August 25, 2010

It’s been a long time so I have quite a few testimonies to catch you up with.

So here is what I have been up to. The end of July and first half of August I was on an expedition. This wasn’t an ordinary expedition, this particular one was being filmed to be put on TBN Africa. So it will broadcast across all of Africa and Europe as well. I and one other guy from our group here in Livingstone were to be the logistical crew for this trip. Besides us there was a big time evangelist whose Rodney Howard-Browne and his wife (based out of Tampa, Florida), Phil Smethurst and his family (the president of our organization, Overland Missions), Andrea and his family (the owner of TBN Africa, based out of East London, South Africa), and the film and cooking crews. We journeyed 3 weeks on a “Footsteps of Dr. David Livingstone expedition” (first and most well known missionary of southern Africa). We went through 4 countries: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Malawi. So now I will tell you of some of the experiences and great times we had.

One of our first stops was Mana Pools Wildlife Park in northern Zimbabwe. We stayed there for 2 nights and got to see a lot of the area where Livingstone canoed and walked by foot. There were all sorts of wildlife there. We made our camp into a big circle right next to the Zambezi river so that animals wouldn’t walk through the middle of it. At night you would walk up to the bathrooms or the water taps, and you would have to walk around lots of hyenas. There were lots of them lurking around the outskirts waiting for us to go to sleep. When we finally did, they would come into the camp and tear into whatever they could. While you have this going on, you also have hippos, impala, crocodiles, and other night walkers on the outskirts of camp. In the background you can here the hippos chattering and the lions roaring and sometimes even an elephant trumpeting. When we woke up in the morning we would assess the damages done (like the top of a water container chewed off by hyenas) and then the monkeys and baboons would take their turn. All morning you have the monkeys coming and stealing stuff off of the tables that you are sitting right next to. So we got to experience first hand a taste of what Livingstone had to deal with on a daily basis. We also got to do some ministry at the game warden barracks from the park. We ministered to about 40 people and even started a church there. It is going to be at the least an annual stop for overland to go in and see how the church is coming along.

Our next stop was Harare, Zimbabwe. We had a 3 day conference there. The logistics crew stayed at Pastor Ephiel’s house. This pastor is one of the most respected pastors in all of Zimbabwe. So we got to spend some time with him and connect with his family. The meetings were great. They started out at about 1000 people and grew to about 1500 people by the last night. All three nights were amazing. Dr. Rodney preached every night, and every night God showed up and touched everyone. Hundreds of people fell to the floor laughing, crying, dead silent, and however else under the touch of God. The meetings main focus were on Jesus giving us “living water”. John chapter 4 talking about a well of living water inside of us and then John chapter 7 talking about a river of living water flowing from our inner most being. There were many important people at these meetings and I personally believe that these meetings have sent shockwaves all throughout the country. Revival is happening in Zimbabwe. We have already been getting emails and hearing stories of the impact of these 3 days of meetings. The second night was crazy for me. God touched me and I fell to the floor laughing hysterically for about 45 minutes non-stop. It was one of the craziest experiences of my life. I know some of you reading this are having a hard time believing in this stuff. But for those of you who know me, know that it would take a miracle from God to see me laughing hysterically on the floor in front of 1500 people! We also saw many people delivered and healed, as well as a lot of first time salvations and recommitments. It was an amazing experience that I will never forget.

One of the next places we made it to was Beira, Mozambique. Here we visited a bible school that I had just been to a month and a half before that. I have become friends with several of the students there and was excited to be able to minister to some of them. When we were there God touched all of them as well. It was life changing for many of them. I very much enjoyed my time in Mozambique. All of the bible school students, after their second year of school, have to go out and plant a church. I am looking forward to seeing each of them thriving in the ministry that God sets before them.

From there we went on to Blantyre, Malawi. We had two meetings here, but they were perhaps the best and strongest of the whole trip. The first night was good. There was a 13 year old kid who got touched by God and fell on the floor speaking in tounges non-stop for about an hour. The next day he was given the microphone and he was asked what God was speaking to him while he was on the floor. So he went up front, had a word for the interpreter, and then rebuked the whole church for its steadfastness and not being hungry to win souls for the Kingdom. Then he apologized to the arc bishop for the whole church. The following meeting Dr. Rodney gave a brief message on giving and everyone started flooding the stage and just throwing money, jackets, shoes, jewelry, whatever they could, and did so without being asked, it was totally the Lord. Revival was breaking out and some of the political leaders of the country were coming to Dr. Rodney and asking questions and wanting him to work with them.

