Here we are, Africa. We are living in Morogoro, Tanzania with a local pastor at an Assembly of God church. His name is Pastor Agnell and we are working along side him this month to do evangelism, preaching, singing, dramas and praying. When we first arrived to the house, we sat our bags down and he walked us over to his church. We were immediately taken into his church family as we introduced ourselves.
Africa is so much more welcoming than Europe. The people here love us, they treasure us and desire to have conversations with each and everyone one of the white people. In Europe, they would barely make eye contact with you much less wave at you or chase you down to talk. It wasn't in the culture of Europeans to say "Hello" to someone that you didn't know, but here in Africa everyone is your friend and everyone says "hello" which often leads to more conversation. One thing that is a little hard to get used to is the lingering handshakes. Culturally in Tanzania it is acceptable for same-sex people to hold hands while walking down the street or just in general. So often times you will see two men walking down the street holding hands. They are not gay and no one even has the mindset that they might be gay. It's just the culture, its weird, hard to get used to, but it is teaching me much about the people here. As you greet someone with a handshake, you don't just shake hands and then let go. They hold onto your hand, sometimes for one minute and sometimes for ten minutes. At first it was very hard to get used to, I would often introduce another team member in hope that they would release my hand and grab onto theirs. Instead, they would move my hand over to their free hand and reach out to greet that person. It's now a competition now to see who can get the longest handshake.
The first day of being here, I was talking to the pastor about the supernatural side of Christianity. Asking him what he believes about healing, casting out demons and other things. His eyes lit up as he said, "I believe in all those things, you actually prayed for a lady who was demon possessed earlier today at church." It blew my mind. The first day we arrive in Africa and I have already encountered someone demon possessed? And I didn't even realize it?
She is dying with a severe case of HIV. Both of her parents died with HIV and she was born with HIV. So she has been in a 20 year struggle for her life. The surprising thing is her amazing joy. She has so much joy, laughter and just peace in her life.
Jill and I were the first to meet her, and we asked her if we could pray for her that day. As we began to pray her body went into convulsions there on the ground. It caught me off guard as she began to convulse. Part of me wanted to stand back because I didn't know what was happening, but I stayed by her side and kept praying there. As Jill began to pray she yelled, "Leave me alone. Get away from me. Stop. Leave me alone." And again, I felt as if I should leave her alone but I stayed by her side. We kept praying for her until the pastor told us we had to leave. When he told us it was what seemed like the time when we couldn't leave, we needed to stay by her side. After she sat back up from the convulsions she said, "Who are you? What is your name? Do I know you? Are you my friends?" She had no idea who we were. The pastor said the HIV infection is so bad that it is effecting her very badly that she is fighting for her life. It was very cool to meet her again a couple days later and she did remember me. She recognized my face and when I asked her my name she said she couldn't remember. I joked with her and told her my name. She laughed and said, "Well what's my name?" I said I couldn't remember her name either and she busted out laughing because I had just given her a hard time about not knowing my name. She has so much joy despite her situation.
After being in Morogoro for a short five days, we were robbed in the night. I lost my wallet that had 70,000 shillings which is about $60, all my cards and then my collection of currency from all the countries we had been in. We also lost a Macbook Pro, iPod, camera, two other wallets, a purse and almost a Passport. The pastor found the Passport outside on the ground of his house, luckily the thieves had dropped it. God was really watching out for Amanda in that situation. The pastor felt very bad for what had happened and kept talking about how sorry that he was. It was a pretty inconvenient thing to happen for me, it wasn't a big deal but it sucks that now I don't have any way to get my own money out.
Today as we were doing evangelism on the streets, something very exciting happened. Really exciting! This is Rukia (lady) and Thabita (guy). I'll tell you about their story in my next blog.
