He is Exalted

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The week preceding my arrival in Kenya was a dramatic antithesis to my time abroad. I came straight from a week in Los Angeles filled to the brim with finals-studying, photo-editing, sleep-skipping, coffee-chugging, finals-failing, and last-minute-packing, to a time in Kitale, Kenya, where the speed of life is turned down to twenty-five percent. In Kenya, rest is valued. A popular mantra there is “Americans have so many watches, but no time; Kenyans have no watches, but all the time.” And this abundance of time, which I should have recognized immediately as a gift from God, was terribly difficult to accept. Why? Because I had been living a life plagued with the worship of busyness.

I’m a yes-man. I hate saying no to other people’s requests or cool opportunities. But in Kenya, I learned that by telling myself and others the popular phrase, “I thrive on busyness,” I am telling my Dad in Heaven, “I worship busyness,” and His power and presence are blocked out.

The moments I’ve experienced God most powerfully have been in times of rest and complete silence. On the morning of February 29th, He clearly called me to drop my aspirations of a medical career to pursue global missions. That morning, I had slept through my alarm, missed part of my class, and decided to stay home, sit on my patio, and simply listen to Him. It was the most clarity I had ever received from the Holy Spirit, and I was overflowing with peace and joy.

Now, take that one morning on my patio, and multiply it by twenty-five days: this was my experience in Kitale. I’m not implying that I had crystal-clear revelations from Jesus about my future every single day of my trip — in fact, I didn’t have any. Rather, my time in Kenya was characterized by rest, peace, and experiencing the words of Psalm 46:10 like I never had before: “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” This environment was the stark contrast of my previous quarter at UCLA, which had its fair share of spiritual warfare and difficult trials. Once I was able to embrace this time of spiritual and physical rest, I was given closeness with Jesus, clarity in scripture studying, and a deep joy for the ministry I was taking part in.

The place my friend Rayna and I spent the majority of our time was Precious Kids Center (PKC), a home for children with mental and physical disabilities. This ministry was founded in 2012 by Sammy Hammork and has since grown to host more than fifty children. Though the children suffer from diseases such as cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus, spina bifida, Down syndrome, and autism, joy is abounding. I experienced Jesus most tangibly through the relationships I made with these children. Several times a week, we assisted Halima, PKC’s physical therapist, in speech therapy, small motor skill development, and even massage therapy. Time in the therapy room was my favorite part of the trip because we not only became very close with Halima, but we also had one-on-one time with a lot of the kids. Yes, being tackled by ten kids at once in the common area is wonderful, but spending time with them individually — learning their stories, understanding their disabilities, and working alongside them to improve their conditions — was very special.

The two boys I grew closest to in Kitale were Allan and Gideon (see pictures below). Allan is twelve years old. Though his cerebral palsy affects both his legs, both his arms, and his speech, his condition has improved immensely since he arrived at PKC four years ago. In spite of his impeded speech, I was able to communicate more with him than many of the other kids who spoke much less, if any, English. Gideon is five years old, and his cerebral palsy affects both of his legs and his speech. Because he has trouble getting around, he liked to be picked up, and I quickly learned he loved to cuddle — he even fell asleep in my arms a couple of times. By the end of my time in Kitale, Jesus had given me such a deep love for each of these boys — it wasn’t an easy goodbye, but Lord-willing, it was only a “see you soon.”

The other ministry we participated in is Embrace a Street Child, a home and school for boys living on the streets of Kitale. These kids make their living by begging or being hired for random small jobs and don’t have the time or money to attend school. Many of them also sniff glue to get high and to numb the feeling of hunger. Embrace gives the kids three meals per day, a place to sleep at night, showers, and free classes — including Bible lessons. We came to Embrace once every week to run the after-school activity. My favorite activity was asking the boys to draw themselves doing their dream jobs, which ranged from pilots to doctors to farmers. After Rayna and I left Kenya, our American friends, whose two-month trip overlapped with ours, were able to raise enough funds to sponsor twelve of the kids at Embrace to attend a regular school — about $700 per year for each boy. This may seem like a small victory, but this education puts them one step closer to achieving those aspirations. I was overcome with tears of joy when I saw a picture of these street boys out of their ripped clothes and in their new green uniforms and cherished bright red backpacks.

Being back in the United States has been a whirlwind. The busyness I was able to escape while in Kenya hit me square in the face the moment I set foot on American soil. While processing through my trip, I realized that rejecting the praise of busyness and embracing rest would need to be a daily, conscious decision. A fight, really. Jesus blessed me in Kenya with the perfect environment for learning to be still, but America — and specifically UCLA — is essentially the opposite. However, I’ve been given peace and comfort by the context of Psalm 46:10, which includes waters roaring and foaming, mountains trembling, nations raging, and kingdoms tottering. In that environment does my Dad say, “Be still, and know that I am God.” It is here that “He makes wars cease to the end of the earth.” It is here that He is “our refuge, a very present help in trouble.” It is here that He is exalted.

Looking forward to the future, I hope that wherever “here” becomes for me is marked by praising God instead of busyness and setting Psalm 46 as an anthem. I pray to be reminded that “being still” isn’t dependent on the physical environment or moment in time, but instead on the goodness and refuge of God. I pray to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus in whatever path I take.

Thank you so much for sending me off to Kenya with your prayers and financial support. Please continue to pray for me as I do my best to follow the Spirit’s specific leading within His overall call to global missions. I’m not sure where I’ll be in a year or two — maybe in college student ministry, working with disabled kids, or something completely different — but I am so grateful for your continued support and look forward to updating you in God’s timing.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”

Sincerely,

Kevin Moore

{to see my favorite photos from my stay in Kenya, click here; to view all of my photos, click here}