Mathew 21:28-31
28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
29 “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered.
When the announcement for the church fund-raiser was made two and half months ago, I was not so fired up about the opportunity to give to God. Like the first son, I felt a sort of rebellion and my heart was hardened to a point whereby I did not even want to hear the messages about the contribution during Sunday services. I used to just close my heart and even declined to attend any of the committee meetings even though my wife and I had accepted to be in the committee by giving Sh10,000 each.
Surprisingly, my wife was really fired up about the harambee and she went out to collect the cash with her cards which apparently I did not even have as I had not bothered to take due to the condition of my heart. After a few weeks maintaining this attitude, I began to pray for my heart and as the days went by my heart began to be a bit positive and coupled with the messages, I began to mellow and saw the sense in giving to God.
The first thing I did was to write down the names of 15 of my friends that I would go to for the money to meet my pledge. After a couple of days of dilly-dallying because I was afraid of rejection, I began making the calls. The first two people that I talked to gave me a total of Sh12,000!
This gave me a lot of impetus and I began to set daily goals on how much I wanted to raise and I had a lot of fun doing it. It became a daily challenge to overcome and God led me to very generous people.
Then after that the money began to flow in and within one week God had helped us to raise Sh50,000! The money included Sh20,000 from one individual. In total, I talked to just five people and we had hit our target and goal.
On the day that I / we hit this target, I went to bank the money immediately and I felt a great sense of joy coupled with increased faith. I am now convinced that God can do anything with a heart that is willing to obey him. The spiritual benefits of working for God are tremendous for me and my wife and we cant wait for December 4th to see God glorify Himself in the harambee.
Written by Gilbert Wandera
