Earlier this week, Jacob (the Route 61 Chaplain) stopped a group of youths to enquire, ‘Where are you going?’ — a standard and accepted question in Kenya.

Eager to get to a local football tournament where they were competing, they invited Jacob to join them.

Jacob is not a football fan, so he declined their offer, but he did invite them to join him afterwards, enticing them with the promise of chips.

Later the same day, the boys returned (I don’t know how they got on in the tournament), and their numbers had swollen. Jacob sat, ate chips and chatted with 6 young men, and, not surprisingly, the topic of conversation made its way to girls and … sex.

As Jacob listened, he perceived that the boys were confused; they couldn’t distinguish between lust and love. So, he directed the conversation to explore and define what true love is. He then compared that love to the perfect love of God our Father.

The boys said, ‘We want this love [God’s love]’. Jacob introduced them to Jesus right there and then.

To cut the story short, Jacob and his friends baptised the boys (along with more of their friends) in a local river today!

And guess what the name of the river is?

It’s the River Jordan – seriously, can you believe that!?

We love this. How often do we miss “chance encounters” like these?

Maybe we’re too busy, not looking, not expectant, or we are too quick to disqualify ourselves. It’s not that Jacob is remarkable; he won’t mind me saying this, but he’s unexceptional; Jacob simply wants to live his life as a son of God.

Please pray for Kenya’s youth (over half the population are teenagers). Pray that they’ll find their place of belonging in God’s family and encounter His transforming love in their hearts.

And join us in believing that this is just the beginning of a nationwide outpouring of God’s love.

Route 61 is committed to putting God on display and encouraging His children everywhere to return to his loving embrace.