From here we went to Monkey Bay, on Lake Malawi. This is where David Livingstone got betrayed and deserted. He also helped fight against the slave trade here. We spent 2 days here. I went swimming in the lake which was amazingly huge and beautiful. I ended up getting schistosomiasis from swimming in it but I will be taking a treatment to get rid of it soon. There was a church that had already been started by Overland Missions and a few other churches around there, but the thing that surprised me most was the amount of mosques that were there. Supposedly 10 years ago there were no mosques. Now they are as common as churches around there. Imagine if the Church was as committed. Africa is ready for the harvest. We just need people who are hungry to win souls to the Lord to come over here and lead the way. It doesn’t take a degree and lots of past experience. It just takes a personal relationship with God and a desire to see the lost saved.

I had a great time on this trip and learned a lot. It was also great to spend some quality time with some of my spiritual leaders. The ministry times were great as well as seeing a lot of the places David Livingstone had been and the impact that he left behind.

June 28

It’s Time for Change:

We took an expedition team to Harare, Zimbabwe and helped out at a Joyce Meyer conference. It ended up being the largest Christian gathering in the history of the country. All of the pastors and leaders in the area were saying that they saw this conference as a new beginning. We only stayed for the first day and there were many people there. They charged money for the day meetings, but opened up the evening meetings to everyone for free. The daytime conference center was filled up which seated 7000 people. There were also 2 overflow tents as well and one of those were packed out. That was just the beginning. The evening session was packed with 20,000+ people. The worship was phenomenal and the message was well received. In 2 months there is going to be a follow up conference by Rodney Howard Brown. I will also be there for this conference and will be able to follow up on the impact that is being made in these areas. I’m expecting no less than REVIVAL!

3 Testimonies:

While in Mozambique we went to a sugar plantation town called Morremeu. I set up an evening crusade for the team in the middle of town. We had a little over 100 people that attended. There was lots of singing and dancing with some great worship. Me and the other leader flipped a coin to see who was going to give the big message that night because we both wanted to do it. I won the coin toss and gave the message that evening. It was a great message anointed by God and a great response followed. Around 25 people gave their life to Christ. We then followed with some prayer ministry and saw several people get healed. After we finished with the evening God led me to call anyone hungry back to the meeting place the next day. So I made an announcement and told all of the people that just got saved, that if anyone wanted to know more about Jesus and how to be in a personal relationship with Him, they could come back to the platform the next day and I would be waiting for them at 10am. The next day I went back and sat at the platform. At 10am one guy showed up. I was amazed because Africans are never on time. Lol. I waited and just had some idle talk with him about where he came from and his family and work. He only spoke Portuguese and I didn’t have a translator at the time to help me. After about an hour we gave up on waiting on anyone else and I took him to the pastor’s conference we had going on and had him join in on the meetings. Afterwards I had the opportunity to encourage him with a translator for about 45 minutes. I wont underestimate the affect we had on this guy’s life. It is something very big for an African to accept an invitation like that. Even though we only had a short time there, I believe God did something big during that time.

We went to another place in Mozambique called Morremballa. It is known as one of the most serious strongholds of witchcraft in the country. I led a group to do some door to door evangelism. We also went out with a local pastor to these houses because we want to make sure that someone is doing the follow up. We made it to one certain area and gathered about 20 people. We spent about an hour and a half giving testimonies and pouring into their lives. The message was greatly received. At the end there was a kid wearing a necklace from the witchdoctor. I shared on what it meant to put your whole trust in Jesus. We found the kids father, who also sat there and listened to the whole message. After hearing the truth about Jesus, the man said that he wasn’t sure he wanted Jesus. He knew that he atleast didn’t want to give his life to him that day. Me and one of the other team members spent time encouraging him and explaining how he can’t afford to wait. He still wanted to wait. Two days later at another meeting, he showed up. His son was no longer wearing the necklace from the witchdoctor. He ended up giving his life to Jesus that day and wanted us to pray for him and his family so that their faith in God would grow.

