Sent Out: Holy Mgoli
The bus comes to a stop.
Josh, Bri, Clara, and I gather our belongings and step off of the bus into…
…The Bush.
Literally, the bush of Tanzania spread out before us in the little town of our destination, Mgoli. We meet Pastor Francis and encounter some drunkards before a little hike to the outskirts of the town to the church and house we will be staying at for the next few days. We meet some of the church members and their kids before retiring for the night. I get to be in my own room.
We wake up to get our bearings, step outside, and see dust, dirt, and donkeys within our line-of-sight. The place is cool and comfortable, yet dry and arid as if we just got transported to the state of Arizona. It's beyond bizarre!!
We spend the next three days with a schedule something like this:
Wake up to breakfast, tea, and/or coffee
Leave the house from 10 'til around 1 and preach the Gospel
Rejoice over those who received the Lord
Take lunch, then have a rest period
At four o'clock hold a service where we preach after praise and worship
Have a few hours before dinner, take dinner, then answer questions
We answer questions that the Pastor and church members who come over to the house have about the Bible, America and her culture, and other random topics
Go to sleep and begin again the next day
Sunday has Sunday School, praise and worship, and a time to preach in the morning instead of walking around town.
The days go on and after one of the kids, Clarence, that we met on the on first night receives Christ on the first day of our message sharing, we become ecstatic and begin to really enjoy sharing the Gospel. Granted Josh and Bri were definitely more free-flowing with the message than I was, but that is ok, I know God used me these days.
Now, if you remember the passage from the last blog (Mark 6:7), then you will remember that it ends with Christ granting the disciples authority over unclean spirits. Well, this also happened to us during our time in Mgoli. I was constantly in prayer binding and silencing demons while Josh and Bri spoke, mainly because of the last two books I have read by Rebecca Brown, He Came to Set the Captives Free and Prepare for War. These two books are both about spiritual warfare and talk in-depth about the spirit world and the authority we, as true believers in Christ, really have over the unlean spirits.
The last time we were in town sharing the Gospel we had a couple of run-ins with some of these unclean spirits, where in both cases after prayer the spirits obeyed and were silent. The first case even resulted in the man with the unclean spirit being able to hear and understand the Gospel that he accepted Jesus Christ as His personal Lord and Savior. Praise God!!
We got up super early on Monday morning to head back to our teammates in Iringa Town and were very forlorn to say goodbye to those we met and served alongside with in bringing the Kingdom of God to Mgoli. We did however get to see a very beautiful sunrise as we waited for the bus.
The trip was nothing what I expected and I was blown away by how God showed up as we shared the Gospel and spoke to many of the Tanzanians in town and even by the big pond/lake they get their water from. I pray for continued growth in the community of believers in Mgoli and pray diligently against all the evil forces that would come against the work of Pastor and my family there in that town. Truth be told that I have learned a lot more of what it means to stand in the gap for others and I have asked God to use me as He sees fit for all of Mgoli, as well as all of those I love back home.
With all this said, please read my next blog, a poem or psalm, to America.
