Zimbabwe March 2013
Thursday 28th
We left Pretoria Wednesday evening and drove all
night on a four day outreach to Zimbabwe. We were a team of 14, ministering at
four villages in four days. As we entered Zimbabwe in the early morning hours,
we stopped at a garage where four men came for prayer and accepted Jesus into
their lives. The team later split up in two groups. Our journey started at
Bikita.
We arrived at Bikita early afternoon and were
greeted by the awesome Zimbabwean hospitality. Very friendly people! After we
unpacked we left for a small village close by to pray for a lady who is
paralysed from the waist down because of witchcraft. We prayed and God touched
her heart. One could feel the tangible presence of God there. Her face showed
no joy or hope as we arrived. After Jesus came and love on her, her face shined
with joy! God showed us that she is totally healed and that it will be
physically visible in the near future! There was also a little girl who
couldn’t speak. She had an operation in her mouth and couldn’t speak after
that. We prayed and she then started calling out "Mamma!". We also
prayed for an old ladies knees and an old guy’s one leg. God touched them all!
The facial expression on their faces showed that something happened that touched
their hearts. As we walked to the car few of us fell behind and got stopped by
the man whose leg we prayed for, begging for us to pray for his wife. I
immediately saw in my mind how Jesus when He was on earth got stopped by the
people and because He had compassion for the people, He went and healed. So we
went, knowing that God loves these people with all of His heart. The lady had
malaria and was lying there sweating with fever. We prayed and Jesus healed
her! She was dancing and praising God the entire time we were there.
The evening pastor France preached and we had an
amazing time worshipping with the people of the village. Although we were very
tired, when we prayed for the people we saw God touch them in an awesome way.
His love is not threatened by our believe or state of mind. It comes with no
strings attach!
Friday 29th
Friday morning we were praying together for the
service and God gave us the following Scripture:
Psalm 67:1-2
NKJV
God be
merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, Selah That
Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.
God basically told us that He is there and that He
sees the people's hungry hearts. He wants to touch them! Just after this two
eagles arrived hovering over us! We knew God had a special plan for today! He
gave many confirmation and Scripture for the day. In church the worship was
brilliant as usual! I pray that we can worship God as these people. You have to
experience it to understand it! I had an opportunity to preach and had a great
time. To end the service we had communion together. People were touched by God!
Pastor France testified his story of 2003 when he was beaten to death and went
to heaven to meet Jesus and woke up without any scars in the mortuary! This was
a holy moment! People felt on their knees worshiping God! The time to play
church is over. We need to get serious with God! The thing that made this
service such a success is the absolute desperate hunger these people have for
God. They were like a sponge just soaking up every drop of Him!
As the people left the church we made a fire tunnel
for them to exit. We formed a tunnel standing opposite each other in a row. The
people then walk between us and we would lay hands on them and trust God for
His touch, impartation, healing, deliverance or whatever God wants to do. This
went on for a while as God's Spirit ministered to the people. After the service
we went to a nearby dam where we baptised 7 people! Young and old came to be
baptised and get filled with the Holy Spirit! They received healing and
deliverance and all worshiped there next to the water! We then packed up camp
and set off to Ngundu for an Easter Conference.
On the way we stopped at an almost finished lodge.
The owner is family of Jeffree, the pastor who arranged our trip on the
Zimbabwean side. He looked after us the entire trip and made sure we had
everything we need. This was a beautiful lodge! Plus a flushing toilet is
always a good stop on any African outreach! The lodge is in a mountain area
with very large rocks overlooking a beautiful lake. The room's walls are built
over these big rocks. On the inside it looks brilliant, creating a rocky atmosphere.
So you have this shower between these huge rocks! We had a cool drink here and
the owner showed me around a bit. While I was busy, the team prayed for the
owner’s wife and shared the love of God with her!
We arrived at Ngundu just after sunset to set up
camp for the next two nights. The local women brought us meat and rice that
they cooked for us. Still don’t know what meat it was, but tasted rather good!
It was just before 10pm and I told the team that there will be no service
tonight. We should pray and then rest for following day. We have a full
schedule for the Saturday. Very shortly after my announcement we heard the
worship started. 10 o'clock at night!? This forced me and France to give up our
rest and join the church. I made an open invitation for the team should they
feel like joining but reminded them of the Saturday's schedule. Almost
everybody came! What awesome dedication!
The church was very small and was packed with
people. The hunger of the people is amazing! Inside the church is like an oven
with all the people stacked up on the inside with almost no windows. But none
of this mattered when you're part of the worship! A Zimbabwean pastor living in
Mamelodi brought the Word that evening. Just after 12 that night the service
finished and then they started with the choir singing! The conference had many
churches and villages represented there from all over. People came from far!
They slept everywhere! Even outside on the ground, in the church, kitchen and
any place they could find! So I guess I’m saying there were many choirs! 5
o'clock Saturday morning the prayer meeting started! I wonder what we in the
western world would do if church time was not restricted to a watch, but to the
Holy Spirit?
