Father s Day: Emilio s Story

Transcription

1 Transcript June 14/15, 2014 Father s Day: Emilio s Story Aaron Brockett How are we doing today? It s good to see you all today. I want to welcome anybody who may be visiting or if this is your first time as guest. I know that summertime is often a time of relocating. So it seems like every weekend in the summer I meet somebody who says, Hey, man. We re just scouting things out because we re relocating here this summer. So if this happens to be you glad you re here. Bummer you have to move hate that for you but glad that maybe you re coming this way and love to meet you sometime soon. We are, on Father s Day, going to do something kind of special this morning. We have been in a series for the last several weeks through the Book of Colossians if you ve been here, we re going to finish it up next weekend. And what that really means is that we go through the book, verse by verse, chapter by chapter unearthing to us what God s word says. And I would call that proclamation. In other words, I m standing up here saying, Thus sayeth the Lord. We re not going to have a debate about that afterwards or pick and choose what we like and don t like. It s just heavy proclamation. What I want to do this weekend is that I want us to spend a few minutes examining the fruit of proclamation. In other words, when somebody is exposed to the Gospel message what kind of a dramatic impact does that make upon their life? And so I want to introduce you to a friend of mine this morning who has a dramatic story. And I want to set this up this way. Any of you who have been around our church for any length of time know that we are pretty heavily invested in Nairobi, Kenya. We send over about three or four short term mission teams every year. We re financially committed there to an organization called Missions of Hope. And they work in one of the poorest slums in the world. It s called the Mathare Valley in Kenya. This all got started because a young lady by the name of Mary Kamau, she was from Ethiopia, went to Nairobi to go to college. And she ended up meeting a young man while she was there who told her that he grew up in the Mathare Valley, He grew up in the slums of Nairobi. And she had never been there. She had never heard of it. And as he was describing to her the living conditions she couldn t visualize it. So he said, Well, I ll take you down there. Rough place to be but I ll take you down there. So, he goes down and he shows her where he grew up in the slums and she was so heartbroken over it that she decided to spend her spare time, after class, going down into the Mathare Valley and she just began to gather up a group of children, tried to provide as much of their physical needs as possible, and to begin teaching them lessons, to give them as much of an education as they could receive. That has been I don t know how many years ago that has been, 15 or 20 years ago. That has now all ballooned into this massive ministry effort in the Mathare Valley where now there are over 13,000 children in the school. We have come along side of one specific Village in particular, named Bondini. And there is a church that has gotten started, the school is thriving, and all of this got started because one young man, who grew up in the slums, was exposed to the Gospel, whose life changed. He made his way out and shared his testimony with a lady named Mary. That young man lives in Dallas, Texas now. He s here with us this morning. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

2 Father s Day: Emilio s Story June 14/15, 2014 Hey, thank you so much for being here. We had a chance to meet in February of this year when we happened to be in Kenya at the same time you were in Kenya after being gone for 10 years. We had no idea that you were going to be there. We got a chance to meet with Emilio, hear his story, hear him preach a time or two and he preached the lights out, by the way and I asked Emilio if he would be willing to come up here. He s brought his lovely wife with him. She s sitting down here and his daughter as well. So they graciously came up here on Friday. They live in Dallas, Texas. And I wanted Emilio to share with you his story. It s pretty dramatic especially for those of you who understand the poverty that exists in third world countries like Nairobi, Kenya and how the statistics are not in their favor as far as breaking out of poverty in a healthy way. But, it more than a successful rags to riches story and I love this about you, Emilio, that you give all of the credit to Jesus Christ. You talk about the Gospel. You re involved in ministry now and a church plant we re going to get to all of that. But why don t you tell us just a little about I know we got to see visually from the video about where you grew up. Tell us about your family dynamics specifically your mother and your father and just what did you grow up with in the slums of Nairobi. Emilio Alright, first of all let me appreciate the men of God. Let s put our hands together for the men of God. I really appreciate the opportunity. I believe that it was a divine connection that we met when I came to Nairobi. I was just coming for vacation. I was not planning to do any ministry. But God orchestrated everything to happen for a reason. And I believe as I attend and as I sit here and as we share the Word of God, the testimony, I believe that there is somebody here that God is going to bring Him into his soul. And I really appreciate you for allowing me and my wife and my daughter to come and minister. It s a blessing. Thank you we honor you. My name is Emilio Kiai Njoroge. You can stick with Emilio. And I am born again. I am not ashamed to say that I am born again and that I love Jesus Christ as my personal Savior because if it were not for Him, I would not be what I am today. And God has blessed me with a beautiful wife, Caroline, and my daughter Muavia. We live in Dallas, Texas. But before I moved to Dallas, there is a story to tell, Amen. If you look at me today, I share my testimony with people in Kenya and they tell me it s not true. They tell me it s a lie that I come from this good family and that I am just trying to create a story to make them believe. But it s not. The truth is, I was born in the lowest of the lowest. They call it Mathare Valley. And when you just say the words Mathare Valley it s the body of death where by most kids who are born there they don t grow up to see their adulthood. And, I was born in a family that was so dysfunctional, my dad is from a tribe kikuyu and mom is from a tribe called moran. Morana people, in that region, most of them are Islam, they are Muslim. So we have a man who didn t believe in God who didn t believe in any religion and a mother who was a Muslim. And, that fact broke up the home life. The home life there was no link between the father and the mother. My mom s side, my dad s side no communication. They abandoned her for marrying someone from his tribe. The day I was born, this is from my mom because as I was growing up I asked my mom, Why does my dad hate me so much? Why does he abuse me so much? Why does he have to tell me all of the time Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 2

