After an amazing month 8 debrief in Kenya, I was really excited to see what the Lord had for us in Tanzania. Now that time on the Race is slipping by and we only have 3 months left, I wanted to believe God for SUPERNATURAL things.
A five hour bus ride later (with Africans packed like sardines, no stop for a bathroom, blaring African music…I had a moment with the Lord telling Him that I don't want to do this anymore! However, we arrived to find we are staying in a home with BEDS and RUNNING WATER) so i went back to expecting BIG things from the Lord. 🙂
After one day, the Father has done SUPERNATURAL and HEAVENLY things….
The Pastor said we would be doing door-to-door evangelism in a large Muslim community. This community also has a lot of witchcraft and many of the Muslims go to the witch doctors for help. No one had gone door to door before to tell these people about Jesus, so many people have never heard of Him. Or maybe they have heard of the name Jesus but don’t understand anything about Him.
Ok, Holy Spirit this is where I definitely need you to show up because I have absolutely nothing to offer these people.
I remember at training camp, one of the speakers said “the only thing you need is the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit knows something about the people you will come in contact with.”
Ok, Holy Spirit…it’s all you….
Talked to a woman who had been a Muslim her whole life. She was open to hear about who I believed Jesus to be, but she laughed at me when I spoke about Him. There was a moment when I believe the Holy Spirit was touching her. She looked teary-eyed. But at the end of our convo, she allowed me to pray but didn’t want to receive Jesus. I told her I would be back.
Talked to another man, named Johnny, who was a believer along with his wife. Two other girls on my team were ministering to a Muslim woman who lived with Johnny and his wife. I told Johnny that he should talk to this woman about his relationship with Jesus. He quickly shook his head NO. I picked up on the fact that he didn’t want to get involved. The woman wasn’t too receiving of what my teammates had to say. So I told Johnny that he has to pray for her to be open to Jesus. Again, his first instinct was to shake his head NO. So, I said, “Johnny, let’s pray now for your friend. Let’s pray that God will soften her heart and that she will come to know Jesus as God.” He agreed, and we prayed together. I told him to pray for her daily and that he would be the one God uses to bring her to Him.
Another older woman asked to hear the story of Jesus. She had never heard it before. (That blows my mind.) She didn’t want to receive Him but allowed us to pray and agreed to come to church.
Later that afternoon, we were welcomed into the home of a woman who lived with her children and her mother. Surprisingly, she spoke Spanish and she was Muslim. And she knew her stuff. She said she liked reading some books of the Bible, and she was open to hearing what we wanted to say about Jesus. She was quick to fire back her answers of why she believes Jesus cannot possibly be the Son of God. She definitely challenged me with knowing where to find scripture. It was difficult to explain the Trinity without her believing that we worship three Gods instead of ONE. And I realized, no one could sit here and talk me out of believing that Jesus is the Son of God and the only way to the Father. She believes differently, and nothing we could say would change her mind. It will have to be the Holy Spirit. We prayed for her and left with a smile.
What happened next was something I had never seen before. This was when the movie clip filmed in Tanzania from “Furious Love” came to life for me. A peaceful, beautiful elderly woman greeted us at the front door of her house. We walked to the back to sit on a mat in the shade. It was a hot day. Through a translator (the Pastor’s wife, Janet) we asked her about her family. She believed in God. She believed in Jesus. She went to a Catholic Church. So we asked how we could pray for her, and she told us that she has had stomach pain for years. We began to pray when Janet stopped us. Janet said we needed to pray for her heart before we pray for her stomach. I was confused. But apparently she hadn’t received Jesus yet, and she wanted to at that moment. Yay God! Janet led her through the prayer and began praying for her stomach to be healed. At one point I looked and saw the woman’s face had completely changed. From peaceful and pleasant to sad and lifeless. She had a blank stare and wasn’t answering Janet’s questions. That’s when Janet said that she had a bad spirit and we needed to pray. So we did. Janet tried to stand the woman to her feet but she instantly crumbled to the ground. We kept praying and after a few minutes she was free. Her face went back to normal. She stood up on her own and stretched and the pain was gone! Janet told me that the woman had said she felt like someone was standing on her stomach, but now it’s gone!
Praise Jesus! He healed and delievered His children today!
Little did I know that day 2 got even crazier. Casting out demons seems to be an every day thing here in Singida.
I’ll write about that in my next blog.