After the sermon we got to pray for a few people. A
young man came forward for prayer for his headaches. He testified the following
morning that he failed metric last year because of the headaches. God healed
him! Another lady also testified of how God healed and touched her that
evening!
Saturday 30
March
Saturday morning we prayed together for the
service. Something in the spirit had to brake! It felt like we were hitting
hard ground today. The Lord reminded me of us putting up tent last night. The
ground was hard and in some places impenetrable with the tent pens! But as you
change the angle of the tent pen, the pen goes in easily! The Lord said we have
to adjust our angle of approach, fully submitted to His Spirit, and we will be
able to break the hard soil and God can soften and penetrate their hearts.
In church, the worship once again touched us.
Between some of the songs there is a pastor that will either say something or
start to pray. In the African churches the entire congregation prays out loud.
For some reason on this trip this encouraged me to be even louder! We prayed
out loud in tongues and called on God at the top of our voice. What holy chaos
in that small building! One thing that absolutely floored me was this pastor
when he started honouring his wife. According to my "worthless" opinion,
this is something that’s not very popular in the African culture. I thought I
could jump for joy! Sometimes it looks as if they don’t have too much respect
for their women, respectfully saying! But when this pastor honoured his wife, I
got delivered from my mindset. Thank You Jesus! He called her forward and they
sang a worship song together while dancing side by side. This was an amazing
site! At a later service a women stood up and gave thanks to the Lord for her
awesome husband. I later realised it is the same pastor's wife. What example!
After the worship an old man came to the front. He
is the father of the house (the pastor of the church where the conference was
held and the head pastor over a network of churches). He preached several short
messages in his session, but very straight to the point! Everything we felt
like saying, he preached! One of the things he said was that they should
forgive the white man. God broke the barriers already and that their previous
enemy is now their friend. He regularly shook some of the team member's hands
demonstrating the new relationship between black and white. He was flat out
against racism! He also preached very practical things and encouraged the Godly
marriage. He also said that you are foolish if you think as a pastor that the
people belong to you. You are foolish if you are dependent on humans. He said
that he didn’t die for anybody so nobody must be dependent on him or any other
pastor. Only Jesus can fill this position! Wow! What wisdom! In the spirit he
basically opened the way for me to preach my heart out! When you preach at an
unfamiliar place, it’s always difficult to get the right approach to share your
message so that the people will understand you. But this father of the house
paved the way for me! In short he declared their need to God. Exactly what I
had on my heart!
After the father of the house shared the heart of
his congregation, we worshipped and then I had a turn to share a message. I
basically said that we need more of Jesus and that He must have number one
position alone in our lives. During this whole topic of idol worship, a team
member noticed a woman with a witchcraft necklace. She was asked earlier on to
pray for her son, but decided to wait till after the service. When she saw the
necklace she started to pray. She didn't want to tell the lady that her
necklace is evil and asked God to convince the lady about the Truth. The lady
went in and out the church about three times. Then our team member decided to
go out with the lady to pray for her boy. When she prayed for the boy she saw
that the mother got rid of her necklace! How real is Jesus!?
During the service we felt the thing that needed to
brake in the spirit did break! The atmosphere was a whole lot lighter! The
entire church was on their knees before God, surrendering again under the
Almighty. We also ministered to some people laying hands on them and prayed for
them. What joy to see God at work first hand!
During the service Tanya had the Sunday school. She
went wild dancing and singing with the kids! She also taught the kids how to
pray for the sick and about the gifts of the Spirit. They understood and got
real practical with it by praying for the sick and God healed them! We then
braked for lunch.
During the lunch break we prayed for a mother and
daughter. The daughter had an illness where the brain or skeleton didn’t close
properly. For more than one reason, God did something awesome there! We also
prayed for a man who had some lymph or something on the back of his neck. It
was wobbly, full of fluid or something. This thing was so big that I couldn’t
get my hand around it. We prayed but time caught up with us and we had to leave
for the afternoon session. We just knew this wasn’t the end!
The afternoon session we split into three groups.
The men in the group took the pastors, the women the women and Tanya the
children and teenagers. Tanya continued where she stopped the morning session
and she gave opportunity for the youngsters to pray for the sick. The teenagers
in the group also got ministered to. The youth are fed up with politics! They
want nothing to do with the war and racism of their ant-sisters. I pray that
the older generation can find that place in their hearts to forgive and let God
change their hearts. The love of God makes it worth it! It also brings joy to
my heart that the youth are able to stand up for what is right and not continue
with the nonsense of the previous generations. May God rise up the youth as a
mighty army for His Kingdom!
The women in Zimbabwe also form the majority of the
population because so many men are in SA looking for an income. This fact can
go either way. Either the women can be raised up and trained to be watchmen for
their men or adultery will become a big problem. Our prayers and training there
can be the difference that God use! The women in our team testified to the
Zimbabwean women and then ministered to them. God apparently did some amazing
things there with the women!
