It was a beautiful, sunny Tuesday morning and we were on our way to go to the Hospital with the intention to comfort, pray and heal children in the children’s ward. Along the road our host “mom” Vicky sees an old man on a wheelchair and felt lead by the Holy Spirit to go pray for him, for complete healing! Vici and my teammate Daiva get out and went to go talk to the man. As the rest of the team was waiting for them, we decided to also get out of the truck and ask the Lord if there was anybody that we could pray for or talk about Jesus. He was not able to walk after they prayed for him, but they found out that he was a strong Christians and his spirits were definitely lifted!
What was supposed to be a ten minute pit stop turned into a 2-3 hour revival in a small neighborhood/village around the corner form the hospital! This neighborhood was filled with men and women that wanted to be prayed for and were generally just all searching for hope in Bulawayo. I believe the name of that section of town was called “Zelenchazi” ( I totally botched the spelling there).
2 of our squad leaders were with us that day, one of them being a past WR alumni had mentioned that THIS is what the world race is supposed to be like. The world race is more than just an 11 month mission’s trip (that’s a blog for another day) It’s literally how you live with God on a day-to-day basis and that would be submitting your will unto him and asking him how we can do his will. That includes with whom, or what, when, how, why or what we are to do. Every part of your life, scheduled or not is an “ATL” moment. ATL is a cute little term that Adventures in Missions uses for missionaries to embody in their everyday life. Ministry is wherever you are and whatever you want it to be as long as you’re in the constant mindset to see people the way Jesus sees them! Since He is Lord of ALL that means that everyone needs Jesus. He died and defeated death for everyone! So even though we had scheduled to be at the Hospital that morning, the Lord had us stay in that part of town to do the following:
We met with several people that day who asked us to pray for them and their families.
We layed hands on women, men and children.
A young man who seemed pretty rough on the edges gave his life to Christ!
We met and prayed for a pastor and his congregation who was actually considering
shutting down his ministry due to conflicting town politics.
Play and sing worship music!
What an “ATL” experience! We eventually ended up in the hospital that day, but only for a short time, the Holy Spirit wanted us to be there for the morning because we asked Him!
There was one woman that I prayed for named Jennifer. While the rest of my team was keen praying for other folks around me, I approached Jennifer asking her how her day was and eventually I just asked if I could pray for her. I thanked the Lord for her and prayed specifically for her family, finances and anything that was going on in her household and marriage that kept her trusting the Lord. Afterward she told a few others on my team how blessed and empowered she felt after praying with her. And praised my character in the Lord. She felt that God was using me to minister to her specific needs and then proceeded to invite the surrounding people that were left from my team to come to her house and pray over the rest of her children. She invited us into her home to openly pray for her family! We then each prayed for her children and she then showed us pictures of some of the sculptures that her husband carves from wood.
What broke me in this joyful moment was how the Holy Spirit profoundly used us in caring for this family! The Holy Spirit used Jennifer to confirm in me my identity and authority I have in Christ. The Holy Spirit also wanted more from the rest of my team to cover her whole family in prayer! The whole month of February was such a huge stepping stone for my whole team in stepping out in faith in “A.T.L.” to guiding our steps and blessing our tongues in reaching out and speaking to His people. What an honor…what a gift!
How are you going to ATL to direct your day today?
