(GOD IS AWESOME!!)
(journal entries from Mozambican village outreach and Kenya)
12/21/2008 - Sunday
During our time in Niuthi, Pastor Jose worked a lot behind the scenes setting things up to establish a local church in the village. On Saturday afternoon Pastor Jose did meetings outside our camp with new believers. A couple of the pastors with us came from the previous village we visited, including one of Pastor Jose’s cousins. These village pastors were getting set to oversee the new work in Niuthi.
During our time in Niuthi, Pastor Jose worked a lot behind the scenes setting things up to establish a local church in the village. On Saturday afternoon Pastor Jose did meetings outside our camp with new believers. A couple of the pastors with us came from the previous village we visited, including one of Pastor Jose’s cousins. These village pastors were getting set to oversee the new work in Niuthi.
On Saturday night we invited all the new believers from our two nights of JESUS Film showings to come in the morning for Niuthi. first Christian church service--under some near-by trees! 
Probably 250+ people showed up for the service! The day before, one of the Mozambican pastors with us, Pastor Anselmo, met the chief of the village who served as a sort of governor over Niuthi and some other surrounding villages as well. Anselmo led this elderly man to Jesus!! Our new brother in Christ was a for
mer general from the country’s long and bloody civil war. He came to church elaborately dressed in his official military attire. He was hilarious!! He testified how Jesus had just saved him the day before and how he now had new joy in his heart. It was as if he started preaching even though he had only known the Lord for a day! He told the people how thankful he was for the missionaries coming to Niuthi and teaching his village about the Living God!! He kept going on for maybe 15 minutes about how everyone needed to know this Jesus he 
had encountered!! Then he invited his wife to come forward because she had some kind of physical problem in her leg; it hurt to move it. He wanted our team to pray for her; so, a co
uple of us gathered around her and said a simple prayer for her healing. At this point some worshipers had started singing songs and leading the people in dance. We had her test her leg by bending down and kicking and then we all started dancing!! Then the General joined in!! It was awesome!
Probably 250+ people showed up for the service! The day before, one of the Mozambican pastors with us, Pastor Anselmo, met the chief of the village who served as a sort of governor over Niuthi and some other surrounding villages as well. Anselmo led this elderly man to Jesus!! Our new brother in Christ was a for
mer general from the country’s long and bloody civil war. He came to church elaborately dressed in his official military attire. He was hilarious!! He testified how Jesus had just saved him the day before and how he now had new joy in his heart. It was as if he started preaching even though he had only known the Lord for a day! He told the people how thankful he was for the missionaries coming to Niuthi and teaching his village about the Living God!! He kept going on for maybe 15 minutes about how everyone needed to know this Jesus he 
had encountered!! Then he invited his wife to come forward because she had some kind of physical problem in her leg; it hurt to move it. He wanted our team to pray for her; so, a co
uple of us gathered around her and said a simple prayer for her healing. At this point some worshipers had started singing songs and leading the people in dance. We had her test her leg by bending down and kicking and then we all started dancing!! Then the General joined in!! It was awesome!Later in the service Pastor Jose invited everyone to bring forward any objects or fetishes which had ties to witchcraft to be destroyed. People responded by taking off bracelets, anklets, and necklaces which had been devoted for demonic purposes and bringing them forward. We worshiped singing, dancing and laughing. Then one of the mission students, Joe, preached a short sermon which was amazing. Then we prayed for the sick. I prayed for maybe a couple dozen people. Most indicated feeling better afterwards. Then when the prayer time started to draw to a close, I found a little boy who was clearly very sick. His father had motioned for me to pray for him. I soon realized that the father was mostly deaf, but he didn't want prayer; he wanted his son to be healed; it was his only concern. His son had the most horrible cough I've ever heard. Around his neck was a huge fetish, which I immediately asked if we could remove. After trying to communicate with the deaf father through hand signals, he finally understood and complied. I prayed. The boy began to cough up flem and soon he was caught in a fit of uncontrollable hacking and heaving, tears running down his face the whole time. The cough sounded like death itself. It was a challenging moment. I just began to cry out to God. That’s all I could do. I knelt down with the little boy and just called on Jesus. I think I felt just a sliver of the father’s pain. It was horrible. But, I believe God heard my prayers. Sadly, we didn't see an instant miracle, but I'm believing that a healing was set in motion.
One cool thing happened on this day in the morning before the church service started. People started lining up outside our fenced campground for prayer. Most wanted prayer for healing. There was one lady and her son that came asking for prayer for complete freedom from demons. From my understanding this lady and her son were bound in some sort of prison (probably something similar to the man I met in another village on a previous outreach [Nov 23 blog post] who was bound to a tree trunk) because they were mentally unstable. Pastor Jose prayed for them on Saturday and told the village they were free from the demons that were making them crazy and that they could be released now. The people were hesitant to let their captives go, but I think they noticed an improvement or something because they decided to release them the next morning. Immediately after being released this women and her son walked to our campground and asked for more prayer. It was like they knew they needed more of Jesus or something. It was pretty amazing. They were very blessed and seemed quite normal while we prayed for them. God is AWESOME! Go God!!!
(my white t-shirt after outreach!)
JOURNAL ENTRIES FROM MY TIME IN KENYA:
11:36 PM 12/24/2008
I've arrived back in Mombasa and I'm now with Kipleting in Lampstone's house. I had a good journey and was able to have some good time on the bus with a young mus ** m gal named Minira (which means "light"). I'm really hoping she receives Jesus in her heart soon. She seemed to be very moved by many of the testimonies I shared with her, particularly when I talked about the extent of God's love for her displayed in the death and resurrection Jesus Christ. Also, she seemed very interested when I spoke of people going to heaven for visits. She seemed to be tearing up and quite moved by the look on her face. I had a good time of witnessing to this girl about the love and power of Jesus. I also had a good chat with the girl sitting right next to me Teresa, who was 21 years old and Catholic.