The best for last! In Zimbabwe there is one group of people called the Vadoma tribe. They are known as freaks to the world because one out of three of them have feet like an ostrich. They have 3 toes and look weird. The rest of them is completely normal. Our time with these people was cut extremely short. We had trouble with the police in the area and it was very far to reach them. In the end we only got to minister to them for about 4 hours over the course of 2 days. The people were afraid of us. Some even ran away when they saw us. But let me tell you, the time we had with them God definitely put to use. The group that I led only made it to 3 different houses to minister. A couple times we even got rejected. The people said that they didn’t want to hear anything about Jesus. One place we spent a whole hour ministering and only one out of 8 people responded at all to the messages. There is one house in particular where God blew me away. It was just an old man and his old wife, and a little 12 year old girl. The man was the only one we saw out of all the people we ministered to that had the weird feet, and it was only one foot, his other one was normal. Two people on my team gave testimonies on who Jesus was and what He meant to them. How can someone accept Jesus when they don’t even know who He is? I followed up with another message that summed everything up and gave them the opportunity to turn to Jesus. When I explained that it cost nothing I saw the man’s face light up. Nothing in Africa is free. Lol. He looked over at his wife and they both wanted more of this newfound truth that was being told to them. They both accepted Jesus, along with the little girl. Since they were old they also had some health problems. I told the man that the same God who sent us from America to share His love with you today, the same Jesus who you just accepted as Lord and Savior, wants to heal you today as well. I asked if me and the group with me could pray for him and he said most definitely. He was having trouble hearing. The pastor that was with us translating for us had to basically yell at him the whole time so he could hear the message. After we prayed for him I asked him if he felt any different. He said no, not really, nothing had changed. The pastor (who was an amazing woman pastor by the way) still had to yell so that he could hear her. For some reason God put it in me that this man was going to hear well again, today. I told the man this and told him that we were going to pray for him again. I told him that his faith in God would bring his healing. It is not the white people that will heal you but the same Jesus that you just accepted as Lord over your life, is going to heal you. I continued saying that when we pray for you this time, I want you to ask Jesus for your healing. He agreed and we started praying for him again. Not long after we started praying he started speaking. He started asking Jesus to heal him of his hearing problem. After about 30 seconds I didn’t hear him talking anymore. I opened my eyes and looked at him. He had 2 tears coming down his face, and his body was trembling. I took my hand off him and my own eyes started watering. The rest of the group finished praying for him and we all took a step back from him. I asked him if he could hear any better now. The pastor asked him this in a normal voice and he responded with a big smile on his face saying I am healed. The man was still shaking. Hahaha. So in the process of this a drunk man walked up. Seeing what had happened he wanted prayer as well. I told the old man who just got healed to share with this man what had just happened as we prayed for his wife. With a smile he said that he would. The wife remained sitting on a grass mat because her back was hurting her too bad to stand up. We went and sat next to her. I saw a piece of grass tied around her neck and questioned her about it. She said that someone told her it would help her with her neck pain. I told her that she no longer had a need for it, because today Jesus was going to take her pains away. She gladly took it off her neck and threw it as far as she could. We prayed for her and it was the same story, nothing happened. Then we prayed for her again and she asked Jesus to heal her and it happened. She was able to stand up without a problem, all the pains were gone. So now back to the drunk man. The other old man that just got healed told him everything. Before I even spoke to the man I had the group pray for sobriety. The man was clear minded and we were able to talk to him. He no longer slurred his words or anything, he was with us. We told him about Jesus and how his friends here just got set free. This man also accepted Jesus. He stopped for prayer so that his back would feel better. We prayed for him and he also got healed. The pastor assured me that she would be following these people up and encouraging them. It just showed me once again how God will send us out in the middle of no where for just a couple of His lost children. That is the God that I serve!

May 26, 2010

The Choice:

There are a few denominations of Churches here in Zambia that mix in cultural things with Christianity. For example the Zionist Church likes to wear bracelets and necklaces and other things for protection and blessing and so on. They say that the items are blessed by God, and that is why they wear them. They put their whole security in that item.

