“Freedom!!” The next morning I awoke to Melanie telling me I had unknowingly belted this out the previous night. Being three feet away from one another’s tent buddies this past month gave us the luxury of overhearing funny sleeping habits that some of us possess, but I think there was a little more to it than only giving Mel a good laugh.
Freedom describes this past month, individually, among our community with our team of 15, and outwardly while teaching and training rural churches in the bush of Mozambique.
“Ugh.” This was Ali and I’s initial reaction within our specific church. We were there to train them how to share their story and God’s story with others, so more people would come into relationship with Jesus and their church would continue to multiply. “How are we to accomplish this goal when half the people in this church don’t even know what heaven, hell, or the Bible is?” Being released from having to accomplish a goal and instead focusing on the heart of why we were there, Jesus, became our foundation. Going back to the basics of faith we soon discovered that these people believed “church” and good works was their way to God. As they shared their stories and we took them out to evangelize to their neighbors, “church, church, church” was their primary focus while Jesus lagged behind in the shadows.
Each day Ali, Josh, and I walked a half-hour through the white sand and tall grass to reach the hut of our Mozambican friends. For the 2 of us females one of us always commented about how we somehow just felt off. Recognizing that our emotions always followed suit the day we were teaching, we would pray for each other, and soon observed the other boldly imparting truth and empowering our church through teaching…freedom in learning new reliance upon God’s Spirit.
As we continued to press on throughout the week we also saw God bring freedom to this church. It may not have looked how we originally planned but His plans proved greater. By the end of the week we saw a 12 year-old boy with a permanent smile glued to his face proudly demonstrating God’s story to others in the sand; Anna, a woman who was possibly a traditional healer (witchdoctor) in the area was now coming to church after witnessing to her the first day; Alfred, a 20 something, influencing others with his new blazing passion for evangelizing, as he shared God’s story with his grandparents and they became Christians, while all the repetitive teaching we poured into this church finally paid off as they no longer emphasized the “church” as being the way to God, but only through Jesus.
One particular day when I was teaching I glanced to my left where I saw a few builders carrying a massive tree trunk. As I continued teaching about Jesus being our rock and the foundation of life, I didn’t think much about it until a few minutes later when I saw them sitting right in front of me. After we invited people to give their lives to Jesus that day, two of these three men did. “How like Him to have me teach on rocks and foundations when He knew these builders would come and listen!”
It’s no wonder that being in Africa my spirit unconsciously yelled out, “Freedom!” It is something that these people cry out for and respond well to when given opportunity to be free, freedom from sin’s separation from God, false teaching, lack of purpose in life, evil spirits, and not trusting God to reign as both protector and Lord. Not only did these men experience freedom that day, but I learned that “If you build the church on Jesus, they will come.”
Freedom describes this past month, individually, among our community with our team of 15, and outwardly while teaching and training rural churches in the bush of Mozambique.
“Ugh.” This was Ali and I’s initial reaction within our specific church. We were there to train them how to share their story and God’s story with others, so more people would come into relationship with Jesus and their church would continue to multiply. “How are we to accomplish this goal when half the people in this church don’t even know what heaven, hell, or the Bible is?” Being released from having to accomplish a goal and instead focusing on the heart of why we were there, Jesus, became our foundation. Going back to the basics of faith we soon discovered that these people believed “church” and good works was their way to God. As they shared their stories and we took them out to evangelize to their neighbors, “church, church, church” was their primary focus while Jesus lagged behind in the shadows.
Each day Ali, Josh, and I walked a half-hour through the white sand and tall grass to reach the hut of our Mozambican friends. For the 2 of us females one of us always commented about how we somehow just felt off. Recognizing that our emotions always followed suit the day we were teaching, we would pray for each other, and soon observed the other boldly imparting truth and empowering our church through teaching…freedom in learning new reliance upon God’s Spirit.
As we continued to press on throughout the week we also saw God bring freedom to this church. It may not have looked how we originally planned but His plans proved greater. By the end of the week we saw a 12 year-old boy with a permanent smile glued to his face proudly demonstrating God’s story to others in the sand; Anna, a woman who was possibly a traditional healer (witchdoctor) in the area was now coming to church after witnessing to her the first day; Alfred, a 20 something, influencing others with his new blazing passion for evangelizing, as he shared God’s story with his grandparents and they became Christians, while all the repetitive teaching we poured into this church finally paid off as they no longer emphasized the “church” as being the way to God, but only through Jesus.
One particular day when I was teaching I glanced to my left where I saw a few builders carrying a massive tree trunk. As I continued teaching about Jesus being our rock and the foundation of life, I didn’t think much about it until a few minutes later when I saw them sitting right in front of me. After we invited people to give their lives to Jesus that day, two of these three men did. “How like Him to have me teach on rocks and foundations when He knew these builders would come and listen!”
It’s no wonder that being in Africa my spirit unconsciously yelled out, “Freedom!” It is something that these people cry out for and respond well to when given opportunity to be free, freedom from sin’s separation from God, false teaching, lack of purpose in life, evil spirits, and not trusting God to reign as both protector and Lord. Not only did these men experience freedom that day, but I learned that “If you build the church on Jesus, they will come.”
“For where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom!”
