After the holidays, my squad went through a number of changes. We moved from one continent to another, and consequently out of one very distinct culture into another, our teams were reformed with new people, and the time was quickly arriving when our alumni squad leaders would be going home. We looked at these changes with uncertainty and quite a few doubts. January was a month peppered with new trials and increasingly difficult challenges, yet we had a million new reasons to praise the Lord as we watched him turn our doubts unfold into joy.
It turns out that the new teams are incredible, despite the blank-eyed-mouth-hanging-open looks we gave them. I love the vibes on Team HULK (Heroines Unleashing the Lord’s Kingdom) and the women on my new team are definitely the women God knew I needed during this season in order to be challenged, encouraged, and inspired to become more of the person he designed me to be.
It also turns out that Africa is fabulous. It’s everything I expected it to be and nothing I expected all at the same time. The vibrancy of the earth renews my soul. The people smile, dance, and sing nonstop, and the faith they have in God is unstoppable. Yet there is a heavy shadow of darkness hanging over the land that needs to be redeemed and set free by the light of Jesus Christ.
While in Malawi, Team HULK had many opportunities to both share in the joy of our African friends, and also focus on releasing the Light over the darkness. The majority of our ministry consisted of traveling from our base in urban Blantyre to the rural villages surrounding the city. We had the incredible joy and blessing to work alongside Great is God International Ministries throughout the whole month, and it was with the wonderful people of GIGI that we experienced our first crusade in the rural village of Mulanje.
It was Friday evening, the day after our arrival in Malawi, that we piled into the back of a truck with no idea what we were in for. After an hour of trying to start the car, we picked up about twenty-five people and off we went. It took nearly thirty seconds for the Africans who joined our truck to break out in a chorus of beautifully harmonized singing, and about another half hour before the singing was interrupted by someone shouting, “Okay guys, our journey is starting now! You must sing with us!”
Smiling to one another, my teammates and I did our best to join in, and eventually we got into a conversation about who these strangers were that we’d been singing with for an hour in the pitch black.
Even though it was close to midnight when we arrived, the villagers sang and danced with joy, waving flags and running alongside our car as we pulled into the long drive to the church. Once we stopped and emptied out of the truck, handfuls of people rushed up to greet us with hugs and enthusiastic hellos before ushering us into the church and showing us the seats they had especially set up for us.
The program started after midnight, but the lateness of the hour didn’t deter them from dancing and singing with all their might before the Lord. The joy they displayed before God supplied me with the energy I needed to smile and dance through the long program, and it was on this very first night of ministry that I learned to lay all that I had, however little it may be, before the Lord and he will multiply it to his glory.
This lesson carried on through the rest of the crusade and on into the month. In those moments when I was asked to lead in front of a church full of people without having been able to prepare beforehand that the worry of not having enough in me to succeed in the tasks laid before me evaporated and was replaced by a confident and sure faith that God would provide.
And provide he did.
Every member on Team HULK rose to the occasion. Each of us stepped up and did the things we feared to do. We sang acapella even though we were unsure of the words or the right key. Sure enough, God pulled through and reminded us the right words to sing. We prayed for healing and deliverance when we were wary of what would happen, but once again, we saw God work in mysterious ways to release people from the bondage they once were living in. We stood alone in front of large groups of people and confidently preached like we’ve never preached before, trusting fully that God’s message would be rightly proclaimed through his willing servants.
Time and time again, God provided. He took our five loaves and two fish and blessed us with basket-fulls of leftovers.
I’m not all that afraid of failing anymore, nor am I concerned by the difficulties that change bring. How could I be when I’ve seen God so clearly show up and provide exactly what his people need? I know the Lord is on my side. I know the promise he made to be with my mouth, like he was with the mouth of Moses. I know that the voice God has given me is the same voice he uses to speak to his people. I know that he is not a God who can be contained by my limited understanding, and I now have faith in his miraculous power that continues to blow me away every day.
He is a God who provides–amidst the change, the unknown, the worry, and the need. Once we understand this, there’s really no stopping God’s people from unleashing the Light of his Kingdom over the darkness.
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