We had just finished with a powerful meeting and I was sitting with some of the leaders of the area and encouraging the pastors. I noticed that one of the pastors had a rope bracelet on and another had bracelets and a necklace. God told me to ask about it so I did. (I don’t usually approach these “touchy” issues unless I know God is behind it and not myself) The guy was a pastor of a Zionist Church and he said that he was wearing the bracelet for protection. I asked him if he had Christ inside of him and he said yes. Then I asked him if he trusted Christ for his protection or if he trusted the bracelet and he said Christ. So I asked him why he had to wear the bracelet and he said because the bracelet is blessed by God. We went back and forth several times with lots of questions to why he trusted the bracelet. Finally by the end of the conversation he said that he believed Christ in him was enough. He made the choice to choose Christ for his protection instead of the bracelet. He removed the bracelet and gave it to me. I told him then that he has a choice. He could either choose to go find another bracelet and put it on or he could put his full trust in Christ. I also told him that the same goes for his family. He is the head of his family and should encourage them in the same way. I warned him that he will remain with this choice every day that he wakes up. He will have to put his trust in God or something or someone else. The other one with the bracelets and necklace listened to the whole conversation and cut off his ropes as well and gave them to me. It was great to be able to encourage these people in such a great way. It is always a blessing to be used by God. When I left that gathering I threw the ropes in the fire.

You, too, have a choice. We may not put our trust in ropes back in the states, but we do things very similar. How many of us put trust in mans word over God’s? You worry about a financial situation when God says that He will take care of it, and you still worry about it until someone says “I will give you $500” and then you don’t worry anymore. Where are you putting your trust. Is it in people or is it in God? You have the choice, He has already made the promises.

Leading:

God is teaching me what it is to be a leader. I just recently helped lead a team of 22 college students out to the bush to do ministry. God had been preparing me for this for the past couple of months. The things He put on my heart for this adventure is that in order to be a great leader for this team, and to be a great leader used by God, I would have to become a greater servant to both the team and God. I was blessed greatly during this time. It was a very mature team so I was able to spend the majority of my time serving them and encouraging them. I tried to develop a personal relationship with over half the team and God really used me. I was usually one of the first ones awake and one of the last ones to sleep. I worked side by side with them doing the chores, and through the personal relationship we developed I was able to encourage them both in the ministry we were doing and their future ahead of them. I found great joy in serving them. I might not have been able to accomplish all of what I wanted to do, but serving them fully seemed greater. Besides, if I can be used by God to stir up the potential in 11 or 12 people, how much more can God accomplish through all of them than he can through me alone. They did an amazing job ministering to the villagers and a great work was accomplished for the Kingdom. Thank you Jesus!

Walking on Water:

I was in a church the other day and we were in the middle of worship. The choir was singing and then some of the people in the church started getting up and dancing. I thought to myself, that looks like fun, why not make a fool of myself. So I got up and started dancing with them. 5 minutes later I looked down and I saw myself dancing in perfect rhythm. If you know me, I can't dance at all. But for some reason I was dancing great. So after realizing this I went back at it and totally sucked. Lost all rhythm and motion and everything. I felt like I was living out the story of Peter walking on water. Atleast I got a big laugh out of it.

April 28

So here are a few specific stories that I can share with you that took place over the last week and a half.

God spoke to me through a drunk man:

Nyawa has a lot of drunks, and they all like talking with me. I decided that day to give my whole day to God to let him speak to me and tell me whatever he wanted. I didn’t have a meeting this day, just soaked in God’s presence. So I spent a lot of time in the Word all morning. Then about half way through my day a drunk man that I have talked to several times started approaching me where I was reading in my hammock. I saw him coming from a distance and started thinking “oh no, here we go again.” Every encounter I have had with this guy, he always wanted something, or just didn’t make any sense at all. So he walks up to me and greets me, he then asks me if it was the bible that I was reading so I said yes. He then, while taking another drink, asked me to turn to a specific section out of the book of Ezekiel. I was like “ooookkkkk???” So I turned to it and then he asked me to read it. I read it and he stood there agreeing with it. After I read it he said “this is why you are here.” I said “ssssuuuurrrreeee????,” thinking this guy has totally lost it. We talked for a few mores seconds and he said “ok I’ll be going now.” I replied, “cool, have a great day” and he said, “wait I have one more scripture for you to turn to.” It ended up being a verse out of Isaiah. Before I even turned to it he said, “ok, I’ll be going now.” I replied, “alright, see you later.” So he left and I just sat there open to that verse. Then it dawned on me, he didn’t ask me for anything this time. I started thinking even more, where did he get these scriptures from? These are not well known verses at all. I then read the one out of Isaiah and then I reread the other one. It turns out that they were both about the same things. They were both talking about being a witness of the Lord and going out and proclaiming Him to His people. I sat there and the lord brought conviction to my heart. I started looking at how I was living my life and wasting so much potential. He started talking to me about how I manage my time and if I was really striving and chasing after my goals or just casually walking towards them. Then He told me that I had to change if I wanted to make a difference for His Kingdom. I sat there in awe saying to myself, “did God just speak to me through a drunk man? Yes, yes he did. I guess if He can use a donkey (Numbers 22), then why couldn’t He use a drunk man?” Then I just sat there laughing to myself.

