This is my last bog from Africa. God was so good there and I learned so much! I will be posting some pictures soon too 🙂
When I think of the word crusade I instantly think of Billy Graham. I think of the stories that my mom would tell me about thousands of souls who would come to Christ at the Billy Graham Crusades I think of changed lives and a salvation message. Never in a million years did I think that I would be praying over people at a crusade or that I would see so many lives changed in such a short amount of time. I defiantly never thought that I would be praying over people in an open field in an African village. Never in my life.
Our ministry last month in Mozambique was a ministry called Africa on Fire Ministries. The whole purpose of their ministry is to spread the gospel through Mozambique and all of Africa and to see all of Africa on fire for the Lord. (Yes Please!) We had the pleasure of coming along side them for our last month in Africa and it was amazing. We visited homes and prayed with families, we got to see families healed and delivered from sickness and strongholds. We learned how to live like the church in Acts. We learned what it meant to be the church instead of going to the church. I want to share this little story about a village we visited and the crusade we were a part of.
Our team along with another Q squad team Two Mile and Africa on Fire loaded up two trucks with speakers and people and headed out to a village called Makhanda. (If you have not had the thrill of sitting in the back of a truck full of bags and people I would encourage you to try it out. It is actually quite comfortable and makes for very interesting conversation) We arrived at the village and set up camp, we would be there for two days praying, preaching, and worshiping God. The grass was tall and the blue sky stretched for what seemed like forever and the mountains of Swaziland lined the landscape in the distance. My heart was filled with joy at the idea that souls would come to know who Jesus is and families would be transformed by the powerful love of Christ.
We did home visits and prayed for families who were having trouble with illness and other things on our second day and handed out clothes to the kids in the village and we invited them to come to the crusade in the evening after the sun set. At dusk we went to our last home to pray. We walked through the tall grass until we got to a small hut made of mud and grass. There was a mother sitting on a straw mat nursing her child. We took our shoes off and sat down with her. Two of the women from our church spoke to her and asked her how we could pray for her. We prayed for her children’s health and her stomach pains. I looked around in pain. I was hurting. I felt helpless. I asked Jesus to show up then I looked over at the setting sun in the distance the bright pink and yellow hues shone in my face and all I could think was GLORY. The glory of the Lord was so apparent. The Lord was saying I am here now, I have always been here, and I will always be here.
That evening dozens of people came to Christ. The Makhanda village will now have a church and peoples lives will continue to be radically changed. There is a spirit of joy here in Africa. As spirit that can not be confined.
