to accomplish the work. Amen.
Excerpted by permission from Walk Worthy of Your Calling: Quakers and the Traveling Ministry, edited by Margery Post Abbott and Peggy Senger Parsons (Friends United Press, 2004).