“Lord, I have nothing in me. Unless You speak, I refuse to speak.”
Good. Those are the people I want to use.
Half-irritated by my exhaustion and not excited about the 30min van ride on the dirt road with countless potholes, I shoved my earbuds in each ear, hoping to drown out the chatter going on in our 15 passenger van. What I was expecting was a few minutes of mindless music, but what I got was an encounter. Within seconds, I was in tears. The Lord hit me hard with a wave of His Presence. Peace immediately flooded my heart and a smile swept across my face. In the midst of the music, I heard Him say “We’re going on a Treasure Hunt.”
When we arrived, I asked our group if we could take a minute to hear the Lord’s heart before we went out into the village. With all of the passion swirling in my spirit, I prayed a zealous heart-filled prayer asking God to show us people, pictures, or words of knowledge regarding the village we were about to enter. Know what He told me? Nothing.
Thankfully, I’m not the only willing vessel He uses. That’s where my AMAZING teammate, Faith, came in to play!
I ask the team if they heard anything from the Lord.
Faith responded, “Yeah. I saw something tealish turquoise with something else blocking it, maybe a house with a fence or gate. And I also heard the phrase ‘Go to the little,’ which I’m assuming is like little kids or something like that.”
As we entered into the village, I turned to Blessed, our group leader from Zimbabwe, and told Him not to expect me to speak too much. I told him I wasn’t feeling too great, and that only if God told me to speak, I would speak. He laughed and said it was fine.
Moments later, a man ran straight towards us on the dirt path. “Wait! I want to talk to you!” We turned towards him and before we had a chance to introduce ourselves, he said to us, “I want to be saved.”
I felt the Lord immediately prompt my heart to pray with him (…well that didn’t take long now, did it?) and I led him in the prayer of Salvation. He told us that he felt the power of God as we prayed, and he invited us to his house “where his friends like to drink” to tell his friends and family about the Gospel.
Seriously!? The man ran up to us! So stinkin crazy, right!? That’s just ONE story from this day. There’s more!
It was around 11am when we met Eba. She’s an older woman from Zimbabwe that we saw sweeping her front porch. The dialogue going on between me and the Lord was hilarious, so I’ll try my best to give you an inside view of what that looked like.
The moment I saw Eba, I heard God speak to me.
She’s a real person.
Me: I know.
She has a story.
Me: Okay.
Ask her about her story.
(The Lord likes to make things REAL clear to me sometimes)
By this point, Blessed had already introduced us and turned to me, “She says that she wants to hear the Gospel from you.”
Ask her story.
Faith looks at me. I tell Blessed to ask her if she’d be willing to share her story with us. Immediately after asking, I felt a deep ache in my heart, as if I somehow knew what she had gone through – as if I was feeling the same ache she was carrying. I had a verse running through my mind pretty much on repeat: “He is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
Blessed translated. “She says she has 3 girls, 1 boy, and 6 grandchildren.”
Ask her story.
…Lord, I’m trying, but this woman isn’t cooperating. The ache grew larger.
“Could you ask her if there is anything more she could share with us?”
Half confused why I was so determined, Blessed asked her again. I was on the verge of tears, overwhelmed with the Lords heart for all she’s endured, and I still had no idea what that was. This time, she turned to look at me.
“Tell her the reason that I’m so persistent is because I feel God’s heart for her. He’s been telling me to find out her story.”
She said she couldn’t share her story; we never found out the reason why. God continued to enlarge my heart for her. I couldn’t escape the feeling: This woman has been through so much. I felt like I was in the presence of a champion.
I said to her, “I have a verse for you”
(First and only moment I tried to do something without God’s leading)
No you don’t.
God doesn’t mess around. I quickly shut my Bible …Yep. Lesson learned. He leads; I follow.
“Um, so, what’s YOUR favorite verse?” I asked her.
She responded with Psalm 23.
We read it together.
Faith said to her, “I have a Bible verse for you.” She felt led to share Psalm 71.
After we read through those scriptures, I laid my hands on her back, positioned to pray. Tears streamed down her face. The Presence of the Lord was thickening around us. I felt heat pulsing through my hands as I prayed for her. When the prayer ended, she wrapped her frail arms around my neck, giving me the most unexpected heart-felt embrace.
As we walked away from Eba’s house, something caught our eye: Teal curtains behind brass bars.
I started to notice, as we walked from house to house, that we weren’t alone. Holy Spirit may be leading us, but this little fellow was following us!
This little boy with the tie-dye shirt is Talent! He’s absolutely fascinated with white people and loves getting high-fives. He followed us to 5 different houses, watching us pray and speak to different families. Eventually, we met his mother, who is now pregnant with her second child. The Lord told me her first labor had many complications, so I asked her if I could pray over her for a safe delivery and told her what God was telling me about her first delivery. Her face got really serious and looked at me with eyes full of awe. She asked us to come into her house so we could meet her friends and family.
We entered into a small concrete room with two couches and 10 people, not including our evangelism group of 5. We immediately recognized one man, Anesu (ah-ness-eue), whom we met and encouraged earlier that day. He had a radical encounter with the Lord as well. He was excited when he saw our group enter the room. I was asked to pray and share any words I was hearing from God for the family.
There was one elderly woman that I remember speaking to in particular. I encouraged her to trust God with all her heart, that she would truly commit to him, and that she could say to Him “Where You go, I’ll go.” Quite ironically, we found out her name is Ruth (where that quote is found in scripture).
After we left that house, I prayed again.
Lord, for real. I have no strength in me. I can’t do it.
A man opens the door.
…is that an impala on his shirt?! Impalas are my favorite animal in Africa!! I freak out every time I see one. Seriously, the Lord knew this would immediately lift my spirit. The man who answered the door was Esau. The Lord gave me a word for him as well. I walked away and another wave of exhaustion hit me. I didn’t want to talk anymore.
I started playing with a tire in the street with Talent and 4 of his other friends. At this point, another man started walking towards me. I said this next statement semi-sarcastically.
Lord, unless the next guy had an impala on his shirt too, I don’t know how I’m going to do this.
The man walks up to introduce himself to me. In the corner of his shirt: an Impala emblem. According to Faith, I just shouted “Impala” and walked away from him laughing. (Don’t worry. She talked to him.)
Oh Jesus, life with You is so fun. When I’m weak (and even borderline complaining), He is still strong. He just needs your willingness to be obedient and pretty incredible things will follow.
