June 19, 2011
Message from Winnie Amollo
- Matthew 28:16-20
- Winnie Amollo
The following message was shared with Northminster
on Sunday June 19, 2011
by Winnie Amollo from Kisumu, Kenya
She is visiting Indiana on behalf of the Global Interfaith Partnership
I feel blessed to be here today, with you, to know you, and the greatest of all, to love you. It gives me a great feeling of being alive today and makes me want to pray all the time for a longer life. We sometimes go through some very hard moments in our lives and we end up cursing the day we were born, forgetting that we did not choose to be alive. And we have not also done anything special to God to deserve the life He’s given us.
God has a reason for every happening in our lives and many of us know this. However, we sometimes choose to be stubborn. We want to live life our own way, forgetting God, our creator and provider of our lives and we never stop to think why we were created and especially placed in the places we are, i.e, why were you born in America, or Africa, and not anywhere else.
Many things have happened in my life already and at 21, I feel like if I write a book about my life, then reading it, one may think I’m 60.But all these have a reason. I never understood why my dad had to pass on and leave my family so miserable. It never occurred to me why my family had to move to the countryside and experience a completely different culture, especially after being born and brought up in the city for 15yrs. I never understood why the responsibility of seeing my family lead a good life rested on my head and yet I still had a mother and elder siblings.
It was not easy losing a father and nor was it easy moving to the country side. But there’s one thing I find very easy right now; acknowledging and appreciating God for what He does. Church and religion as a whole have played an important role in building my faith; you are therefore at the right place. The Global Interfaith Partnership [which this church is a part of] has played an important role in molding me and I’m just one of the many the project has helped to become better people.
I would not have become part of the G I P, had we not moved to the country side. I would not have served the orphans and vulnerable children with so much passion, like I did as a staff to the project, had I not understood what they were going through without their parents. And therefore I would not be here today, talking to you and loving you, had it not been for the Global Interfaith Partnership.
My greatest joy always came when I was doing home visitation for the orphans and vulnerable. And my! I have never felt so important. Being a source of encouragement, inspiration and hope to the children meant a lot to me. When I talked to the children and encouraged them, I would do it not knowing that I was also encouraging myself. Despite going to their homes feeling a lot like them, or sometimes worse, I still had to encourage them and leaving their homes, I would feel blessed and privileged and I’ve learnt to thank God always after every home visitation.
All I’m trying to say is that we’ve all been assigned duties by God, and our duties vary from every individual. And sometimes it takes us painful life moments to discover what we’ve been called upon to do by God. But the greatest joy is enjoying the fruit of your work more than the way you cried for God’s mercy upon your life.
The question is, how much should it take us to discover what we’ve been called upon to do? Just like the disciples, we’ve all been blessed in the name of the Holy Trinity and sent to the world to do God’s work. It is therefore, never a coincidence, never an accident, what happens in our lives. It’s always meant to happen, and it’s never to punish, but to teach, however painful. Do not therefore be hesitant or stubborn to heed to God’s call. God bless you.