As a young man growing up, Monte Cox wanted to become a medical doctor. He wanted to drive a Mercedes, but then one day everything changed. He felt God was calling him to be a missionary. His parents weren’t very pleased with his decision. Monte and his wife prayed about this and decided to go to Kenya, Africa to serve as missionaries with the Church of Christ.
Finally, the day came when Monte, his wife, and three daughters packed and moved to Kenya. When they arrived in Kenya, the first thing he did was to learn the local language because, in order to convey the gospel, it would be best understood in their language. Monte studied hard and learned to speak their language fluently. Once he learned their language, he thought about how he was going to get people to listen. He discovered that many people in that community would spend a lot of time at a local beer hut. Monte thought that if Jesus hung out with sinners then certainly he could hang out at the beer hut. So, he made up his mind and went to the local beer hut and sat down on the men’s side, and began talking with them about Jesus.
Day after day, Monte would go and strike up conversations with the locals.
It was customary for men to enjoy their time on one side of the hut and women on the other. However, an older lady, who attended the beer hut regularly, heard him talking and was amazed by what she was hearing so she kept moving closer to the men’s side. Finally, she got over next to Monte. She looked up into his face and said, “You’re a white man.” Within a few days, this lady had learned enough that she decided that she wanted to be a Christian and she was baptized.
After Monte and his family had served in Kenya for 6 ½ years, his father came for a visit. Monte took the time to take his father around and introduced him to many of the people who had become Christians since his mission began. Among them was this older lady in her 80’s. When she was introduced to his father, she said through interpretation by another missionary, “When I was just a little girl, my grandfather used to say to me that a white man would come and tell us something that we needed desperately to hear.”
Was Monte the answer to her grandfather’s prophetic statement or was this just happenstance? Did God truly create this “chance” meeting in bringing the Cox family all the way from the United States to Kenya or is it just a coincidence?
I believe in the Providence of God. His interaction with man isn’t something of the past which we read in the pages of the Bible, His interaction with man is very much active today in our lives. He provides for us in ways that we can’t comprehend in the moment, but when we look back in time, it is obvious that God was preparing the way before we even arrived on the scene.
This Sunday, we’re going to examine how God interacts with man through providence. I’m looking forward to seeing you here.
John
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