What can one say when you experience something that radically changes your life. What can you say when you experience something that defines you. Will people even understand? Can words even express that which you feel burning inside your chest?
Our time in Murrumbala, Mozambique was unlike anything I have ever experienced before. Let me begin by telling a little of the story.
We arrived in Dondo without too many expectations of what we would be doing. But the Lord knew. He placed a young man named Herb in our path. Herb has been working all over Africa with Heidi and Rolland Baker since he was 17, and at age 18, the leaders of Iris Ministries turned him loose to run several of their ministry bases. Right now he is responsible for thousands and thousands of people’s lives at these refugee camps, an incredible responsibility at the age of 20. So we met him the second day we were in Dondo, and when he told us about the opportunity to go with him we knew immediately it was where God was calling us.
So 25 of us loaded up into the back of a flatbed truck to drive through the night to get to Murrumbala. The sun set, the temperature dropped, and the stars came out. We were cramped and uncomfortable, but we knew that there was no better way to travel than staring up at the souther sky for eight hours. We pulled in to a campground off the main road at about 1am to get a bit of shuteye. Our driver was exhausted, and was driving about 20 miles an hour (I guess he felt that if he fell asleep at the wheel going slower, it would be safer. So we appreciate that). We also had to wait for the barge to open again in the morning to take our truck across the Zambeze river. We pulled out our tents and crawled into bed for a few hours. We woke up at about 5 am with people staring into our tents, curious and confused as to why there was a tent city in the middle of their little village. We played with some kids, loaded the truck back up, and continued onward.
We crossed the Zambeze River, which was back to it’s normal flow, and arrived in Murrumbala at noon. We pulled in to the orphanage and were litterally chased by several hundred kids down the dirt road for 10 minutes. Once we stopped, they surrounded the truck, closed there eyes, and prayed for us. My eyes welled up with tears because of the beautiful welcome we had just recieved.
We stayed at the World Vision center just down the road from the orphanage (so if you support World Vision, thank you for providing me with a bed in Mozambique). Our time was split between the Arco Iris orphanage and going to refugee camps to distribute food. Two of our teams would load the truck up with several tons of food, jump on top with a local ministry team, and a sound system and travel an hour or more to the refugee camps. One team would stay behind and play with kids at the orphanage.
The food was being brought in on another truck that was delayed two days behind us, so we went out anyway on our first outreach without any food. We had been told earlier to pray over everybody, and to expect miracles. Well that first night we experienced some big miracles! Chad preached, and Herb translated into Portuguese. Approximately 50 people accepted Christ that first night! Then Herb told anyone who needed healing to come forward. A woman who was deaf in one ear came forward. Herb asked “Are you ready for a miracle?” He prayed for the woman and her ear became unblocked and she could hear perfectly! Then he looks at us and says “Ok now you guys go for it!” Amazed at what we just saw, we each began praying for people. A man came up to Chad and I who was blind in one eye. We began to pray for him, Chad in front of him and me behind the man. After praying, we asked if it was better, and all I could see was a look of amazement come over Chad. The man turned around to me with a huge smile on his face as he proclaims that he can see again out of the eye! That night we saw the deaf hear, the blind see, and many people with back pains, headaches, stomach pains, all sorts of afflictions healed right in front of us! That sort of thing became regular, or as regular as miracles can become. Every time we went out to these people, hundreds were recieving salvation and being healed!
A few days later I went out with the group to distribute food to one of the camps. The previous night the team that went had a lot of spiritual attacks come against them, and it was very heavy. But this night was the opposite. Every outreach we would unload the food, set up the speakers, play the music as loud as we could blast it for about an hour to attract as many as could hear, dance, and have fun with the people as they celebrated a new load of food. Before we preached that night, we gathered behind the truck to rally the troops and pray for the fire of the Lord to come down. There was a moment I can think back to when the Holy Spirit literally dropped on us. We all began crying out to the Lord for Him to move. I could feel the Spirit overwhelm the group and myself as we prayed in tongues and shouted to the Lord. Jake and Zaccarias, our local translator, jumped up ontop of the truck and began preaching. It was the words of the Lord coming out of both of their mouths. The people were jumping at the opporunity to accept Jesus! That night, around 200 people claimed Jesus as their savior. Then Jake said, “There is somebody here who has a severe chest pain on the right side of their chest.” Two people raised their hands and came forward. We prayed for them in front of everybody, I prayed for one of the guys with Chris and Chad. As my hand was over the painful area, I could literally feel something moving under his skin. It was almost as if there was a marble under his skin moving around. I looked up and asked “Did anyone else feel that?” Apparently I was the only one to feel it, but it was very distinct for about 3 seconds. Right then the pain disappeared and he was healed right there! He jumped on the microphone and testified right there that Jesus had healed them! Shouts of glee overcame the whole crowd. Then Chris Telfer became overwhelmed by a back pain that he had never felt before. So he spoke that someone with that lower back pain needed to be healed. Two men came forward with terrible pains in their back. Chris and I tag teamed one of them to pray for him. He looked up with joy as the pain was gone! Our whole team was experiencing these miracles, not just one person. Every single person has their own story from that night of a healing. In fact, I believe that almost every single person we prayed for, if not every person, was healed that night. I have never seen such joy overwhelm a place. The entire refugee camp was dancing and praising the Lord. As we left and the music stopped, people were still dancing and hollering at the top of their lungs. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever experienced.
Our entire time in Mozambique was filled with amazing miracles. People’s lives were changed, most definetly my life was changed. The Jesus I had always read about in the Bible, the stories in Acts I always longed to experience became a reality. The God who heals and does mighty miracles, the God I always hoped existed, became real to me. I always hoped that the God I believed in was bigger than church services every Sunday and the hope for heaven. Our God is very present on this earth, and He is very present in my life. At this point, it is difficult to even comprehend what I just experienced. But I know that I am forever changed. My faith has been increased dramatically. My hunger for more of Jesus has never been more intense. The fire that I have in my belly has never been more passionate. And I have never been more intimate with my Savior. How can words express the power of the Almighty? I hope this gives just a glimpse of His beauty.
