Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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   Well I figured it was time for another blog, past due really. Africa has been hard for me, which I’m pretty sure you can get from previous blogs. This past month has been no different. Currently I’m on the island of Zanzibar, sitting beside the Indian Ocean as I type this.

I must say it’s the best setting for typing a blog and reflecting over the past month. It’s also been a great break between my last three months in Africa and India. I really want to hit India strong and am excited for my last month on the WR!

      

So we were staying in a small town called Morogoro about four hours outside Dar Es Salam. It’s no surprise that our team was once again not in a big city. My team wouldn’t be sent there unless there was livestock running around the yard.


 

     We were working with a Pastor and his church. I loved this Pastor. He was my favorite. You could tell he had such a heart for his congregation. He was just soft spoken and sweet. We worked with him doing evangelism in the village and preaching in the church for different services. African churches love evangelism and testimonies! Evangelism was not my favorite. I felt like such the cliche missionary and it’s just not the way we do it in America. We for the most part close our doors on these people. I close the door on these people! Now I don’t mind it so much. I’m really thankful for my team that go with me and that we approach it the same way.


    In Africa people will just say they are saved because they have said the sinner’s prayer. Another thing I have a problem with. God doesn’t care so much about your words, He cares about your heart and if you can’t put that into your own words, I’m going to ask you questions. This is something even the Pastors here don’t really understand and wonder why we need to know everyone’s name and show them love first before launching into the prayer. I love asking why. I want people to think for themselves. I tell them over and over again that I can’t save anyone. If the Spirit is working in their heart and convicting them that’s great, but if it’s not time yet just agreeing with me won’t change their life.

      So for ten days in the middle of the month, we went to some different villages. We were camping and moved our tents about every three days to three different villages. I love my tent! The sand box that my tent became however I did not love. Africa is pretty much just sand and dirt. Thank the Lord for Ginger with her handy little sweeper and dustpan. I enjoyed having my own space in my tent.

 

       The children from the village showed up to stare at us once again while we set up our tents.


It was the first time they had seen white people and they would watch us forever like we were movie stars. The only way to get away from starring eyes was to dive into your tent.

       The last village was my favorite. It was a drive through the wilderness to get there. This place couldn’t have been on a map and I don’t know how anyone knew the way. The African night sky is something I’ll never forget out there in the Serengeti. There were more bright stars then I’ve ever seen and around 9pm the moon rose. It was a huge full moon that just came up in front of us. I could never capture it on film. The sunsets were pretty awesome too. Like a huge ball of orange fire going down. The little African children would stare at us looking at everything that they see everyday.

       So the work here was pretty much the same with evangelism and we had church everyday, so a lot of testimonies and preaching. I preached on our very last night. It was my favorite time to preach and I got to use my favorite Pastor as my translator. There had to be over two hundred adults and children packed in that church with no windows. I told the story of Daniel and the Lion’s Den to start and made the kids roar like lions and pretend they were in the den. Greg helped out being a great Daniel. My main topic was on bitterness. It’s something I’ve had to for sure deal with in my life and everyone has or will. People will hurt you and you will have a choice. I felt this was the message they needed to hear and hope it reached hearts.

       I‘m glad we all made it back to our little village hotel before many of the two teams that were together got sick. Vomiting in a tent and having to run across the field to the hole in the ground when sick would not be fun. God heals and we are all good now.

   Thanks also once again to everyone that supported me. I now have all the money I need. Thanks!

Off to India