IC3 Kenya usually organizes an annual ride on 28th June every year to commemorate the death of one of our cyclist known as Cliff (He died in June 28th 2006 following a road accident) . The ride is known as the Cliff Memorial ride.
One week before his death, Kennedy (the IC3 Kenya Director) led him to Christ. The following is a testimony on how he lead him to Christ.
TESTIMONY.
The following real life testimony is narrated for the main purpose of encouraging all brethren never to give up on souls because the salvation of a human soul is what really touches the heart of God.
I woke up in the morning wondering why I had dreamt such a dream. The dream was shocking and it was unlike other dreams I had dreamt. This was because the dream carried with it an intense passion for a young man named Cliff. This young man was my friend and also my training partner in cycling. He was a jovial and an easy going guy. Despite this, he wasn’t saved.
In my dream, I dreamt that Cliff had been ran over by a lorry and died. This dream wasn’t just an ordinary dream because it carried with it a burden of compassion and love which was hard to resist. This was around the year 2005. Afterwards I decided to go to him and tell him about Jesus and the sacrifice he paid for his sins on the cross. Moreover, I also revealed to him about my dream. Cliff didn’t seem bothered by it and neither did he accept Jesus as his Saviour. Time passed on and later on, he got hit by a van as he was training on his bike. He broke his femur (thigh bone) and had to be admitted in hospital for some time. Metal plates were attached to his broken bone and later on, he was discharged.
Amazingly, Cliff started walking with a limp and most amazingly, he started riding his bicycle using his right leg to exert the most pressure since his left leg was still sour and numb. This young man really loved cycling.
One day as I went on a training ride with a group of riders, Cliff joined us. This really astonished me because we were going to Kangundo from Nairobi and then back to Nairobi on the same day (120kms). I thought he was joking but he followed us with his laboured pedaling all the way to Kangundo and then back to Nairobi. All of us were greatly amazed and Cliff was equally delighted. To me, this was a miracle. From then onwards, Cliff’s morale was on a high and he started training with dedication and enthusiasm. Later, he started performing well in cycling races beating the majority of other riders. I remember one race in which he was number 2. In this race – from Nairobi to Kangundo and back, he managed to stay with the strongest rider in the pack and only got beaten with about a kilometer remaining to the finish.
Over and over again in my heart, I felt compelled to preach to him but I resisted that compulsion. I ‘reasoned with God’ that since he went to a particular church, the brethren in that church would lead him to the Lord and my role would just be to pray for him in private. Months passed by and I forgot about the whole thing. On the third week of June, 2006, as I was meditating on the word of God and reading Joel Osteen’s book – Your Best Life Now, I read a chapter on ‘showing kindness and Compassion’. The writer depicted that if you sense an overwhelming love and compassion towards someone, God might be using that as a pointer that that person needs to be ministered to, and you yourself are the vessel he is going to use to do exactly that. The writer reasoned that the person may be on the last edge of his rope and you are his/her last hope.
At once, I remembered Cliff. I really felt that God was compelling me to go and reconcile him back to Him – ministry of reconciliation – but I had continually resisted.
Without battling an eyelid, I mounted my bike and rode as fast as I could. I knew exactly where Cliff hanged around so I just went by faith knowing that I would find him there.
When I reached there, I saw him seated while chatting with friends. I called him aside and asked him if I could have some time with him. He obliged and we went at a nearby hotel where I bought him something to take. I immediately started sharing with him about God’s love and the way of salvation through His son Jesus. I also took him down memory lane to remind him of the Lord’s intervention in his life – about how He healed him and protected him. As I told him all this I felt compassion towards him. I reminded him that man was created to worship God and that he had a choice of either submitting to his creator or rebelling against Him. Man’s destiny was on his hands. I warned him about the devil’s deception concerning the postponing of salvation and asked him to make things right between him and God.
When I asked him if he wanted to accept the Lord as His personal Saviour, without hesitation, he said, “Yes I will”.
I led him through the sinner’s prayer right there in the hotel. I told him that he was now the son of the Most High God and his name was now written in the Book of life.
I emphasized to him the need to read God’s word, pray and fellowship with other believers so that he would grow strong in his Christian faith. I then left him and went home feeling a great burden lift off my shoulder.
A week later at 8.00pm, I sent him a text message full of encouraging scriptures. I didn’t know why I did that but I just felt a strong urge to do it. That was on 27th June 2006.
Early in the morning of 29th June I received a text message from a friend telling me that Cliff had been run over by a Canter (small lorry) on the 28th and had passed away as he was being taken to hospital. I was very shocked and bewildered. I thought I was dreaming as I recalled all the moments I had spent with him, the initial dream that I had dreamt months ago, my love and compassion towards him, his salvation, the text I sent him a day before his death and finally his demise.
In the midst of sorrow and grief, I however felt a sense of peace and contentment that Cliff’s agony was now over and his soul would forever live in heaven serving the Lord -as the scriptures say “To be absent in the body is to be away with the Lord”.
I felt honoured to have been used by God to lead Cliff to the Lord and learnt that I should never ignore the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
In the same light I would like to encourage my fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord to continue propagating this ministry of reconciliation (2Cor 5:11-21) for we are the only vessels that God will use to do this through the empowerment of His Holy Spirit.
And besides this, there is a reward for it. Paul told the Thessalonians in 1Thes 2:19, 20 that they were the hope, the joy, and the crown in which ‘Paul and other God’s servants in ministry’ would glory in the presence of Jesus Christ when He comes. Daniel 12:3 says that “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever”.
Therefore, we decided to be organizing this ride every year to commemorate his death and his salvation – with the aim of spreading the gospel to other cyclists who are not born again.
This year, on 28th June 2008 it was the second Anniversary of his death and we rode from Nairobi to Kitengela. I had also invited my spiritual mentor (Pastor Samuel Mbugua) who preached to the cyclists. The following are pictures of that ride:
cliff's jersey
cliff's core riders
Jeffrey Avugwi