3 Father s Day: Emilio s Story June 14/15, 2014 that he s not my dad? And the story didn t start when I was growing up. It was from the day I was born. He rejected me at birth. He said I didn t have anything that looked like him because he was dark skin and I am light skin. My hair was kind of different and I looked different from him and he was like, No, I don t think this is my son. The day she was discharged from the hospital she was taken back to the hospital with a broken arm. When she got home there was a fight and he started beating her up. And she used to show me the scars on her face that she got from the day I was born. And this did not stop. So, my life as I was growing up I didn t have any childhood. I didn t experience the way a child is supposed to celebrate their dad, the way a child is supposed to celebrate being a child have fun, play around. When my dad was coming home it used to be a nightmare for me. Like my mom used to literally hide me in the evening until the man goes to sleep and then she can sneak me back into the house. Many nights, when I was 5 years 6 years old we used to go sleep outside with my mom whenever he used to come home he used to beat us up and he kicked me and my mom out. And, it got so bad to where by the time I was turning 9 years old, one time he came home and he was drunk he was trying to beat up my mom. Now, I m feeling like I m a grown man a little bit and I said, Hey, you cannot hit my mom like that. You cannot talk to my mom like that. So, I tried to defend my mom and he started beating me up, kicking me, and punching me, and he dropped me on top of a fire, something we used to cook with. We call it a jiko where you put like charcoal in it and that s what we used for food and heat. He hit me and he dropped me on top of it and was burnt all over my stomach. And my mom thought I was dead. My mom thought this young man is dead and I was out for a couple of hours. I was rushed to the hospital. When I came back home, I realized that I cannot live in this house because this man was going to kill me. He was my dad. A dad is someone who is supposed to be your hero as a child. A dad is someone who is supposed to be a protector of our home, someone who is supposed to protect the children, someone who is supposed to defend his children. That is the kind of childhood I had. I grew up in a very dysfunctional family. My dad was somebody who was into drugs, cheap alcohol we call it changaa it is some serious liquor they make and it is illegal because whatever chemicals they use are very lethal. Some of them are the chemicals you use to preserve dead bodies. It was fermented to make it very some people would lose their eyesight, they usually died from it. And this is the kind of bondage that my dad was bound too. And the little money he used to make he didn t really have a job he used to make less than a dollar a day. So that was not enough with three kids and a wife to take care of. And my mom had to find other ways to make a living because all of the little money he used to make he never would bring home. So, my mom had to engage herself in prostitution where she had to get money to be able to take care of her kids. She was not literate. She was not educated. So there was no other way she was going to make a living. That s the kind of childhood when I was growing up I used to meet so many uncles. I don t see them anymore. I wondered, Where are these uncles? But when I am grown I understand what was going on. And this is the kind of childhood I was exposed to because the man who was supposed to be a protector of the home he did not give us that covering. He exposed us, the whole family even my mom was exposed to engage in these activities not because she wanted but it was because the man who was Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 3

