Saturday, July 17, 2010

Outreach

Things have been going great. It’s hard to really describe what’s been happening. We just finished 6 weeks- I can’t believe it. Now we have 4 more plus my extended outreach- which I am getting so excited for. The man leading the church of my outreach is from Brazil. He came to class and shared his radical testimony. It is just so crazy how God has saved him and changed his life. He was an avid cocaine user for 20 years and contracted AIDS. But a few years ago God completely healed him of AIDS. He has perfectly clean blood and can even donate blood now! Praise God! They have turned a brothel into a children’s home now, so we will be working with that.

We have had such amazing speakers here-I feel so blessed. A couple weeks ago my team went on outreach. We drove for 8 hours on the back of a truck and pulled up to a village. It was the craziest scene, all the children swarmed around the truck. There must have been hundreds. They were screaming, laughing, singing. It was amazing- just a sea of kids with big eyes and giant smiles. As we climbed out of the truck, they seemed almost afraid of us. As we walked the crowd would part, and when I touched one of them they would cower and move away. They were so shy at first. We only had 20 min. left of day light to set up our tents so we quickly grabbed our bags. I had a big backpacking backpack on with my tent and sleeping bag inside. The village thought it was so hilarious. As I walked through the crowd they would point and laugh- they thought it was so comical.

I started setting my tent up. I was on the outside of the circle of tents so the village was pushing in closer and closer to watch me set up. At first I was calm and composed assembling the tent. They all watched with eager anticipation. Daylight was fading fast and I started to forget how the tent worked exactly. Soon panic started to creep in and stress was coming over my face. The crowd around picked up on this and was finding the whole scene quite comical. Luckily it all started to click and the tent set right up.

We started the Jesus film and at the end one of the Mozambicans pastors started to preach and ask if anyone needed healing. We all prayed for people as they came up to just – no translator, just trying to figure out what was wrong. A guy on my team started praying for a man who said he had tumors in his throat. After the prayer, he said he felt them leave and his throat was totally healed. Praise God!

The next day we played with all the village kids- they were such a blast. So curious, so friendly, ever intrigued by everything we did. When we were at camp with our tents they would all huddle around and just watch our every moves. One little girl attached to me on the first day and stuck by my side the whole time. Whenever I looked around, she would be right next to me. She was so sweet. For lunch they cooked us goat stew. I was looking forward to it until I saw what it looked liked. At first it looked fine, until I saw a black hair. I thought, ‘Oh a hair from the cook fell in.’ Then I looked closer and saw the whole chunk of meat was covered in hair. Goat hair. It was impossible to pick off the hair in order to get some meat. Don’t ask me how that happened, but it was the greatest thing. Needless to say, I was still hungry….

We went around the village and prayed for people in their homes. It was incredible to be brought into their lives even for only a short while. Then we had a big tent meeting in the evening. To gather everyone around they play music and dance for quite awhile. African culture is very ‘event based’, people don’t come until the event starts. I was dancing around with the kids and I noticed a crowd of probably 30 kids had formed all around me and they were watching me intently. So I began to do certain claps, jumps, and movements and they would mimic. It was like Simon Says to the music. It was so much fun! At first I really didn’t want to dance because I was getting all hot and sweaty and all the dirt on my body was turning into mud basically. Gross!!! But when I saw 30 kids copying my every move, I could not resist. It kind of turned into an aerobics class. It was so amazing. Most of my team was tired, standing in the back and watching. But I had this rush of energy. That was definitely a highlight- the kids looking up at me, not focused on anything else, just their bright eyes and smiles shinning.

Then a guy form my team was able to preach and we were able to pray for people. One lady was mostly blind and after we prayed for here, most of her sight was restored. Praise God!!! There is power in the name of Jesus!

The next day we packed up and headed home. After 7 hours we arrived back to Pemba, which felt like a 5 star resort compared to the Bush. I have never been that dirty before in my life- it was so gross. Especially riding on the truck for 7 hours- it took an entire wetwipe just to clean all the dirt out of my nose. I’ve never seen such dirty water when I showered. But it was an amazing experience- seeing the bush- the heart of Africa and showing the Jesus film, praying for people, seeing healings, and loving on wonderful children. Wow! This world is so big. Thank you God that I’m able to take part in it.