We Sing to the Joy of the Lord

I feel like I missed a day on the Blog. I will explain what has been occurring here and why I could not post yesterday and then I will write todays post.

When I came to Afghanistan I came as a Civilian Contractor with what they call a NAC-I security clearence. This is a general clearance that all civilians must have to be on the bases. Under normal circumstances this clearance would have been suficient for me to perform my duties as a Transporation Manager. At this bases, I am more involved in Security Sensative operations which means I have to now get a Secret Clearence. In order to get this you can not work for a foriegn entity which is in essence what I was doing as a Civilian Contractor as my pay was coming from Dubia. So at the end of August my contract was terminated and I was hired as a US employee. When this happens eventually they had to disable my network credentials which is what happened yesterday.

All in all this is a good thing for me. Instead of being paid once a month it is now twice a month. I will pay FICA taxes now however that will allow me to continue to pay into Social Security and not miss a year. I will also be eligable for unemployment insurance next year if needed.

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Last night we had just an amazing time during our prayer at the Chapel. As many of you know, but some may not, when I first arrived here at Shindand and met back up with Robert we started to have nightly prayer time together. We soon had a need to find a location that would facilitate a few more people as other Kenyan men wanted to join us. After speaking with the Army Chaplins, we were given permission to use the Chapel two nights a week to meet. Usually it has been just three or four of us, giving testimony, speaking the word and praying together. Twice a week coming together to build one another up it has been marvelous.

More recently instead of just one Chaplins Assistant, Richard we have also been joined by Phillip, both of whom are fabulous young men. Our group had some growth and or gatherings had been becoming more in depth and comfortable for us. Yesterday though was different. Three new Kenyan men came to the Chapel. I had never met two of them, comiong in they just warmly hugged me and introduced themselves.

We now had had eight men in our group, five of which are Kenyans and three expats. As we begun we sang two Hymns out of the Hymnal. I have to say that we actually sounded pretty good and thankfully somone knew the tunes. The spirit began to work because as we ended with "It Is Well" Killian began to sing a song, in English, that was nothing I had every heard before. Immediately the other Kenyan men joined in, singing with such love and joy. We all stood and joined hands in a circle, I just stood and listened. Soon the tune caught the rest of us and we joined in the song. I could feel Phillips hand on my right and Josephs on the left, as the power of the words came to us, tighten around mine. We were all joined as brothers in song.

This song was such, and forgive me as I can not recall the words, that we could raise our voices and sing at full strength with Killian singing some harmony. The song lasted for what felt like ten minutes. Each time through the key word would change but the rest of the words remained the same. Such a warm feeling of us just coming together in such a simple way.

As this song ended, Killian went right into another and the same reaction from the other Kenyan men. They knew this song, it was part of their culture, sung in English but wonderful to listen to. I danced, Phillip also next to me bounced to the rythm, eventually we all were singing the song, again raising our voices up to the Lord as best we could.

The last song came from Peter, softly he began in English and then after a verse continued in Kenyan. Again on cue the other Kenyan men joined in. They all sang in there native tongue and the three of us Americans just listened. Wonderful it was, wonderful . Just hearing this worship in another languge, it did not matter, I continued just listening and praising God for this moment. Thanking Jesus for allowing me to experience this time of Joy. Worshiping with my brothers. I only knew one word that they sang, "Mungu" God. Each time they got to His name a sang it in English along with them.

God. These eight men coming together under God, singing Hymns and worship songs to our Lord. We are one, we are all Christians, followers of Christ Jesus, coming together in fellowship. It didn't matter what languge or what culture we came from, we had the love of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit guiding us. I believe that Gods word trancends culture and language, in this moment, last night, I saw this happening. The Spirit was in us and we understood not the necessarily the words but the reason, the love that we have for our Lord. We sang for the Joy of the Lord.

I left feeling so lifted up, so thankful for what the Lord is doing here through these men and through me. Our fellowship is growing and therefore the opportunities we have to spread the Gospel are growing. Our gathering of two men has now become eight. We live and eat together, walk and work side by side. We fellowship as one and we Love the Lord as one. I am blessed by these Brothers.

Lord may our songs of Worship be sung as one. May our lives be of one Spirit and one Love, of you Lord. May our voices in these times be heard by those outside and the Spirit rest in their minds and hearts creating a longing to know you more Lord.