Hello family and friends!I'm home now and it's cold. I live in Eastern Oregon and this morning there was a three foot snow drift on my family's front porch.
My last two and a half weeks in Africa were jam-packed with excitement. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make any posts. However, I did keep a journal. So, I'll try to fill you in. Two days after my last post I graduated with my other missions school friends on Monday the 15th. The ceremony lasted all day as the Mozambican Bible school students graduated along side us (all 100 of them). We worshipped African style and soon we were all drenched with sweat as we danced, sang, and shouted for Jesus. The graduation was followed by a baptismal service in the ocean. It was an awesome day.
On Wednesday the 17th I left with 18 others on an extended "bush bush" outreach. (the extra 'bush' is just to emphasize that it was "way out there"). It was a five day outreach and we visited two different villages in the "bush bush." This outreach was like a cherry topping on the entire school, definitely one of the hi-lights for me.
12/18
One cool thing happened in the first village we visited when a couple of us prayed for an older lady who had a messed up left leg. She was in pain from the hip down and wasn't able to move her entire leg without it hurting. It was so bad that she was unable to do her work in the fields. I suspected it was a hip issue.
After praying for a few minutes we had her test her leg and there was zero noticeable improvement. So, we prayed again. This time, after testing it, she felt a little improvement, but still had some pain. We prayed a third time. Before we could finish our third prayer, she interrupted us and started blurting out something in a surprised Makua tone. After translation, we learned that while we were praying the third time she felt a popping sound in her hip (this seemed to be something spiritual as well as physical--like she heard something in the spirit). After this "popping" she was completely healed and had no noticeable pain in her leg. Praise God!
The next day one of our translators told us that he was able to visit this woman earlier that morning--she was out working in the fields and feeling great! Hallelujah!!
12/19
This was an amazing day. Probably one of my top five days in Africa so far. It started out late morning when I went to the local church with David, Bonny, Joe, and Ben (other missions students) to do a men's meeting. During our men's meeting we discussed many things, primarily revolving around marriage and sexual purity. Joe felt impressed to count the men and saw that there were 12 in our circle (Africans) along with a couple looking in from outside the circle as well. Joe felt that 12 was significant and that this group of guys was like Jesus' group of disciples. At the very end of our discussion I challenged the guys to start praying every day for the Holy Spirit. I told them very briefly how I had done this with a friend and how I started having physical vibrations in my bones.
There was something about the testimony about the bones that got me really fired up. We went directly into a prayer time for the guys and I was really pumped. I was getting rocked as the guys we were praying for were getting really touched as well. It was awesome. Then I saw on one of the guy's watches right after the thought of Joe's observation crossed my mind, 12:12. Afterwards I told them that I felt that this was a small confirmation from the Lord that He wanted to use them to impact surrounding villages with the love of Jesus. I challenged them again to daily cry out for "toto nempa takatifoo" (more Holy Spirit in Makua) and to make that their life prayer, praying it a thousand times a day.
After the men's meeting we quickly ate lunch, loaded up our camiao, and hit the road headed to our next destined village. On the
way to the next village we reached a bridge which had been washed out and was impossible to cross. After some consideration we decided to try and fill in the washed out areas with rocks and logs. We began to gather the biggest rocks we could find. Before we had the first large rock in the hole, suddenly there were at least 25 Mozambican men helping us, gathering other rocks and cutting down trees for logs! The Mozambicans took over and started constructing the bridge. I've noticed that when people talk to each other in this culture it often sounds as if they are arguing, even though I think they usually aren't. Their conversations often sound loud and abrasive, especially while building bridges. As the Mozambicans conversed we gave our input (which was usually ignored--the language barrier didn't help). Nonetheless, we were able to work together to fill in the washed out areas.
Finally, we made the move to cross the bridge and by the grace of God our truck made it! There was an outbreak of shouting and laughter as we all jumped for joy. Then, there was some more commotion. Our helpers wanted paid. Pastor Jose gave the chief 500 mets and told him to split it with all who helped.