I've arrived back in Mombasa and I'm now with Kipleting in Lampstone's house. I had a good journey and was able to have some good time on the bus with a young mus ** m gal named Minira (which means "light"). I'm really hoping she receives Jesus in her heart soon. She seemed to be very moved by many of the testimonies I shared with her, particularly when I talked about the extent of God's love for her displayed in the death and resurrection Jesus Christ. Also, she seemed very interested when I spoke of people going to heaven for visits. She seemed to be tearing up and quite moved by the look on her face. I had a good time of witnessing to this girl about the love and power of Jesus. I also had a good chat with the girl sitting right next to me Teresa, who was 21 years old and Catholic.
Christmas is tomorrow! I'm away from my mom and dad and brothers and sisters and I miss them all. However, I have a wonderful family here and God is good. Tonight Steven made my favorite meal—cales with ugali. mmmm. It was green (cales), red (peppers) and white (ugali), the colors of Christmas. God is so good and I am so blessed.
PREACHING AT A WITCH DOCTOR'S "INDUCTION CEREMONY!!"
12:07 AM 12/28/2008
I am in Lampstone's house. Today has been an amazing day. Last night Lampstone took me to his "valley" to pray. It was fun. I fell asleep at about two in the morning while the others prayed clear through the night. On the way, Lampstone showed me a tree that he used to sleep under at times, when things were rougher financially.
This morning we rested then this afternoon Lampstone and I went on a bike ride out to a rock pit. This evening Bonny (another Iris Missions student and great friend from Uganda) arrived in transit back to Uganda. He's lying beside me right now trying to sleep. He’s exhausted from his last few days of traveling by bus all the way from Pemba!
This morning we rested then this afternoon Lampstone and I went on a bike ride out to a rock pit. This evening Bonny (another Iris Missions student and great friend from Uganda) arrived in transit back to Uganda. He's lying beside me right now trying to sleep. He’s exhausted from his last few days of traveling by bus all the way from Pemba!
Right now there are around 50 people outside our door banging on drums and chanting in a witch doctor “induction ceremony.” I never knew there was such a thing! They are literally 10 feet from me right now, with only a cement wall separating us!! They’re trying to call up some spirits or something... When I heard there was going to be a ceremony earlier tonight I got excited and told Lampstone that this was a great opportunity to see God move. So, I went outside and started preaching the same message that I had at the last pagan festival in Niuthi and told the people that God loved them very much!! Lampstone translated into Kiswahili. I felt like God gave me the words and the presence of the Holy Spirit was very strong! The people listened. Four guys came forward in front of all their friends and gave their hearts to Jesus!! Some of the others laughed. I could tell that others wanted to come forward, but were too afraid. 
The lady who is getting "crowned" as a witch started to freak out a bit. We prayed for the new believers and then randomly I asked if there was anyone blind that needed healed. The lady lashed back in Kiswahili, "there are no blind people here!" At this point we sort of wore out our welcome. But, I’d say 4 out of 50 is pretty good for a witch fest!! After it was clear that we needed to leave, I just went around and hugged these precious people and then we all went back inside. This was so much fun!!!
I was ecstatic afterward. God really showed up. Now, however, I'm getting just slightly irritated. These people are literally a few feet outside my window in what is a sort of commons or courtyard type of area. They are relentlessly beating their drums, chanting and very drunk--they haven’t let up for the last two hours.
Lampstone, who’s staying at the church tonight, has never had this happen before. It’s funny that they should show up while I just happen to be visiting!! I think God just saw how blessed I was in Niuthi at that other pagan fest that He let me do it again!!! God you’re so cool!! Despite the screaming and noise, I have this amazing sense of peace and I just feel God’s presence so strong … this is amazing; there’s no where else I’d rather be.
Afterword: The drumming went all night, from 10 at night to 8 the next morning, When the drums stopped in the morning I heard a gagging goat – their sacrifice for the demons they called up. They skinned it and hung it on the fence for "the spirits to consume." Yeah, it was weird. But, I felt an incredible peace through the whole night, especially after coming to terms with the fact that sleep wasn not an option. God was close beside me as I prayed and worshiped and Bonny tried his best at sleeping.
THE REST OF THE STORY:
The rest of my time in Kenya continued to rock as God did many wonderful things. I was able to share with Lampstone's church and get to know some different individuals there. Then one of the days we did a small evangelistic outreach in a nearby village which was way fun. Lampstone borrowed a little beat up truck which I affectionately named "Lazarus" and we packed up a generator and the church’s sound system. It was classic. The hi-light, however, of my time in Kenya was simply spending time with Lampstone and getting to know him better. He’s an amazing person and has become a close friend.
I left Mombasa on December 31st and celebrated the New Year on a flight from Nairobi to Amsterdam. God did some cool stuff on the airplane rides as on that particular flight I sat next to a really neat couple from Italy that I was able to minister to just by telling them stories of my trip and sharing about Jesus. We celebrated the New Year together as the flight attendants passed out champagne.
God is SO GOOD!!!
Once again,
THANK YOU TO ALL WHO PRAYED FOR ME WHILE I WAS IN AFRICA AND TO ALL WHO HELPED ME FINANCIALLY!!!
THANK YOU TO ALL WHO PRAYED FOR ME WHILE I WAS IN AFRICA AND TO ALL WHO HELPED ME FINANCIALLY!!!
I am so BLESSED to have family and friends like YOU.
Love,
Levi
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