“It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.” The Risen Jesus
Straight out of the book of Acts
Those are the only words that can describe this month. I don’t think it is a surprise that Holy Spirit laid it on my heart last month to start leading a bible study within our team on the book of Acts. Preparing the way for what you are about to read.
I just want to begin by saying thank you for everyone who prayed after reading my last blog about the enemy attacking our squad. The prayers absolutely worked. We went from a lot of down feelings and spiritual warfare to one of the biggest revivals of Holy Sprits power I have ever seen in my life. I remember 3 days in a row of of evangelism when I personally prayed over 75-100 people to receive Jesus for the first time. Preaching is also very new to me and I have had to preach in front of multiple crowds of 500+ people. We have seen dozens of miracles- blind people seeing for the first time, the deaf hearing for the first time, illnesses cured, pains disappearing- I hope that I can paint a picture of what this looked like.
Here are couple stories from the week we worked with a Mega Church in Tana City doing evangelism.
Let’s just start by saying Jesus is moving in Madagascar and there are millions of people here who are desperate to feel His love. To most of them, it is the only hope they will ever have.
This was very evident one day when we were out in the slums sharing the gospel. This month was about 95% evangelism for our team and we would go out to different areas of town each day to share the Hope we have found in Christ. We worked 14 hour days so the days were very long but the Spirit was moving so much and we were so excited to go out each day.
On this day, we happened to be in one of the most poor places I have ever been. Our view of “the slums” doesn’t even begin to describe what I saw that day. Jesus always loved to hang out in these places when he was physically present on Earth and He sure made His presence felt as we walked through there. Although their physical living conditions were harder than anything I have ever seen, Hope, in the form of a savior, shined brightly into the darkness that day.
I walked along side 2 elders from the Church we were working with and 2 translators that worked for their ministry. White people are basically non-existent in Madagascar so when the people see a tall white man followed by a crowd of Malagasy folks walking through their village- it definitely draws every eye possible.
I would walk up to a group of people and begin to talk to them. Before you could count to 10 there would be a group of about 20-30 kids and teenagers gathering around me with eager faces to hear what I had to say. I began to share my testimony and the struggles I faced growing up with drugs and alcohol. I shared the hope that I found in Jesus and how he transformed my life to where I am today.
While I was sharing, one of them asked if I could pray for her Grandmother who has been blind for 25 years. She walked over to me and I asked if I could lay hands over her head and pray for her to see. She said yes, and I began to pray for God to open up her eyes for her to see again. After I was done praying, I asked the translator to ask if she could see at all or if she felt any kind of heat while I was praying. The lady said could she definitely felt heat coming from my hands and that her eyes felt a little better. So I told her I wanted to pray again.
I prayed again and then removed my hand and noticed she had tears running down her face. I knew at that moment God was giving her sight back for the first time in 25 years. She said she could make out colors and could see things that were close. I told her I believed God was healing her and I wanted to pray again. After the last time, I am confident that the God of all miracles was not only restoring this lady’s sight but also fully restoring her heart.
While this was happening, a large crowd of people had gathered around me and saw what was going on. I told them how much God loves them, how much He is pursuing each of them, and that Hope is available to any of them wanted to put their faith in Jesus. Without hesitation, about 20-30 hands went flying in the air. I prayed in English and it was tranlasted in Malagasy for them. I was brought to tears as I looked around at each of the kids proclaiming out loud in their own language for Jesus to come into their heart. For most of them, this was the first time they have ever felt any kind of hope and each of them would come up to me and thank me for bringing peace into their hearts.
This same thing was repeated 3 different times as we walked through this village and about 65 people put their faith in Jesus during those 3 meetings. Once we finished the last group it started to rain and we heading back to the van to meet the other groups. God wasn’t done yet, however, and he pointed out 2 older men sitting on a bench as we were heading that way. We walked by them and Holy Spirit told me to turn around and go talk to them.
We approached them and I began to introduce myself and tell them what we were doing here in Madagascar. I heard their stories and found of that they both had experienced hurt most of their life and struggled with alcohol, drugs etc. I then shared my testimony and how I struggled with a lot the same things and how I overcame them through faith in Jesus. They asked a bunch of practical questions about how to change their life and to become a better person.
When we were finished talking I told them there is only one way to remove all the shame and guilt from their past- through a relationship with Jesus Christ. I then prayed over both of them and they accepted Him into their hearts. As we left, I encouraged them to get connected with the Church we were working with and to find a good community to do life with.
