Month one of my Race began in North Africa with a ministry whose intent is to bring revival to the country through worship and prayer. For four hours every morning, my team had the opportunity to join this ministry in prayer, worship, and intercession. This was a very important thing to do because it was laying a foundation for us, not only in North Africa, but also for the remainder of our Race, much like Jesus did when He entered the wilderness to pray for 40 days before He started His ministry. This ministry taught and challenged me, not only to tap into new levels of intimacy in prayer with God, but also as a worship leader.
This ministry challenged me to turn from my need to control my worship leading and taught me what it means to be led by the Spirit. In the past when I led worship, I always had something in front of me, whether that be music sheets or prior preparation, that allowed me to depend on myself. Worship leading with this ministry was awesome because I had to learn to have less structure and actually allow myself to depend on God and sing the words He was giving me, not what was on the sheet.
Not only was I challenged to go into new ways to worship God, but I was also challenged in the time I spent with Him. I had never spent four hours on a daily basis praying before. This led to greater intimacy with God. I found that as I felt more intimacy, I began to pray even outside of the four hours in the prayer room and spending more time with God on my own time. This led to a deeper relationship with God and my focus became better as I focused on Him for longer periods of time. It brought me to a place where I felt Him deeper than I had before and gave me the ability to accept the things God has for me as I became more vulnerable before Him. I stepped into a deeper level that God has for me and my relationship and intimacy with Him.
We also had the opportunity to visit a local orphanage every day. This orphanage housed children aged from newborn all the way to eighteen, including children with special needs. Working in this orphanage taught me how to accept the love of God and then pour that love onto others. One of the children that God used to show me this love was a little blind boy named Mesi (name has been changed). When I held Mesi for the first time, I began to pray over him “He loves you, He loves you.” As I prayed, I began to feel the deep love of God for this boy and how much He cared for him. This love continued to flow, not only for Mesi, but for the other kids in the orphanage as well. It taught me how to allow my heart to be broken for the things that break God’s heart and tap into agape love.
I’ll try to keep you all posted as much as I can and I hope this gave you a good overview of what happened in our first month of ministry and also in my own heart. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.
Thank you so much!
With love,
Jomo
