7 Hymns I Like

A True Story
by
Copyright ©
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First is "Father Hear the Prayers We Offer" which I first learnt on a lovely Saturday afternoon in 2007 during a choir practice at All Saints' Cathedral. It touched me so much that I sang it to my family in December 2012 (Christmas Day, I think). The hymn is a prayer in which we ask God to be our strength in times of weakness and our guide in our wanderings. It's a wonderful hymn, simple though it is.

Second is "And Can It Be?" which I came to like so much that I sang it to a fellow chorister at All Saints' Cathedral one Saturday afternoon in 2012 or 2013. The chorister corrected me that I was getting the lyrics wrong, something I later confirmed was true. The hymn now makes me believe Christ can set me free from the guilt and condemnation that assaults my soul sometimes.

Third is "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus", a simple but powerful hymn I first heard in my home church here in Kiserian. It rouses me to trust Jesus and all He says in the Bible, especially His parables and Sermon on the Mount. When we sang the hymn in my home church one Sunday morning in 2014 or 2015, I sang it so enthusiastically that the preacher recognized me. In her sermon, she urged me to join the choir.

Fourth is "My Faith Looks Up to Thee", another hymn I first heard in my home church. When Mum heard me play it on my piano keyboard a few years ago, she sang its first verse from memory. That surprised me because she isn't that much educated and it has been many years since she left the school where she learnt the hymn. It seems I inherited my sharp memory and love of hymns from her.

Fifth is "Who is on the Lord's Side?", a hymn that sounded familiar when I first heard it in my home church. Later on, I was pleased to find it in a hymnal that my friend Michael Mike lent me. It's one of my favorites, especially because it encourages us to be "right, loyal, noble, true and bold".

Sixth is "Have You Been to Jesus?" which I first heard in August 2007 at All Saints' Cathedral during the church mission month. Its melody is sublime, its lyrics, edifying. And knowing it probably explains why I'm often changing the way I do things in light of new insight gained as I mature in Christ.

Last is "I Want to Walk With Jesus" which I first learnt in 2010 at All Saints' Cathedral during a choir practice that my friend Ruth Wangire led. Imagine Ruth asked me to accompany the choir on the piano and I hadn't heard the hymn before! Now that I've memorized its lyrics, it encourages me to walk with Christ.

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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed this story, you might also enjoy "People Need the Lord".
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Appreciating Mum

A True Story
by Thuita J. Maina
on May 10, 2020
Copyright ©
Picture related to the title of the story
This is Mum saying congrats to the newly-weds.

Before Mum suffered a stroke in 2013, I often saw her tend our farm in the morning, wash clothes (including Dad's) and then head to my hometown of Kiserian to open her shop where she earned money to put food on the table.

Perhaps because she knew the importance of self-reliance, she instilled us with a strong work ethic, always ensuring we had work to do when we weren't going to school. Work like fetching firewood, grazing cattle and tilling our farm.

I vividly remember a morning in 1997 when she left us with some work to do and then unexpectedly came back, only to find us idling in the house. She lashed out at us.

Her sternness once saved me from trouble. Well, there was this boy who bullied me as I took milk to the home of a distant neighbor called Mrs. Mathenge in the mid '90s. He would even extort money from me.

One evening, he threw a stone at me. It hit me on the head, making me bleed. When Mum came home that day, I told her about it. Obviously infuriated, she had the men at home, including a beefy uncle of mine called Gichure, accompany us to the boy's home, a shack actually.

We found the boy with her mother in the shack which looked more like a tomb for lack of electrical lighting. When Mum launched into a complaint about what the boy had done to me, his mother sided with her and soon, they were both rebuking him. He never bullied me again.

Unfortunately, Mum was diagnosed with a heart condition in 1999 that forced us to raise money for her surgery. When she was taken to hospital a few weeks or so later, my schoolmate James Koigi told me he saw her being fed with pipes.

