As I was visiting a team in Mozambique, their ministry was with Africa on Fire. They would put on crusades to draw people in from the bush to hear the message of the Gospel. The days starts off with the team loading giant concert speakers on a truck and driving 30-40 minutes to the middle of nowhere. Once the speakers are set and the stage is up they start playing African worship music and a large crowd starts to form. One of the crusades we were at, Ben was asked to deliver a message about the love of Christ and how His arms are opened wide ready to wrap us in them. After the message Ben asked if anyone who had not received Christ to come up and ask for Christ to enter into their hearts. As I stood off to the side I saw 20+ people asked Christ to enter into their lives. I was happy that they did but I was not jumping for joy. I did not think much about it, but I started to after a few days later when the coolest thing happened.
One Saturday morning, I went to play basketball with some of the guys on the team Ben and I were visiting in the squad. We were invited to play by Ivan who was a young man that lived across from the hosts from Africa on Fire. After we played a few hours, we started leaving when Ivan came up to us and told us that a young man wanted to know Christ. We shared the Gospel with him and he prayed to Jesus to enter into his life. Right after he accepted he told us how a huge peace came over him and you could see a huge change in his eyes. There was so much joy that was just flowing from his face. It was mind blowing! I was so excited for him and was overfilled with joy. The next night, Ben and I were talking outside when Ivan came up to us with the man from basketball and two other young men were with Ivan. As Ben and I walked over and met the young men, Ivan told us that the two young men wanted to know Christ. We shared the Gospel with them and they accepted Christ. You could see the change right away but they also said that a huge amount of joy and peace came over them. They could not stop talking about how much peace they felt and how light they felt. God gave Ben the idea that we should baptize them, but we had no river or water source nearby. It happened that the water was turned off that night, but I had my water bottle with me filled with plenty of water so we took each one of them and baptized them. We even baptized Ivan and right after he told us that he could feel a fire running through his body. I could not describe to you the joy and the smile that was on my face. I could not contain my joy for the new brotherhood that they have and to see the places that God was going to take them.
The next day I was thinking of why I was excited more for the young men than the 20+ people who came to know Christ. As I was thinking about it, God reviled to me why there was such a difference between the young men and the giant crowd. He told me that He knew I was excited for the big crowd but I enjoy the personal connection and growth of a few people. With the crowd, I was not sure if they would go back to their old ways or not but with the young men I knew that they were getting discipled by Ivan. The reason I had more joy was the fact that they had dreams of what God wanted them to do and just in one night they were already sharing with their family and friends. I came to the realization that I had joy for the large crowd, but I have over flowing joy when a brotherhood is formed who are putting on the armor and heading to the front lines.
