Hi everyone! It's been a while. I just left a little oasis of a hostel in Lilongwe, Malawi, en route to Mozambique. I'm sitting in the back of a car that I've hired to take me to the border. More on that soon. Traveling is one of my favorite things. When I'm on a long bus, train, or plane ride, I do some of my best processing. During the past few months, I have had a LOT of bus travel process time, and I've been reflecting on a few things. I have had an eventful time in Tanzania and Malawi, to say the least. I'm sorry for not being better at blogging. I find that I consistently plan to write and consistently run out of time. Turns out that squad leading is a busy job! I love it though, and can't imagine what my race would look like otherwise.
That actually brings me to my first in a series of thoughts. Tanzania was my first month of leadership. It feels pretty nice to have a month under my belt. Much of the newness of squad leading is gone, and i feel much freer to just walk out my role instead of getting caught up worrying about the expectations of me and my need to meet them. Last month, I spent some time with two teams in Moshi, and then with another team in Mwanza. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with people I hadn't been around much so far on the race. Something I have been thinking a lot about though, is what am I really doing here? I came on the race to reach the world for Christ and show them the love of the Father. Squad leading though, has me doing very different ministry. I still get to go out and minister a lot of the time, but I also spend a lot of my time hearing the burdens and frustrations of my squad, answering emails, and making hard decisions (without letting on that I am dealing with something difficult, so as not to distract or raise questions from the squad). It is a lot to carry, and sometimes I wonder if this is really what I signed up for. But then it kind of clicked that this is real life ministry. I have the freedom to choose what each day looks like, and get to choose to glorify Papa with each day, whether I glorify Him through the way I take responsibility to email, or get to dive into conversation with a squadmate, or bless an African child in ministry, or all three (as is most common…my days are pretty busy). Probably more so than in any other positional role on the race, I am seeing what leading a ministry looks like. I'm so thankful for the opportunity and am so much more thankful than before for the people who have led me in ministry settings throughout my life.
A highlight for me from last month was in Mwanza with Pastor Paul's church. During a service, they asked me to share a testimony, and so I told the story if what Jesus did on my birthday (see my previous blog). I shared how Jesus is teaching me that when we love like Him, He can't help but show off. Signs and wonders aren't the goal, love is. The signs just follow us when we live the Kingdom. Pastor Paul asked me to pray for the sick people there. We saw everyone who came forward get healed. It was a really powerful time, and the effect it had on the team really blessed me. I saw them growing hungry for faith, and I saw God pour it out. We did ministry praying for people in the market one free day, and seeing their faith stretched and growing, showed me why I was supposed to be there.
The other highlight from Tanzania was the adventures I got to have. My parents wanted me to do a safari for my birthday while we were in Kenya, but it didn't work out, so this month I got to do one in the Serengeti! It was incredible. Elephants became my favorite animal, I think. They really reflect God's majesty. Then at the end of the month, I got to climb Mount Kilimanjaro! The tallest mountain in the world (albeit not the highest, as Everest starts at a higher altitude), Kili was one of the hardest things I've never done. I summited at over 19,000 feet. That kind of altitude is unlike anything I could have expected. The mountain was the worst, best, scariest, coolest thing I have done in a long time, and I learned a lot about myself and my need for God's presence up there. There came a point on the climb, around 17,500 feet, at about 4:30 am, when I was so tired, so cold, and so weak from altitude sickness that I thought I was going to die up there. I laid down and planned not to move. Then a worship song came on my iPod, and through tears, I felt Daddy's strength filling my body and urging me on. At sunrise, everything changed. I was still cold and week and tired, but darkness fled and hope came with the light of the sun. I have a new appreciation for people facing insurmountable spiritual mountains, and want even more to bring God's hope into their darkness. I would like to thank everyone who helped me get the money to do this trek; it was a dream come true. Thank you all so much!! I know I said I would shout your name from the summit, but I couldn't breathe, so instead I THOUGHT your names really loudly; I hope that counts.
