The situation in South Africa was a pretty grace– er, grave one.
It started in the squatter camps while we were here. As near as local authorities can tell, they’ve narrowed down ground zero to be in a squatter camp called Kagiso (hope I have the name right). As far as we know at the moment the initial patient is a local man in his thirties by the name of Innocence.
Family members stated that Innocence began experiencing unusual behavior a few weeks ago during a visit by a group of Americans in the camp. The Americans in question had come to spread the truth and love of the Lord Jesus and the free gift of salvation He offers. It is unquestionably that same group of Americans that first introduced the syndrome to Innocence. Family of Innocence had the following statements to share in regards to his condition.
Reported one eyewitness:
“As [the missionaries] walked up and down the streets of the camp and [Innocence] observed them, all of a sudden he just seemed to be overcome by some sorta feeling; like the Holy Spirit just sorta kicked it into seventh gear (Heh, get it? Because 7 is the Biblical numbe-… of-.. complet- okay, okay, bad pun). Anyway, yeah, he kinda went wild. Outta nowhere he just started acting like [the missionaries], sharing the good news with person after person. And oh man, the passion and the love in how he shared and poured out onto those people— I remember watching him share the Gospel with one man while pointing to the man behind him and saying, ‘You wait right there– you’re next when I’m done with him!’ But like, he was really moved by that experience. Innocence is a pastor at the church inside the squatter camp. Innocence said afterwards that he had never done anything like that before– never had he been so bold and passionate for the truth or the people until that day.”
Estimates put the number of people affected by this change of heart, this salvation at around 30-40 in only one hour’s time, with those numbers only expected to climb in the weeks to come.
“It changed his ministry, his church, and his life that day.”
Symptoms of this contagion reported by affected patients include inexplicable and uncontrollable outbursts of joyfulness, an otherworldly sense of peace, a sensation of light-heartedness, chronic hope and faith, a sincere and even extreme sense of purposefulness to life and all activities and actions therein to name a few of the more serious conditions. In extreme cases death of self in conjunction with renewal of life centered on following and being in close relationship with Christ can occur, which is when the contagion achieves its peak infectious state as the affected begins to lose worldly, fleshly vision and begins to see the people in the world around them as their Lord and Creator does— this is typically followed by tremendous levels of steadily sincere and increasing love for oneself, love for the Lord, and love for the people around them, particularly the unaffected.
If you or a loved one have experienced similar symptoms, it is recommended to remain calm, and when you have thoroughly become calm, to get out there and just go!
There is no reason to worry– you’re not going mad; you’re just beginning to experience something far too many never do: the JOY of the Lord. 🙂
