glimpses

 

 

 

Vietnam – One of our contacts was on the “black list”.  When she was younger, the pastor wasn’t able to preach one day, and asked her to.  She preached with power and the annointing of the Holy Spirit and many people gave their lives to Christ.  The pastor didn’t expect her to preach with such power (or he wouldn’t have asked her to preach) and so it caused a problem for the church, and she ended up on the black list.  It is legal to be a Christian in Vietnam, but illegal to evangelize.  They tapped her phones for awhile, but her and a friend would just talk for hours.  Really boring conversations too, she said, so the police got tired of listening in.

 

One day, after our team had preached at a church we technically were not supposed to, we got pulled over by the police on the way home.  She had to go with the police and we were there waiting in the car.  We were quite concerned, and we all began praying.  She was gone for awhile, and all the time we were praying.  I realized that she might not return.  That I may never see her again.  That she may come under persecution.  Put in prison.  Or worse.  It was intense.  Finally after some time she came back, and we were on the road again.  She was allowed to leave, but she was supposed to return to that station a few days later.  Our driver got a fine.  Praise God, in the end she didn’t have to return, and we were blessed to keep her.

 

 

 

Nigeria – Most of our month was spent in a small village called OKPO, however we spent the last week in the capital city, Abuja.  We were taken care of by Joshua Gana, who is one of the leading businessmen in all of Africa.  His father was the advisor to the president, and also recently ran for president.  It was quite a shock to go from a village in the heart of the country, where food and water was rare, to dining with Kings in the capital city.  The Gana family is amazing.  They are all Christ-centered leaders who absolutely shine the love of Jesus.  We truly were treated like Kings.  They had an amazing feast prepared for us the first day we arrived, it was like, 7 courses.  The last night in Abuja we dined with Joshua and his parents.  I got to pray for our meal, and I prayed that the time would be filled with laughter.  Right after, the Gana’s laughed at my “unusual prayer”, and so it began.  This night was one of the funniest/funnest of my life.  The night was filled with so much joy and laughter, and after a crazy feast-uva-meal, we spent about an hour toasting each other and God over glasses of sparkling grape juice (haha) that never seemed to find themselves empty.

 

 

Stay tuned, more ‘glimpses’ to come…