Heading into Africa our team was a little worried about what we would be doing for ministry. Our ministry summary that we were sent while we were still in Peru said “Bringing people out of darkness into light”. So many jokes about doing electrical work ran through my mind with this information. Once we got to Africa and finally got to meet with the Pastor of the church we found out how true this statement was. No we haven’t been doing electrical work. In the words of Pastor “we are free”. What does that mean? Whatever we feel God is telling us to do we are free to do it. This may sound like a dream come true but honestly it has been very challenging.
We started out the month doing a lot of listening prayer. We have titled this month our practice ATL month (Ask the Lord). We got a few things to fill our schedule with; Children’s Ministry (VBS), Women’s Ministry, Home Visits and helping out at the church. I’m just going to give you an over view of what each of these ministries looked like.
Children’s Ministry (VBS-Vacation Bible School)
On Wednesdays and Sundays at 4pm all the children gather into the church ready for VBS. We wanted to split up the two groups of children, younger kids on Wednesday and older kids on Sunday. It works out on Wednesdays but on Sundays the little kids were so excited they just join the older kids. There were a ton of children on Sundays. We start VBS off with introductions and prayer. Next we sing a silly song and go over the bible verse for the month. Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge HIM and HE will make your path straight.” We play a puzzle game with the kids to help the memorize this verse. After we finish the memory verse we do a bible story. So far we have done Noah, David and Goliath and Daniel in the Lions Den. We ask comprehension questions to the kids to make sure the understood the story. Next is my favorite part….The kids have to act out the story. The team gets to just sit back and enjoy the show as these little nuggets put on a show. It has always been funny. To end each VBS we ask how the story ties into the bible verse. If there is time left over we go outside and play a game. I got the honors of leading Red Light Green Light the other day and it was terrifying. Have you ever had a swarm of happy African children running at you, all with one goal in mind, to tackle you. Who needs adventure day when you have this adrenaline rush. When we are all done and we say goodbye a group of kids walk us home. We get to hold their hands and sing and laugh. Word to the wise…never let them put flowers in your hair…ants..so many ants…
Women’s Ministry
One Wednesday morning we got to host the women at the church. From 9 to 12 we had them all to ourselves. We introduced ourselves and prayed over the time. Shared with them the verse we had picked out for the day Eph 4:15-16. Melanie shared a sermon out of Ruth and then sang “It is Well”. After that Joey and I got to go up and share parts of our testimony, opening up the floor to being vulnerable with the women. Joey did an amazing dance for the women after her testimony. We then invited the women to come up and try a new form of worship, through drawing. We let them draw how God has made them a new creation through their testimony. Next was a time of sharing, allowing the women to be vulnerable with each other. Before we closed we had the women get into groups of three to pray for each other. This community of women is so strong and we really wanted this day just to encourage them that they are capable of building each other up.
Home Visits
This is probably my favorite ministry. We got to do this ministry two or three times a week. Our translator Larry came with us. He would lead us to homes of people who couldn’t make it to church on Sunday because they were too old or sick. We would talk to them and find out if they had any physical, emotional or spiritual problems they were facing. We would then pray over the time and ask God what He wanted to say to His child. Whoever got a word spoke into that persons life and then we specifically prayed for that person. This would happen over and over again. We would do about 6 groups of people in the mornings. This time was so spirit led and God was constantly showing up speaking to these people. Even if I didn’t get a word for someone I would be so encouraged by how God was using my team.
God was so good this month and showed up in so many ways. The phrase “You are free” has such a different meaning for me now. It means that you can go and tell anyone at anytime about God. So everyone back in America don’t forget, you are free. Go expand the kingdom of God today.