God testing me:

The same day that God spoke to me through the drunk man I felt led to read the book “The Final Quest” by Rick Joyner. Another book that I highly recommend to everyone. I read the whole book and God was stirring things up in my heart the whole time I was reading. Near the end of the book God asked me, “are you willing to give up the motorbike that I am about to give you?” I was puzzled at this question. I asked myself, “didn’t you just give it to me? I haven’t even received it yet and you are wanting me to give it up?” Many other questions were going through my head and I was left in a state of confusion. So I figured I would just finish reading the book. I only had 3 pages left. I tried five times to read these last 3 pages, but no matter how hard I tried, I even was reading the words they just weren’t sinking in, I could not finish the book. I was too distracted with thinking, does God really want me to give up this motorbike? I decided yes, I am willing to give it up and I could manage trying to make it around on a bicycle as I am doing for now. So before the night was over I was totally convinced. I had it all planned out. I would have to write these letters to these people and send these people back their money that they designated towards the bike, and explain why to everyone. I was trying to make sure I didn’t leave anything out. So I wake up in the morning and I told God that he needed to give me a for sure answer about the motorbike. I decided to fast breakfast and lunch and wait on him for an answer. I finally get out of my hammock, started brushing my teeth and decided that now was a good time to finish reading these last few pages. The first paragraph I read said “but God loves giving gifts and blessing his children…….It is alright to be blessed by the Lord…….” I started laughing, nothing like straight forward confirmation. No wonder he wouldn’t allow me to finish the book the night before. He wanted to first make sure that I was willing to give it up before he gave it to me. So a couple hours later Jake arrives out in the villages, comes up to me and says “Derek, the guy wants to sell you the bike now (the original plan was that he wouldn’t sell it to me till july). So I took that as God reassuring me that He was blessing me, He just wanted to test me first. Lol. I will be getting my motorbike next week. Can’t wait!!!

Their Story:

I went to do an evangelical meeting in a village and had to wait a couple hours on the people to finish working in the field before we could start the meeting. While waiting I got to hear the story of the village and how it came about. I learned all this information from two old brothers. One was born in 1924 and the other in 1926. They moved and started the village in 1947 with 3 other men and one woman. They moved to spread out and have more land to farm. These guys are still remembering the slave age when their friends were being sold into slavery to the whites. They said that they saw a car for the first time in Livingstone in the 1930’s driven by a man named Boyd. I guess this guy was a white missionary. They said that they have never had a missionary visit their village since it started. Most of them had never heard the Gospel until I told it to them that day. It was interesting getting to hear about their life and what it was like. We had a powerful meeting where God stirred the hearts of many. After our meeting, which consisted of me giving a lengthy message and talked about Overland and what we were doing in the area, I asked them if they had any questions. Their only question was, “who are you.” Lol. I never told them my name or anything, I just gave them the Word. After we finished I visited a woman who was sick and prayed for her. Then I stopped and prayed for a family that just lost their 14 year old son. This was a challenge for me because I knew the boy didn’t know Christ. I was put on the spot and the only thing I could tell the father was that Christ can fill the void he now has in his life if he allows Him to. That was probably one of the biggest challenges I have had with encouraging someone.

