"Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” -Acts 30-31
This month my team and I are in Lira, Uganda with another team (Daughters of Zion). We are partnering with a missionary, Jeff Connally, from a Texas church who is starting a church plant here in Lira. The interesting thing about what Jeff is doing is not just starting a church and hoping people come. He is instead going into the community and trying to find 16 “people of peace” as he calls them. These are locals who know Jesus and are willing to go and tell others about Him. He wants to find these people and have them be the foundation of the church so that he can just disciple them and the locals are truly seeking Jesus and not just coming to see the white family.
This month has consisted of us going out into the community tohelp Jeff sift through all of the people and try and find the people of peace. This consists of our teams going out in groups of 2’s and 3’s into the community and seeking the people the Lord is wanting us to speak to. This has lead to meeting some amazing people as well as seeing the Lord work in some miraculous ways. One of the greatest things that I have had the privilege of experiencing was one day when I was walking around the community with my teammate Bryan asking the Lord what He wanted us to do. This is the story of that day told by Bryan:
"Here in Lira we are doing ATL’s. Where we ask the Lord where to go. It’s a little different this time then normal because we asked the Lord to lead us to people of peace.
So after a morning of filling up thru worship and encouragement we set out. Clark and I paired up to bro out and prayed for guidance from the Lord. We didn’t feel like we got any thing in particular so we set with a focus on listening to the Spirit as we walked. We talked about some minor teams things as we were walking and stopped to pray that distractions and worries would be gone. That God’s peace would rest on us and we would follow His lead today.
We walked for a short time before I was struck by the idea that we should visit a man who I met on the street that worked for a clinic. Clark agreed to visit the clinic and we headed over there.
We didn’t find Mark the doctor who I met but a woman came out and when I asked her how she was she immediately told us she was very bad and had pain like rocks behind her eyes.
Clark and I shared an excited look, almost feeling the Spirits desire to heal. After discovering that Monica knew Jesus we asked if she knew that Jesus had the power to heal her. She replied, “Yes I know that if we have faith when we pray Jesus will heal me.”
I can only imagine my smile matched Clarks ear to ear grin. Monica agreed to let us pray for her and we laid our hands on her head to pray. Afterward we asked her how she felt and she said, “A little better.” We explained some times that you have to pray more than once and wanted to pray again but she directed us to pray a woman laying on a bed in the 3 room concrete building.
Dukais had malaria Monica explained as I looked at the woman with an IV and pained expression on her face. I was about ready to pray when Clark asked Monica she would lead us in prayer. It was great she lit up and folder her hands. We prayed together for Dukais. Again afterward we asked how she felt. Dukais told us through Monica translating that she felt a little better.
Again we explained sometimes we pray need more than once and asked to pray again but Dukais declined. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but sensing resistance I was ready to leave. I looked at Clark and saw a thoughtful look. He looked at Monica and said, “How do you eyes feel?” Monica instantly smiled and began touching her head and face. “I feel fine!” she gasped.
We all smiled and Clark explained that Monica had been healed by Jesus and that she had the same power of the Holy Spirit to heal in her Dukais. She promised to pray again for Dukais later. Then I asked her to share her testimony of being healed by Jesus with others she agreed. We promised her we would come back to visit her and hear the story of her sharing testimony.
Praise the Lord!This month the Lord has revealed several new revelations to me. He has shown me his power and love shown through us. He has also shown me the joy that comes from truly sharing the gospel with people. I know I have been on a mission’s trip for 8 months sharing the gospel, but this month has truly brought alive what going out into the unknown and sharing the gospel and making disciples. This month has also given me the opportunity to do other amazing things. I have got to talk and play soccer with some young men from South Sudan who were Child Soldiers and tomorrow my team will travel to Restoration Gateway, an orphanage that sits on 500 acres on the Nile River for a few days. We will then travel to debrief for a week before heading to month 10 in Swaziland before finishing the race in South Africa.
