I’m officially on month 6 of the journey that my Father has given me for this year.
Starting in January, all of the men from my squad (11 of us) started living together for “MANistry”. The guys here are amazing people. Living with each other definitely has not been the easiest walk in the park but I have learned so much about life from everyone.
This month we are back at the first contact that I was with in Africa. His name is Harvey and he is a pastor on fire for the Lord! I was super excited to hear that we were going to live with him for another month because the ministry that we have done with Harvey has been my favorite ministry on the race so far.
We have gotten back into the routine of doing door to door “hut to hut” evangelism!
Last week was one of the most impactful weeks for me so far on the World Race. Our group of 11 guys split up into three smaller groups in order to go and preach to different villages. Christian, Andre, and I were one small group. We spent the week preaching to a village that is not far away from where we live. Our main focus that the pastor had us there for, was to encourage people to start going to church which has had zero people attend the last three years.
As we went from hut to hut throughout the week, we realized that the biggest thing that people didn’t understand is what it means to be a born again Christian. They would ask us multiple question trying to figure out the steps they needed to take like it was some sort of algorithm. So we spent most of the week explaining to everyone that being born again truly just means to lay down your old life, pick up your cross, and truly follow our Heavenly Father.
Either the second or third day in I decided to talk to the pastor that was coming with us everyday. I asked him if there was any way we could do an open baptism on that following Sunday. Without any hesitation he said “of course!” So that following Sunday Andre, Christian, and I led the revival church service. There were probably about 30 people there. We preached about being born again and baptism. At the end we asked if anyone would like to be baptized and seven people raised their hands. So after the service we walked down towards the river where the baptism was to take place. Everyone was singing, dancing, and praising the Father as we walked down. By the time we got to the river, our group of 30 people had turned into about 150 people. It was just like a movie scene as the crowd grew bigger and bigger.
When we got into the river we realized that it was the typical African river where you can not see one inch into the water. Overall it was an incredible experience to be able to be a part of. After baptizing the seven people, we gave another small speech to the big crowd that had gathered around and five more people decided to come into the water as well. I will forever remember that 30 minutes of being in the water and helping people declare their life for Jesus Christ.
Once we got out of the water we asked the people who had just been baptized if they needed specific prayers. And I will never forget one of the ladies that came to us. She only wanted to talk if we could go somewhere where there was no one around. So we went into a school building close by. There she explained that she used to be a Witchdoctor in the village. And only a couple years ago she had murdered her mother. But she wanted to turn her life around after hearing us preach. She thanked us so much for coming into her village and preaching the gospel which has now changed her life.
I have never felt the power of the Holy Spirit more than during my months of evangelism in Africa!
