Our ministry in the villages involves singing songs and preaching the gospel in the villages that we visit, once we finish with preaching we go out and pray over everyone that asks for prayer, and to be honest I’ve been struggling with this since our first night.
It’s not that I have a problem praying for people, that’s not it at all, rather I wondered if they wanted our prayers because they saw God in us or because they think that because we’re American our prayers are stronger. The first night of ministry we went from house to house of church members praying for them and mostly praying for blessings over them. I started to wonder why it was that they wanted us to pray for them so badly. It just seemed that they only wanted prayers from us because we were American and it weighed heavily on me that night.
The next day we asked the Pastor about it and he said that they see us Americans as the “Blessed Ones”. So to them our prayers really are more meaningful, powerful and impactful. This is something I’m wrestling with, because I know that God does not love me anymore than He loves the people in these villages. Yes I do have a very different life than they do and I am blessed in many ways, but God does not care for me more than He does them. I don’t know why I was born where I was and into the family that I was born into, but I do know that God does not listen to my prayers more than He does to the prayers of those we minister to.
I just wanted to yell and tell them that they are wrong that God loves them as much as He loves us, that I’m here in their villages because of how much God loves them, to make sure that they see how much He loves them. I want them to know that there is power in their prayers, the same power that exists in my prayers; the power of Christ. That the healings that they see have nothing to do with me or anyone on my team; it’s all God. That the miracles they’ve seen didn’t happen because we’re American but they happened because we had the faith to believe that God would heal. That God hears them and will heal through them, but they need to believe this, they need to know that God loves them just as much as he loves the rest of us, that he hears their prayers, it has nothing to do with where we’re born, God doesn’t care about your nationality he cares about your heart and your faith in Him.
Our ministry here is to share the Gospel and share Christ’s love, but it’s also this: To empower the Christians here to KNOW and BELIEVE that the power and love of Christ exists in them also.
Much Love,
Jess
