Salvation Testimony_ Dennis Momanyi (Good News Tala Church, Kenya)
Before I received true salvation, I did a lot of work in religion trying to come out of sin. My mother was a deaconess and my father an elder of the Catholic Church, and because of this I suffered a lot as a result of trying to live a good life as a Christian. There are a lot of scars on my body due to chastisement from my parents who always wanted to see me keeping the law and living a Christian life in my family and community at large. I could not cope with this situation, so many times I ran away from home. Although I tried zealously to keep the law and live as a good boy, as time went on things became difficult for me.
When I went to high school I became pessimistic and could not attend
church anymore. This is because whenever I prayed, problems did not come to an
end. I found myself indulging in dangerous matters and had distrust in my heart
towards everybody. I became a burden to my family members and life had become
cumbersome. As a result, I planned to commit suicide many times. But God, who
had a good plan towards my salvation, protected me.
After realizing that what I was doing could not give me joy and
happiness, I decided to move from one church to another to search for the truth,
but unfortunately I could not find it. During this time of zealously trying to
be closer to God I joined praise and worship teams in various churches because
I thought they were much closer to God than me.
Truly God is alive, but the way many people pay homage is difficult
depending on their way of understanding of the Bible. Every Sunday after the
service sometimes amazing things happened to me. The forgiveness of sin could not
be accomplished through prayers, so I cried a lot while sprawling on the ground
and rolling here and there, and through this I believed that my sins were
completely forgiven. I did this endlessly, and although I was defeated I could
not give up. I put more effort into keeping the law and repenting all the time.
After this painful life without joy, finally I decided to join my
fellow colleagues even though they did not seem jovial all the time. Together with
this group I did a lot of drugs, drank alcohol, and did many things which could
not give me eternal joy and happiness in my heart. As we were doing all this we
had no way to get money to buy food and other basic things, and this made us
become conmen in town. As we were indulged into very dangerous businesses, I
was not happy, but had no other way because I needed to survive.
During this mission of destruction I faced death frequently and from
time to time was put into prison. Once, when I was in a cell after being
suspected of stealing something, I tried to imagine what I could do to come out
of the cell by myself, but I could not. Later I thought that there must be
someone who could do something to help me come out of the cell. As I was
reflecting on my life, I thought about sinners who were tied together with me in
sin seriously struggling to come out of sin by themselves through repenting and
crying for the forgiveness of sin. In my cell I cried to God to guide me and
give me a true church that preaches the true heart.
As soon as I came out of prison I decided to run away to Nairobi because
of fear. There I met some Korean students who were advertising the IYF World
Camp of 2008. As I was reading through the hand bill I had a negative mind about
the function, and I had no money and a lot of plans for looking for a job to
sustain me in the city. That evening, however, I received a call from a former
high school friend and, amazingly, she invited me to the same function. After
hearing my situation she decided to support me in everything, and I was able to
attend the camp. This was the first time I saw God opening my eyes and giving
me grace.
The IYF World Camp was very interesting because God Himself had
prepared for me to come and receive salvation. As the main speaker Pastor Ock
Soo Park was preaching about the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15, I was able to
gracefully compare the life of the prodigal son and my own life. I could see
the image of myself precisely through the Words. And I was able to realize how
God was pleased to give me this precious chance.
God gave me grace and I joined Mahanaim Theological College in
Kenya. Although I was in college for two years I was disturbed a lot about my
life because I had not submitted everything to God. I planned many times to run
away from the college because of my heart, but it didn’t work because God
himself had decided everything for me. I had a mind to work in the offices until
finished with the course. Our merciful God allowed me grace in many cases, but
I was never able to be thankful, neither was I able to realize the grace and
love which was abundantly upon me.
When it came time to be dispatched to the field to serve the gospel,
the previous heart that I had of willing to live for the gospel faded away and from
then on I hated being a pastor. This difficulty came as a result of being
ambitious and wanting to live a prosperous life. As we were about to graduate
from theological school I never wanted fellowship from any pastor because I thought
they would persuade me to do ministry. During this time I came to realize it was
the work of God who was emptying my heart before He sent me to the field to
depend only on His grace, because I could have gone to serve the ministry with
my own will and suspicious heart.
Not long after, God gave me the heart to surrender everything for
the first time and He was able to work in me marvelously and without any
difficulty. He opened my spiritual eyes to realize grace. At this time I could
see God emerging victorious in the midst of my evil thoughts and futile plans
through what He had already accomplished. Although I am somebody who doesn’t
have any qualifications God, whose grace is abundant toward me, was able to use
me regardless of my weakness to serve the gospel in Tala as a minister. During this
time I learned one crucial thing in spiritual life and this is about the three
levels of receiving grace: 1) level of abundance, 2) level of emptying oneself
and 3) level of receiving grace. I realized my position based on these three aspects.
I was so thankful to God who saved me and finally decided to use me in His
precious work of saving perishing souls after giving me a promise from the book
of Isaiah.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath
anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the
prison to them that are bound; (Isaiah 61:1)
Now I am the happiest man in the world
because I am being used by God after the world rejected me.
From the Goodnews Magazine
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