After the bridge, the weather seemed to get increasingly worse as dark storm clouds formed and sporadic showers increased. We encountered low points in the road following the bridge with patches of mud that our truck had some trouble passing through. The road became obviously less traveled as we barrelled further into the heart of the "bush bush." We pressed on, eventually entering a village called Niuthi (Nee-oo-tee). This village wasn't our intended destination, however, we stopped here because our planned village to visit was up-hill from this point and the roads seemed to be getting worse. Upon entry, a quite uptight looking witch doctor greeted us by pacing around our truck in an anxious manner while shaking fetishes at us and speaking curses in a quiet yet determined voice. Pastor Jose (our Mozambican leader) and David and Heather were outside the truck making the decision to stay while the rest of us waited in the camiao clueless of their plans. Some on the team started to freak out in a subtle sort of way. I prayed quietly. Then David came and informed us that this village had no church and since the roads were bad, we would do ministry here.
I got really excited at this point. This village had a witch doctor with a quite colorful personality and even more intriguing, this village didn't have a church. I felt like I was on the forefront of God's Kingdom being established in the earth--this is the stuff we dream about. Some team members weren't overly optimistic at first, but we were all tired and tuna spaghetti with mayonnaise (our usual outreach dinner) sounded pretty good, even though it would be a couple hours before we would be able to eat.
When we first entered Niuthi the sky was dark and it looked like we were going to have a very wet night. However, as soon as we set up camp it seemed that the weather gradually improved. Even though it was still lightly sprinkling on and off, we decided to go ahead and show the JESUS Film that first night. The people were very responsive clear from the beginning. They were glued to the film and to every word we said before and after. Following the film Pastor Jose preached the gospel and invited people to make a commitment to Jesus Christ. It's hard to say exactly, but probably 80% of the crowd raised their hands. We then prayed for the sick. It was a special night from the beginning--I felt a lot of anticipation building from when we first entered the village. The crowd was warm and responsive and I didn't sense much mocking or detachment. On some of the other shorter outreaches I went on there were times I felt a lot of mocking from certain crowds.
Most of the sick we prayed for said they felt better immediately after we prayed for them. I saw many people healed from headaches, backaches, and stomach problems. After praying we loaded up the sound equipment. Right when we got the last piece of equipment on the truck it started to pour. This heavy rain lasted for maybe five or ten minutes and then miraculously when we got back to the camp and began to unload the equipment the rain stopped! God blessed us with great weather throughout the entire outreach even though the sky looked like it could have turned for the worst at many times. We were very thankful that the hardest rain of the first night happened while we were on the truck in transit protected by the truck's very effective tarp. The people were able to hear the word of God and we were able to sleep on dry ground! God is good.
I've got some more great stories to share about the last couple days of the outreach. I'll try to post more in the next few days!
God Bless you all and thanks to those who helped make this trip possible!
Much Love,
Levi
12/18
One cool thing happened in the first village we visited when a couple of us prayed for an older lady who had a messed up left leg. She was in pain from the hip down and wasn't able to move her entire leg without it hurting. It was so bad that she was unable to do her work in the fields. I suspected it was a hip issue.
After praying for a few minutes we had her test her leg and there was zero noticeable improvement. So, we prayed again. This time, after testing it, she felt a little improvement, but still had some pain. We prayed a third time. Before we could finish our third prayer, she interrupted us and started blurting out something in a surprised Makua tone. After translation, we learned that while we were praying the third time she felt a popping sound in her hip (this seemed to be something spiritual as well as physical--like she heard something in the spirit). After this "popping" she was completely healed and had no noticeable pain in her leg. Praise God!
The next day one of our translators told us that he was able to visit this woman earlier that morning--she was out working in the fields and feeling great! Hallelujah!!
12/19
This was an amazing day. Probably one of my top five days in Africa so far. It started out late morning when I went to the local church with David, Bonny, Joe, and Ben (other missions students) to do a men's meeting. During our men's meeting we discussed many things, primarily revolving around marriage and sexual purity. Joe felt impressed to count the men and saw that there were 12 in our circle (Africans) along with a couple looking in from outside the circle as well. Joe felt that 12 was significant and that this group of guys was like Jesus' group of disciples. At the very end of our discussion I challenged the guys to start praying every day for the Holy Spirit. I told them very briefly how I had done this with a friend and how I started having physical vibrations in my bones.