4 Father s Day: Emilio s Story June 14/15, 2014 supposed to protects her had left her and deserted her by herself and her children. So she had to do what she had to do to take care of her children. Aaron You found yourself in a position at the age of nine, you took off. Emilio I had to take off at the age of nine because I could not take it anymore. It was getting out of control. And I m growing up and at the same time whereby I searching to defend myself. If you hit me, I m going to do something, I m going to say something. And at the age of nine what I m calling home is not really a home it s just a small shanti with just a space for your parent s bed, my sister s bed and I was the only boy. I used to sleep under the bed. She put a sack under the bed and I used to sleep there. It was not really something you can say is a home. It s not what you call home in America. You know, when I came to the US I hear people talking about the ghetto. I m like, Okay. I want to see the ghettos. So, I went to south Dallas, Oakley, to see the ghettos and I m like, How can you call this a ghetto? You re driving a car. You have kibble. You have water. You have everything! How can you call this a ghetto? This is not a ghetto. It s amazing what you see there. I know you ve seen those pictures [in the video] of tall buildings that never existed at the time. They seem to have developed of late but at the time it was all shanties. And it was so bad because we didn t even have a restroom. We used to have what we call a flying toilet flying bathroom. So you do your business and you put it in a plastic bag and you know you don t want to be someone passing by at the time used to be crazy. So you can t imagine the kind of life, poverty, I mean we were so poor we didn t even have coach roaches in the house. They did not exist. And, I ran away that to go and live in the streets. Man, tell me to come and live in the streets in America. In comparison to Kenya I can believe they are comfortably because here in the streets they take care of their own people. It s amazing. Hello I want you to put hands together for the United States of America. Come on you need to appreciate. America you re blessed. I see people on the streets, they have shelters in the United States. We don t have anything like that shelters in Kenya. We don t anything like child welfare because if there was child welfare I believe that all of the abuse I went through I wouldn t have gone through. So I ran away from trouble to more serious trouble because in the streets of Nairobi it is not like the streets of Dallas. No. It s different. You had to learn how to survive in the streets. And the way to survive is by violence. So I was exposed to begging in the streets and our begging was kind of different we had to find a way to, you know, if you don t want to give me something I going to make you give me some money by force. So we used to have a small plastic bag where you would put like human waste in the plastic bag and you ask someone the easy way you give me or we can do it the hard way. And so in one hand I have my hand give me a schilling. Give me something to eat or I m going to anoint you with something. So in one hand I have this anointing. So people usually opted to give. And as I was growing up I was exposed to I started smoking weed at the age of 9 years old. I started sniffing glue, I started sniffing gas, I mentioned last night that glue was at the time was no, people never the street people never knew what glue was. So we used to use a lot of gas. Gas from people s cars Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 4

5 Father s Day: Emilio s Story June 14/15, 2014 and then sneeze the whole day and then we found out that glue could actually give you can make you equally high as gas. So I was exposed to stuff like that. I started because of the generational past I started taking the same kind of liquor that my dad used to take at the age of 9 years old. You can see, literally, I ran away from a problem but I bought a more serious problem. I was trying to find a way to survive in the streets and I was exposed to things like snatching hand- bags, and we started getting peoples side mirrors from cars because we had to find ways. And many times I we would be caught and we have a word called molt judges where people lynch you. When you get caught taking something that does not belong to you they lynch you. And three times I went through it but by God s grace, I still don t know why, I made it. By God s grace I never died because God had a purpose for my life. The devil had a plan to destroy my life but God also had a purpose for my life. And so life in the streets from the age of 9 years old until about 16 years when I got the news that my dad died. That s when I returned home. Instead of returning like the prodigal son where my father could embrace me, I was returning home because my father was dead. And the grave, when he died, I wish my dad was alive today so I could wish him a happy Father s Day because I have forgiven him because I found Jesus and I found a way to forgive. I know about the power of forgiveness. I forgive him. And the grave stole that opportunity for me. The grave grabbed that opportunity for him to make it right with his son. And I m right now as I m speaking here I know that there are fathers here. I know that there are people here who have been wounded by their fathers or your surrogate fathers but I just want to speak to you and let you know do not let the grave take the opportunity or do not let the death get you before you make things right you need to make things right while you are still alive. I wish my father was here so that I could make things right with him. Amen. So that was my life from literally the age of 9 years old to 16 years old I was surviving in the streets by myself. I was forced to grow up to be a young man, I was exposed to crime as a young man not because I wanted to but because the man who was supposed to develop me as a son, the man who was supposed to defend me, the man who was supposed to be my prophet, my priest to pray over me and as a prophet speak good future over me left me in abandonment because he didn t know any better because it s a generational thing. Yeah, it s a generational thing because in a generation where he comes from this background where there is no religion, that s why missionaries came and brought the Gospel. So when you talk about men are not supposed to show emotion and stuff like that. But by God s grace I found a better way I found a better way. Aaron I want to talk about that because our video guys were with us in February and you said earlier that there are some Kenyans who are like, Ah, this is a lie. This couldn t have happened. But when we followed you back into the slums they didn t recognize you at first because you that s impressive. Yeah, I like that story too. If we have time because you told me how you got to be so big but we ll get to that but our video guys went back with you and they didn t recognize you at first but then when they knew who you were they all remembered you. And they all came around and they were like, This is the man who Jesus saved. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 5

