"Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it." Psalms 81:10
Thankfully I am a very spontaneous person and God has given me an ability to accomplish things on the fly, and I am grateful the Holy Spirit speaks to us and through us. There have been 4 different scenarios this month in which I was asked to do things on the fly. In all of these circumstances I wouldn't have been able to complete any of the things I was asked to do without the help of the Holy Spirit. This month has been a little different for me, I've been really busy and haven't "felt" as spiritual or prophetic as I normally do. God has used this as a month to reveal weaknesses to me, and help strengthen me in these weak areas. Thankfully, God still used some of my strengths this month to help my team, and I tend to be reliable and the go to guy in spontaneous circumstances so the 4 scenarios this month seemed to play out very well.
The first instance happened at the orphanage we are working at called "The Well of Jacob." Our contact Peter is a very intelligent blind man who speaks 12 languages. He is an amazing man of God but sometimes things get lost in translation and the schedule at the orphanage gets changed around. On this particular day we thought we were going to help build a house for widows and because of this we didn't bring any bibles or anything to the orphanage that day. Come to find out were we supposed to teach the children bible stories. Out of everyone in the team I sort of volunteered and with help from the rest of the team and their amazing acting, we shared the story of Adam and Eve. After we were done Peter asked us to share another story. So I asked him which would be better, Daniel and the Lions Den or Noah and the Ark? "I think you can do both" Peter said. I almost chuckled out loud, but Peter was serious. Thankfully God retaught me the stories that day as I was teaching them, because I haven't shared those stories in a long time. Unfortunately we only had time for Daniel and the Lions Den, which went really well.
The next instance happened a few days later. We showed up to ministry and Peter told us that He was going to teach the children out of the Bible. Great. So the whole team sat down in chairs underneath a large tree, the kids sat down facing us, and then Peter sat down behind them. My team leader Paul after noticing the children were facing us said, "guys why are all the kids facing us? Isn't Peter teaching today?" So he asked Peter, are you teaching today or are we? "Um, you are teach the children today from da book of John". Oh really? LoL We thought He was teaching the children, but we should have known. John is my favorite book, so once again I sort of volunteered to teach and God saved me yet again since I haven't read John 5 as much as I have other chapters, let alone teach children that are between the ages of 4-23.
God reminded me of something the other day after I taught these children. During my road trip across America a few months ago I had the pleasure of receiving prayer from a little 9 year old girl after a Power and Love conference that I went to in Klamath Falls, Oregon. She prayed and prophesied that even though I didn't speak the same language, children around the world would be able to understand what I was saying. She said that when I spoke children would be able to understand the simplicity of the gospel and the finished work of Jesus Christ. I believe what she prophesied came to pass on both of these occasions.
The 3rd scenario happened late this last saturday night. Our team was invited to speak at a Iris church in Mufambissee, Mozambique. The area is actually called Mufasa, and it's not far from the orphanage we work at. Another member of my team Matt originally said he would speak there and the rest of the team would share a testimony of act out a lesson. Well roughly 12 hours before we were supposed to speak at this church something happened and my team leader Paul asked me to speak instead. Perfect. God I need you again as usual.
I didn't have much time to prep other than to spend sometime with the Lord that sunday morning. I felt like God wanted me to speak about His love, my favorite topic. We had a translator that translated from Portuguese to English, and the church had one that translated from Portugese to Cena(a local language here near the city of Dondo in Mozambique). The church had a little over 100 people there, and it was hot, and rowdy. If you've ever been to an African church you'll understand what I mean, they get down with the Holy Ghost, they dance, and praise, and shout, and testify. It was awesome. A girl in my squad shared her testimony, and then I spoke. I'm not sure how long I spoke but it went pretty well. Speaking with an interpreter is challenging needless to say, but I felt that they understood what I was trying to say. I asked the people who were sick to come forward for prayer. Somewhere around 20-30 came forward and translating back and forth we found out was what wrong with each person and prayed.
Everyone got healed. Everyone. People had headaches, stomach aches, toothaches, and other sickness like malaria and God healed them all. Here in Mozambique not everyone can go to the doctor, so something like a headache or a stomach ache could be life threatening and people don't even realize it, they just think they have a headache. I believe God healed a lot of various types of sickness and diseases that morning not just headaches and sore stomachs.
The fourth spontaneous moment happened this past monday. 3 of our team members were staying behind that day and didn't come with us to our ministry site. So it was just Matt, Desirae, Mary, and I that went to ministry that morning. We got to The Well of Jacob and Peter asked us to split up into 2 groups. The first group would teach the children technical drawing(drawing shapes, etc.) and the second group would teach leadership training to some of the pastors that were visiting.Say what? Leadership training? Um, okay. Thank God I brought my bible. Matt and I decided that we'd take on the leadership training portion and we were able to work off of each other with help from the Holy Spirit. We taught out of Timothy 4:11-16 that morning for about an hour and a half. We taught these men about leading as examples in speech from James 5, in conduct from the beatitudes in Matthew 5, in love from 1 John 4, in faith from Hebrews 11, and in purity from various books of the new testament. God brought it all together once again. It was amazing. After our lesson, we found out these 2 pastors are from a villages a few hundred kilometers from where we are. They each pastor separate churches and have 60-70 members a piece. Who knows what impact we had on them, or the impact we possibly had on a few hundred Africans that will be impacted but what God spoke through us. I know someday in heaven people will come up to me and thank me for wisdom that God lead me to share with their pastors. God is good.
This is probably my last blog from Mozambique. We leave here in a few short days and we'll be in debrief for the majority of next week in South Africa. I may write a closing blog with a summary of my time in Mozambique. I learned a lot this month, and God is continuing to stretch me. I know some battles I face this year aren't just for me but my family and the people I will impact in the future. God is an amazing teacher. If you haven't subscribed to my blog yet, please do so by entering your email address on the left. Next month I'll be in Swaziland, and I've heard a little about what we'll be doing, it's going to be amazing! Be blessed, Eh yo tey yamo(I love you) and De osh tey yama(God loves you).
