Page 72 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 3

ISSUE THREE | NOV/DEC
WALKING LOVE
Loving God and serving men a teenager I thought it was an
is found in the little things adventure to be in the jungle to
we do that leaves beauty and reach a tribe who had never heard
sweet smiles on the about the gospel who has no idea
faces of those we meet each about civilization. Then with time
day. I realized that being a missionary
By: Samuel Phillips is not about adventure in the first
place; it’s about loving people. So
I started to pray that God would
give me a love for the people I
would serve one day.
As time went by, I had friends who
would go to Afrika for short mission
trips, but I didn’t get to go. Instead,
I went to Eastern Europe with the
teenagers, I also went to America
for a mission for five months, but
I always said, “God, I want to
go to Afrika I don’t want to go to
Eastern Europe; I don’t want to go
to America.” But somehow it just
wasn’t happening. In the end I felt
God led me away. It was a tough
time, because somehow you know
what you want, but you don’t know
exactly what. But the one thing I
knew, not Kenya, because I said,
Brigitte Näf too developed, so I wanted to go
Kenya has so many Christians, it’s
somewhere else, not Kenya.
In the meantime I started a second
education as a social worker;
because I was told either social
Brigitte Näf runs a program called Mwamba Fels which supports boys work or nursing were the best
who are in very difficult, traumatizing situations in Kenya. Mwamba, preparation for missionaries. Then
which means Rock, after Christ the solid Rock, has become a platform I met someone who I discipled for
upon which these boys’ lives are restored and they are given an some time and we became friends;
opportunity to pursue the dreams they may not have been able to before. she was a Kenyan. After a while
Funnily enough, Kenya was not the country she had wanted to work in she started to travel to Kenya quite
as a missionary, and she also preferred to work with younger children often, and then she met a guy. Two
mostly… but God had other plans. This is her story, seven years later. or three years later, they decided
to get married and she invited
me and some friends for her
Tell me about yourself, your you? wedding in Kenya. She asked me
name and what you do and who Actually, when I was 11, my mom if I would be interested in seeing
you are especially. got saved. Some missionaries a children’s home in Kenya. She
I am Brigitte, I am originally from came to our church and they knew someone who was running
Switzerland. I am 36. I studied played some videos and talked a home in Kenya, for 40 boys, all
Social Work and something similar about the missions they do. The alone. I had to see that.
to Pharmacy, though it’s not movie was about a refugee camp After the wedding, some friends
exactly the same. In November I somewhere in Afrika and they and I went to see the home and
will have been in Kenya for seven treated people who were really God gave me a love for these boys!
years. sick, and I felt, I can never do this; When I came back, everybody was
but I think it was that day that the really excited and they formed a
How did you get to understand Lord put the wish in my heart to go group to help this home, I couldn’t
that you were supposed to come to Afrika one day as a missionary. afford to help a lot as I was still
to Kenya to do this? Is there My perspective of missionary studying; but this home never let
anything that was indicated to work has changed over time, as me go. About six months later, a

72 HEALING - RESTORING - REBIRTHING - AFRICA