6 Father s Day: Emilio s Story June 14/15, 2014 Emilio Yeah. Aaron That was awesome. So tell us how you came to know Jesus Christ because it wasn t overnight change. Emilio No. Aaron It was an incremental process and the Gospel is what changed you. Emilio Now, after I got the news that my dad died, that s when I purposely needed to change my life. But I didn t know how to go about it. So I had my relatives who are supposed help me to go back to school. But instead my uncles, I had never met them, I met them for the first time when my dad died because both families never used to see eye to eye. So I go to meet my mom s people and my dad s side. So they took me in and took me to the country and they were supposed to help me go back to school. But instead of helping me go back to school, I ve already been scarred by my past emotionally, mentally, physically in every way in the community I was scarred, I was like a nobody. So instead of them helping me to go back to school, they started using me as a shuffle boy, somebody to work on the farm to take care of the cows. To take care of the sheep. You have to take care of that. And that s something that I m not familiar with so I refused to do it. So they gave me the option either I do it or leave. So I chose to leave. And when I left, I did not they did not give me bus fare. It was like 180 miles all the way to Nairobi. So they just let me go. And these are your own people your kin. People who are supposed to be loving you, protecting you, they just abandoned me. And I walked all the way from that country to another small city where my uncle used to live. But when I arrived there they really didn t want to take me in because by the time I was leaving my aunt s house I had caused some chaos. Because when you corner somebody who has been injured and has been frustrated and abused growing up in the street I used to have defense mechanisms. I had to protect myself from any kind of abuse. So, they didn t want to take me in and at this point I didn t know what to do. I d been walking for two days to get to the city. I ve not eaten I had nothing to eat. I ve had no water to drink. And now my uncle is not going to accept me. So it s literally like everybody has rejected me. Everybody nobody wants anything to do with me. Nobody saw any good in me. And I that point I decided that I m going to walk from that city it s a city called Kurantina all the way to Nairobi. That s like another 100 and something miles. And as I was walking this time, mind you, I wasn t as built as I look today. I was little, skinny, tiny and as I was walking I got tired half- way because it was too much. I couldn t take it anymore. So I walked back to Kurantina. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 6

