Faith in People: Boston (Part One)

“Perhaps this is the truest barometer of genuine faith; any
parrot can be taught to say ‘Lord’, but acting out a belief in a God who cares
for the ‘least’ and who rewards his followers for serving them is the real test
of faith” (Scott Bessnecker, The New Friars).

We all know the verse, “For God so loved the world that he
gave his one and only son . . .” but my question is, do we really believe
that? 

This week, I learned the meaning of truly having faith in
people.  It happened in the meeting of
two men with very similar problems.

On the first day of our outreach, we went to the local
brewery and at about ten o’ clock in the morning, we met men who were already
drunk.  One in particular caught the
attention of all of our eyes.  His name
was Boston.  He knew why we were there and he told us that
he knew Jesus and so we asked what he knew about Jesus.  From there he told us his story about how he
had once been a part of a church but when he was falsely accused of being there
for the wrong reasons, he left.  From
there a stream of events led him to lose all that he had and thus he began
drinking so that he could “fall asleep and forget all of the thoughts”.  He had been wounded by the church as so many
have been and it caused him to fall from his faith.  We then just started telling him about God’s
love because it was obvious that God was after his heart; we told him how God
didn’t care where he was or what he had done because all that God cares about
is his heart. One thing led to another and a lot of things were spoken in
Swahili so I couldn’t make out what I didn’t say but all of a sudden something
clicked and there was a sobriety in his eyes but it was deeper than just a
physical sobriety.  It was a moment I
can’t very well explain beyond the fact that in that moment I know that he saw
Christ.  He told us that he was surprised
to see us at the brewery, he had seen us pass by but didn’t expect us to come
and when we (there was me, one other girl on my team and two translators) all
came and sat down to talk to just him, he knew that God was trying to tell him
something and at that moment decided to stop drinking.  Now this sounds super cheesy and cliché but
if I could only describe the change that I saw in him at that moment, when his
eyes had hope behind them; it was one of the most beautiful moments that I had
ever experienced.  The next day, he began
to walk with us in our ministry; he shared meals with us, worked beside us and
his face was different, noticeably different. 
The change in him was evident and real.

The next day, we had the afternoon off due to some
“technical difficulties” and so one of the girls on my team and I decided to go
for a walk.  We were joined by one of the
guys that we were working with and he took us to the fishing beaches where a
lot of really sketchy stuff happens (to say the least).  As we were walking by some of the drunk
fishermen called us over and so we went to sit with them.  There was a man named Fredrick who
immediately after I introduced myself to him told me that he wanted the prayer
of salvation and he wanted me to convert him. 
Pause . . . that is so not what I do and I wanted just to get up and
walk away from him, but something in me said “just hear him out”.  So I started asking him questions about why
he wanted the prayer, what he knows about God,