The Lord seems to know how
to keep me on my knees and in total dependency on Him! Just as I think it will
be easy to do everything myself, the Lord shows me that He is in charge! I love
it!!! We were supposed to be nine people leaving in two vehicles. I worked out
the total budget and divided it equally between all of us. Each person was
supposed to contribute say for example R10 for this outreach. We all do this in
faith! When we came close to the deadline time we were still a lot of money
short. For example some received only R3; Another R2, Another R7, Another R8. What
was interesting that if we added the amounts together, it always added to the
R10 per person needed for the trip! The one vehicle also was giving a lot of
trouble suddenly and some of the team members felt that they must not go on
this outreach. All this happened two days before we were supposed to leave for
Zambia! In the end we were six people in one vehicle. All these small (and big)
things keeps us totally depended on God! He has never ever failed us! He came
through for us every single time in everything! He is an AMAZING, AMAZING
GOD!!!
The Sunday before we left
Kingdom Family Church prayed for us and send us out on this outreach with their
blessing and prayers. As they prayed I was shaking as the Holy Spirit came upon
me and tears and snot ran down my face as I was shaking! The team felt the same
Presence! It was a really Powerful experience and my money came in during the
service plus extra! Everybody except me had money to go before the service!
So early Monday morning on
the 15th of June 2015, myself together with Rietha, Jadine, Jairos, France and
Wonder left Pretoria in one vehicle (not working 100%!) for Zambia. We also had
a trailer that the Lord provided for us! I was the only driver and had very
little sleep because we had to get the vehicle ready and packed. At the South
African, Botswana border we had our first challenge. Jairos is a Zimbabwean
pastor working with us and is pastoring two churches in informal settlements in
Pretoria East. The SA government changed a lot of their policies regarding
foreigners and they opened up a department that handles all our Home Affairs
matters. This is total corruption and made matters extremely difficult for the
general public of South Africa. Please understand that my heart is not to go
out against the South African government, but I need to give the facts so that
you can better understand this post! We paid a lot of money for Jairos to be
legal in our country. We applied for three month visa (otherwise he has to
leave the country every 30 days) as they explained that we must buy this visa
first before we can buy the more permanent visa. After we bought the 3 month
visa, we received nothing. We drove more than 70km numerous times to their
offices, we phoned and we tried the internet, but every time they only told us
it is not ready yet. This was a two year struggle! One day as Henk went in to
Home Affairs again to see what is going on, they wanted to arrest Jairos
because his three months had already expired. But we never received it! The
system forced us to go underneath the table and do illegal things in order to
get Jairos legal again. We refused! Long story short, we found a contact in
Home Affairs that helped us to get his passport valid again and Jairos was all
set for this outreach! That was until we reached the border to exit South
Africa. The customs officer was not happy with his passport and wanted to
arrest him just there on the spot. She said he missed the previous year's
stamps (the year we waited for his three months visa!) and that he was an illegal
alien in South Africa for two years now. After talking to her she agreed to not
arrest him but gave him a black stamp on his passport which refuses him entry
into South Africa for at least five years! I phoned the office in Pretoria and
we decided to continue with the outreach and they will see what they can organise
for Jairos during our time on Zambia. This cost us a lot of time as we had a
long road ahead of us and it also made it more challenging to keep the spirits
high in the team. We knew that God wanted Jairos with us on this outreach and
we knew God knew about this before the time, so we just had to trust Him that
He will work all things together for the good for those who love Him and are
called according to His purpose. As a leader this was extremely challenging to
keep everyone focused on the outreach. Jairos has a wife and baby that is
expecting him home with the team he left with, in two weeks time.
On our journey the Botswana
police gave me a fine because the trailer lights were not working. It worked
this morning in Pretoria! The Botswana police is very strict on enforcing the
law, and rightfully so! This is what I love about them. Not nice when you are
at the wrong side of the line, but at least they enforce the law! And to add
insult to injury, our air-conditioning also broke! We drove through to a place
just north of Nata, Elephant Sands. Wonder is a youth pastor here in Mamelodi
and it was his first time out of SA and it was his first time camping. We
arrived at sunset and set up camp in the dark. This was quite an interesting experience!