For some strange reasons, I can't remember feeling anxious over what Koigi told me, perhaps because I was absorbed in my academic work and in the sexual fantasies that adolescents have. Thankfully, Mum's heart surgery went well.

Later in the year 2000, she had me transferred to Kunoni Educational Centre where I finished off my primary school and made it to Starehe Boys' Centre, a prestigious institution in Nairobi where I had my high school and college education.

Although Mum remained in good health for quite a number of years, I think her heart condition was what caused the stroke she had in 2013. She has been resting at home since then and she is yet to recover fully. In fact, her health problems have been getting worse.

Last year, she developed diabetes. Then several weeks ago, she fell down and dislocated a pelvic bone. We are doing the best we can to help her. It's what we can do for her anyway given the much she did for us.

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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed this story, you might also enjoy "Mum & Dad: My Pillars of Strength".
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Bible Quote

"Always be full of joy in the Lord; I say it again, rejoice! Let everyone see that you are unselfish and considerate in all you do... Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything; tell God your needs and don't forget to thank Him for His answers. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand."

~Phillipians 4:4-7 (TLB)

About the Author

Name: Thuita J. Maina
Marital status: Single
Lives in: Kiserian, Rift Valley, Kenya
Mission: To inspire the world to godly living, one person at a time.

Just for Laughs

There was this drunkard called Azoge who loved drinking at Josiah's Bar. On being told a certain Hon. Nanga was flying to America to be conferred a law degree so that he could be admitted to the bar, Azoge replied, "Why fly all the way to America to be admitted to the bar while you can get into Josiah's Bar any time?"



The 7 Deadly Sins

  1. Pride
  2. Envy
  3. Gluttony
  4. Lust
  5. Anger
  6. Greed
  7. Sloth

Author's Note

I am learning to treat life as a journey, not a destination; I have therefore given up the things that weighed me down and I am now living my life to the fullest because the tomorrow I had always hoped to live my dreams may never be mine.

Fun Facts

  1. The fear of having no cell-phone service, running out of battery, or losing sight of your phone is called Nomophobia, reportedly affecting 66% of people.
  2. A single Google search needs more computing power than it took to send Apollo 11 to the moon. The Apollo computer was less equipped than a modern toaster.
  3. Besides being some of the biggest names in the tech industry, HP, Apple, Google and Microsoft share another commonality. They all started in garages.
~Extracted from Codingforums.com

Health Tips

"So many of us take for granted the wonderful construction of the human body and the workings of its various parts. Some of us even expect it to function efficiently with less than the minimum care and attention. Learn the much you can about your body and how the care of it can help give you that greatest blessing of all - good health."

~From Your Body (A Ladybird Book)

Wonders of the Modern World

  1. The Simplon Tunnel
  2. The Sky-scrapers of New York
  3. The Boulder Dam of Colorado
  4. The Panama Canal
  5. The Golden Gate Bridge
  6. The Taj Mahal at Agra in India
  7. The North Sea Oil Drilling Rigs

The Kind of Leaders We Need

"My life in politics was a joy. I loved campaigns and I loved governing. I always tried to keep things moving in the right direction, to give more people a chance to live their dreams, to lift people's spirits, and to bring them together. That's the way I kept score."

~Bill Clinton

Scientific Marvels

  1. Space travel
  2. Heart surgery
  3. Fibre-optics communication
  4. Concorde
  5. Radios
  6. Computers
  7. Anesthetics

My Supreme Desire

To borrow the words of Elbert Hubbard, my supreme desire is to radiate health, cheerfulness, calm courage and goodwill. I wish to live without fear, hate, guilt, worry and jealousy; to be honest, natural, confident, clean in mind and body - ready to say "I do not know" if it be so; to treat all men with kindness; and to meet any loss, failure, criticism and rejection unabashed and unafraid.



