Being told to wake up early in order to drive 3 hrs somewhere is not my idea of a good way to start a day. When our ministry host set the 6:15 am leave time I was instantly not looking forward to the day ahead. I was ready to walk away from the day disappointed at what was probably going to happen. Early mornings instantly mean a bad day for me.
Two hours into our drive from Chibutu to the unknown destination our host pulled the cars over in order to make a quick stop to pass out bananas. Suddenly he was bombarded with women looking to sell him oranges out of their little buckets. Women desperate to get rid of the oranges they had walked miles to sell in order to provide their families with food. As quick as they had shown up, their orange buckets were sitting on the hood of the truck and we were being called out to pray for the women.
As the orange sellers lined up to get prayed over for healing and blessings, a crowd started to gather around us first out of curiosity then out of desperation for prayer. As soon as the pastor told us what was going on with a person he was on to the next one leaving us in his wake to pray. Before we realized it people all around us were being healed.
The healings weren’t grandiose in any way, but when you have to walk miles to work everyday and suddenly your legs and feet don’t hurt anymore, that is a miracle. We probably prayed for 40 people in the hour that we were stopped on the side of the road. An impromptu decision to pull over and get the bananas out of the trunk lead to Jesus being glorified. Little did I realize that the day was just beginning.
After going to a house to pray over a man who had been sick for three years and pulling a u-turn to pray for a little girl and her mother walking down the road, we finally made it to the church we had originally began our adventure to see. As soon as we got out of the truck they were singing and dancing at our arrival. Church in Mozambique is all about singing, dancing, and shouting, and church with this village did not disappoint. After church, trying to navigate the “bathroom”, and eating lunch it was time to walk through the village and pray.
Let me stop for a minute and let you know that most of our month has been going into villages and praying, going to church and praying, going to the market and praying. We had this praying thing down. Marathon prayer through a village, going from one home to the next in a matter of minutes, was the expectation and I was happy to see that we were quickly making our way through this village in the palm trees. I was tired and truly hoping that we would be able to leave earlier than expected so I could make it home in time for my 8:30 bedtime.
I quickly realized that it was not going to happen when I looked into the bed of the truck and saw 15 African women squeezed in the back and singing at the top of their lungs. As the sun began to set we set out to different homes to begin the process of burning items that had previously been used in voodoo and witchcraft. Witch doctors are frequently consulted when there are any problems in the lives of the people we have met. Burning these items is a way that people are able to declare that they are walking away from that and choosing to trust Jesus as the only way.
One of the last homes we went to as the burn brigade, was one of my favorite moments of the whole day. As the woman brought out the articles to be burnt, we began to sing “There is power in the name of Jesus” and in those moments nothing felt more true. As the flames engulfed the fabric and string there was joy and dancing all around the circle. The spirit of God was palpable and as we prayed for the women after it continued. As we prayed for her she collapsed and the pastor was able to cast a demon out of her as we all stood around praying the name of Jesus over her.
After the prayer, the woman hopped into the back of the truck and continued on with us to the next house. That was what was so amazing about the day, there was no second guessing what had happened or who was at work. People knew and trusted that Jesus has the power to heal them, to deliver them, to be enough for them. In Mozambique I have seen things that I have only ever read about in the Bible, but it has shown me time and again that God is still so real and active in the world and there are people who still believe that he truly has the power to save.
