Hello All! It has been a little while since writing, yet the month has gone by fast. I have been away from the internet for about the whole month and it has actually been quite refreshing. My team and I lived in a small town in southern Zambia called Kafue. This month my team was different, all the guys on the squad were together. The race likes to do this at least for one month to let the men just be around men considering we are out numbered about 3 to 1 most of the time.
The month started off a bit unknown yet ended up being amazing. We were the first World Race team to ever be with this host and we didn’t have much of a ministry handed to us at all. Our host said we could show up at a school and hang out with the kids for a few hours a day but even that didn’t look possible because we couldn’t pull them away from their classes for too long. In the early part of the month we all shared a similar feeling of disappointment with not knowing what we were going to do, yet also all shared a burning desire to do something, to bring the Gospel and see God move. Not too long after our hopes were coming to fruition.
We decided to go into the surrounding communities and talk to people, build relationships, share the good news, and pray for people. We started to do that day by day with eager hearts the ten of us men would go out in faith and love and see what God did.
I remember walking threw some of the neighborhoods and having a conversation with a friend. He asked me what I thought of the movie we watched the night before. We watched a movie on the Holy Spirit where people go out into the world trusting God to move and people are healed and accept Christ, all sorts of things happen. I responded to my friends question some where along the lines of “I thought the movie was good but it kind of makes you think why don’t you see a lot of that stuff going on in other places or our own lives as much ect.”
Literally as we are having this conversation a lady yells at us and tells us to come over. We follow her behind a few houses(which are basically cement squares with holes in them) and there is an old lady behind the house. They say she can’t see very well at all and would like us to pray for healing. So we prayed and prayed a few times over and eventually her sight was restored.
Everyone was shocked(including my self and my friend) In a state of disbelief we were asking how many fingers am I holding up? What color is my shirt? Ect. I felt that was Gods way of telling me there is no need to play the comparison game on why is this happening here or there or do we need to be better? God is going to do what he wants through whom he wants to achieve what he wants.
The rest of the month continued to surprise us. We went to many homes and places sharing the love of God at schools, a medical clinic, grocery store, anywhere. We saw many people receive Christ, some people were healed, and everyone was loved and encouraged, ourselves included. We experienced Gods Kingdom move each day. We all had a light Spirit about it, knowing it’s not by our power but his so lets give it our best shot and enjoy the ride.
The Kingdom of God is why I am here, not just on the race but on earth. It’s why any of us are here, to partake in his Kingdom of love and peace. I believe it is a bit of a paradox as well. Jesus says his Kingdom is here with us yet at the same time is coming.
I know every believer longs for Heaven on earth, and sometimes it is easy to feel it is up to our performance to make it happen. I think of a passage in Luke where the disciples also feel overwhelmed with a task and say to Jesus “Give us greater faith.” He responds “If you had faith, as a grain of mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and be planted in the sea,” and it would obey you.” One of my favorite authors N.T. Wright sums this up wonderfully “It’s not great faith you need, it’s faith in a great God.”
God loves us, he knows our struggles he knows how we wavier at times when storms come our way. He is not disappointed in us, he doesn’t need us to be perfect but he wants our faith in him even if it is just a mustard seed, the direction of our faith is of most importance, he is more then capable of dealing with anything that need be.
I saw Gods Kingdom move mightily this month in my own life and those in the community around us. But his Kingdom has been moving since the beginning. It may not always look it in our own lives and the world but even Jesus closest friends thought his Kingdom was defeated on the cross when they were blind to the fact that was Gods Kingdom breaking in all the more.
Perhaps we are blind to many things as well. I imagine they’re many areas where we see defeat in our lives and the world yet God has and is turning it to victory. The Lord is full of pleasant surprises. There is much I do not know the answer to, but I do know this…God’s Kingdom is here and he will bring it to full completion.