We were with the pastors. France shared a message
of catching the fire and also gave his testimony. The importance of equipping
the leaders cannot be emphasised enough. They are the ones who will disciple
the people and train the next generation leaders. But when the leaders are
without hope, fire and just not overflowing of God, the rest of the church and
people will be no better off. We had an impartation service where we laid hands
on all of the men and prayed with them. Among them were young men! They are
starving for God! We need to rise up fathers in the communities who will be an
example to these young men. One could see on their faces and responses that God
did something awesome there! In short what I am saying is that the work is
plenty! Sometimes we don’t need to sit and wait for God to send us. We can just
go! He already ordered us to go in Scripture! So don’t wait; GO!!!
After the services we went to another part of the
village to go and pray for a young man who is blind. His left eye looks like
something has been stabbed in there, his right eye also blind. His body is a
skin thicker than a skeleton and his feet is swollen so big that the pain is
visible. This guy broke my heart! He also looks a bit different from his
family. The rejection is rooted in his deepest bones. We prayed, had communion,
prayed for deliverance and every trick we know how to do but no physical
healing. He said he could start seeing light in the one eye. Eventually the sun
reached the horizon and we had to go back for the church service. This damped
the spirit in the team a bit. One could feel the corporate disappointment.
Sometimes in ministry we will have "failure". We have to know this! I
put the word failure in brackets for a reason! To keep this simple, let’s first
state the Truth. God is God, not us! He sees everything and knows everything;
He knows best and never goes back on His Word. So why didn't God healed that
young man who had less than no hope or reason for living? The honest answer is
that I just don’t know! But I do know that I can trust God with everything. We
went, did our best, and that’s it! The rest is up to God! We must be obedience
driven, and not result driven! Results follow obedience! Maybe God needed the
white man out of the way so that He can get all the glory? I don’t know! Our
job is done and all we can do now is to keep praying. I know my God! I know His
heart and character! I trust Him completely! One thing that this experience
encouraged me into is to get more of God in me. I need to be all God no me! I
need the fire inside of me to be purified!
Back at camp we had a quick talk about what
happened the afternoon and we started praying together just focusing on God's
presence again. The team was great! All refocused on God and at the evening’s
service. Our last service we wanted to finish on high note! Pastor France
preached his heart out, taking us deeper into Gods presence. A very encouraging
message to not sleep on our talents, but use them to glorify God. The time for
playing church is over! Afterwards we prayed for the people again and anyone
could see how real it is when flesh meets Spirit. What an awesome sight to
witness as God touches His people and just love on them!
Sunday morning we had to pack up and head back to
South Africa. Before we departed we had breakfast together, each sharing their
highlight of the trip and also give a suggestion on how to do things
differently in the future. It was a total cloudy morning with no sight of the
blue heavens. As we shared with each other, a piece of cloud opened letting
through the sunlight to shine directly on us! Just then two eagles also came in
and hovered over the village. The same as when we left Bikita two days ago!
What an awesome blessing from above from the Father of light! We packed up camp,
greeted and blessed the people and met up with the other group to head back to
Pretoria. We exchanged testimonies and worshipped all the way back!
Here are some of the stories they told us:
It didn’t take long to realise that this team had
it a bit more challenging than us when it came to the luxury department! Their long
drop (or just drop) was only covered by a few leaves and the shower’s wall was
made out of linen material. I am happy to say that this didn’t stop them from
sharing God’s love with the people! They had an awesome time and their spirits
were high when we met up with them on Sunday!
They ministered in a small church and Chris taught
people to go into the Spirit and spend time with Jesus. He wanted to use a
young boy as an example and prayed for him. He fell over and remained knocked
out for several hours. When he got back up he testified that he just went to
heaven. He explained to all what heaven was like, even though much of our
humanly terms fall short of the reality of the heavens! Another lady who could
most certainly be described as an introvert also came for prayer. She also got
knocked out and went to heaven! Hours later when she woke up, she danced all
over and almost screamed as she worshipped Jesus! While she was lying there, her
body cried a lot and one could see she is going through deep emotional healing.
There was an old lady who couldn’t stand up
straight. The team took her outside and started praying. She got healed and
stood up straight! She stretched and danced for Jesus throwing her walking
stick away into the air. The stick landed right on top of a huge pile of cow
dung! God showed us what he thought of her walking stick and that He has an
awesome sense of humour! The team experienced the presence of God and they together
with the people of Zimbabwe got transformed into the image of Christ!
All of us had an amazing time in Zimbabwe. Thank
you for every contribution through prayer and all other means that made this
trip possible. Here is an email I received with the formal feedback on the
outreach:
The Outreach exceeded my expectations
by far and was a tremendous resounding success:
1.
Miracles took place
2.
Deliverance took place
3.
Relationships were built
4.
The people saw AND felt the love of Jesus
5.
The Gospel was preached
6.
The Pastors in Zim want us to come back!!
7.
2 people who can lead their own teams were identified
8.
Everyone had fun!!
9.
Having you at the Ngundu Halt Conference
was not planned and was not ideal but you did very well in a difficult
situation (This won’t happen again!!)
10. The Pastors say
that if I can’t come with to Zim it isn’t a problem - as long as I send you!! This is the ultimate sign of success!!
More visits to Zimbabwe will certainly follow in
the near future. As we go, the Kingdom of God gets manifested in the hearts and
lives of His people…
