Welcome to Syphilis Baptist Church, where EVERYONE is loved…
As you know, we all went to a region called Chikwawa for
three days and just got back late last night! It was a ROUGH three days, let me
tell you!
To start things off, Willy P. told me that the village is
called Chindoko, which means syphilis, because there was so many people in that
village with syphilis back in the day that they just named the village
Syphilis!!!! How about that!? Hahahahahaha
Well, we (20 of us) rode 9 or so hours (breakdown included)
there in a tiny flat-bed truck. I stood the whole time and was WORN OUT by the
time we got there!!!
We broke down for a short time in a village on the way and
spent 4 hours there…. It looked like inconvenience at first but the Lord began
to move quickly! Of course, we white people were the spectacle and got
surrounded by Africans quite fast! As time went on, I got out my guitar and
started playing around. I saw a large group of people on the road, not getting
too close, so I walked over and started talking to them. After an hour of
playing and chatting, I had written a song, sang that song with all 30 or so of
them and explained what faithfulness is.
Here’s the song:
Lord, You are
Faithful
Lord, you
are faithful.
You’re
mighty and true.
Lord, you are
faithful.
Your
faithfulness rings true.
Chorus:
You are
good.
You are
good.
You are
good.
You’re so
good!
Lord, you
are faithful.
You’re
mighty and true.
Lord, you
are faithful.
You always
pull through!
Chorus
Lord, you
are faithful.
You’re mighty
and true.
Lord, you
are faithful.
That’s why
I’m in love with you!
Chorus
Bridge:
You’re in
love with me.
I’m in love
with you.
You’re in
love with me.
That’s why
I’m in love with you!
Yeah are
good!
You’re so
good.
You are
good.
You’re good
to me!
(Now sing
your heart out and tell the Lord how good He is while playing!!!)
Pretty
simple but my heart at the time….
…This one
boy asked me, “what is ‘faithful’?� Well, this is how I explained it:
I said
something like this… ‘Faithful’ means that someone will never fail you,
they will never let you go! God is faithful to us! He will NEVER
let us go! (I grabbed his hand and looked him in the eyes.) He holds us tight
and never lets go. No matter if we let go, He is always there, holding on
tight. He is holding you tight all the time. Though I may let you go and
I may fail you, Jesus’ love for you is this; that He will never leave you, His
love for you will NEVER be less, His love for you will never be less than being
crazy in love with you, enough to give His life for you! ‘Faithful’ is God’s
heart for you, one that is SO IN LOVE WITH YOU and ALWAYS pulls through because you are His dearly loved child,
His EVERYTHING!!!
Come to find
out, God was working in other parts of that village with some of the Racers as
well! Two people came to know Jesus and HIM is going to plant a church there!!!
On the way home, Medson gave a man (soon to be pastor) his personal bible, the
ONLY bible in that village now!!!! (Bibles are RARELY found here….)
Well, as
time went on and we finally got to the village, we were found without enough
fresh water to sustain us in the heat. It was brutal. We prayed and did
everything we could to conserve and find some and God pulled through! During
the WHOLE TIME there, God kept running that song through my head… “Lord, you
are faithful. You’re mighty and true. Lord, you are faithful. You always pull
through!�
…God
provided water for us on the way home, just in time before some of us fell out!
Haha That was a LONG day without much water filled with much thankfulness and
worship!
All in all,
it was a hard three days but God showed up where we couldn’t and did His thing!!!
Oh, and by
the way, it’s a ‘thing’ to gather around a white man’s tent at night and watch
him sleep in his underwear!!! Lucas said that he found about 20 kids huddled
around my tent, watching me sleep!!! That’s HILARIOUS!!!!! I bet they had never
seen that before!!! hahahahaha
If you wanna
hear more, please go read some blogs from my teammates (links on the side)!!!
