Just like St Paddy

This week our Irish friends will be celebrating St Patricks Day. As you may know, St Paddy is the patron saint of Ireland. I bet you didn’t know he was also the patron saint of Nigeria, Montserrat, engineers, paralegal, and invoked against snakes, sins and witchcraft.

While he is celebrated as bringing Christianity to Ireland in the past, today it is a much more secularised event filled with shamrocks, parades, festivals and the wearing of all things green.

He had a pretty cool heritage with his dad was a deacon and his grandfather a priest. When he was 16 he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland. He ended up escaping after he had a dream from God to go to a certain place. After studying to be a priest he returned to the country of his captivity to share the Good News with the locals. Apparently he used the shamrock to explain the Trinity.

But why the green you may be asking? Good question! It has something to do with the shamrock and a bunch of soldiers wanting to stand out and get peoples attention, so they wore green. Go figure.

So, what does all this greenery have to do with the work of Afri-Lift? Absolutely nothing! But, when you look at the passion of St Patrick we have a lot to learn: 

1.     He didn’t let his past dictate his future. 
We are dealing with some young people who have shameful and broken pasts, which, if it weren’t for the power of the Cross, would ruin them.

2.     Scars can be turned into stars 
Patrick was kidnapped from Britain and taken to Ireland. He was there for some time and could’ve just settled for being a captive his whole life. Instead, he took the persecution, punishment and rejection that a prisoner suffered and used it for transforming peoples lives. Nothing makes us more proud than when a young person embraces the Gospel and does something with it and makes good decisions. It doesn’t matter if it is to finish school, keep away from bad influences or when they get older, be faithful to their spouse.

3.     He used what was in his hands 
We don’t all have shamrocks, but we do have available resources right in front of us. It may be funds to sponsor a child, a missionary, help a needy person in our community or be there to help an elderly person with their groceries. Too many people think it needs to a be a huge thing to be impacting in some else’s life. Something is better than nothing.

Here in Kenya, very few people except the ex-pats will even realise that on the 18^th it’s St Patrick’s Day. However, we thank our Irish friends for their support of our work. For the rest of us, let’s take on a few of the attributes of St Patrick to better our world.

An Irish Blessing:

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.