Africa has been hard for me. Yes, physically, it has been
challenging, but more than that, it has been difficult in terms of ministry.
All I wanted to do in Africa was hold orphans and love them. After all, that is
what the Bible says: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and
faultless is to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep
oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27).
And my International Relations/Liberal Arts educated brain desires to
effect tangible change-feed the poor, love and educate the orphans, make a
difference beyond spiritual things.
What I have learned this month is most problems stem from spiritual
ones. When praying for sick people at the hospital, some are under spiritual
attack and therefore require more than physical medicine to be healed. As my
one friend said, “Everything in Africa is spiritual.” When asking for the
presence of the Holy Spirit to dwell at the crusade, crazy things happened.
The spiritual things are important. They matter. Growing up in a
secular world, in secular schools from Kindergarten through college, I was
taught to look at the science, the facts, and not trained to be aware of the
spiritual realm. It is only this year, as I have left go of my academics and my
need to be right, that I am finding more and more how truly important the
spiritual is.
And in that, I am finding peace in our ministries in Africa. While it
is not the mercy ministries I am accustomed to (feeding the poor, helping
widows, loving orphans), it is still important. Because all health, all
wholeness, all success stems from being spiritually healthy and in tune with
the Lord. God desires us to be healthy and whole and blessed, but we must first
come into alignment with him.
God chose to create us, to love us, and to send His only son as the
only way to be reconciled to him. He desires a relationship with us. This is
good news and needs to be shared with the nations! I needed to get over my
preconceived notions of what African ministry should look like, and instead
embrace what it does look like–praying, sharing, loving. Walking door to door
because the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Going to hospitals to
pray for the sick, not only for their physical healing but for the spiritual
healing that comes when they accept Christ. Nearly every day we did ministry,
at least one person would accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The angels
were partying in heaven-why wasn’t I?
See Part 2:
Adopted
