Working as much as I can in Kenya, I receive a great deal of emails from people doing similar work, and most of them are of the same variety, a heart-felt tug, how can we let this happen, pity on the people there, etc. In fact, I tend to read few of them, passing them right into the delete section of my inbox once I feel they are of that variety.

I received one of those today and almost junked it, but for some reason felt I should give it a shot. I read it, it was well-written, focusing on one child and how their ministry made a difference in his life. But one small part really hit me for the wrong reasons:

I didn’t see him until the end of service where by chance I caught his eyes staring at me from behind some seats. He wanted so bad to approach but as I came to him he ran. I wanted to cry but we were still in church and I was up in a minute. “Rafiki, Rafiki,” I said. Slowly he came. That day Hasmin got a new pair of shoes, bananas, fried bread, and a Fanta. O you should have seen this boy eat. For hours we had a ball.

"I wanted to cry but we were still in church..." How can we so often miss the very heart of Jesus' message to us? How can we read and memorize the Gospels but miss what Jesus' ministry was all about. Do we not know that Jesus was on the way to Jairus' house to heal his daughter when the woman touched him, and did Jesus "wait because he was on his way to do the work of the Lord"? Do we forget that Jesus was "preaching the word" to the people when the men tore open the roof and lowered their paralyzed friend down? Did Jesus scold them because He was doing the work of the Lord? Of course not, He "saw their faith" and said "your sins are forgiven."

Here is where we miss the heart of Jesus , when we treat a building with four walls and a program as so sacred more sacred than the very people Jesus died on the cross to reach.