7 Father s Day: Emilio s Story June 14/15, 2014 At some point I went to river and thought why can I not just jump in here and die? Because nobody wants me. I had come to the end of myself. And this is at the age of 16 and I m already tired of life. My dad never wanted me. He s gone. My mom dropped me with these relatives who are trying to take advantage of me. And now my uncle doesn t want me. So where do I turn to at 16 years old? This no social welfare and there is nothing you can turn to. At that point as I was walking I saw this poster advertising a crusade. There s a Gospel crusade and I saw some musicians and so I pray that the musicians here know that they are ministers too. He was holding a bass guitar and this guy I looked at his face closely I grew up with him in the valley. And he s the one who used to sell us the cheap liquor. He s the one who used to sell us weed and glue. I saw him on the poster and he is sharp, dressed up, looking so good. I wanted to know what happened to his life. So I went to that Gospel crusade. It was all new to me because Christianity, I was not exposed to it. So that s my first time when I went to that meeting to start hearing about Jesus. I didn t know what Christianity was all about because when I was small like my daughter said I used to be taken to my Darshan, it s an Islam Sunday school. So we had to recite the Koran and all of that and that s the first time I heard about the Gospel. As I was sitting there, I was so hungry that I can t even stand. So I m just sitting, leaning somewhere. I literally I m sitting there so desperate I m crying til I can t cry anymore and I m so hungry. This young man, his name is Emilio that s where I got my name from Emilio. Before I got saved I used to have a Muslim name. So this young man he was an usher. Do we have ushers in the house? Ushers? He was just an usher. Just guiding people where to go, where to do, and he came to me and he had a big smile like ushers when you usher people in give them that big smile because you never know you know? So he came to me smiling and I m like, Why are you so happy? I m here. I m suffering. Why are you smiling? What is so funny? And he came and he s trying to talk to me and to hug me. And I look at him like, Man You know, in the street you don t touch a boy like that because in the street, there are some monsters who used to take advantage of the street kids. So for a man to come and try to hug me that was strange. In my background I was not used to that kind of love because I didn t know any love. I d never had anybody tell me, I love you. I never had anybody come and hug me and tell me none of that. So that was strange for me. I was trying to reject and he came and I think he got a word of knowledge or discernment that this boy needs to be ministered to in the stomach first. You know, I was telling some people I was so hungry he offered to buy me chai tea. Tea just simple. No juice, no soda just tea. Kenyans love tea and there was a kiosk there and he offered to buy me chai and mondasi I know that pastor eats a lot of mondasi in Kenya. So he took me to this kiosk and my stomach really needed to be prayed for, you know? Don t pray a prayer by a hankie, pray by tea and mondasi. So he bought me and I emptied like there is no tomorrow. You know, there is such a thing that happen in your life I will never forget that flavor that tea when I was drinking it was hot tea but I drank it like somebody was going to snatch it away from me. I been trying to look for that flavor but it s hard because that moment was precious. It was just a precious moment. So he asked me, Do you want more? So I said, Yes, give me more. I kept on eating. Now, I can tell you keep on preaching now if you preach because now my stomach is blessed. Halleluiah. I did want my stomach to be blessed first. You know there is Scripture passage that says if a man came to you hungry and you pray and tell them God bless you and send you send them away Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 7

8 Father s Day: Emilio s Story June 14/15, 2014 without blessing what have you done? You haven t done anything. Even Jesus said to the disciples he fed them I tell you He ministered to their spiritual need. He told His disciples can you feed them? Give them something to eat. Because you blessed them spiritually but they needed something. My stomach needed something before you start preaching to me. So, he preached to me and he told me, Would you want to get saved? I didn t know what get saved means. What is getting saved? Getting saved from what? I say, Whatever it is I want to get it. I want to get saved. So accepted without order but it was a good decision. So he practically preached to me to my need and also preached the word of God. And a few days later there was a baptism going on and they were baptizing people. And they asked me, Do you want to get a Christian name? Just remember I don t have any Christian background so I don t know any Christian names. So what is a Christian name? The only Christian name I knew in the whole place was Emilio. So anybody who I wanted to be called after I picked the name Emilio. And that s where I got my name because he impacted my life. That was the beginning of change. That was the beginning of transformation in my life. Aaron That s a powerful story and I know that there are people who can hear that and I would say that the vast majority of people in this room cannot relate to the extremities of your situation. You were literally starving, what you are saying is exactly right. You didn t even have the head to understand and comprehend the Gospel until your physical needs could be met. You were in a desperate situation in that moment but there was this process of growth that transpired. I ve spent enough time with Emilio to know that this dude knows his Bible extremely well. He can preach. He is the fruits of the Spirit in his life. And the Spirit of God is alive and well within you. And so, you have explained this to me. You explained it last night. This process of discipleship that took place between you and Emilio and there was some other individuals and the way you ve described is that they placed deposits into you. Give us just a we re coming close to time and I want hit a couple of other things. But just tell us, briefly, about those deposits and a little bit about the bishop and how you then got to Dallas. Emilio Now, after I got saved Emilio left so I said, Now what else? I needed a place to stay. So, the bishop who was hosting the crusade heard my testimony and he took me in to live with him talk about grace. Now you re taking a teenager I m going through teenage years a lot of chemical imbalance. My background is the street and rejection and when you combine all of that that s a timing bomb right there. So when he took me in, I wasn t perfect. I was still having those street tendencies. Where I see some money I just because that s his house right? So kept his money where he wants to live, right? And my hands were still not so saved. And I got a revelation that when I used to wash his clothes there used to be some money there. So, they don t have machines like in the United States so they do it by hand. So, I discovered, Oh, he s always getting blessed by people. He doesn t know where he keeps the money. So I volunteered, I ll be cleaning your clothes, bishop. So as I m doing it I m blessing myself. And one time he found out and it wasn t an easy process dealing with me. People who told him to kick me out, Nothing good will ever come out of him. Don t forget, I ve already suffered rejection at home, Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 8