Greatest American Presidents

  1. Abraham Lincoln
  2. George Washington
  3. Thomas Jefferson
  4. Franklin Roosevelt
  5. Theodore Roosevelt
  6. Woodrow Wilson
  7. Andrew Jackson

Making Peace With the Past

"Dwell not on your past. Use it to illustrate a point, then leave it behind. Nothing really matters except what you do now in this instant of time. From this moment onwards you can be an entirely different person, filled with love and understanding, ready with an outstretched hand, uplifted and positive in every thought and deed."

~Eileen Caddy

Toughest Colleges to Get Into

  1. MIT
  2. Princeton
  3. Harvard
  4. Yale
  5. Stanford
  6. Brown
  7. Columbia

Why You Should Trust God

"Men and women who turn their lives over to God will find out that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities and pour out peace."

~Ezra Taft Benson

The 7 Greatest Scientists

  1. Albert Einstein
  2. Isaac Newton
  3. Galileo Galilei
  4. Nikola Tesla
  5. Aristotle
  6. Archimedes
  7. Charles Darwin

You Matter

"Always be yourself. Never try to hide who you are. The only shame is to have shame. Always stand up for what you believe in. Always question what other people tell you. Never regret the past; it's a waste of time. There's a reason for everything. Every mistake, every moment of weakness, every terrible thing that has happened to you, grow from it. The only way you can ever get the respect of others is when you show them that you respect yourself and most importantly, do your thing and never apologize for being you."

~Unknown

The Most Industrialized Nations

  1. United States
  2. Japan
  3. Germany
  4. France
  5. United Kingdom
  6. Italy
  7. Canada

Keys to Success

"...in his effort to withstand temptation, to economize, to exercise thrift, to disregard the superficial for the real - the shadow for the substance; to be great yet small, in his effort to be patient in the laying of a firm foundation; to so grow in skill and knowledge that he shall place his services in demand by reason of his intrinsic and superior worth. This is the key that unlocks every door of opportunity, and all others fail."

~Booker T. Washington

The 7 Social Sins

  1. Politics without principle
  2. Wealth without work
  3. Pleasure without conscience
  4. Knowledge without character
  5. Commerce without morality
  6. Worship without sacrifice
  7. Science without humanity

Cherish What You Love

"Cherish your visions, cherish your ideals, cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts - for out of them will grow all heavenly environment, of these if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built."~James Allen

The World's Largest Cities

  1. London in England
  2. New York in the United States
  3. Tokyo in Japan
  4. Berlin in Germany
  5. Chicago in the United States
  6. Shanghai in China
  7. Paris in France

Benefits of Optimism

"In terms of success, optimistic people out perform their pessimistic colleagues. Research shows that they are consistently promoted higher and make more money while working fewer hours than those who think pessimistically. Optimists also contribute more significantly to social progress. It is the optimists who start and run successful companies, who win elections and carry out reforms, and who make breakthroughs in the realms of science and technology."

~Pepe Minambo

The World's Greatest Lakes

  1. Caspian Sea in the Commonwealth of Independent States, C.I.S. (formerly U.S.S.R)
  2. Lake Superior in North America
  3. Victoria Nyanza in Central Africa
  4. Aral Sea in C.I.S.
  5. Lake Huron in North America
  6. Lake Michigan in North America

Demonstrating His Love

"Take your communication for instance - the way you address others. It ought to be with loving, gracious and edifying words. Never talk people down. Never use words that hurt and demean people. Communicate excellently with others without destroying their self-image or making them feel sorry for themselves. Talk to people in a way that they never forget the excellence of your words, the love and grace of Christ that you communicated. It's how God wants us to love."

~Dr. Chris Oyakhilome

World's Longest Rivers

  1. Missouri-Mississipi (U.S.)
  2. Amazon (Brazil)
  3. Nile (Egypt)
  4. Yangtse (China)
  5. Lena (Russia)
  6. Zaire (Central Africa)
  7. Niger (West Africa)