The elephants here come very close as there is a waterhole where they daily
come to bathe and drink. This is an amazing experience to see these magnificent
animals so close in their natural habitat. I love it!! I only had about three
hours of sleep the previous night, and we had a long and eventful day, and at 23h00
that night we were ready for bed. I was exhausted! That night around 2am I woke
up with my entire body in pain because of the cold. We were freezing! I
couldn't sleep again and around 6am got up to make coffee. Jairos and Wonder
also stood with me next to the semi warm coals of the previous night's
campfire. We had to shower that morning with no hot water. I was extremely
negative and very unchristian in my mind! Then Wonder made a comment whilst
smiling: "So this is what camping is like!?". He also worshipped the
Lord in the cold shower! He blessed me so much that morning and knocked the
negativity right out of me! The team was amazing and the unity amongst us was
very strong!
After breakfast we were busy
packing up camp as a vehicle stopped close by us at the toilet facilities. They
were packed and ready to depart and just quickly stopped at the toilets. I was
still busy packing up our tent when the one guy approached me. Holy Spirit
immediately told me that He sent this guy and that I must listen. The guy asked
me where we will sleep the night and I replied in Livingstone at the
Waterfront. He said that he had a lodge and that we should rather spend the
night there for free! He gave me directions and his business card and they
left. We took the whole day to cross over in to Zambia at Kazungula and at
sunset we arrived at the lodge that the guy had explained to us. It was a very
long and 4x4 road to get there and we drove through a village to get there! Not
a road I would have taken if I had knew before the time, simply because of the
trailer and the Land Cruiser not in the best condition. As we arrived at our
destination we saw that it is still under construction and that there is no
water or anything there. We really wanted to shower so we decided to go back to
Livingstone and spend the night there. I knew the Lord send that guy to us but
I couldn't understand why we had to drive all the way there and not sleep
there.
One of the prophetic words
we received for this trip was that we will unknowingly drive through a village
and witchcraft will be challenged and it would break the authority of the
witchdoctor over the area. A few days later when I spoke to Albert about this,
he told us that the main witchdoctor over the entire area of Livingstone and
even up to Kasane lived in this village! He was the main big chief over all
this area! I have a vision from the Lord where we want to establish Kingdom in
the Kazungula area. The witchcraft is extremely active there and I believe it
is one of the main gates between southern Africa and central Africa, not only
in the natural, but also in the spirit. I believe the Lord wants us to take
that gate for the Kingdom! This is still something the Lord is working within
us and I know it is something for the nearby future. I would have never been
able to do this if we didn't knew about this witchdoctor in this village. So
because of this guy who gave us accommodation, we found the strongman over the
area for work we still want to do in the future! I was in total awe of the
bigness and greatness of our God!
We set up camp that night at
the Waterfront Lodge in Livingstone. One of the lodge staff came past us and he
was sick. We prayed for him and he got healed! Then he went to call more staff
members and the Lord healed and touched them too! It was not long before we literally
had a prayer line at our campsite! I saw some of the staff again later the year
and they were still on fire for Jesus and testifying about His goodness! Having
this happen at our camp even brought more confusion to my mind on why we had to
drive to that other lodge. I doubted if I maybe heard the Lord wrong, but deep down knew that I did
hear Holy Spirit correctly. I just didn't understand at that time why we had to
drive all the way to that lodge. It only later made sense! I learned that no
matter what my understanding or no matter how things seem, trust the Holy
Spirit. He is way bigger than what we can ever imagine! Obedience does not
require understanding! Simply trust Him completely!
The following morning we
went to the Victoria Falls. It was spectacular as the Falls were in flood! We
got soaked! At the Falls we stopped and prayed. The Presence of the Lord came
so strong on us that we worshipped and prayed out loud with all the tourists
walking around us. We had an amazing experience with Holy Spirit there! Something
huge definitely happened in the spirit and in our hearts! We were ready!
