May 25, 2011
On the morning of May 22, while preparing for the Sunday service, I received a phone call from a Filipino community organizer, Rey, who knew of the Word of Grace from reading our ads and press releases in the local Filipino newspaper, where I also write a monthly gospel column. Rey had visited our church once before. He informed me that he is the director of Operations for a Kenyan man who is running for president of Kenya in 2012, and this man wanted to visit a pastor to ask for prayer.
But before I could pray, I felt a prompting to take Dr. Wajackoyah and Rey to the sanctuary to pray. Someone was playing soft pre-worship service music on the keyboard, and some of the leaders and members of the prayer team were already deep in prayer. I requested their attention for a moment, introduced Dr. Wajackoyah merely as someone running for president of Kenya, because I did not know anything else about him, and invited everyone to join me in praying for him.
At that moment, the presence of the Lord was made manifest upon the place, and there was a sweet, wonderful time of prayer for Dr. Wajackoyah. He asked to say a few words of thanks to the people who were present in the sanctuary, at which time he indicated that he was a believer in Jesus Christ and came looking for a man of God to pray for him, since that evening he was meeting with leaders of the Indian, Pakistani, Korean, Chinese, and Filipino community at a dinner event. After that, he and Rey left, and we started our worship service.
An Invitation
In the afternoon, after our usual lunch fellowship at church, I received another call from Rey, telling me that Dr. Wajackoyah was very touched by his brief visit at the church and was impressed with the posters he saw of peoples that The Alliance is reaching with the gospel. As it turns out, he represents some of those peoples as a human rights lawyer. Dr. Wajackoyah also extended an invitation for me to do the invocation at the evening dinner event, saying I would be followed by a Muslim religious leader in prayer, since Muslim business leaders from the Indian and Pakistani communities would also be present as supporters of Dr. Wajackoyah’s campaign.
I politely begged off, because on Sunday evenings I am so exhausted that I would not have the energy to attend an evening event; plus my bad right eye was hurting as it usually does after the Sunday service. Little did I know that the missions coordinator of our church, a business woman in the health care industry, was one of the Filipino community representatives to attend the event. Later as I was resting at home, she called and said that she was picking up my wife, Lillian, and me to bring us to the dinner event. I told her that I had declined the invitation because I couldn’t drive all the way to the city, but since she was driving, I agreed to go. I sent a text to Rey that I would be available for the invocation after all.
Not a Chance Meeting
At the event, I met several business leaders from the Indian and Pakistani communities, as well as Mr. B. L. Davis, the representative of Congressman Davis. Mr. Davis, an African- American, engaged me in a long conversation in a corner, where he asked me to pray for him. One Indian businessman, Manny Gandhi, wanted to introduce me to his vice president to discuss establishing his business in the Philippines.
Apart from the invocation, I was also asked to say a few words of encouragement to those gathered in support of Dr. Wajackoyah who, when he spoke, quoted Bible verses and referred to events in the life of Jesus. At one point during his speech, he pointed at me, saying that while Kenya needed all of those present to bring infrastructure, healthcare, business and investments into the country, “I invited the man of God here because, above all, Kenya needs God.”
On Monday morning, I received a call from Mr. Davis, the representative of Congressman Davis, who said that he was making arrangements for me to see Secretary of State Jesse White to visit Chicago’s new mayor, former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, so I could pray for him. I was surprised. While our conversation at the dinner event was cordial and we exchanged business cards, I did not really think much about it even when he suggested he might attend our church on Sunday, May 29.
God Is in This
On Monday evening, I received yet another phone call from Rey, telling me that Dr. Wajackoyah wanted to speak with me. So I spoke with the doctor, who told me that, even though he has met other pastors and spoken in several large African-American churches in Chicago and around the country, God had impressed upon his heart to invite me to be his official spiritual advisor and prayer coordinator for his campaign. If I accepted the position, he would immediately make the appointment.
On Tuesday morning, I met with him at the business office of our missions coordinator, along with my Lillian. There, Dr. Wajackoyah officially appointment me as spiritual advisor and prayer coordinator for his Kenya 2012 presidential campaign.
God obviously orchestrated this uncanny chain of events. I only met the man briefly on Sunday morning, and on Tuesday morning, I became his spiritual advisor and prayer coordinator. I look forward to this opportunity to proclaim Christ in venues I would not have visited otherwise. God must to be in this, but, then, God works in mysterious ways.
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