9 Father s Day: Emilio s Story June 14/15, 2014 in the community, the hands of my relatives. Now, I m starting to experience rejection in the body of Christ. That was all painful. But the man of God, God spoke to him and told him, Do not kick him out because he s not perfect. He s a work in progress. God did not send His Son to die in the world because we were perfect He sent His Son to die in the world because we are sinners. So God spoke to him and he gave him the graced. And guess what? I ve grown up and developed he raised more sons who were more serious than me. God was using me to prepare him. One guy actually got saved in the crusade he came from service one time everything was gone in the house. But God had already prepared him and given him the grace and he s still raising more sons. He deposited so much you see what you all see today is the result of what he deposited in me. The time he took. Everything that my father never gave me the man of God gave me. That development that my dad never gave me this man of God who is not my biological father he s just my spiritual, my surrogate dad. He was a young man, pastor. Can you believe it he was only 24 years old trying to raise a 16 year old. So you can imagine. So he deposited into me, he developed me, and on top of that he prophesied upon my life. He used to be a musician. He prophesied. I started playing guitar 6 months the same crusade that saved me, I was leading praise and worship playing the guitar. Thank you for coming to see these young men who was a street boy but now he s transformed and leading people into the presence of God. And people were getting saved in the thousands. It was amazing. But the man of God deposited so much and many other men of God through the media, you know. I used to watch TV and, you know, they don t have to be there physically. You can read a book about spiritual life, and we can view from a distance. And so many people, I m a product of so many people who took time and who took me in and who were patient with me even when they wanted to give up, because it wasn t easy. It wasn t easy. I had this street language I used to go straight up with the deacons because the deacons when they criticized I go straight up but God gave the man of God the grace. And I want to thank Him for the man of God. Can you one more time let s thank God for the man of God. You are blessed. Pastor Aaron is amazing. Amazing. Aaron I appreciate that man. Thank you. You met your wife, she is also from Kenya and she was in the states at that time and that s how guys met and you ended up moving to Dallas. Tell us a little bit about that. Emilio After I got saved the man of God started developing me. The music started flowing over my life. So it you know they petition. So the man of God, I became friends with the worship leader and through the process, the anointing of preaching the Gospel, I started preaching the word. Preaching the word. I started getting invitations to go from city to city, colleges, schools, churches and I was preaching Jesus. That s all I wanted, to serve God. I just wanted to tell it on the mountain to shout it like the Samaritan woman. Come and see a man who has changed my life. Come and see a man who took me from the street and has turned me into what I am. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 9

10 Father s Day: Emilio s Story June 14/15, 2014 And through that process when I was preaching I did not know that He had another plan. That through the Gospel I was going to meet my wife. So I was preaching in one school and she was a student there. And I didn t know. So, I ve been serving God and many years later she came to me and one led to the other and we got engaged. God opened a door for her to move to the United States and she didn t want to leave me behind. Halleluiah. Can you put a hand for her? She didn t want to leave me behind. And you know, she s the boss so so that s how God opened God opened a door for her and I believe that he also opened the door for me to come to the United States. Let me tell you something, America church of God. Coming to the United States. If you add that to your resume you don t to work anywhere. Just add that to your resume that you ve been to the United States and your prospered and you get a good job anywhere after. Do you know that? You add that in your resume, I ve been to the United States. I stepped in the land of America, and then went back to Kenya. Trust me, that s a good thing for your resume. You are blessed. Tell your neighbor, You are blessed. So when opportunity I told God, You know God. I need you to take me to America even if it s to just land to the airport and go back. That was my prayer, pastor. I promise. I was fasting one day in a place called Katalogi and I would see planes flying. And people say I used to confess that I was going to the United States to preach the Gospel. And saw flying and I told them I am going to go. So they say, How can you go? You see your background where you come from. But is there anything impossible with God? No. God used my wife to open the door. And today I m not just a fugitive but I ve also got my citizenship to live in the United States. So when I go to Kenya they introduce me as an international preacher. Aaron So tell us what you do for a living and you and your wife are also involved in ministry with the church. Emilio Yes. I work for this company it s called Genco we work with AT&T and before they launch a new product out to the market they have to play with it first to do some research, what you guys complain about, what problems, what bugs you guys are going to get in the fall. And we try to make it different ways to find out the phone can fail so that we can make it good for you. Aaron And we ll still complain. Emilio But before that I was working as a trainer so I used to do new hire inductions. I used to recruit people to the company, just give them orientation, evaluation, test, and also on the job training. But right now I just got promoted to a higher senior level. We re working with some developers. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 10

