Excerpts from my journal:
June 13, 2012
3:44pm
Today we went to bring the bible to Mogushu (the Muslim man that I talked to the other day) and though he wasn’t there we ran into Fabiano –the man who was asking what it meant to be born again. Seeing the bible in my hand he said, “I think that I should have one too.” I looked at him and said, “I think you’re right.” So I went back and retrieved the only other bible that we had and brought it to him. He invited us into his home and I opened up my Bible and he opened up his Bible and we began to read and study the scriptures together. We read over John Chapter 3 again, we read the scriptures on water baptism –how it’s something to be done after becoming a Christian, and then we read many scriptures out of the books of Acts about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit –and the power that comes with that. He made the observation himself that he needs the power and the boldness that comes through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in order to share with his friends here in the community. He said he now believes that he needs to be born again, and that he wanted to read more of the scriptures, and very soon he will make that commitment. When we get back from Gairo, I’m going to follow up with him again.
June 16, 2012
12:04pm
Yesterday we moved from Morogoro to Gairo which is 2 hours away. We are now working with Pastor Chacha for the week doing evangelism in the form of “crusades”. Tonight I’m going to share the Gospel at one of these crusades.
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6:45pm
Well, I just got back from my first African crusade –which consists of two loud speakers, two scratchy microphones and an open space where a crowd gathers to hear what the Mzungu (white people) have to say. We sang worship songs as the crowd began to grow from mainly just children to more and more adults. By the time it was my turn to get up and share a crowd of 60ish people had gathered around. I was started to get nervous –I’d never spoken to a group that large before, but then I remembered what Paul said in Romans 1, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes..” So I got up and took the microphone and I opened by sharing that scripture. I told the people that before when I was in the University I would share the Gospel with my fellow students and I have seen people who said they did not believe in God, I have seen people who didn’t want anything to do with Jesus, and I have seen people who didn’t even know who Jesus is, be completely changed by the Gospel and are now following Jesus. Because the Gospel is not just words on a page –it is the POWER of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. The Holy Spirit gave me the boldness and the words to say as I opened up the Bible to John chapter 3 and I shared what it meant to be born again and that because of sin we are born spiritually dead and separated from God –but Jesus has come to bring us life. I shared for about 20 minutes and then I sat down and the pastor got up and asked if anyone would like to receive Jesus –4 young men came forward and the Pastor asked me to lead them in a prayer of repentance. 2 of the young men that came forward were the high school students of our Translator Joseph and he was so overjoyed to see them come forward!
June 18, 2012
11:01am
Well I forgot to write in my journal yesterday –so here’s a quick recap of what happened. We went to church in the morning and then after lunch we drove in a packed to the brim minivan to a crusade that was the bush country –1h15minutes into the middle of nowhere. At the crusade we sang songs and I shared my testimony and Wes preached to a crowd of over 100 people and at the end of it 2 people received Jesus and many more come forward for healing!
June 19, 2012
6:51pm
One of my favorite moments on the world race so far just happened. While walking back from another crusade a group of 15 kids followed me and Mandi home. During the 20 minute walk home Mandi and I turned and began to walk backwards and we began to clap and sing, “Halle- hallelujah, Halle- hallelujah, Halle – hallelujah, Hallelujah, Mungu – ana weza (God is able).” It was so cute we had a little African choir of orphans and neighborhood kids singing with us as we walked throughout the neighborhoods. We did a grand finale of Hallelujah outside our gate before Mandi and bid them goodnight.
June 22, 2012
7:59pm
We left Gairo really early this morning and drove out into bush country to spend some time with the Masai tribe. After driving for a while on dirt trails through the bush, a church appeared seemingly out of nowhere and inside of it waited about 50ish Masai –mostly women, dressed in their authentic Masai garb. One thing about the Masai is that they are people who live in the bush and have a lot of cattle. Also, a lot of the women have become Christians but not so many men, because the men rely on the witchdoctor to keep their herd healthy. At the church I gave my testimony and then Lindsey and Mark gave a message about the Gospel. The pastor got up and asked if anyone would like to receive Jesus and 2 men who were in the back –dressed in their Masai clothing I might add, came forward and prayed to receive Jesus! After that we began to pray for people who needed healing and were having family problems –and I don’t even know how to describe what happened next –the Holy Spirit fell in that place and as we were laying hands on people and praying people began to cry as they experience the Holy Spirit, people were healed of their sicknesses –even one lady began to manifest a demon – I don’t think I’ve ever prayed so intensely in my life! When the Holy Spirit shows up, man does he show up!
I'm still blown away how God through you has provided so much for this trip! Thank you all so much for your financial donations! I only need $427 more to be fully funded and meet my final deadline on July 1st! If you would like to donate all you have to do is click the support me financially tab to the left! Thank you again!
