Well, good morning! Let me just look at you for a second! It’s so, so good to be back after being in Africa for the last two weeks! I want to thank you so much for your prayers for our entire team while we were gone. As you know, our trip had a rather auspicious beginning, since we traveled on the same day the terrorist plot in London was foiled. Airport security and travel was quite difficult, and it was clear to us from the very outset that we would have to hold this trip lightly and trust God to guide us. Our team came back to the States in stages, with the last of us returning late on Friday night. Yes, as Brian mentioned, somewhere along the line I lost my razor! I also have a rather weepy right eye this morning. Now, I may well cry during this sermon, but for that you’ll have to watch my left eye! I’m still not totally sure which continent or time zone I’m in, so if I wobble a little bit, bear with me.

Two weeks ago, our team worshipped at Parkland Baptist Church, in the middle of Nairobi, Kenya, an urban center of some 4 million people. They had just finished Vacation Bible School there, and their children led much of the service we were at.

Last Sunday, I taught and preached in a small Pentecostal church on the shores of Lake Victoria, on the far western end of Kenya, in what felt like the heart of Africa to me. We were in Mbita, a small town, there were about 50 people in worship in the little open air building. The one dirt street that went through town had goats and cows milling around even as we worshipped, and there were lots and lots of children.

Then in the middle of last week, I taught at a church leaders’ conference on Mfgano Island in Lake Victoria, talking pretty non-stop for 1 ½ days.

I have to tell you that everywhere we went, visiting with our various mission partners in Kenya (mainly folks fighting the repurcussions of the HIV/AIDS epidemic), people specifically asked me to send their love and greetings back to you here at Bethany Church in the USA, to tell you that your prayers and partnership are so important to them, and that you are prayed for. I’ll have a chance to tell you about a number of those people this morning.

Here at Bethany, we’ve been reading through the New Testament letter of Galatians. You may recall the very rough outline we gave early on: the first two chapters being history (the apostle Paul’s history with the young Galatian churches), the next two chapters being theology (right thinking about God) and then chapters 5 and 6 being ethics (what does this look like in real life?). Today we will read Galatians 5:13-26.

Remember with me Paul’s emphasis throughout this letter: the compassionate grace of God in Christ setting people free. Galatians is sometimes called “the gospel of freedom.” Instead of being locked in a battle of existing by rules and regulations, constantly failing, the Spirit of God is at work inside of us, transforming and changing our hearts and desires. In Christ is freedom.

But, Paul is careful to say, freedom is not just doing whatever you want. That merely leads to the enslavement to the things on Paul’s first list: impurity, idolatry and the others. No, real freedom lies in choosing…whom you will serve. Bob Dylan once sang a song that said “you got to serve somebody…it may be the devil and it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody.” Real freedom comes in choosing to relinquish our lives to God, and being thus freed to love the people around us.

Paul then sums up the whole law in one sentence: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It’s not original to Paul. It’s in Leviticus 19, and of course Jesus said it as well, assuming that our love for ourselves is so strong we would do anything to survive…and that same kind of love should be attached to our neighbors as well. And, you’ll remember that Jesus also greatly expanded our definition of “neighbor”: first those near us, then those far away, and finally even our enemies.

To do this, we need the Spirit of God. We don’t just conjure it up by trying harder. The verse (25) on the front of your bulletin says “be guided by the Spirit,” or more literally, “keep in step with the Spirit.” It’s as though the Spirit of God were moving around in life, and our job is simply to follow behind and try to keep up. So we are freed from the flesh and law, and freed to love our neighbor.

What does that look like in real life? Paul says it’s the easiest thing in the world to spot. Either you’ll march after the Spirit, or you won’t. If you don’t, then life is marked by these things:

fornication, impurity, licentiousness (unfaithfulness in sexual morality); idolatry and sorcery (unfaithfulness to God); enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy (unfaithfulness in relationships); drunkenness and carousing (unfaithfulness in self-discipline).

But the people with the Spirit present in life look like this:

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

At their heart, these are not really things we do, but they are things of the heart that bear fruit.

I want to tell you about some of the people and situations in Kenya from these last weeks, and see how they connect with the fruit of the Spirit.

