Going into Africa, God told my team that we would be entering the land of the opposites, and He told me specifically that it would be a country of learning for me. I have been in Africa for one month now, and both have been so true.
So much is different here from what I'm accustomed to, and though this sounds like a funny statement being that I'm going into my seventh country on the Race, it's true. So much of how the African culture does life, even in the Christian church culture here, is different. How we worship, how we discuss money and financial needs in the church, how we go out into the community and minister, how we define ourselves… all different. There are still many similarities, and many of the similarities are in the struggle, which is good to see that we all face similar difficulties all over the world, in the whole Christian global body.
For me, in this place of seeing, learning, seeking, and having to ask for forgiveness when I am judgmental of the process and of people; I find myself finding FREEDOM!
Forgiveness births freedom, freedom births understanding, understanding births love, love casts out all fear, and in the absence of fear is true FREEDOM.
Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that I have been set free.
Here's what God's been up to….
Last month in Tanzania, my team and I witnessed:
-25 plus people accept Jesus Christ into their heart and lives!!!
-5 people healed, two ladies of body pain and two younger girls of illness, an illness that would not go away, one the doctors had tried to heal. AND my teammate Karen's foot was healed after a Tanzanian nurse tried to give her an IV in her foot to no avail due to dehydration. She had pain for a week and a half later and post prayer-healed! No pain! God is the ultimate physician!!!
-An unclean spirit cast out of a young girl and I could physically see the look in her face shift; she went from having a dull, expressionless face and no light in her eyes to light shining from her eyes and her looking at us with openness saying she felt "normal" again.
-People filled with the Holy Spirit during church prayer.
-Funds coming into teammates and squadmates World Race accounts.
I am at our squad's Month 6 debrief and we are in transition between leaving our ministry in Tanzania, and preparing for our ministry in Malawi. We have only been in Malawi for four days and God has already moved in tremendous ways in our squad family. Last night, He brought freedom to our worship, our sharing, our creative expression in how we worship Him. He brought reconciliation in relationships and freedom from bondage; bondage of comparison, depression, sexual sin, past struggles, and unbelief. I did 'spoken word' for the first time in worship; if you don't know what that is, well, neither did I. I danced, I sang, I encouraged, I challenged… we fought for each other in prayer, crying out to The Lord on behalf of our brothers and sisters. And it felt gooood!
Hello Malawi!!!
This is my life, and this is real.
~m
