Rick Lee JamesHealthcare Chaplain, Bon Secours Mercy Health · Husband, Dad, Hospital Chaplain, Recording Artist, Podcast Host, Loyola University IPS Graduate, Alpha Sigma Nu Member, and Recording Academy (GRAMMY®) member - Contributing musician on a Grammy-nomin

Kufungua moyo wangu, Bwana Karibu (I Open the Gate Of My Heart, Lord, Come In).

30 Jul 2013 · 3 min

Watch on YouTube

2:33

In this brief devotional exchange, Speaker A wishes Craig blessings for his upcoming trip to Africa, offering prayer and sharing a personal worship phrase he learned while serving at African Nazarene University. He recounts how a Kenyan student helped translate the English line “I open the gate of my heart, Lord, come in” into Swahili – “Kufungua moyo wangu bwana karibu” – which was sung repeatedly during altar calls and service conclusions. Speaker B repeats the Swahili chant, reinforcing its meaning. The conversation ends with a final blessing and farewell.

Chapters

Hey Craig, I'm excited for you as you go on this trip to Africa. I will be praying for you. I had such a special time there a few years ago, and as the phrase goes from Scripture, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you." I wish I could support you financially, but I will be in prayer. I wanted to share this with you. It's just one sentence that— it's a song that a student in Africa when I was there helped me put a Swahili translation to. I don't know if you'll be using Swahili or not, but it's just the phrase "I open the gate of my heart, Lord, come in," done in Swahili, which is "Kufungua moyo wangu bwana karibu." And I taught it to the students when I was at African Nazarene University, and we would just sing it a lot of times at altar call times or just at the end of service. So this will be my prayer for you, that hearts will be open. And if you find this phrase useful in speaking to people at all, I found it very useful and it was very special to me because of one of the people from Kenya that actually helped me put it together. So it just goes: Kufungu umoja wangu wa nakarebu.
Kufungo wamoyo wangu, wana karebu. Kufungo wamoyo wangu, wana karebu. Kufungo wamoyo wangu, wana karebu. Which in English is, I open the gate of my heart, Lord, come in. I open the gate of my heart, Lord, come in. I open the gate of my heart. Lord, come in. Kofongo mo yo wangu, wana karebu.
So blessings be with you as you go on this trip. "Kufungu amoyo wangu, bwana karibu." I open the gate of my heart, Lord, come in. Blessings, brother. Bye.