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