Tanzania! A land that is exotic and exciting. Entering the country we had to stop the bus for goats and cattle being herded across the highway by Maasai warriors. Then we all leaned out the window so we could take pictures of the distant snow covered peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
We stayed the night in Arusha and then left around six in the morning on public transportation packed with Arficans and their chickens for a 6 hour ride into the Africans plains were we arrived in Singinda, our home for the month.
This month we are going door to door with our pastor sharing the love of Jesus with a predominantly Muslim community. Witchcraft is a common practice here and that always leads to an interesting time.
I don’t even know how to describe the last week of my life to you, or even if you will believe it if you heard it.
Casting out demons has been almost a daily occurrence here, sometimes multiple times a day or even multiple times in one house. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little weirded out the first time the pastor grabbed a young woman and began to pray dramatically in Swahili until she fell over. But then she got up with a new life in her eyes and followed us around for the rest of the day with a smile on her face.
A Muslim grandmother we were talking to asked us to pray for her problems.
“What kind of problems?” We ask.
“Oh, you know, my demon problems. The witch doctor told me. They are sitting on my chest.”
Oh, duh. Of course.
We have seen healings of chest pain, of headaches, of hurt feet and legs. These things have become daily events here. All in the name of Jesus.
I thought I would be scared if I saw this kind of stuff. I thought I would be a little freaked out. But I am not. God presence had been so strong though all of this. His light shines brighter in the darkest places. In the end I don’t have to do anything. It is all God’s power. I have believed, and then I have seen.
The name of Jesus is breaking down walls in Singida, Tanzania. And we get to watch!