You need to know that the Kenyan people, friends old and new, were such wonderful and welcoming and gracious people to us. And the country of Kenya was stunning. Especially the second week, I looked out over the Rift Valley, I saw lakes that were glowing pink because of the presence of so many flamingos. We had to stop at one point to let the herd of 35-40 wild zebra cross the highway! And the sunrises and sunsets on Lake Victoria were just magnificent. Such beauty.

There was also a great deal of pain. The pain of poverty, the immense pain of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Kenya is far from the worst country in Africa in dealing with AIDS, in fact it is one of the better ones. But it still has 8-10% of the people as HIV+. Think about what that would mean for you. One in ten of your family, friends, workmates being ill with a life threatening disease.

Nairobi is an immense city of about four million people. It has some of the world’s largest and most dense slums. One (Kitare, right next to Soweto where we mainly were) has a million people living in a 2 ½ square mile area. Now I haven’t put a calculator to that, but I think it would be like jamming the population of the entire greater Seattle area into…Interbay. There is little electricity, and no sewer except open ditches that wind through the slums. People live mainly in little tin-covered shacks that are maybe 8 feet by 8 feet for a family. Unemployment is the absolute norm, and HIV/AIDS is rampant.

Nairobi: We met a girl named Presca Acquina. She is 15 years old, and now the head of her household since her parents died of AIDS. She is raising her four younger siblings, one of whom is HIV+. Presca was in a vocational training program until she discovered she was pregnant, and now has a one month old baby. She rents a little shack for about $7 a month.

We met the people of Mayatima, a community-based organization of mostly women, and mostly widows that works closely with our partner World Vision. As with other Bethany groups from years past, we received this amazing greeting: two dozen African women clapping, shouting, dancing, and pulling US into the dance as well (I’m afraid it was captured on video!). They told us about their work, and some of their kids read poems or sang. One young woman, Judy (maybe 15 years old) sang a beautiful, warbling song about the death of both her parents to AIDS. I looked at the two rows of widows listening, each one silently weeping. There is a lot of weeping and darkness.

We met a widowed woman named Pamela, perhaps 35 years old with six children between the ages of 2 ½ and 15. Pamela was very sick, and had been in bed since June 2. She felt she was feeling a little better after some medication, but she looked very, very sick. And in fact, we found out just this morning that Pamela died this week.

The Apostle Paul says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. In such darkness, where do you see these things?
Actually, we saw quite a lot of it.

We were amazed at the World Vision staff in Nairobi. People like Rehemma, Christine, Jackson, Dennis, Eugene. All Kenyans, educated, articulate people who could do practically anything with their careers, all giving their lives away. Going into those slums, day after day, saying “Yes” to Christ, saying “Yes” to loving their brothers and their sisters. Everywhere we went, people knew them, recognized them, appreciated them because they have invested so heavily in the community.

We talked with many pastors from the slum areas, but two of them particularly stood out to me. They were teaching their congregations how to do urban organic gardening. I asked “Why? Why are you teaching gardening?” And independently, both said the same thing. They said,

“First, you need to know that we love our people very much. And we think there are two ways of preaching the gospel, both important. One is to do it with your mouth, to talk to people about the gospel of Christ. The other is to teach people how to grow enough food for their family. The gospel is taught in both ways.”

You at Bethany are involved in Soweto as well. Our congregation now sponsors over 150 kids in this area. Our family sponsors one. And I think you will agree with me it is really not a big deal. About $30 a month. Far less than most of us spend on lattes in a month. Now, sponsoring kids is not the final answer to the problems I’m describing, but it is something. And if you are intrigued by this idea, then you need to talk to Laurel Mackintosh.

I was able to meet with the little boy our family has sponsored for the last three years, a ten year old named Tom Shem. Tom and his dad walked several hours to get to our meeting spot. Tom showed up wearing the same sweater he has on in the picture of him that is on our refrigerator at home. I suspect that worn out sweater is the only one he has. They live in the middle of the worst slum. His dad, Paul, rarely can find work and he probably told me 7-8 different times, “Life is very difficult. I have 4 other children, and it is very difficult to provide for them.”

