Miracle Faith

By: Victoria L. Krynock

“…if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you.” Matt. 17:20 “I am telling you I serve a God of miracles and I will be on that plane today!” declared Pastor Julius Mbagaya to the travel agent in Nairobi, Kenya.

“What do you think, that this is a matatu?” replied the travel agent. (A matatu is similar to a step van in shape and size, only Kenyan’s use it as a taxi. While the vehicle is designed to hold 12 people, it is common to find them filled with 35 people and some hanging from the back. His comment meant that one more person could not be squeezed into the plane.) “I told you, ‘go home and come tomorrow.’ Tomorrow you can fly to America, not today.”

Just as the travel agent went to close the counter (for the second time that day), a man came running up, panting, and telling the travel agent that he must change his ticket. He cannot fly out today, but must go tomorrow instead.

After they make his necessary arrangements, Julius again approaches the counter and asks with a smile, “May I please book my ticket for today, now?”

The travel agent looks at Julius and says, “I have heard that God does miracles like this for preachers. I think I want to become a preacher also.”

“Well, you cannot start out by becoming a preacher. You must become a Christian first.”

“Tell me what I must do.”

“Come out here and kneel down.” (This he said to prove the man’s sincerity.) As the travel agent came out from behind the counter and knelt on the floor, Julius looked at him, looked at Timothy (a young man training to be a pastor) and he called to Timothy.

“You come and lead this man to Jesus. I have a plane to catch.”

Once again, our God of the miraculous made a way for Julius to come to America where there seemed to be no way. But, this is just the end of the story. If we summarize it from the beginning one finds that literally two days prior to Julius arriving in the states, he had no money at all. God granted him favor with his landlord that he could delay payment, touched the hearts of friends that gave him loans, and caused the ministry team at his church to sacrifice their salaries. Not only the pastor who co-labors with Julius, but also the teachers at the school gave up their income for the month so he could come to us. But the story does not end there.

Having the price of the ticket (or so he thinks) is only one step. Next is the problem of transportation to Nairobi as the car he sometimes uses needs repair. Enter the brother-in-law who just “happens” to stop by and just “happens” to be on his way to Nairobi (an eight hour drive away). They breakdown on route to Nairobi and arrive at about 2:00 a.m. Very dangerous. The place they were to sleep was gated and no one could be roused, so the night was spent in the car. The visa had not been issued yet, and one does not approach the embassy without looking their best…and cleanest. Both were not possible, but knowing God had called him to come to America, he went. Miraculously, every question they asked him, he was carrying documentation to prove. (Marriage license, birth certificate of his son, etc.) God granted a visa and at about 4:00 p.m. he set off to purchase a ticket needing to depart in a matter of hours.

Enter more problems…the cost of the ticket has increased, which means he does not have enough money, all the banks are closed so even if a friend had money to borrow they could not get it out, and besides all the seats were sold. He would have to wait and travel the next day. After visiting other airlines, it was the same situation. But you know the end of the story!

God reminded Julius of a friend he hadn’t seen in years, who just “happened” to have money in her desk (unheard of!), and after walking back from seeing her to the ticket counter he discovered the money he originally had in an envelope had been accidentally left with his friend! But, it didn’t matter because there still was no seat available. The travel agent was most adamant. So, back he walked again to his friend. This time when he returned to the counter with both sums of money, he found it closed for the day. Standing there looking at the closed Northwest office, he began to pray. Soon the travel agent came running back to open it up, evidently having forgotten something inside. And the rest, as they say, is history.

My question is, at what point would you or I have given up? This is a wonderful example of walking in faith.

09/1999