Our destination for the day
was Batoka, a small village just north of Choma. Here we met our friends Albert
and Oliver. It was already dark when we arrived so we spend the night
fellowshipping with our friends to get to know each other. The church that they
wanted us to minister in was planted many years ago but was never able to grow
and fully get off the ground. There was always some story that destroyed the
church and that is why Albert wanted us to minister here. The morning they took
us to the chief in charge's house. We sat in his house and were warmly
welcomed. We prayed with him and shared who we were. He is in charge of 360
villages. None of these has a strong church, so he pleaded with us to come and
establish churches in his villages! Our vision of 600 churches instantly grew
to 960 churches!
During the day we had church
services where I taught the Word of God mostly. Then in the evening we had open
air crusades where we showed the Jesus film to the people. Jairos preached the
first evening and about 40/50 people came forward to receive Jesus! The
following day we split up into groups and we walked the streets to tell people
about Jesus. Many people became born again and we witnessed a lot of healings! Rietha
and I went with pastor Watson and a few other people from church, and they took
us to this house where the mother and her daughters all practiced witchcraft.
We did deliverance on the mother and she afterwards accepted Jesus into her
heart. We then did the same with the one daughter and she also became born
again! She got healed from a pain in the stomach area that came because of the
witchcraft. Her sister suffered from the same pain, so I had her pray for her
sister. These are young girls in their teenage years! As she prayed for her
sister, the sister started manifesting demonically. Now remember, she just
received deliverance and Jesus and now she prayed and her sister manifested a
demon. Instead of calling a pastor and backing down, she started praying even
more on fire and did deliverance on her sister! We also prayed for the young
brother and the father. The entire family got delivered and born again! When I
prayed for the little boy, I didn't use words. I went on my knees and I gave
him a big hug. The Love of God tangibly started flowing from me and changed the
boy's appearance! He got free just because of a hug done in the love of Christ!
Deliverance is easy! Rietha also shared the Gospel at these houses we visited
and we witnessed many healings as we prayed for the people! The people also
became born again!
The afternoon France
preached and the Holy Spirit came and blessed us with His tangible Presence.
When Holy Spirit comes these people immediately react. It is amazing to see the
realness and purity in them when they experience the Spirit like this. People
fly through the air as God gets them, others are on the floor before Him,
others sing and dance. Everybody just enjoys the Presence of their Maker! Some manifestations
are definitely demonic but it is by far the minority. It is logic to think than
when Light enters, darkness manifests! The Holy Spirit loves to offend our
religious mindsets and boxes we try to put Him in. He can do what He wants! He
is God Almighty! To witness Holy Spirit like this made me realise again how
much He loves us and how desperately He wants to show Himself to us. I think
the western world's need to control and fear to not be in control or need to understand
is what keeps Holy Spirit limited in our midst. In the evening we had crusade
and again many people got born again, healed and delivered! What also blessed
me was the ladies on the team, Rietha and Jadine. They ate all the food, bathed
as the locals bath from a dish, went to the long drop toilets and they did all
of this with a supernatural joy! It is not always easy for us western city
folks to adapt to other forms of living. But their attitude in everything I
believe was a great testimony to the locals and they (and us!) were Blessed!
After our very successful time
in Batoka we left to Kariba Bush Lodge next to Kariba dam. This is the closest
place we can stay when we minister in the Sinakoba area. They were busy
revamping the place and it was actually closed to the public but they allowed
us to camp there in any case as long as we were able to take care of ourselves.
We just wanted to unpack when the manager there approached me and said that the
house is empty and no one is going to sleep there. We are welcome to sleep
there if we want at no extra cost! Blessing from Jesus!!!
We were scheduled to
minister in Sinakoba for three days. when we arrived there I was very
pleasantly surprised! Last time we were here, October 2014, the place was dark
and witchcraft was everywhere until God showed up and then everything changed! Now, there was a very tangible Presence of
Holy Spirit there, the place/area/community was Lightened up completely and
even the nature looked different as it responded to God! This means that last
time was not only a nice conference, but it was a life changing event that
forever changed this community and its surroundings! God was there to stay! The
people built a church from branches and logs as chairs, but it shows their
commitment and that they are willing to continue the work here! They are almost
"begging" for guidance and support to help grow the church! It is
such a blessing to see them taking ownership of what God gave to them! The
worship was out of this world; Heavenly! There is a new joy and freedom in them
as they worship Jesus!
