Dirty Fingernails: Journals from the Field - Troy Johnson

Walking Beside Him

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to walk along side of Jesus? What would it be like to speak to Him, to listen to Him, and to see Him perform miracles? This is something that I have desired my whole life. I have sought the absolute presence of God and craved to experience God working through my willing hands for His glory and His kingdom. I had the privilege of experiencing this on my Heart for Africa mission to Malawi this last December.

I will never forget the anticipation before the trip as my wife Katherine and I worked to get everything ready. We collected donations, we prayed for guidance and spiritual preparation from the Lord, and we purchased all the personal items that we would need for the trip. We also prayed every night that God would prepare our hearts for the work that He had for us to do there.

When we arrived, I realized that this trip would be a little different from the Never Ending Gardens trip I was on the year before to South Africa. Heart for Africa told us that we would help where the need was greatest and in the second poorest country in the world, the need was great! We focused not only on planting, but we took part in ministry, in fixing roofs, in playing with vulnerable and orphaned children that the world had forgotten, in doing AIDS testing, and yes in planting gardens. God led us to a place where the people needed to know that He loved them. God wanted us to serve their emotional and spiritual needs as well as their physical needs. A touch of love, a kind word, and a warm smile gave hope where little hope existed before and fed the people’s souls. I remember crying as I walked among the impoverished children playing with us happily as they wore their dirty, tattered clothing and ran around us with bare feet. I did not cry out of despair, rather the tears were tears of joy, because I could feel the absolute presence of God. I felt God working through our Team’s hands and I could see our lives being transformed as God used each one of us to touch someone’s heart.

The little children had no toys, so they either made them themselves or they sang and danced for entertainment. I was so impressed by how well they sang and danced together. But what touched my heart was that their singing was always a song of praise and thanksgiving to God. On our last day, we visited the poorest slum that I have ever seen. The people lived in tiny mud huts with thatch roofs and lived in extreme poverty and disease. We brought food and medicine to the poorest of the poor and prayed with those in desperate need. After we traversed the maze of huts that made up the slum, Somebody Cares Ministry started to pass out candy to the children. The children started to ask us for more food or money or anything. It started to get very tense and the children started to get impatient, as we had we had no more to give them. But God had something to give them.

Katherine and I got a number of children to line up to sing. One young man was studying to be a pastor and I asked him to lead the children in singing. They asked us to sing first, so we sang Jesus Loves Me and Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World. I asked our translator, Chapingua, what song we sang first at church on Sunday and he said Jesu Ayanaya (Jesus Saves) and then I asked the young pastor if the children knew that song. Well, they started to sing and dance and praise God. I will never forget that moment as long as I live! I saw the face of Jesus shine among the children. I felt God’s deep intense love and His presence as the entire atmosphere changed from “GIVE ME” to “PRAISE HIM”! The experience was life changing and it was truly a privilege to walk beside the Lord in Malawi and to be a part of what He is doing in Africa.