After returning from the mountain, we began one of the hardest journeys I've ever been on. Our squad has been on African buses (from the north of Tanzania to the South of Mozambique, over 1000 miles in all) for almost a week straight. It has been grueling. I'm so proud of their attitudes in it though, and I believe that travel should be much easier from here on out. My travel has been split into segments as I jump between teams along the way. I spent the last 5 days with Katy's team in the bush of Malawi between Mzuzu and Nkhata Bay. They are working with an incredible ministry there called Harvesters International. They plant churches in unreached areas of the country and are seeing incredible fruit. In our first day of ministry, we went to a village that was familiar with the Gospel, but had no follows if Christ. When we preached, we offered to pray for any needs they had. A drunkard gave his life to The Lord and God did a powerful work in his heart. He has come to the church several times since then to begin being discipled. Then a man brought his wife to us. They explained that she had suffered headaches everyday from 1 am to 1 pm since 2008, when she visited a traditional herbalist (aka witch) doctor. As we began to pray, she began to manifest a demon (think the opening scene of Furious Love) and for 15 minutes was screaming and flailing and snarling as we held her down and prayed. Then it left and she was at peace. I believe she needs more deliverance, but she has also begun to come to the church to learn more. Then a boy with a malarial fever was brought out, and we saw his fever break! It was a beautiful time. Then our pastor told us we done and took us to a second village (it was a full morning!). When we got there, we shared the Gospel, and offered prayer, and they brought forward 7 children who were witches. I felt Holy Spirit say that they weren't the problem, they needed a good example. I asked the village who wanted to be born again to show the children the right way, and the whole village responded in the affirmative! They all accepted Christ right there, and then the children repented and got saved too. There were several healings there, and we sang together for a time. It was beautiful.
I was sad to leave Malawi, but I had to get to Mozambique. So we had one last night together at a backpackers hostel we found, and then I was off. That last night though, some drunk guys started bothering some of Katy's girls and it set me off. I was having an attitude problem, and instead of changing the atmosphere with God's love and power, I was instead brought down by their darkness. I fell and twisted my ankle and was all out of sorts. But then Katie McNeil asked if she could pray for me. I realized how I had been affected and repented in my heart, agreeing to he offer for prayer. My ankle was instantly healed, and God shifted my perspective for this next leg of travel, and I knew He had my back. The next day, as I was approaching the end of my bus, alone with no real clue about where I was or where I was going, I asked God to show me His path. A few minutes later a man sat down next to me and asked if I was a missionary. My heart leapt. It turns out that he is a pastor, and his head pastor is my contact with Harvesters. God BLEW my mind. I was so thankful. He helped me get to the Mozambican embassy to work out my visa and took me to the place where another world race team was staying. He really does take care of His kids.
So I rested, had a tuna and avocado sandwich, and French pressed coffee! It was wonderful, and the hostel even had a pool, so I got to swim laps this morning for the first time in ages. Then, I picked up my visa at 2:00 and hired another pastor to take me to the border. That brings me to now. I'm about 25 km from Mozambique and I have a few hours in a truck bed once I cross, before meeting up with Lauren's team and Megan in Lichinga. I am videoing the day and will post that soon! 🙂
In the next day or two Megan and I are traveling to Pemba to spend a few days at Iris Ministries' guest house. I am excited to have a time of refilling and refreshing. Please pray for a time of renewal and spiritual breakthrough for me personally. I want to go so much Further on the race, and I want specifically to finish Africa strong. After some time there, i will continue my journey south to Maputo. From there, my squad will head to South Africa for New Years and then begin our time in Asia and our last 5 months. It's a crazy thing, the world race!
Blessings to each of you this Christmas. I love you all!
PS: I am still about $4,000 from being fully funded, so if you want that tax write-off, please consider making a year-end gift and keep me on the field! Thanks for prayerfully considering this! 🙂
Caleb
