Based off the blog title you would think it was the start to a joke. “John the Baptist, Pele and Billy Graham all walk into a bar.” (extremely unlikely!) Instead this is a blog about a day I experienced in the bush of Mozambique.
August was an incredible month in Mozambique. Not an easy month, but a powerful one.
This particular Saturday had 3 phases. My chance to be John the Baptist, my chance to be Pele and my chance to be Billy Graham. It will probably end up being one of my most memorable days of the entire year.
We had been living out in this village all week and I woke up to the sound of rain. Everything around me was wet and muddy and we were supposed to do a 6 AM baptism. Our host said to just rest in our tents while he called to see if the roads and paths were ok to travel on.
Honestly a HUGE part of me just wanted to go back to bed. I was EXHAUSTED. I’ve been on the Race for 8 months and the past two weeks I spent living in the very basic countryside of this southern African country. I was drained.
So when our host told us it was optional and if we wanted to just get some rest we could do that…I almost crawled back in the sleeping bag. I couldn’t though. A little voice in my head said to get up and let the Lord be my strength. I decided to get in the back of the pickup truck in the rain and see what God had in store for us despite my exhausted and soaked bones.
We road through muddy roads for about 20 minutes to another village, had a church service at 7 AM and then took a muddy path through the cornfields down to the river. Watching the girls get down was hilarious, they were sliding all over the place.
At the river we baptized over 30 people, from children up to 60 year olds! I was the first one to do the baptisms and as I stood there in the knee deep water the first man to get in line was a man in his late 60s who I had helped pray to accept Christ as his savior two days before, it was such a special moment for me.
That afternoon we had arranged a soccer game between the two local villages. The first game was our American girls versus some of the local women…and although it was pretty obvious none had ever played soccer, on either side, it was so much fun to watch. The girls had a blast and both villages surrounded the field to watch.
After the girls game was the men’s game. I was assigned to the team of the village we were living in and was given a jersey to wear. I ended up scoring the winning goal in a 2-0 victory and when I scored the 100+ kids watching stormed the field to celebrate and the whole village went crazy in celebrating. It was one of the coolest sports moments I’ve had…one that words will never really do justice.
Then to cap off the day I preached in church that night. I was able to share a message about being a ‘spiritual son’ and then we prayed over everyone. I actually prayed for a young man who hurt his leg in the soccer game. When praying I felt his muscles in his leg start to throb and give off heat. After prayer he wasn’t limping anymore and the next day came to church just to tell us that his leg was healed and wanted to thank the Lord! What an incredible testimony to God’s healing power.
What a day.
I began like John the Baptist, had a chance to shine like Pele and finished from the pulpit like Billy Graham.
Not every day can be as exciting and memorable as ones like this, but each day starts the same as this one. Make the conscious choice to dig deep and fight through the temptations to get back into the sleeping bag.
