When we were in our first month back in Manila, The Philippines, one of my coaches, Lisa Black, received a vision about me. In her vision, she saw me in a village in Africa, and I was singing over the village, and my song was bringing healing, and the children were running to me. I believe this vision came true for me this month. It was our very first day of ministry, and after a morning walking around in the desert doing hut to hut evangelism, we were waiting at a local pastor’s house…the plan was to do more hut to hut evangelism in the afternoon. Well, we waited, and waited, and waited some more and it seemed as if the pastor was never gonna come. Eventually around 4pm he shows up and explains to us that someone in his village has just passed away, and the family needed him. He asked us to accompany him so we did, not really knowing what was in store. While we were waiting, we worked on this song that we thought would be cool to sing. Teammate Ben, kept encouraging us to keep practicing this song, (which was comprised of a bunch of different parts that you sing in a round.) so we kept practicing it.
As we are walking we are informed that we are on our way to the funeral. WOW…talk about a change of plans! We were all a bit shocked at what was happening, and as I was walking squadmate Kelly Chadwick and I couldn’t stop thinking about this song, and we both felt as if this was when the Lord wanted us to sing it.
Here we were in a village in Africa. We are at the funeral, with everyone from the surrounding village in attendance, and they lower the casket into the ground and begin filling in the dirt. No one is talking really…and I find myself standing behind Kelly with kids and adults all around us. The wife is in a state of extreme grief, she can’t even stand up on her own. As we are standing there, Kelly softly begins to hum the song we had been practicing earlier that day. After a few minutes I begin to sing “Someday, Someday, Someday, Someday…” and shortly she joined me. Then, before we know it, the kids around us start singing with us, “Someday, Someday…”. All of a sudden, I remember the vision that Lisa had received, and immediately I knew this was it. (After the funeral, we walked through a nearby refugee camp and I had a ton of kids come up and surround me, and they were singing that song…)
The vision didn’t come about like I had expected it would, but I believe it brought healing to that village…to that family…to that wife. As we were singing, for just a few brief seconds, the wife stopped her weeping. The crowd around us grew eerily quiet as they listened to us. All you could hear was the sound of the men shoveling dirt into the hole. And for a few brief seconds, I knew that God was bringing healing to that wife, to that family, to that village. For a few brief seconds peace fell on that place, and the grief was forgotten.
God brought us to that funeral that day to bring peace. To bring peace in the midst of extreme loss and suffering. Praise Jesus.
