A few weeks ago, we had the privilege of hosting here at St. Michael’s two very hungry men for God: Onesphore Manirakiza and the Rev. Richard Jones.  Onesphore, a native of Burundi, Africa, trained as a lawyer before laying it all down in pursuit of his dream to be part of the transformation of Burundi. He is one of the brightest and most influential leaders there, having founded Harvest for Christ ministries. He is fearless, bold, anointed and fruitful.  In addition to pioneering evangelism, he is reaching out to the poorest of the poor, the pygmy Batwa, and seeing phenomenal results.  Onesphore was here for a conference and much needed rest.

The Rev. Richard Jones was here earlier this month for some rest from his role as Rector of St. John’s Anglican Church near Liverpool, England.  Richard is doing some amazing beyond the box ministry in Liverpool and I am convinced we will be reading some of his future works at a later date!

Having spent a good amount of time with both of them while they were here. I was completely inspired to see such hungry entrepreneurs for the Gospel!  But they also had a level of healthy desperation bringing them to a minute by minute dependence on Jesus Christ.  They reminded me of that great Psalm 63:

O God, you are my God,
Eagerly I seek you,
My soul thirsts for you,
My body longs for you,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water…

Both Onesphore and Richard exemplified the power of desperation behind this Psalm.  A desperation that runs throughout the DNA of Scripture. This is a constant challenge to me as it is often easier to depend on my own strength or resources that are right here, in fact I would say in our western part of the world where so much lies at our fingertips; it’s easy to have no need whatsoever.

Here is the essential challenge, if we aren’t living with this hunger or desperation for God has our world then become too small?  Are our ministries and ideas not big enough?  One of the ways we live in utter hunger of God is being willing to put ourselves into a situation in which our only hope is Jesus Christ.  I’ll never forget having to make a big decision in ministry some years ago, and I sought out a friend of mine, the Rev. Barry Black, the Chaplain of the Senate.  After hearing my question he turned to me and with fire in his eyes said, well Al, of the choices you have to make, which one will require a greater dependence on God?  It was a beautiful response.  So, thank you Onesphore, thank you Richard for applying the jumper cables of hunger to my heart!
-The Rev. Al Zadig, Jr.+