So the last couple weeks have been some of the best weeks of my life. I enjoy giving you guys as much detail as I can so that you can see what I am experiencing. I want to say that the reason I put up these stories is not boast or so that people will be impressed, but it is so that you can see the realness of my relationship with Christ, what He is doing in my life, and so that you can believe and enter in to a deeper relationship with Christ. The only thing keeping you from experiencing an intimate relationship with Christ is yourself, I finally realized it and started to dive in deeper. Because of this I am forever changed.

I started reading a book a little while back. It is called “Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ” by Jeanne Guyon. It was written in the 1600’s, it was publicly burned in France because it offended so many people, and it is responsible for starting revival in several places throughout the last 400 years. The book wasn’t even meant to be published, but was written by this woman for some of her friends that had just began their relationship with the Lord. So many people were being changed by it that they wanted her to publish it so she did. Even though this book was written for those just beginning in their relationship with Christ, this book greatly helped me discover a greater level of intimacy with Christ. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone no matter where you are in your relationship with Christ. I have begun to be able to give more of myself up so that God’s will can be accomplished in me, don’t get me wrong, I’m not totally there yet, but by his grace I will someday get there. With this new relationship I have also experienced a deeper level of peace, joy, and love. My whole being is changing. I spent the last week and a half in the villages in Nyawa. Almost every day I had evangelistic meetings in villages, sometimes two a day. I also made sure to spend a great amount of time with the Lord each of these days. You can only keep pouring out if you keep receiving. I am learning to speak the messages that God wants for his people at the right times. I am learning to give up my plans and works for His. So obviously, in return, the meetings that I have with the people are more powerful and people are being changed. It is funny how it is the easiest and hardest thing we can do is just let God take control. Because of this new ability to let go, gained only by his grace and not on my own accord, I am seeing greater works being done in me, through me, and around me. I am seeing changes taking place in the whole Chiefdom I am working in, reminding you that there are two other people that I work with who have been working just as much if not more in these areas. I am really just trying to say that I am constantly amazed by God and his greatness.

April 13

Windhoek, Namibia and Gaborone, Botswana:

So I did some more work with Project 237 this week. I went to the capitals Windhoek and Gaborone. I first went to Windhoek on an 18 hour bus (it ended up being 20 hours). I got there at 7am. I spent a lot of the ride there in prayer seeking God for some specifics to pray for Namibia but didn't receive anything. Once I got there I found the Supreme Court building and was able to post the Gospel Decree outside on one of the main entrances. After I posted it I started walking around the building, and a few others, and just spent some time in prayer lifting up the country. I still didn't have any specifics to pray for so I just lifted up the local churches, the President, and spoke out against the strongholds of the enemy in the name of Christ. As I was walking and praying, I walked by a guy selling newspapers. God told me to buy a newspaper. I was like "alright but what do you want me to do with it cause you know I don't read the newspaper." lol. So I gave in and started reading it, more so scanning it, and checking out the pictures and headlines. It turned out that the main subject through the whole thing was the youth. So I asked God, "what are you trying to tell me". He told me to pray for the youth. So I spent the rest of my time praying for the youth of Namibia. It was another great time of prayer just knowing that God was doing big things in the area.

After that it was off to Gaborone, Botswana. I flew there having to stop through Johannesburg and switch planes. I am getting very familiar with Johannesburg airport. I was accompanied by 57 americans that were going to Botswana for the peace core. I almost felt sorry for the people. I mean, if you are going to give two years of your life up to go help people at least bring them something long term and life changing like Jesus. I don't think I would have it in me to come over and serve for that long without a greater purpose. I arrived there in the afternoon. I had a little bit of trouble getting them to stamp my passport and give me a visa, but after a lot of explaining and telling them that I was in transit and would be going to Zambia the next day, they finally let me through with a 3 day visa. I took a taxi from the airport, who ended up being a christian, and he helped me get around to what I needed. I ended up in the middle of everything. I was in the center of Parliament, the American Embassy, the President's office, Ministry of Health and Education, and a few others that were pretty high up there as well. I read and posted the Gospel Decree in the middle of everything right on the wall. It stood alone and really stuck out. I watched as hundreds of people walked by looking at it curiously, some reading it, and some just walking by. I spent time in prayer just praying for the purpose of each building individually. I was amazed at how much Botswana was growing. I read in a paper or something that the population was increasing at about 4.5 percent. After that I still had the same taxi driver and he helped me find a bus back to Zambia that night! Sure enough, we pulled up and found a big yellow bus that said Gaborone to Lusaka express. I looked on the internet for hours and couldn't find a bus to Zambia from Gaborone. I just trusted God that He would provide a way. He always provides. So I get on the bus and we are all ready to go and then the driver shuts the bus off, which is never a good sign, usually means a delay of some sort. Instead a woman from the ticket booth came on and asked someone to pray for the trip. So one man quickly stood up and prayed for all of us. To me this was just God giving me confirmation, because I wasn't sure if I did everything He wanted me to do there. Then we were off, on the road again. This trip was quick and very tiring, but I didn't have the expense of staying the night and worrying about transport. So overall it was a quick trip. I spent most of it in prayer. I couldn't imagine going on a trip like that and not being in constant fellowship with the Lord because I would have gone crazy. Look forward to doing more work with Project 237 in the future, but I'm done for a month or two. Back to the villages. Got lots of plans in the upcoming weeks.

