The African Bush…sorry, this update is late, there will be more soon, I’ve been doing a lot of ministry and travel lately, so this is about 2 weeks old, just haven’t had a chance to get it all set up for you!
Everyone I have ever talked to about Africa has a special love for the place…and I never knew why. I always wondered what about Africa stole their heart. Last weekend we went to the African bush in a small truck packed in with a total of 10 people along with all our bags for the weekend. To say the least, as I was packed in, sitting on my bag, I was really wondering what it was that was to truly love about Africa. We arrived and the fun started…we were introduced to our hosts for the weekend, their names (no joke) were Wonder and Lucky. OK…so the interesting weekend was to start.
This month we have been working with Iris Ministries in an area called Backdoor with Linda, a missionary who grew up in England. At Backdoor, there is a plethora of things that Linda oversees, one of which is a Pastoral school, training Pastors from the African Bush. She’s known of Block A for quite awhile, but not had the chance to go to one of the pastor’s churches in the area, so we were the guinea pigs for teams headed into the area. We found out that Wonder was one of the students at the school, and has wanted a team to visit for quite some time now. After a few quick introductions, it was time to go to the youth service at the church….OK…the good part gets started.
I don’t know how to put it into words, other than this “service” was going to be a bit different. We had already been to an African service, which was accompanied by a perfect harmony of beautiful voices singing to God, but this was different…it was as close to a JDP (Jesus Dance Party) as I could have EVER imagined. As the voices were singing out, the keyboard had a great beat blaring loudly…a true party train started. Wait…a party train? Yes, the kind you’d find at a dance party with people joining the train as it quickly headed up to the front…so I joined, of course. As Lucky led us in the most intense dance moves I have seen, I realized a portion of why people loved Africa! We danced for quite awhile before the laughter was too much and the most laughing I’ve ever done at church. The lights were dim, the dust was rising, the night drew colder, my teammate Rubie taught them about what the Bible says about what a true church body looks like (from the book of Acts), and we started our walk back to Wonder’s house for the night, exhausted and ready for bed.
Saturday we were scheduled to go around the community with the youth to pray with their neighbors. Our first stop landed Lucky, Rubie, Linda, and I at a baker’s house who was crushing flour with his wife outside. I realized how seriously they take things as they asked us to go inside their house and pray for them to leave the blessing inside the house. We prayed for them and watched their smiles fade as we walked away. We prayed next for a man who has a pain in his side, and has had the pain for a few months, and has convinced himself that there is a reason that he is supposed to be sick. We told him that God doesn’t want anyone to be sick, and wants him to be healed of the pain in his side. We prayed over him and his mother in law who was also sick, and asked for healing over them. Upon leaving, he offered us some grapefruit and some pure sugarcane…which he had to clean and prepare for us with a large machete-like tool. We were walking around the area when a woman walked past us shaking our hands and talking to us…until she got to me and shook my hand, and STOLE MY SUGAR CANE. It’s ok though, raw sugar cane is just not that good.
Needless to say, our time in Block A was a great time of encouragement to the leaders of the church and to the youth of the church. Not only did we encourage them, but they encouraged us, which seems to happen all the time…we go to encourage people, and end up more encouraged in the end.
**I’ve posted ALL of my pictures online at www.markstratmann.com
**I’ll be posting more blogs in the next couple days, so be on the lookout!