The next morning we got to the Church and started planning out the day ahead. As if everything we had seen yesterday wasn’t enough- he told us that we were going to be putting on a huge crusade. I remember saying “Were going to put on a Crusade? What is exactly does that mean??” He then asked if he could get somebody to volunteer to preach to about 500 people and to share the gospel with them. I stepped up and said I would do it. I have already preached a bunch of times this month and God is making me much more comfortable sharing His love in front of large groups- almost to the point of excitement. God has done so many great things in my life, why would I rob somebody else of the chance to hear some of what He has done.
We arrived in the little center of the village where we were gonna be doing the crusade and they began to set everything up. This was clearly a much bigger event and much more organized than I thought. They had large speakers, sound equipment, and they had men in women dressed in very fancy clothing putting on a performance playing all their instruments, dancing, etc. They call this a Hira-Gasy here in Madagascar. It is basically a large organized dance with instruments.
Once the dancing was done they called me up and it was time for me to give my message. I couldn’t tell how many people were in the crowd but it had to be over 500. I asked for Holy Spirit to get the words out He wanted me to share and prayed that people would want to receive Jesus.
When I was done, I asked for anybody who wanted to put their faith in Jesus for the first time to walk up to the front so we could pray over them. I didn’t count the number of people who came down but it was over 25. Like I have been multiple times the last couple of days-speechless.
I can’t describe the look on their faces as they came up and wanted to just touch my hand and say thank you. There was a lot of hurt in them, a lot of disappointment, a lot of struggle, a lot of desperation, and a need to feel some type of Hope. I prayed out loud on the microphone and they each repeated after me in Malagasy. Once we were done praying those same faces seemed to be turned to joy and happiness.
Once I finished praying, I told the crowd that our team was going to be waiting in the back to pray over anyone who needed healing or any other prayer requests. God certainly wasn’t done and He really blew the door open as we saw numerous people healed of different types of things during this prayer session. Ariana prayed over a lady who was deaf and couldn’t hear. She laid her hands on her ears and began to pray. While she was praying for her all I could see is the tears rolling down the ladies face. She looked at Ariana after she was finished and said she could hear her praying. Praise God!
The last story I will share from this week came during that prayer session as well. One of the older ladies who came up to the front and had me pray over her was deaf and mute. She had the biggest smile on her face after she prayed for Jesus to come into her heart and made her way back to the back to get more prayer. She met Jackie from our team and she was the one who was going to pray for her.
The lady had somebody there who was talking for her and told Jackie her story and that she hasn’t been able to hear or talk in a long time. Jackie then laid hands on her and began to pray for her. Jackie really felt Holy Spirit tell her that she can here Gods voice for the first time while she was praying. Another girl came up to Jackie and asked for prayer so she had to turn around and pray for her as well.
The lady was still on Jackie’s heart later on that night and she prayed that God would continue to speak to her and that she would feel more of His presence. I didn’t know any of this happened until the next day- when the story continues…
The next day we were going back out for evangelism and we were heading out to the complete opposite side of the city. This city has close to 12 million people living in it and traveling a mile in this city would be the equivalent of traveling about 15 miles back home. The village we were going to be doing evangelism at that day was 4 miles from where we had the crusade the day before. They said it would take 2-3 hours to walk.
Well we get there and we split up into teams of 2 and headed out to go door to door. Jackie and I happened to get paired together and we started with the first couple of houses on the street. Once we had talked to them and prayed with them we turned thee corner and saw a house with a large group of ladies working in the back yard. They were doing some type of manual labor with very large stones and there was about 15 of them. We asked if we could come back and pray with them and they waved us back and said of course.
When we turned the corner to get to the back yard…yep….there she was.
The lady who was deaf and mute we had prayed for the day before was the first lady we saw!! She saw that it was me and recognized Jackie and I from the day before. She came running up to us with the biggest smile I have ever seen pointing to us and then pointing up to Jesus. She couldn’t talk but she was going crazy and if she was able to talk I know it would of been the loudest scream of joy you have ever heard. She couldn’t stop smiling and pointing up to Jesus and her family told us how happy she had been since she was prayed for the day before.
We had the chance to pray for her again and she just smiled and tried to scream the whole time. While Jackie was praying over her I was standing about ten feet away and heard Holy Spirit tell me that the lady could here God when Jackie was praying. We had the chance to pray over all the other ladies and a few of their babies as well. As we left, Jackie and I were speechless. If that isn’t a divine appointment then I dont know what is.
The lady’s family told us that she was just over there randomly that day visiting a cousin of hers and she walked the 3 hours to get there. In a city full of 12 million people, God had His eye on one of His daughters and He will do anything to bring her home.
The last 30 days here in Madagascar have been full of many ups and downs. Paul sums it up in Romans 8 “ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealedBut ultimately, it has been the most amazing month for our squad and we have all grown so much. Our squad is heading to Asia this Saturday for month 4.
