This week has been a little stressful but it is ending nicely. My stomach has been messed up off and on all week. It’s also really hard to get quiet time around here and get away to be with God, but a friend of mine bought me a Mozambican children’s bed to put on the back porch of my house last week so we could get away. I am attempting to include a pic of it with my update. I am sending this all from my cell phone so we’ll see what happens!!
This will definitely be one of the calmer updates, especially compared to last week’s.
Like I said, it has been a stressful week somewhat. Sunday night around dusk a really thick spiritual fog came over the entire base. Monday Heidi had a major crisis that had to be dealt with. The police killed one of the head bandidos (thieves) so they have declared war on Pemba. It really is serious but nothing to be upset about. The joke around here is that the bandido council must have convened and voted a 2/3 majority to declare war on the town. Basically all that means for us is that we need to be more cautious when getting taxi’s at night.
There have been a lot of spiritual attacks on people personally this week. Monday or Tuesday night I got in bed and the door opened itself again – another “visitor.” My roommate woke up and rebuked it out of the house before I could even speak. The next day Janico said she was in the kitchen and our bedroom door started opening and shutting itself again. This time she saw a white lady dressed in white. If any of you are missing a ghost, she may still be floating around Mozambique if you’d like her back. And the witch doctors have been drumming a lot lately as well. That always stirs the pot.
I led worship one day this week. Our group also did a funny presentation on Columba, a missionary from Ireland. I got to write out a funny (but serious) skit about him battling the Loch Ness Monster. I have been leading several people through inner healing stuff this week. I also prayed for another mission school student this week who got healed from her back problems. God is so awesome.
I have a funny story that I hope you will enjoy. My friend Tim from England has been put on an 8-day speaking fast by God. (And thankfully He never puts more on us than we can bear – I doubt I will ever be called to that! Ha ha!) So Thursday afternoon Tim explained he was going to the beach to the left to go snorkeling and spend some time with God. We decided I would meet him in a little while and go eat dinner together. So about an hour and a half later I went down looking for him and couldn’t find him. I asked some people at the restaurant that were from our group and they hadn’t seen him. I kept looking at the pier feeling like he was there but all I saw was a couple. I walked back, over the pier, and started down toward the base and the other restaurants. A few minutes later I started to pray and ask God where he was, and no sooner than I had one word out of my mouth the Holy Spirit physically jerked me around backwards and I looked at the pier and he was waving really big with both arms. After we met up he “told” me he was praying for God to turn me around so I would see him! Later on he explained on paper that he was hiding down on the rocks from that married couple because he couldn’t explain his speaking fast without paper, so he just hid instead.
I’ll share one more quick thing before I send this. We had a speaker this week named Charles Stock. He taught a lot on God’s love for us. One of his major testimonies was that He had prayed for 20 years asking God what his calling was – an evangelist, pastor, missionary? And for 20 years God told him, “I’ve called you to be My friend.” After 20 years he said he finally got it. I don’t know how to explain what happened, but it changed my life. I was laying on the floor and had this vision of myself, in what I can best describe as David in Saul’s armor when he was about to go kill Goliath. Jesus came in the vision and undressed it off of me and put this shiny lightweight mail coat looking thing on me. All the clunky armor I saw was not the Ephesians 6 armor of God, it represented all the lies and crap the enemy had put on me that had been hindering my relationship with God as I carried it around daily. I got set free to not worry about the past, about my calling, or my future, but just to be friends with God and walk with Him daily. I don’t think my description adequately does justice to what God did in my heart, but I can’t wait to come back and preach that message and impart the deliverance I received!.