Here is a copy of the Gospel Decree I have been talking about.

The Gospel Decree

God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, and became a sacrifice, fully paying for the sins of every person.

This same Jesus – Who was crucified, died, and was buried, rose again from the grave, and was received into Heaven – has a plan for your life. Believe this Good News, turn from your sin to Jesus, ask Him to forgive you and redeem your soul, and you will not perish, but receive the free gift of life.

Pray to God that He would guide you into all truth. Tell others about Jesus, His love, and the free gift of eternal life.

God is good and His mercy endures forever. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

April 9

I am blessed. My time out in the villages has been amazing. I already have some good stories to tell.

Zambia has a national holiday that they call TB day. It is a day that recognizes tuberculoses. They will usually have gatherings at the health clinics to share on the causes, symptoms, prevention, and some other stuff. They also do some cultural dances, skits, and singing. I attended one of these gatherings out in Nyawa. I was the only white guy around, which is often the case when I am out in the bush. There were probably about 250 people there and a lot of the leaders of the community. The whole ceremony was pretty nice other than the cultural dancing. The kind of dancing they were doing was very sexual, even worse than club dancing in the states. Sexual perversion has a stronghold on most of Zambia. Unfortunately this dancing is what the people got most excited about. Even small kids were trying to imitate it. My heart ached for these people.

The chief (Chief Nyawa, the leader for the area and about 425 villages) showed up and was the official opener of the ceremony. He pulled up in his vehicle, (all the chiefs of Zambia were given a vehicle by the government) got out, shook some hands with a few people and went into a room for some privacy. Five minutes later I got summoned to go greet the chief because he wanted to talk to me. So I went in this little room with about 3 other people. I talked with him for a while about what I have been doing. He then realized that I have been the white guy riding around on a bicycle throughout his chiefdom. Then he started asking questions about what we were doing this year. I told him a good bit and told him that if he wanted more details that he would have to speak with Jake, the sector manager. After all of this he expressed his desire to take us out to the western side of his chiefdom because there are no churches and no one ever goes out there. He wants his whole chiefdom to be Christians. He is not only allowing us to do the work of the gospel out there, but he is also supporting it. Thank you Jesus! So after we got done talking some cold cokes appeared from nowhere in the middle of the bush and we enjoyed the cokes and just had some fellowship. After a while we went out to the Ceremony that was still going on. The chief asked one of the pastors to open in prayer before he gave a speech. These ceremonies are often long and drawn out so I started getting bored. Then God spoke to me and told me to be praying for the chief so I did so. Then God told me to get ready to pray for all of these people and so I did. Then moments later the chief gave his closing remarks and asked me to get up and give a closing prayer. Haha. I get so excited seeing the leaders of these people honoring God and realizing that He alone is what is going to bring change to their people.

One random night there was a crazy lightning storm just off in the distance. I love watching lightning, but there was something different about this storm. There was something tugging at my spirit. I asked God why this was and he told me to pray for the people of that area. I started praying and then had a vision. I saw multiple witch doctors that were controlling the storm. I saw people in bondage because of these controlling spirits. I saw the compassion that God had for his people and I spent time interceding for these people.