Jadine had opportunity to
share the prophetic word the Lord gave her. She is a young medical student that
has such a special and amazing personal relationship with the Lord. I love
these young students that are on fire for Jesus! During the day we had teaching
sessions the whole day and the crusade in the evening. Jairos, France and
myself did most of the preaching but we all ministered together. During our
time we built on what was established in October 2014 and took them deeper into
the realms of the Spirit. Again we saw many people being born again, healed and
delivered. The one afternoon session we divided into groups; Jairos and Jadine
took the youngsters, Wonder the youth, Rietha the women and France the men. I
wanted them to minister so I walked between groups to take photos. All the
groups did amazing and the interaction really was a blessing! The children grew
from 6 or seven to almost thirty when they saw Jairos and Jadine ministering to
their friends. Wonder had a Q&A session with the youth as they loved him
because he was of a similar age than them. France preached to the men about the
fire of God and the men made Powerful declarations over their homes and
communities! Then Rietha! She started off by calling the women forward who
cannot pray in tongues and many came forward. Those who could pray in tongues
helped to pray for those who came forward and then Holy chaos broke out! These
ladies held nothing back and prayed Heaven right into each other! It took a while
for this to calm down again just enough for Rietha to continue. If you ever
want to see people drunk in the Spirit, you get these ladies to start praying!
It was Powerful! There is something about the women standing up in Zambia that
is bringing revival to the people! Many ladies received their Heavenly tongue
and even healings and deliverance during the service.
The last service we had at
Sinakoba was just as Powerful! It was also really emotional for the team as we
had to greet our close friends. Batoka felt like one outreach, Sinakoba felt
like another and then Botswana (on our way home) also felt like an outreach on
its own. After Albert shared his heart, the atmosphere was tangible with the
Presence of Holy Spirit and Heavenly excitement. Jotham (one of the leaders for
Albert's team in Harvest for Christ Ministries) then grabbed the mike and
prophesied over all of us and then they prayed for us individually. They shared
their heart and their appreciation. It was so special and close to our hearts
what they did and it all just added to the emotions and very special occasion!
The word they shared was spot on for each of us and it really meant a lot to
us! They blessed us more than we could bless them! When you are in Jesus, it is
always win-win!
In the bigger picture things
opened up in a very big way for us in Zambia. I shared my heart and plan with
the leaders on how to plant 960 churches and reach all these villages with the
Gospel. Everybody with one accord agreed! We want to make Sinakoba the base and
train the people here. From here we will send them out two-two to go to the
unreached villages and prepare the ground. Then a crusade team will come in and
from these meetings we will plant the church. Then discipleship and various
community projects can be launched to equip the community for the better. This
is only the short of it and I can honestly say that the future for Zambia and
Africa is very bright! When I look at outreaches I see the bigger picture more
than just this one trip, but if I look at this trip on its own, it was very
successful!
Unfortunately on our way
back we had to stop at Choma to drop our friend Jairos. We couldn't do anything
to make him legal again and he had to take the bus to Harare from there to sort
things out from there. This is when it all became a reality for us. We all knew
that this would happen, but it only really hit us at this moment when Jairos
climbed on that bus to Harare. We were very sad to have said goodbye to him. We
also grew in our understanding as to why this had to happen to Jairos. Today
Jairos and his family live in Zimbabwe and has planted a church there. We
believe the Lord is going to use him Powerfully in Zimbabwe and that he has a
calling for that nation.
