This month I decided I really wanted to challenge myself and step farther out of my comfort zone. So twice I volunteered to speak and give a message to the church. The first time was just a short testimony and I shared the story of the prodigal son and how I can relate to that story. I gave this message to a crowd at a village church we attended one weekend for evangelism.
The second time I spoke, I actually gave the main sermon for the church service at the Iris ministry base. I was completely nervous. I don’t like speaking in front of crowds in America, let alone in Africa where they don’t speak my language and I don’t know if they will be able to relate to what I say.
It is difficult to preach through a translator. You have to stop after every sentence, sometimes more often, and so it is hard to keep the flow of the message going and to keep the passion in your voice. Plus you have to trust that your translator will convey the message the right way. Fortunately we had a very competent translator named, Lovemore. And of course we have the Ultimate translator, God! I trust that He got across the message He wanted the Mozambique people to hear!
I spoke about how to fight temptation, based on Genesis 39 (the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife.) I was told that was a good message for the people there to hear because they struggle with that a lot. Of course, I believe that humanity as a whole struggles with temptation all the time. We all need to learn how to fight it. So read the story for yourself and see how Joseph stood up to the test and what you can learn from it!
