Our
ministry for month six of the World Race has come to and end. No month has been without struggle, but I
feel like this is the first time I have had a genuine challenge! As I mentioned in my other blogs, we spent a
majority of our ministry time out in the bush.
We’ve been camping out, working with a church in the remote village of
Machanga. There has been very little
Christian influence here, especially from the Western world.
There
were church services every night, with one of us delivering the message. In the midst of all their dancing, singing,
and shouting, we were asked to dance, sing, and do some sharing of our own. As the weekend rolled around, a large group
of Mozambiquans came down from Beira, in the north. It just so happened that we arrived in
Machanga the weekend of a women’s conference, and we were asked to help with
some of the teaching!
The
church services, which ran from 9AM to the afternoon and then picked back up in
the evening, were packed. Standing room
only! Our group gave on average two
talks a day, with all the other talks coming from the group in Beira. At first, we were excited about being able to
rest, but found ourselves staring wide-eyed at the preachers. They were teaching a lot of false Scripture
and other incorrect things! What made
matters worse was that the leadership in Machanga did nothing to stop it!
All four
teams out in the bush spent some time in prayer to see what God wanted us to do. After the women’s conference was over, the
church asked us to run the show for the next few days, so we began to put
together services that we hoped would help us reach the people there. We prepared worship, skits, testimonies,
dramas, and sermons based on who Jesus was and on the Biblical principle of
being saved by grace and not by works.
Unfortunately,
over the two days we preached, church attendance was quite low. There were times that we were only sharing
with a few women from the village, but we pressed on. Several people came up for our Monday evening
alter call, but we began to wonder if we were making any progress at all. Were we getting through to them?
As
evening approached on Tuesday, our last night in the village, I think we were
all a little frustrated. We just weren’t
getting through to anyone. Finally, a
member of our team thought it would be a good idea to have a question and
answer session. What questions did these
villagers have about the faith they supposedly followed?
It came
as a bit of a surprise when we received questions about who God was, and who
Jesus was. To them, this was just
another god to serve. We took the time
to explain in detail all that God has done, and that they need to stop
worshipping their ancestors and worthless idols. By the end of the evening, I truly believe
they understood the message and are now on the winning side. It only took a little personal time, to show
that we really cared, for them to see the light.
I’m not
sure if I will ever see those people again, but I hope that little church rises
up a strong beacon for Jesus Christ!