We continued our journey into
Botswana and spent the night in Kasane. As
we arrived in Kasane we almost immediately went to church to minister there. I
shared briefly on our trip and also my plans for this region. When we take the
gate in the spirit, we want the local church to be involved as we trust for a great
harvest of souls to come for the Kingdom! The leaders were very excited and
shared that they are already in process of building more churches as they know
it is harvest time! It was so amazing to see that the Lord is busy preparing
everything and we need only to follow Him. We do not need to take control and
be the "boss", as we all only follow Holy Spirit, because Jesus is
King! The Lord is busy preparing everything and He is doing all the work; we
kind of only tag along and do as He says. This is why He will receive all the
Glory for this new era we are entering as the body of Christ.
We were blessed with a boat
trip around Puku Island the following morning and saw many wild life. To my
shock and embarrassment we did not see any elephants and this is the most dense
population of elephants in the world. I was bragging the entire trip about the
elephants at Kasane and now we did not see even one! Just proved once again
that we can never guarantee nature. Lesson learned! The afternoon we went to
pray in the hospital and many people got released from hospital as God healed
them! We also went to a friends' house for a local lunch. She really spoiled us
and prepared delicious food for us! We were privileged to pray for her and her
family after lunch and prophesied over them. We also went to pray at another
friends' business and for her personally. The pastor of the church took us to
the church in Kazungula that they are busy constructing. We worshipped, prayed
and made declarations there. We had a very good time as God's Presence was very
tangible! It was so amazing to see how God connected us with all the right
people on this trip! The Botswana leg of this trip became an outreach instead
of a rest and the team refused to take a rest and ministered with me all the
time we were in Kasane! I just loved the spirit in the team!
We came back to South Africa
and were spoiled to have a good evenings rest at the border next to the Limpopo
in safari tents. We were very tired and appreciated it very much to not put up
camp that night after the long travel. The Lord also spoiled us with a
delicious dinner! I love it that our Daddy cares about us so much that He
provides in the smallest of things. He didn't have to spoil us like He did and
we would have been just as happy; but He loves us and knew we were tired so He
spoiled us, His children! We felt His Love! When we make His things important
to us, He makes our things important to Him! One of the ways I measure the
success of an outreach is to see if my team, and the people we minister with
and to, are more in love with Jesus. I love the miracles, signs and wonders!
But the purpose of miracles, is to meet the God of the miracles! Our Father in
Heaven really, really loves us! We pray that you will experience His love for
yourself in a very personal and intimate way in Jesus Name!
Here is a testimony written
by Rietha!:
Hi
Martin
Hier
is twee testimonies oor Zambia. Ai was lekker om dit uit te tik - sommer
weer die oomblik herleef. (Here are two testimonies from Zambia. It was so nice
to type this - to experience these moments again!)
House to house visits in
Batoka:
The
one day we went out into the villages. We came to a house where a man and
women lived. They were husband and wife. We could sense a strong
presence of witchcraft even approaching the house. On our hearts
for this house was the Good news of the Gospel which is Jesus Christ and that
the Good news has come to their house today. We shared with them about
Jesus and what the Good news entails: healing, deliverance and salvation.
We asked if they needed prayer for anything.
They
both said that they are fine, however one of the ladies from the church who
came with us indicated that the wife will often faint if she receives a bad
report or sad news. We asked if we can pray for the wife. She started
manifesting as we started to pray. This lasted for a while. We stopped
her and explained that her deliverance is up to her. She needs to make a
choice to part with witchcraft. As soon as she made the decision she was
delivered. We also prayed for their children. Two daughters and a
smaller boy. The one girl started manifesting and it was great seeing her
sister taking authority and praying with us for her sisters deliverance. Fear
was one of the strongholds in this family. It was so precious to see the
change on the mothers facial expression after she was delivered. The
father had cataracts on his eyes so we prayed for that. His eyesight
improved. What a privilege to be able to bring the GOODNEWS to this
entire household. They will never be the same and neither will we.
Personal
Testimony:
It
was once again such a privilege to be part of what God is doing. We went
to Zambia to give but received so much in return. I just need to testify
of how faithful our Father was in blessing me (us). He
specifically blessed me with regards to growth and confirming my identity
in Him. I want to encourage you as you read this testimony to
know that God will also meet you on a special way while you are giving and
serving. I learned so much from the people in Zambia. What a life
changing experience it was.
Blessings
