“Be prepared for church to last till 4pm, starting at 9:30am.”
“You’ll want to pack a lunch.”
These words came out of our contacts mouth on the first day of orientation. “What could possibly take 6 hours in a church service?” I thought.
We pull up to the church for a Wednesday night service. Walk in the door and every one is praying. Praying with power, praying with confidence, praying out loud…it was wild. These people really believe God is listening, they’re praying about their country, their president, the city they live in, the people who are sick in the church, each prayer led by the pastor who had the microphone. They were pacing the floors and isles of chairs.
How often do I pray like that? Even when no one is around or I’m in my own home. Yeah, the answer is never. I don’t ever pray with such confidence or passion.
Wednesday church was a good introduction but Sunday came around. Such amazing worship. They had a full choir up front that not only sang, they sang with passion and danced and sweat, and they kept going. There’s one difference between Zambian church and church in America. They sweat but keep praising our King. I was in it for the long haul. I was loving this worship, I might not have understood most of the words, even if they were singing in English, but I understood the Spirit that was moving. Then comes prayer. The same prayer as I walked into on Wednesday. Kids were praying loudly, confidently, and with passion. Kids, teens, men, woman. Everyone was moving some part of their body. You remember, they’re still sweating but that doesn’t stop the passion. Prayer comes to a slow roar and the pastor starts preaching. He moves around the church, preaching with passion. Do you notice a pattern here? Passion, lots of it. About an hour or so long sermon. I’ll even add that I didn’t fall asleep, he kept you on your toes by asking you to repeat parts of the sermon to your neighbor. If you weren’t paying attention, your neighbor was and all the sudden they were talking to you. “Oh…guess I better start listening again.” Sermon ended and now comes a time for anyone that’s sick, needing healing, to come forward. It seemed like half of the congregation got out of their seat and moved towards the front. At this point it was 12:30 and we were getting hungry. We pull our our sandwiches just in time to watch all the healing take place. I haven’t ever been a part of a healing service like this. Is this really what Jesus did? Did he heal the masses? Doubt started to set in, or maybe it was ignorance. I really just didn’t know but I wanted to so God showed me a passage where Jesus did heal the masses. In fact, in my bible it’s titled “Healing Many People.” A short passage, but just what I needed to hear.
Matthew 15: 29-31
“Moving on from there, Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee. He went up on a mountain and sat there, and large crowds came to Him, having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed, those unable to speak, and many others. They put them at His feet and He healed them. So the crowd was amazed when they saw those unable to speak talking the deformed restored, the lame walking, the blind seeing. And they gave glory to the God of Israel.”
Church was over and actually quite enjoyable…minus the heat, but I’m a wimpy American so it’s okay.
Fast forward two Sundays. Another church service. I’m ready, I know what to expect and I love worshiping my God in any way I can. The worship goes pretty smoothly and the pastor asks us to get out our offerings. The next thing I know I have money in my hand. This is weird because I usually don’t give to churches I’m visiting. Christ Community Chapel taught me to only give to churches where I trust their ministry. Not that I don’t trust the ministry of churches on the race but I don’t have enough time to know their ministry let alone trust it. Any way, as I’m making my way up front I hear God tell me that I’m investing in a ministry HE trusts. I’m investing in His church. Okay, you got it, Jesus. The service goes much like the last one. The healing part of service comes and it’s a bit different. God gave Pastor Joseph visions early that morning of specific situations someone in his congregation was going through. They come forward for healing. Then something cool happened. He asked everyone to come forward who weren’t feeling the love of Christ. They were going through a rough season and just needed the Holy Spirit to fill them with the Love of Jesus. Then Joseph asked everyone who did feel Love to go forward and pray for someone. We sat back as if we weren’t really included in this whole thing but Pastor called us out. I got up and went to a Lady I felt God was leading me to. I prayed for her, I expressed to her what I felt God was saying to her. I hugged her and let His love flow through me to her. I hugged her until God told me it was okay to move on. I continued to do this along with the rest of our teams and members of the congregation until there was no one left. I made my way back to my seat beaming, feeling the God’s love more than I had all day, all because I let His light flow through me. Jesus showed up in a big way. Just 14 days before I wasn’t sure I believed in healing the masses, then God allowed me to be a part of healing hearts. Now, I’m sure Jesus healed many more people than even go to that church but I was glad to be a part of it small scale.
When you allow the Spirit to direct your every move in a situation like that, he will. He’s waiting for you to ask. He wants to be a part of each conversation you have. He wants to be a part of every hug you give/receive. He wants to be a part of every step you take, every grocery line you get in, every taxi you get in, every stranger you smile at. Ask Him to guide your every step, especially with the Christmas season upon us. If he is asking you to take your time, do it. Pray for the people you pass at the mall. Try not to be in such a hurry. Maybe someone looks a bit sad. Pray for them from afar and if he asks you to go up to them and strike up a conversation, be sure He’s the center of it.
Zambia will always have a special place in my heart. Pray for me as I am now in Malawi, heading to a new contact, I can’t believe that in 2 weeks I will officially hit the halfway point of the race. 50% done and 50% to go. I’ve learned so much this far and I want to learn more. I don’t want to be complacent…we don’t have time for that.
