35 saved 15 healed between the 3 groups of combined members af my team, Agape, and our sister team Vessel.
December 21st
Today was the first day that we had ever been scheduled to do evangelicalism in Botswana.
EVERYONE was pumped.
The entire time we’ve been here in Botswana we were only scheduled to clean things. But TODAY we were doing something completely different. Scheduled evangelicalism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That looked like us first going to the chief of the village Samochima to introduce ourselves because it is custom and respect that when you enter a village, you make yourself and your intentions known to the chief. So us girls wore skirts over our pants so we are respectful and headed off to the chief. All 14 of us in a 11 seat van, we clown-car most of the time here.
I had no idea what to expect.
Turned out it looking like all 14 plus 4 attempting to fit into a average bedroom sized office WITH chairs. While we were shuffling in the chief The was just leaning back in his chair, ankle on knee kinda legs crossed with his fingers on his lips. I could NOT for the life of me decipher his facial expression. When we were all situated the pastor, that were camping in his backyard, introduced us all and he conversed for a while with the chief in Setswana (Botswana’s native language). 6-7 minutes went by and I had no idea how things were going until the chief let out a chuckle. In summary he was so happy that we had come with the word of God to share to his village and we ended in prayer with him.
We said our thankyous and goodbyes and left the building. Immediately all the girls ripped of our skirts bc African heat is TOO HOT to wear 2 layers.
The deciding vote was that we split up into 3 groups. Mine had Hailey, Daven, Nick & Taylor. WHOOP WHOOP. Our translator ,by the grace of God, was Betty. The sweetest girl you’ll ever meet with a B E A U T I F U L voice and spirit.
Starting our walk just to the right of the chiefs offices we headed. Already sweating profusely from the outrageous heat. Not even 3 minutes into our walk we were at our first house. Entering I had first caught a glimpse of a little girl peeking through her door smiling. Introducing ourselves to the little girls mom I knew in my spirit something was going to happen. Long story short the mother of the little girl that I came to know was deft had chosen to accept Christ!!!! She had explained to us when we asked if she believed in God was that God will come down for judgement soon. All she had talked about in the beginning of our conversation was about judgement which lead to a open door for us to share the WHOLE gospel. Praise
We left that house feeling GOOD to say the least. Knowing that the spirit of the living God is in this village doing His mighty work.
We laid eyes on the house Betty told us was next and as we were turning the corner to find the door she had over heard them speak in Setswana “don’t fear the crime of killing someone”. And when she had let us know what they said we all responded with joy, knowing that is the exact place that Jesus would go into.
Entering, Betty told us this is their village version of a bar. There were 11 people there. 3 old ladies sitting on a mat on the floor, 3 men sitting on a pile of cinder blocks, a woman also sitting with those men & 3 men sitting in the ground and one woman on a bench. We greeted everyone and introduced who we are and what we are doing. The grandmother was clearly happy when she heard our purpose. She went on to explain that two of her sons had been in a fight with each other and what they all need is the word of God. But she wanted to finish her lecture with them and so we let her finish. As any grandmother/mom would lecture their youth when they do something the 110% should NOT have done.
Once she had finished she told us we can now share God’s word. We first wanted to understand exactly what happened, I won’t go into too much detail or else it’ll get confusing but the sinopsis is that the cousin had gone into the others house, stole his lamp and ran away & the one he had stolen from had beaten him up.
Nick felt the spirit push on him to share his testimony and it was so incredibly powerful that everyone there was intrigued by this different version of God. One who is redeeming and relentless in His love for you specifically. An hour into explaining who God is and how He has worked in Nicks life and circumstances we had asked if any need/ want prayer. Prayer that they are willing to speak of and secret prayers that they don’t want anyone to hear. After praying over the prayers of the people who were ok with telling everyone what they want prayer for, we went off into a far corner of the property, under a tree and invited the people with secret prayers to come and receive.
Standing in prayer over 9+ people for an hour+some more, I witnessed healing, unexplainable peace, joy, deliverance over bondage and so much more. I left that house feeling full of the Spirits joy and presence.
One of the old ladies in her prayer requests mentioned that with doctors had put hexs in her house and fortune tellers tell here that there’s a corner in her house that houses demons and she is just so tired of it because she feels as though she can’t do anything about it. So we made it our mission to go to her house and bring light in that place.
And so after leaving the bar, taylor and I followed her to her house. And followed. And followed. If you didn’t catch on ,her house was really far. But by the grace of God we finally made it. Dripping in sweat we stepped into the one room concrete house. Sitting there in the bed made out of blankets on the floor were an old grandmother & her granddaughter and 11 month old great granddaughter.
Taylor explained what the Holy Spirit is, that it is one of the 3 parts of our God and it is our Helper that He has given to us when He left, before we invited it into their house. Once they agreed to inviting Him we held hands and all prayed at once. Loud and bold prayers& at some point I welcomed the Holy Spirit to pray on our behalf.
When we finished our prayers the great grandmother randomly said that her back feels so much better than it did before. So apparently when I asked the Holy Spirit to pray He had touched the her without me even knowing.
Wild.
The rest of the visit looked like taylor, Betty and I walking about her property declaring it all to be Jesus’. We danced, gave Him praise, said our goodbyes and went on our way back “home” for lunch.
Lunch consisted of gourmet ramen and a Nutella sandwich.
Started back up with evangelicalism at 4pm.
Walked around the village for a bit trying to find a not empty house. Finally we found one with 4 women.
A very old grandmother
Her daughter
And 2 great granddaughters around my age.
As we respectfully greeted the grandmother, you put your hand under your elbow and do the Botswana handshake, the granddaughters got us all chairs to sit on. And as Taylor does- she prefers cross-cross Apple saucing on the ground and made the grandmother sit on the chair. So sweet. The mother of the house was actually getting ready to go somewhere and so she told us to get to the speaking of the Word of God already. Lol never had that before. This woman actually said she is hungry for the Word and wants to be taught. To be continued…