There was something about the testimony about the bones that got me really fired up. We went directly into a prayer time for the guys and I was really pumped. I was getting rocked as the guys we were praying for were getting really touched as well. It was awesome. Then I saw on one of the guy's watches right after the thought of Joe's observation crossed my mind, 12:12. Afterwards I told them that I felt that this was a small confirmation from the Lord that He wanted to use them to impact surrounding villages with the love of Jesus. I challenged them again to daily cry out for "toto nempa takatifoo" (more Holy Spirit in Makua) and to make that their life prayer, praying it a thousand times a day.
After the men's meeting we quickly ate lunch, loaded up our camiao, and hit the road headed to our next destined village. On the
way to the next village we reached a bridge which had been washed out and was impossible to cross. After some consideration we decided to try and fill in the washed out areas with rocks and logs. We began to gather the biggest rocks we could find. Before we had the first large rock in the hole, suddenly there were at least 25 Mozambican men helping us, gathering other rocks and cutting down trees for logs! The Mozambicans took over and started constructing the bridge. I've noticed that when people talk to each other in this culture it often sounds as if they are arguing, even though I think they usually aren't. Their conversations often sound loud and abrasive, especially while building bridges. As the Mozambicans conversed we gave our input (which was usually ignored--the language barrier didn't help). Nonetheless, we were able to work together to fill in the washed out areas.Finally, we made the move to cross the bridge and by the grace of God our truck made it! There was an outbreak of shouting and laughter as we all jumped for joy. Then, there was some more commotion. Our helpers wanted paid. Pastor Jose gave the chief 500 mets and told him to split it with all who helped.
After the bridge, the weather seemed to get increasingly worse as dark storm clouds formed and sporadic showers increased. We encountered low points in the road following the bridge with patches of mud that our truck had some trouble passing through. The road became obviously less traveled as we barrelled further into the heart of the "bush bush." We pressed on, eventually entering a village called Niuthi (Nee-oo-tee). This village wasn't our intended destination, however, we stopped here because our planned village to visit was up-hill from this point and the roads seemed to be getting worse. Upon entry, a quite uptight looking witch doctor greeted us by pacing around our truck in an anxious manner while shaking fetishes at us and speaking curses in a quiet yet determined voice. Pastor Jose (our Mozambican leader) and David and Heather were outside the truck making the decision to stay while the rest of us waited in the camiao clueless of their plans. Some on the team started to freak out in a subtle sort of way. I prayed quietly. Then David came and informed us that this village had no church and since the roads were bad, we would do ministry here.
I got really excited at this point. This village had a witch doctor with a quite colorful personality and even more intriguing, this village didn't have a church. I felt like I was on the forefront of God's Kingdom being established in the earth--this is the stuff we dream about. Some team members weren't overly optimistic at first, but we were all tired and tuna spaghetti with mayonnaise (our usual outreach dinner) sounded pretty good, even though it would be a couple hours before we would be able to eat.
When we first entered Niuthi the sky was dark and it looked like we were going to have a very wet night. However, as soon as we set up camp it seemed that the weather gradually improved. Even though it was still lightly sprinkling on and off, we decided to go ahead and show the JESUS Film that first night. The people were very responsive clear from the beginning. They were glued to the film and to every word we said before and after. Following the film Pastor Jose preached the gospel and invited people to make a commitment to Jesus Christ. It's hard to say exactly, but probably 80% of the crowd raised their hands. We then prayed for the sick. It was a special night from the beginning--I felt a lot of anticipation building from when we first entered the village. The crowd was warm and responsive and I didn't sense much mocking or detachment. On some of the other shorter outreaches I went on there were times I felt a lot of mocking from certain crowds.
Most of the sick we prayed for said they felt better immediately after we prayed for them. I saw many people healed from headaches, backaches, and stomach problems. After praying we loaded up the sound equipment. Right when we got the last piece of equipment on the truck it started to pour. This heavy rain lasted for maybe five or ten minutes and then miraculously when we got back to the camp and began to unload the equipment the rain stopped! God blessed us with great weather throughout the entire outreach even though the sky looked like it could have turned for the worst at many times. We were very thankful that the hardest rain of the first night happened while we were on the truck in transit protected by the truck's very effective tarp. The people were able to hear the word of God and we were able to sleep on dry ground! God is good.
I've got some more great stories to share about the last couple days of the outreach. I'll try to post more in the next few days!
God Bless you all and thanks to those who helped make this trip possible!
Much Love,
Levi
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