We have had a lot of progress being made in the Nyawa Chiefdom. We now have 12 zone managers overlooking about 60 villages. They are discipling people and making sure that bible studies are being ran in each of those villages. Recently we had a problem with one of our zone managers. He ended up getting very sick and went to the hospital in the city. They took x-rays and found nothing wrong with him. So he turned to the witch doctor for answers. He told us that he was going to the hospital so hearing this news wasn’t good. We weren’t for sure if this was true so me and a pastor went to his home and asked his son, who has his own family and home in the same village, where he was and what he was doing. His son told us that he was near the hospital but was seeing a traditional healer (aka witch doctor) and hadn’t returned yet because they had to arrange payment of a cow before the witch doctor would let him return home. So when we finished out in the villages that week we went to the hospital to find him. We found him and questioned him. He denied everything. We didn’t tell him about the fact that his own son, and everyone else he knows said he was seeing a witch doctor. So our original plan of action was that he would no longer be a zone manager. We can’t have someone who is a spiritual leader for these people being involved in witchcraft. We were going to continue to disciple him and allow him to stay in charge of managing the gardens for us in the area. But now that he is denying the whole thing and we have proof that it is true, we can no longer have anything to do with him until he repents and turns back to God. The bible says to first approach personally, if he does not repent bring in another brother or pastor, and if there is still no progress bring him before the church or counsel, if he will still not repent then cut him lose and have nothing to do with him. So these are the steps we followed. If, in the future, he repents and comes back to us we will have open arms. We already have another man that is being raised up and discipled to fill this position. God has given us much favor in these areas. I think this whole issue will strengthen us in the end.

I had the opportunity to travel in with some friends to Lusaka, which is the capital of Zambia. They needed a male to go with just to feel better about traveling. So I decided to make the best of this opportunity and do Project 237 while I was there. I spent a whole day there. It happened that a lot of the political power buildings were on the same stretch of road. I prayed in preparation for this trip, and as well I prayed just before reaching the area. After praying and asking God to prepare me for this mission I searched the area and found myself before the Supreme Court building. I went through the gospel decree with some people, and then looked for a good place to post it. I asked permission from the secretary to post the Gospel decree at the Supreme Court. After reading through it and agreeing with it, she allowed me to post it right on the reception counter. It was the only paper posted there, so it caught the eye of everyone that came in. After being amazed at the favor that God was giving me already, I went outside and started praying. The presence of God poured over me. I lifted up the nation of Zambia in prayer and spoke on many things that the Lord lead me to pray for. After this amazing encounter I decided to do some evangelism. I just stopped random people walking by and shared with them about Jesus. Almost all of them claimed to be Christians so instead of just leaving it at that I asked them to pray with me. Together, about 5 times with different people, we prayed and lifted up Zambia once again. Of course there were also quite a few that got scared and came up with excuses like they were late or something. A couple of them really got into it and were excited about it. I had a great time doing this and look forward to working more in the future with Project 237. If you want to know more about Project 237 look it up at http://www.cotr.com/missions.htm

March 8, 2010

Here it starts, a new year, full of expectation and excitement.

My time at home was amazing. God poured into me the whole time and he has been giving me opportunities to share all of it with other people. So I took advantage of the time at home and allowed myself to be used by God and the outcome was amazing. I serve an awesome God! He doesn’t rely on me but he loves to use me.

I am now back in Zambia. I will be working in the same areas and maintaining the relationships that I have already began while I was here. I look forward to discovering the progress that they have made even while I was gone. God has given me the vision of starting a discipleship training program when I get back. I will take some guys through some bible classes and bring them along to the meetings with me and train them up to do the same thing that I am doing. I am trying to put myself out of a job. Lol.

As well as this, I will be going to Angola for 2 months starting some relationships and building connections there so that we can start working in those areas in the near future. I will also be going to brazil for 2 months working with some local pastors and helping lead trips into the areas. Then I will return to Zambia all the way up to Thanksgiving when I’ll be coming back state side.

Some of my major goals for this year are to become completely fluent in the Portuguese language so that I can effectively share the gospel with people and not be hindered by having to use a translator. This will also help with building relationships with people as well. I also will be finishing my associates degree in basic theology this year.

When I first started out I didn’t have much vision but had passion and was willing to go wherever God called me. Now I am learning to let God use me in ways that I had never imagined and it is amazing. I am very excited to see what comes of this year. Thank you for your interest in what I am doing. I will keep you posted!