A couple days ago we got to see a glimpse of how much the people in this area respect the teachings of the Word of God. Our contact here had set out for us to go to four different churches in one day to teach and encourage the congregation. The first church was about a 20 minute drive from where we are staying. We arrived at the church at around 10:00 AM to a mob of people eagerly awaiting our arrival. We soon learned that we were supposed to be there at 9:00 AM, so we were already behind schedule for the day. All thirteen people in the group shared their testimony, which resulted to about almost a two hour long service. After this we moved on….
The next church was about another 20 minute drive away. We arrived at this church with the same welcome that we received at the first church. A massive group of pastors and leaders welcomed us with smiling faces and warm handshakes as soon as we got off of the van we were traveling on. It was easy to see the joy on their faces when we arrived. At this church only two people shared their testimony because our contact was starting to receive a phone call about every five minutes from the other churches that we were supposed to go to in the day. When we left, they were so joyful to have received a word from the Lord. We learned that we were supposed to be at this church at 9:00 AM as well. Yeah, welcome to African scheduling! It was amazing to see the patience of these people. They had waited for almost three hours to see us, and we only stayed with them for about thirty minutes. The joy in this church was completely overwhelming and it was just so awesome to see the humility from all of the leaders of the churches that were represented at this meeting. After this, it was on to the last churches of the day.
The church that my team went to was another thirty minute drive down the road. When we arrived the other team split off from us and then went on to the other church. It was about 1:00 PM at this point. We soon realized that this church was expecting us to show up at… you guessed it.. 9:00 AM. So the Americans had shown up four hours late! You would never have known it though. We were welcomed at this church the same way we had been welcomed at the other churches. The patience of this congregation was astounding. They had been sitting in a hot concrete building on concrete benches for over four hours just to hear a word from the Lord. We had learned that some had come from a long way away. So some of these people had not eaten since about 6:00 AM. Two people shared their testimony at this church, then we had some songs and other stuff. After we were done with our portion of the service, our translator pulled a quick one on us. He initiated a time of prayer over people that were not feeling well in the congregation. Turns out, just about everyone in this church had something wrong with them. Out of about 100 people in attendance, we prayed over at least 50 of them. We definitely saw God work through these prayers. People had their eyesight restored, hearing restored, sicknesses healed, walking restored, etc. The only reason that any of this happened was due to these people’s faithfulness and humility. They trusted a group of people that they had never met to bring a word from God. They trusted Him enough that they waited for us for over four hours without any food. This faithfulness and respect of the Word is definitely humbling. Their faithfulness is usually conveyed by giving us utmost respect and honor. It is an honor that feels completely undeserved, but the Word of God deserves that kind of respect.
May we learn to have a respect for the Word of God like these African congregations do. May we be so hungry to receive a word from God that we get uncomfortable for Him to speak to us. To hear a word from God may require sacrifices sometimes. I know that is a hard concept to grasp where there are usually twenty to thirty churches within a short drive from most of our houses. Go to the places that are uncomfortable for you to get to, then the Lord will reward you for your sacrifices and give you a word!