11 Father s Day: Emilio s Story June 14/15, 2014 Aaron Fantastic. That s great. Hey, one more thing. I know that that young man in the video is your brother. And you hadn t seen him for was it 10 years. Emilio Close to 10 years. Aaron He s still in the slum you guys grew up in, correct. So just tell us real briefly before we close up here, what s going on with him. Emilio My brother, after my dad died, I took the responsibility of a man. I tried to get him a connection into school in a different mission children s home. And actually this time I was going back home I was going back because a couple of months ago he was trying to commit suicide. The little boy you saw, I was lifting up. That s my sister s son. He s the one who found him hanging. He was literally gone, and he raised the alarm, and I was really concerned. As I was saying it s a generational thing. So he s bound to the same stuff that my bound in. Alcohol and drugs and all this stuff. And to the hand of the God. I pray with Him, He always gets it right as we pray. And I pray that God is going to save him and get him out because you know that all he knows it s a bondage. It s not something that you can just help with a carnal mind. It s something spiritual. So when you go to missions in Kenya you have to get into the Spirit and pray about it. And I believe that God, one of these days, I will be walking with my sisters we re trying to set up stuff to try to get them in rehab and that s sort of the thing that possibly God will help to start rehab, and shelters where he can just go and minister. So everybody is doing something about the kids but nobody is doing anything about such guys. There was my brother and there was the other guy I was hugging Deike. He s about my age but he s only one of six who are alive. The rest are gone. So I believe in God to possibly reach out to such young men and have something going for them because I think they are gifted they are gifted. If I am gifted because everything I know I did learn in school, by the way, the singing the instruments and everything it s something I just learned from people developing me, people spending time with. When I come to Pastor Aaron he shows me CDs this is how you fish. Go fishing, fishing, fishing so I don t keep on coming back to get your fish. Aaron What s your brother s name? Emilio My brother s name is Adke. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 11

12 Father s Day: Emilio s Story June 14/15, 2014 Aaron We can pray for him. Emilio Yes. Aaron I m going to say this I know that a number of you sponsor children in the Mathare Valley and I just want to encourage you to stay faithful and diligent in that. Those of you who are not you can see the power that that can make somebody s life so I d encourage you to jump in and sponsor a child with us, okay? Emilio, would you pray for our church, brother? Pray for our men in the house. Emilio Amen. Stand up. If you are standing next to a father can you wish them a Happy Father s Day? Even the young men wish them that they could declare in Jesus name. Hallelujah. Amen. Let s hold hands. Let s hold hands. Let s pray. Father in the name of Jesus I thank you this morning, Oh God, because we are not here by accident, Father. We are here by divine appointment. Every soul every sister, every man in this auditorium, Lord, we are here on divine appointment. And oh, God as I have shared your word as I have shared my testimony for Your glory, I pray that, God, your word would not return to You void, oh God. I pray that every soul that has been ministered to, every soul that has heard this testimony that, God, no matter what they have gone through in the past or what they are going through right now all the troubles, all they are struggling with right now, I pray that, God, You re going to touch them and bring change into their life. I pray that this word is going to bring a transformation in their mind in the Name of Jesus. I pray for healing, oh God. I pray that you might heal some people who have been scarred, some people who are struggling with ancient pain, ancient wound in their heart, I pray that you would bring healing and reconciliation in their life. In the name of Jesus. And right now I just want to break every plan of the enemy. Every negative that I have spoken against your people, God, I pray that you might turn it around for Your good. The wonder that was a turning testified for Your honor. In the mighty name of Jesus. And right now I also want to pray for the people who are sick in their bodies, oh God. The Bible says that by the stripes of Jesus we are healed. I pray that You might bring healing to your people. May you touch their bodies, may you set them free from whatever they are suffering from in the name of Jesus Christ. And somebody who is struggling with their self- identity, God, I pray that, Father, through the love of Christ and even under this ministry, that God, You would help them find their identity in the name of Jesus. I pray that people who are suffering and struggling with low self- esteem that, God, You will restore their self- esteem in the name of Jesus Christ. May you bless Your people, minister to Your people for it is in Jesus name we pray and believe. And everybody says, Amen. God bless you. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 12