God works

I want to ask you to join me in both prayer and financial support for a young man named Francis. His story is remarkable, a little discouraging but yet also filled with hope. 


I will set the stage for ya. This is an excerpt from the email that I sent to my peers, as well as staff and faculty:  Sudan has been torn with civil war between Christians and the Muslim factions, each vying for power. That warfare has caused much destruction, disease, famine and death. (Remember Darfur? Im talking about the same thing.) It has torn apart families and created many refuges. Children have been dragged off into military service. We in America watch helplessly as yet another African 
country tears itself apart from the inside.

That is the background. It is dark and seemingly hopeless. But there are stories
that come out of that that give hope. My mom has been working with HIV +
women and widows to help train them to make a sustainable living. One of
the ladies she is working with is Mary. Mary is a refugee from Sudan and her
son, Francis, needs our help.

Quick Summary of Francis's life to date:
-His father was shot and killed many years ago in Sudan.
-His mother was forcibly married off to her deceased husband's brother. (Bride
inheritance)
-He and his brothers were conscripted to one the warring factions (as child
soldiers.)
-His mother's second husband died of a heart attack. Not wanting to face bride
inheritance again, she fled and spent a long time searching for her kids.
-She found her sons, and she and 8 kids walked to Kenya.
-They were shot and wounded, but survived.
-Now he is trying to get the education that has eluded him for the majority of
his life.

Its an incredible story. But there is one hang up. Francis doesn't have money for
school (a problem that some of us are familiar with, I know). 


Please join me in providing for Francis's schooling. Our gracious Lord has given
us so much. As the Lord leads, please prayerfully consider giving to this worthy
cause. If you would like to help Francis out, email me here  or email my parents in Kenya here. For those who are US based, it would be easiest if you dealt with me. 


This is an opportunity to show the love of our Savior to our fellow brother in Christ. My mom told me that Francis is coming by the house in Kenya tomorrow to wash my parents car..... so that he can have transportation money to get to church. I am eager to help such a determined young man. I hope you are, too! 


Feel free to email me with any questions. 


In our Savior, 
Martyn

History paper and God

It has been almost a month since I have last posted. There is good reason for such a leave of absence. I have been up to my ears in papers and assignments, even over my spring break. I have another such paper due on Monday that I will begin after writing this. This will be short but I wanted to give all my readers an update.

This last week I have experienced a feeling that I have not had since the Marine Corps. Because of my insane workload (5 papers written, all in the last two weeks)... I am bordering on the brink of exhaustion, physically and mentally. 

The due dates of the papers pay little regard to my tired state and continue to creep up on me. This week was no different, but the assignment was. I had my final and most important history paper due on Thursday. I had other assignments due earlier in the week and so I only began researching the history paper on Wednesday morning. I finished my research on Thursday morning at 3 am, slept for 4 hours, and began writing at 7. As I sat in the security officers' office 15 mins after waking up, I realized that I had absolutely no desire, nor strength to analyze or write the paper. I had no more of my own strength  to run on. 

I stopped trying to write, stopped trying to think, stopped trying to analyze the copious pages of notes I had taken. I recognized that I was in my most pathetic condition. I was about to become very frustrated, and I was about to quit. 

Just then my mom popped up on skype, and I explained to her in typical guy fashion (short thought blurbs) the dire straits I was in. She wasted no time; the response was immediate. It was also straight out of Scripture. "Even youths shall faint and be weary,and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 40: 30-31

Though I was "weary" and "exhausted," my heart was suddenly filled with gladness at the promise of faithfulness given by our Lord. My frustration turned to joy at the opportunity that God had brought about to prove His faithfulness towards me.

Before I finish the story, I must add a disclaimer. Isaiah does say that "they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." But the Lord, through Isaiah, is not making a promise that the situation will get better. He is only making a promise that He will give "those who wait upon the Lord" the strength to get through the situation. 

The Lord did give me strength, and by His hand alone I was able to finished my paper. Not only did I finish it, but by my estimation, I composed my best history paper yet. My arguments went deeper than I had ever been able to before, and were better supported than previous ones made. To put the cherry on top, I finished with 3 minutes left before another class that I had to get to. :) 

As I was walking away from the aforementioned class, I was well aware of my exhaustion. My body ached and my joints creaked, but my heart was filled with wonder. I raised my hands to the heavens and poured out the gratitude of my heart to the Lord. As I choked back actual tears of joy I thanked the God that brought Israel out of Egypt, the God who helped David slay Goliath, the God who sent His only Son to die for sinners....  the very same God that loved me enough to get me through a history paper. 

The tales of Martyn at Patrick Henry College might not contain the euphoric high of parasailing; it might not contain the emotion of Hollywood's latest tear jerker; it probably doesn't have the adventure to it that some of my stories from Africa does. But it is my hope that they the contain one simple truth about the Christian life. Namely that life and our experiences are not about us, they are about Christ. They are about Him, to whom all glory and honor is due. 

In our Savior, 

Martyn