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Simon Okwayo has visited Austin a couple of times that I know about. The first time, I was able to prevail upon him to come to the studio.
He told some stories of his childhood. Amazing. Now, he grew up in Africa, in a situation with a lot less material abundance than we in the States had then and have now. But he and his family were believers. And as a young boy, he moved out on that faith. Very surprising result. Very inspiring. And it turned out that he was indicative of his life’s work. He is known as an apostle because he has started many churches, including in the Middle East.
I am sure you will enjoy hearing Brother Simon’s history. It is a great story to contemplate as you plan the summer for your children. Think what childhood could be. Think what youth could be.
The last time I saw Apostle Okwayo was at a house church meeting in Lake Travis. We were packed in. Before he started his comments, he challenged us, where were the children? We should not leave our children behind. The one father who was there who was young enough to have a child (by our expectations) pointed out that he had his son right there with him. The rest of the crowd didn’t respond, even with their faces. You see, there in Austin, everyone in the room was old enough to have any children that they may have had be old enough to be out of the home. YOu see, no one in the room expected ever to have more than at most maybe 4 children. Probably poll the room and find an average of 2 children a piece, and since everyone was over 50, no one had “left children at home” to come to a church meeting.
Why the challenge? Really, it was a correction. At some length. But no one was at all convicted. Blank faces, because I think no one understood. Conceptually, “Okay: children should come to church not left at home. What is going on? ” That is what they were thinking if they were even awake enough.
From an African point of view, anyone over 20 is probably married and starting to have children. So anyone over 50 should have a houseful. Maybe 10 children. So, any Christian meeting would be on the whole, mostly people less than 18 years of age. Okwayo had concluded that since there was only one child, everyone had left their children at home. No, he was assuming there were many more children than there were.
You might think through why they are not. What are the downsides of that which have not been recognized? What might we do to make for at least choice? Please recognized that our ideas so far have not worked well. Check out an old book The Government is Not a Village. What might be done differently? Maybe more like the Bible? Stop thinking in judgmentalness of what others should do. What might we do?
Think what childhood might be. Think what youth could be. We have great preachers who credit their parents. We have youth who are overcoming what their parents gave them. What could be from here?