We are in Africa!
Perhaps the most interesting culture so far. When we arrived, I stacked my new teammates bags up on the luggage dolly, and I to the liberty of riding it down the hill to load the buses we would be riding to the hotel. I was greeted by the locals with a “ hey bro you are number one”! It felt like home, like I was always supposed to be here. Our plan was to stay one night at the hotel and then drive for a couple hours to a more rural area for a special awaking ceremony with another world race team. The hotel that the boys and the squad leaders stayed in was Boujee A F. Complete with King size beds and coffee in the morning comparable to taking hard drugs for the first time in your life. Everyone was calling me a Rasta-man because of my dreadlocks.
It was a big culture shock for me. I didn’t have any clue what it was going to be like, so I was pretty quite around the locals not knowing what the social norms were.
When we got to the headquarters where the awaking was being held, we were greeted by a good size crowd of children, ready to help take our bags or just give hugs. This reminded me of when I first reconnected with God a few years ago in Mexico.
The Man leading the awaking was a man named Ralph. I was excited to meet him because there really is no late 40s male figures out here showing a good examples. The stuff that he talked about was genuine and supernatural, not putting a limit on God, and most of all he was actually doing missionary work here so he was the real deal. I will talk about him later though.
Each person had a roll in the awaking, a sort of service that was mandatory for you to sign up for. Things like: hospitality, intersession, prayer, worship etc. Naturally I signed up for worship, and it was something I’m not use to doing. Worship leading has been more prevalent in my life since these few nights. It was a very free style of worship. People would get up and say what’s on their mind and the crowd would respond. I even dropped a freestyle and apparently people connected. Prophetic freestyle rapping is a concept I’m still talking to God about.
It was all going pretty well until we took a trip to the villages. I was the only guy in the group and when the kids came out to greet us everyone took to there own direction. We were giving out bible verses taking pictures with the kids and just meeting people. Some time passed when 2 girls came back in tears explaining they were attacked. Everyone was ok no physical harm just a scare was all. One other had some jewelry stolen but she knew it they were just material possessions. They still felt a little upset. I tried to comfort them the best I knew how to.
After this happened, my perspectives and attitude toward Africa in general became a little more cautious. I was trying not to let the enemy put a false expectation on everyone living in the country because a few locals were hostile. We heard from the other group that had casted out a demon for a lady. She was rolling on the ground and they had to call the pastor. It seemed pretty intense. It made me realize how much spiritual warfare the area was in.
On our last night, the big cheese announced that it would be an all squad month, and everyone cheered. I had mixed feelings about this, not because I didn’t like the squad but because I was stoked to spend time with my new team. Our new Team: Mackenzie, Jason, Eric, TJ, Jordan. Mostly all guys this time which is definitely not what I expected and I don’t like change but things take time.
We left the sight and headed back to the hotel to figure out a more permanent housing for the rest of the month. The problem was the hotel wasn’t going to accept the squad again. This reason is still unknown to me. We used the wifi to call transportation and ended up scoring a guest house that was owned by the same organization that put on the event we just came from. Fit with bucket showers and low lighting. Aint no complaint, its what I signed up to do in the first place!
Our team had a feeling God was going to show up but we had to step out in faith. We ended up only paying for a few nights at that place and then we were off to an airbnb we just found on google. When we got here, we were greeted by Gadisa, the owner and founder of Testimony 25:40. It so happen that this Airbnb is a ministry in itself, running a care center for orphan kids. And it just so happens that the man Ralph that we were with a few weeks prior had been a mentor to Gadisa when he was a young man striving to be a social worker. He went crazy when he found out we were part of the world race. He told us his testimony and we got plugged into the orphan program.
We made a highlight support video for him so you can check that out on my IG page. It explains everything! – @g_rant_afficianado
So that has what has happened so far in Africa!
Until next time
Chow & Merry Christmas
