Although it was only nine o’clock in the morning, Stephen was already thinking about lunch. It was the season when flocks of weaverbirds were flitting across the Kenyan sky, and the eleven-year-old boy thought one or two of the small birds would make a tasty lunch.

Grabbing his slingshot, Stephen left his house and immediately spied a flock of grayish-brown weaverbirds with golden breasts. He stooped down and selected a small stone. Placing it in his slingshot, he raised his hands to take aim. At that moment, the flock of birds took off in fluttering ball.

Stephen was not worried. He knew that the birds wouldn’t fly far, and he followed them. 

Sure enough, the flock soon landed. Stephen crouched down, trying to hide from the birds. Then he raised the slingshot to take aim. Immediately, the flock took off again.

Stephen was determined to enjoy one or two weaverbirds for lunch. So, he followed the flock until it landed again. But when he raised his slingshot, the birds took off yet again.

The touch-and-go game between the boy and the birds continued for some time. Up, down, up, down, up, down. Every time Stephen raised his slingshot, the birds took off, flew a short distance, and then settled back onto the ground as if waiting for the boy to catch up. 

Before Stephen knew it, he had followed the birds to the open door of a building. Looking inside, he saw a classmate from school. The boy, who also was eleven years old, was standing in front of a group of people and speaking to them. Stephen had always considered himself smarter than this classmate, and he wondered, “How is it that he is speaking to all those people?”

Then he heard a man’s voice, saying, “Come in, come in.”

An old man was inviting him to come through the doorway and listen to the boy tell a mission story during Sabbath School. 

Stephen abruptly realized that he was standing outside a Seventh-day Adventist church. The old man and his classmate were dressed in their best clothes. Stephen looked down at his clothing. He was wearing ragged shorts. He backed away from the door.

“Come in just as you are,” the old man said.

Stephen hesitated for a moment and, while he was thinking about what to do, the old man surprised him. 

“I know your parents,” the man said. “They used to be members of this church. But then your grandfather came and chased them out. He said he would disown them if they worshiped here. They never came back.”

Stephen was embarrassed to enter the church in his shorts. But he promised the old man that he would put on nicer clothes and come back the next Sabbath.

As he left the church, his thoughts returned to the birds. He still hadn’t caught any for lunch. He looked around the church, but no birds were in sight. During his conversation with the old man, the flock had disappeared.

For the next week, Stephen thought a lot about what the old man had said about his parents and grandfather. He remembered hearing his father talk about going to church. But he hadn’t known that it was the Adventist church. Now he understood that his grandfather, who was the village medicine man, had chased them out of church on a Sabbath morning and forbidden them from returning. 

Stephen kept his promise to the old man. He put on long pants and returned to the church the next Sabbath. The people were warm and welcoming. He loved the singing, and he was amazed that the other children knew all the words by heart. He thought, “How is it that they know all the words and I don’t? I can memorize the songs, too.” 

He went back the next Sabbath and the next. Before long, he knew all the words to the songs, and he also was telling the mission story for Sabbath School. When he was 12, he gave his heart to Jesus and was baptized. 

Today, Stephen Kombe is a leader of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Kenya. He is amazed that God used a flock of weaverbirds to lead him to church.

“God knows what will get our attention and bring us to Him,” he said. “With Moses, He used a burning bush to get his attention. With me, he used a flock of birds. God can use nature to lead us to Him.”

One of the mission projects for this quarter is a school in Kenya where children can learn about the God of heaven. The school is called Merisho Advent Community Nursery School. Thank you for giving generously to this important project.