On Friday, we had the opportunity to visit a Maasai church with Pastor ChaCha. Fifteen of us packed into a minibus as we headed out of Gairo, it was a better fit in the 16-passenger minibus than the 8-passenger minivan which was our original transportation. After about an hour of driving Pastor Chacha, who had just barely woken from a nap, yells at the driver to turn down a side road off of the main highway. A side road in Africa really can't be describe as much of a road, I mean literally driving into the middle of the forest for about an hour. We were driving on a bumpy dirt road at first and then we turned off onto an even smaller trail/road that led into the forest. After weaving in and out between the trees, we had arrived at the small church. We were greeted by most of the Maasai church who were eagerly awaiting our arrival.
I was expecting some crazy warriors who would be wearing their traditional clothes, carrying their weapons and acting somewhat similar to what crazy things I had seen Steve-O do with warriors on the Wild Boys television show. Of course, it was nothing like that we were actually greeted by a bunch of women with their children and then a Pastor with a slick white tuxedo with a purple tie. Which is something I don't think anyone from the team was expecting. The Maasai started to sing as we were waiting on more people to come in from the fields and from tending their cattle. There was a crazy lady who was leading the singing and she was going beyond crazy for the Lord by waving this handkerchief all around like a flag. For anyone who has been to Tanzania, you might know the funny little worship cry were they move their tongue around in excitement. She was making that battle cry and then singing into a squealing microphone with the choir as I was called outside to speak with the pastors who were trying to get the service started. We were not even told we were going to host a church service, but we have come accustomed to being ready at any moments notice to sing four songs, give two testimonies and preach a sermon.
When the pastor finally arrived with the rest of the church members we were finally ready to begin a true Maasai church service. Maasai dancers came up before we were supposed to begin, and that was probably one of the coolest things I have seen on the Race. They dance really weird but really awesome at the same time and it pretty much blows my mind. They did this little thing with their head that probably wasn't that hard but it just looked so cool. Then we got up on stage, sang three worship songs and were then invited to start sharing a testimony.
Hosanna did an amazing job at sharing her testimony, and just spoke some good words to the Maasai people about her life. Then Lindsay was invited to share her word of encouragement and message about love. God had laid it on my heart that she needed to share it while Mark and I were praying outside to see who was going to give the message. God moved in a powerful way through both of their words and stirred the hearts of everyone that was in that place. The Holy Spirit was invited in during the worship time and while they were preaching the emotions began to boil.
Pastor ChaCha got up to speak after Mark was finish sharing his gospel message. He challenged people, invited people up front to be saved and wrapped Mark and Lindsay's messages together into a masterpiece constructed through the power of the Holy Spirit. It's hard to describe what was happening from his message because I was just hearing bits a pieces of what he was saying. All I know is that when he invited people up front for prayer over half of the church was up front and ready. He had people get into three lines. In the front line there were two extremely tall men who wanted to receive Christ, Maasai men don't normally become Christians because their witch doctors stop giving them medicine for their cows. We prayed for these men to receive Christ and it was such a joy in my heart to know that two men were now going to be leading their families as believers. The next line was for family problems and there were about ten people in this line.
As we were all laying hands on these people, one of the men began to break down into tears. Actually it was more than just tears, this man was completely distraught and crying out to the Lord as we prayed. We came around him and began to pray specifically that God would heal the brokenness in his heart. As I moved onto the next person, I found myself distracted and desiring to return to pray for him. So as they dismissed these people for prayer, I walked back over to the man who was still pouring tears out of his eyes. I grabbed him as he was walking away in rejection and went in for a hug. I wanted him to know that we were with him in the pain he was feeling. A hug that I intended to last a couple seconds turned into what seemed like a couple minutes, and I found myself realizing how much this man was truly in pain. He returned to his seat and we were asked to pray for the remaining twenty people who were standing.
These people needed prayer for healing which is something God has specifically laid on my heart. I asked the translator to ask each of them what they needed healing for because praying specific prayers is much more powerful than general prayers.
We prayed for healing for many of the ladies, some of which I had no idea what kind of healing they needed but knew that God would still bless them. It was a time full of emotion again and the women that had come up for prayer were praying desperately for healing. The place was loud with prayer in many different languages when it first started I was blown away by the hearts of prayer I was hearing from each of the Maasai. As the prayer started, the team fanned out among the members of the church and joined with them in prayers of healing. Thanking God for the healing that he was going to give each of these Maasai who came up for prayer. As I got to the end of the row of people who needed prayer, men were bringing their children up and taking my hands to put on their heads. Then they would signal that I needed to pray for them, and it confused me a little bit. These were men of the church who could pray with the same power that I have, but they trusted/wanted me to pray for their children. I started laughing as the second man brought his child up and just couldn't stop laughing as I just prayed out to the Lord to open these men's eyes. After I finished the prayers for them, I backed up to examine the atmosphere of the situation as prayers started to get louder.
The Spirit was rising and then I noticed Mandi, she was praying for a woman who was making weird noises and jolting her head around. I instantly knew that she was demon possessed and walked over to pray for her as well. To start the prayer, I began with Mandi who had already been praying for this lady for quite some time. I don't know what she was thinking, but I knew that she was completely capable of expelling the demon from this woman's body. As I prayed for the lady her face was becoming very angry and was yelling out words that were not Swahili but sounded like nonsense. I started to pray for the demon to be cast out of her body and spent time praying for her deliverance. Soon after, the Spirit led me to another lady and Jill stepped into accompany praying for this lady.
I returned to some ladies who I had originally prayed for but were still standing in reverence to God. I prayed for them again and God blew me away with the eruption that happened. The pastor said something in Swahili and the place blew up in prayer. The Spirit was moving in a powerful way and it was shaking my soul. When the prayer stopped, I was struck with amazement at what had just happened in their powerful words.
The pastor then got up on stage and asked people to raise their hands. I wasn't sure what they were raising their hands for but I felt like God say, "These were the ones who received healing." The translation to the pastor's words came through my Spirit, and when I thought to myself, "Woah, that was about 10-15 people who just raised their hands."
I was blown away by the realization that so many people were healed and just began to thank God for how He just used my team to bring Him glory.
On the drive home, I asked the pastor and he confirmed my feelings. Such a great day for the Lord. Two Maasai men were saved and a dozen other people received physical healing for their infirmities. God has done the most amazing things in Tanzania and I know He has huge plans for us as we head into Kenya on June 28th for debrief.
