While in Zimbabwe my team had the privelage of getting to know a group of young adults from the church we were working with. Every Wednesday evening we attended a gathering called ‘The Crave’ which was essentially a worship service followed by one of the young men preaching and afterward there was time for questions and discussion.
The very first night we were greeted so warmly and welcomed right in. I was amazed by the biblical knowlege and hunger for truth. It is a rare thing to see people my age so on fire for the Lord.
During the month we got to hang out and get to know eachother more. We went to a game night one evening and another night we had the whole gang over to our place for Indian food, games, and as always, some dancing. A few of them are professional dancers so our moves are pretty embarassing in comparison.
Concluding our month we had an all squad debrief about an hour out of town. My teammate Rachael had the idea to get them a bus out for an evening. This way they could meet the rest of our squad and worship with us as well as hear Eric preach.
As the bus pulled up we all cheered with joy seeing them again. The night got going with some loud music and dancing. Then session started and what happened next none of us ever expected.
After Eric preached as we were closing with worship someone felt like the Spirit was prompting those who needed healing to come forward. I was surprised to see one of the men we had invited walk up before all 50 of us. He poured out his heart about needing to let go of a relationship he was still holding on to and letting take God’s place in his heart. All of us laid hands and prayed for him and the feeling of freedom began to permeate the room.
Then, one by one, almost every one of our friends courageously came forward for prayer and completely bared their souls about struggles in their walks with God, with forgiveness, with the need for physical and emotional healing, and so much more. And one by one we came together declaring victory and watching God move as people stepped into newfound freedom. I was completely overwhelmed by the breakthroughs and love God poured out.
As their van pulled away at the end of the night my team and I huddled around eachother and just prayed and praised God for what He had done and there was not a dry eye among us.
This experience is what the world race is all about: God’s church from all around the world coming together as one body despite culture, color, gender, or any other differences, to be unified in our Saviors love.
The world race has really shown me that curch is not a building or a set of programs. God’s church is made up of His people worshipping in any location, even a field in Africa under the stars.
I will never forget this night and I will never forget out friends from Zimbabwe.
It’s funny how God has things planned that are so much bigger than we could ever plan ourselves thanks to Rachael’s simple obedience in following the tug on her heart.
Currently, we have arrived in Swaziland! Our squad is split in half for the month and my team and I are in Manzini. The wifi is scarce but I look forward to sharing stories about what God will do here.
Thanks for loving me through your support and reading my blogs.
Love Jenna
