Servant discipleship in East African ghettos
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My name is Ibrahim, from All Nations East Africa. I come from the ghetto pastor’s ministry. Serving God and sharing Jesus’ story to the ghettos has been something that has changed our lives and that has kept us in the Kingdom of life. Servant discipleship has been one of the tools that we have been using in our church. It has helped us to reach and engage very many people, according to the way we never expected. Servant discipleship has been so crucial. In a way that even Jesus himself according to the Scripture was commissioned, that he himself was a servant. Despite the fact that he was a priest, a king, the son of the Most High God, he came to serve. We see Jesus speaking about servantship in the book of Mark 10:42-45. He assures us that he has come to serve, and we have learned from Jesus being servants because he says he was called to serve.
Most of the time as we bend low to serve people through the servant discipleship ministry, we have engaged people through helping them, most especially the old, the pregnant women, the weak, the poor. We help them, we engage. Sometimes there are people whose rooms are so dirty, they are old, they cannot care for themselves. We engage the ghetto people, we care for them, by the grace of Christ as servants of God. We have seen this life help so very many people, to the extent that many people have given their lives to Jesus. These are people whose hearts have been so very desperate, so yearning that even their families have left some of them, their families have given up on them, their children have even left and given up on them completely. And as they see us coming to them, loving them, sharing with them, helping them to fulfill their dreams in life as servants it has given them love and brought them life back again - hope, trust, and everything.
Servant discipleship is a tool that to us has been so good it has even helped us our own selves to become humble, to serve despite the fact of the situations, despite any situations we have served with our hands. We have donated money, particularly taking the gospel to other people. At times we have come and cleaned homes, at times we have come and cleaned markets. This has brought a picture of love to the community and servant discipleship. The community is seeing people who were thieves and thugs showing them love, walking together with them, sharing with them about Jesus, which Jesus has changed their life. Completely this has been a great impact in our society. Because these are the people whom we used to steal from, but they see us sharing with them love, the hope of Jesus. Servant discipleship is really a great miracle as it has brought us honor into our community, it has brought us glory to the people of our community. They all love God for who we are today.
According to the book of Hebrews 13:7, as leaders the people we teach and the people we disciple imitate our faith. When we are servants we teach them being servants and being humble to other people, showing them the love of Christ. The Scriptures go further more in the book of John 13:12-17 showing us how Jesus called upon his disciples and how he washed their feet as a sign of servanthood to them. And he commanded them clearly and boldly that like I’ve done unto you so you should do to others. Killing our own pride, killing our own self for the sake of the gospel. Serving others, showing them love.
Furthermore, the Scriptures go on teaching in the book of Luke 22:26 that we ought to be like the young people, serving just like they are. Being young hearted. And we have seen very many more brothers of ours in the ghetto whose lives have changed simply because we have served them, simply because we have gone down unto them. We do the undoable in the eyes of the world, the ways of the world. Because most leaders in the world sit in positions and they are being served. But according to Jesus in the church today we are called to serve just like our master served. We serve because our master was a servant. Servant discipleship to the church is a tool that can also be left behind. It is a tool that gives the clear picture of love and the clear picture of Jesus.
Very many people don’t expect us to serve them, where they see us as more respected, as more rich, as more big people. But we bend low to them and serve them in the way they never expected, showing them that Jesus is serving them through us. This has drawn very many people to the ministry and lives have been changed. We thank God because it is beyond what man can see. We have seen the old people, they have turned to Christ and our youth have stopped being criminals simply because we served them. Servant discipleship is a key tool to Christianity. Servant discipleship is a key tool to moving the word of God. Because we cannot only speak the faith to them unless we act the faith to them. Sometimes it is better to act the faith than to speak it. We thank God and we bless God and we pray that God leads us and uses us still strong for his glory and for his fame. Thank you, Jesus!
About the author: Ibrahim is a fieldworker in east Africa. He's passionate about reaching out to the ghetto using reggae music and Gospel music. He has a guitar that he uses to connect with people and share the love of Jesus and what being a disciple of Jesus really means.
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