When I first saw Tom, I asked him if I looked familiar at all. He grinned just a little bit, and his dad fished out a beat up old wallet, and pulled a photo out of it. It was the picture of our family that we had mailed three years ago! Such a God moment, I think. I think God is like that: recognizing us, remembering us.
We saw the fruit of the Spirit showing up in people choosing to “walk in step” with the Spirit, spilling over in love onto their neighbors.

Lake Victoria: After the first week, our team split up and went different directions. Scott Cummins and I went to the far west of Kenya, to Lake Victoria. It was gorgeous, and totally different. Rural, agricultural, villages. Women doing their laundry on the rocks near the lake, carrying pails of water back on their heads. Men fishing for a living. One road, and very few cars ever appearing on them.

The area near the lake, and on the islands in the lake are some of the very hardest hit by HIV/AIDS. 60%-70% of the people are HIV+. Much of that comes from the economic practice of the fishing industry. When the men bring the catch of fish in, they sell it to the women to take it to market. But often they only sell it to those who will trade sexual favors for the right to buy. So you can see how quickly AIDS would spread.

We spent a night on Mfangano Island, a 40 minute ride by boat out into the lake…in fact, a 40 minute ride on the boat that Bethany helped to purchase last year. We met with 30 church leaders at a Bible School run by Pastor Joshua. And we found out more of the underlying reasons that AIDS has so devastated the area. In the midst of the 1 ½ days of teaching, I asked this group of pastors, elders and teachers a question:

“What is the most difficult challenge you face in your ministry?”

I received back 10-12 good responses, but not one person said anything at all about HIV/AIDS!

In an area where over 60% of the people are sick, and they bury people every day! But you see how strong the stigma and shame is, and that even the church is reluctant to deal with it openly.

So I changed my question. I said

“Raise your hand if someone in your congregation has died of AIDS.”

Every single person raised their hand. I said

“Raise your hand if someone in your immediate family has died of AIDS.”

Every single person again raised their hand. I said

“And this is not a major problem for you??!!”

And only then, when confronted directly, did we begin to have some conversation about it.

Back on the mainland lakeshore (Mbita), we met with a group of widows. There are many, many widows there barely eking out an existence, with little to no chance of ever being married again. One widow was Pamela, just 19 years old and with three small children. Pamela’s husband was killed as he went out fishing at night…by a hippo. Two of the widows (at least) were HIV+.

There are children everywhere. We met one boy who, several years ago, had both of his parents die of AIDS. When they had the funeral for the last parent at the cemetery and everyone went home afterwards…he was left there, alone. An orphan.

The Apostle Paul says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. In such darkness, where do you see these things?
In many places.

We stayed with a local pastor, Ezekiel, and his amazing wife Lillian, a school social worker. They have three of their own children living with them, and also 2-3 orphans. They are not the exception to the rule. We met 20, 25, 30 people who had the same story: “We have 3 children, and 2 orphans we have adopted.” They are not building orphanages in this area, they are opening up their homes and giving these kids new parents and brothers and sisters. It was amazing.

The leader of the widows’ group I mentioned is a woman named Mama Reagan. When her husband died, the strong tradition of the area dictated that she would be “inherited” by her husband’s brother. Mama Reagan said “no” to the tradition, drawing the scorn of her community and family. This is the woman whom a previous Bethany group helped to build a house. Mama Reagan is remarkable. As each widow shared her story with us, several mentioned that it was Mama Reagan who had reached out and pulled them in, not only into the group…but back into life. This group now meets each Sunday to pray, talk about their problems and go out to visit other widows.

Why do I tell you all these stories? And I think you’d better get used to it, because I have a lot of stories from this trip! I tell you them because in places like Kenya, and in the United States, there are things that are very dark and feel hopeless. People are hurting and desperate, and feel like life has dried up. Yet there are some…who look different. These are the people choosing freely to live differently. The people who have chosen Christ, and are in the process (and it is a process) of being transformed by the Spirit of God. And in these folks, even in dark and dry places, in fact especially in dark and dry places, fruit is growing.

The Apostle Paul says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

It doesn’t just happen to us. But as we line up behind what the Spirit of God is doing and try to keep in step, we are like the trees we read about in Psalm 1. Trees, planted by streams of living water, roots going deep into soil and finding the living water that is Christ, bearing good fruit. Good fruit that spills over in love onto neighbors next door, and onto neighbors far away. Let us pray.