We were waiting in line at Starbucks and this little old lady came up beside me and she says,
“Excuse me. I heard you and your husband talking about the Bible. Over there on the ground, somebody wrote – For God hath not given us the spirit of fear. What’s the rest of the verse?”
And I replied, “but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
I was taken aback – this was the EXACT verse our pastor had just preached to us.
The old lady thanked me and walked away. I was like, what just happened? Like, I think that might have been an angel.
And that wasn’t the only instance of this verse appearing. At that point, God had washed away all my fears and I knew we were meant to be in Kenya.
Kim Haye’s Story
In eighth grade, I was at church and a missionary was sharing about his love for Africa and the culture and the people. And I remember feeling distinctly, that day, in my heart that God was telling me I was going to go there someday. I had no idea how I would get there, but I knew I was going.
Fast forward to age 19, I was surrounded by death. I had 7 people close to me that had influenced my life pass away all within the same year. But the one that stood out the most was my boss, Paula, who was fighting cancer.
We were working on a fashion show together and I was excitedly planning on how to improve the show for next year and she stopped me. She said,
”Kim, next year, I’m not gonna be here, but you are, what are you gonna do with your life? I want to be here, but I’m not going to, I want to live, but you have the gift of life.”
And so I remember, I held her, I cried with her and that was the last time I ever saw her alive. That really impacted me because I started praying again. God, what do you want me to do with my life?
And I heard you’re going to Africa someday.
Beginning to Follow God’s Path to Africa
At the time I was dating my husband, David. He had no want to go to Africa, we even broke up for a bit over the issue. We got back together, got married, and continued praying, “God, we will do whatever you want.”
God sent us another missionary, this time talking about Kenya specifically and how they were doing schools and feeding centers and clinics. We felt an instant connection.
We planned our first trip to Kenya in 2009 and God broke our hearts. Seeing some of the stories of people that we met, we just had an instant love and connection for the people here. And so we started planning more and more trips to come back.
We planned 13 trips before making it permanent.
The Move To Kenya
There was so much hesitation as we were once again surrounded by death, especially when the Director of our Ministry was brutally attacked and passed away in the area we would be staying.
But God’s Provision and His peace, drove us to move here. We raised our own support, not taking from the sponsorship program. People were calling us saying, God put it on my heart to give to you and to be able to support your work in Kenya. We had churches calling us saying they were looking for missionaries to support. So they started supporting us too personally. Even to the point, we were able to fund a new-to-us car to help us get around.
Finally, it was the day of travel, we were leaving on Sunday. Our pastor that morning was preaching on 2 Timothy 1:7
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
And after church, I told David that that verse just really comforted me.
We then went to Starbucks, and that is when the elderly lady came and asked me to finish that exact bible verse written on the sidewalk outside that my pastor had been preaching on.
And the final blessing of that verse – I got on the plane and I had a friend. Her name is Charla. She had just written a book called, Letters to My Daughters.
I opened the book to chapter three or four. And at the top of the page, it said 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
It hit me, God was speaking to me that day.
Today, He keeps reminding me of His steadfast love and that he is always loving me. It’s never going to end no matter what I do, he’s still loving me and he’s never going to leave me. He keeps saying, I’m with you just trust that I’m with you. No matter where you go, I’m with you.
It’s a daily thing I have in my mind: He’s with me, He’s with me.