“Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes… take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word. And all occasions pray in the spirit, all kinds of prayers and requests.” -Ephesians 6:10-18
This passage was our chosen team scripture to memorize last month, and it could not have been more fitting. I have to be honest, when it came to the topic of spiritual warfare at the beginning of the race, I was a skeptic. Sure, the Bible talks about demons being cast out. I knew there were fortune tellers and I had friends who believed their house was haunted. I always dismissed these things as silly, but not necessarily real (at least not in today’s world). And even if they were real, I figured I wasn’t affected by them. So when I first started memorizing this scripture, I wasn’t exactly sure what it all meant. It turns out, God knew exactly what He was doing having us memorize this verse.
I knew part of going on the World Race was not only me helping others on the field, but also allowing God to use all of these experiences to impact my life, as well as the lives of people I share these stories with. Well, He got started with this in month one, and the fact that spiritual warfare is very real is one of the big things He taught me while I was in Uganda.
There is no denying spiritual warfare in Africa. You only have to know a bit of the background of the war in Northern Uganda to understand that there are strong spiritual ties there. After all, Kony’s army was called the Lord’s Resistance Army. There are witch doctors prevalent in the villages in Uganda. Even within the first week of my being in Lukodi, we were told one of the girls was suffering from demonic attacks. This is the same girl who the demon was cast out of as she cried out to Jesus later that day 🙂 At night, we would pray for the girls, against nightmares and whatever evil threatened to enter their dreams. I no longer could deny that spiritual warfare still exists today.
However, something God has placed on my heart this past month, is that not only is spiritual warfare a very real thing, but it is no more prevalent in Africa than in America. In America it just shows up in different ways. Think of the shooting sprees, the issue of depression and suicide, etc. I came to realize that there were times in my own life, and I would argue in the lives of most Christians, where spiritual warfare had shown up. And it’s a good thing that God taught my team and I this in month one, because since being in Rwanda, my team has been hit with it big time.
Since getting to our new ministry site, one team member has been slowly recovering from E. coli and a parasite. Another team member found out she has Girardia and is still struggling to get well, even after multiple clinic/ hospital visits. Another three of us had/have a stomach bug of some sort and have been nautious (and everything that comes with that). Let’s just say our one toilet is getting a lot of use the past few days.
I love that at a time like this, we have the Ephesians verse stored in our memories. Yesterday, when I got back with one teammate from the hospital, I walked into the house we are staying at to find our other four teammates hanging out in the living room, listening and singing worship music. When our sick teammate then found a tic in her bed, and shortly after, when the electricity went out while she was trying to shower, we all came together right away in prayer. The devil may be trying to attack our team right now, but we will continue to take up the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit, for we know our God overcomes. And we can honestly say that we are excited to see the awesome things He is going to do in our team as we face these challenges together by continuing to go to the Lord in prayer. After all, we know He wins 🙂
So, this week, would you join with us in praying for healing? We have only been in Kigali for one week, but we are excited to see what God has in store for the rest of our time here!
