I just got a text message from our driver. We spent the day yesterday visiting with his relatives, praying with them. We were actually there about 6 hours and visited 4 homes. Anyone who has been here knows what visitation is like. First you arrive. Then they decide to make tea. Then they want you to sit for a moment by yourself in a room where the lights have gone out. Then they tell you they are making you food. Then you sit for an hour while they cook food. Then you eat. Then you may have tea again. Then you sing a song or two. Then you pray for 5 – 10 minutes and then you leave. Total visit: 2 hours. Anyway, the area we visited is full of Christians that do not have a pastor. They people in this area got tired of pastors demanding an offering in exchange for prayer so as a group they told pastors not to bother to come to them again. However, me, being White and free, was welcomed openly.
I mention all that to get to this point: my driver sent me a message to say that everyone was very happy I visited and they all think I am the “BEAST pastor!” I couldn’t help but laugh, his spoken English is good but written is another story (he meant to say they thought I was the best pastor). However, I will never forget being known in that part of the city as the beast pastor!
A few days ago we had a family visit in our home. The man of the house is a cousin of our driver. For the past year he has been unemployed. He is a Christian man and had ruffled a few feathers among the Muslim families he had worked with and they were doing all they could to make sure he would find no work. In desperation he asked us to pray. He had driven down from the capital city (about 4.5 hours) and told his family they weren’t going home until we had prayed for him. That was on Tuesday. Today, Friday, he got a call from the British High Commission. They had a new family take a posting in the area and while looking through old CVs this family decided to call one of the embassy’s former drivers. That man of course was the same man we prayed for on Tuesday. So after a year of being unemployed he received the highest paying job he has even had just 3 days after we prayed! God is so good! How anyone can doubt his existence/power is beyond me.
…it’s my first video post! Can you tell I’m excited?
Well, if you have ever wondered why doctors so strongly suggest not drinking the local water when you travel, check out what was coming from our taps today. It will answer all your questions!
If you’ve heard me tell the stories of our travels throughout the country you’ll know I am not a fan of the local traffic police. However, the locals are much harder on these men then I am. A recent newspaper article ran with a header declaring that traffic police were now giving people tickets for giving way to ambulances. The article made it clear that a local driver was approaching an intersection when he noticed the flashing red lights of an ambulance behind him. Being polite he moved out of the way to allow the ambulance to pass. The article went on to blast the traffic police for then pulling over this kind driver and ticketing him. It was not until the very end of the article that they noted that the driver, in his attempt to make room for the ambulance, decided to run a red light and make an illegal turn. I almost laugh out loud when I read articles like this. The writers twist things around to give you one sense of the events only to have you later realize the truth. I’m pretty sure if we talked to the policeman he’d tell us the ticket was for running a red light and doing an illegal turn, not for making way for an ambulance and the article suggested. The crazier thing is that there will likely now be a demonstration in front of police headquarters demanding that people should not be ticketed for being polite. Go figure.
A recent newspaper article explained the provincial governments new plan to combat high unemployment rates. Any ‘youth’ who lives in a poor community and cannot find adequate employment can receive help. No word was given on how these regulations will be checked or enforced. However, all that meet the requirements will be given a cow. Again the cow seems to be the answer to many a problem as it seems cows have been mentioned a number of times in this blog as solutions to various economic problems. Anyway, the plan is the youth will raise the cows and sell the milk solving their economic problems and helping the government solve its problem of not having enough milk suppliers. We’ll see how it goes!
One of our local pastors brought me an article from a newspaper printed in the national language here. He went on to explain that the article was about the plight of a suicide bomber who had been promised 70 virgins in paradise for his efforts in jihad. When his moment came his mind was full of fear and doubt and instead of succeeding with his mission, he passed out. He was out cold for a few hours. In the mean time, the police had discovered his limp body and taken him to a hospital. When the man finally regained consciousness he looked around his pale white room and the two nurses dressed all in white and said, “Where are the other 68 of you?”
Imagine his shock to discover the truth. Now consider the shock when he does actually die and faces eternal truth. The truth that outside of Jesus we are lost. That’s why we are here doing what we do, preaching the gospel to a lost and dying world, in a nation where millions of souls will one day wake up to the shock that they lived a lie when at the feet of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord!
Some of you (Mom) already know this, in fact this story comes from my mother. While we were home for Christmas we had been given a cheque from my grandmother and somehow through the process of carrying the cheque it fell out of a pocket and was lost. The cheque wasn’t signed and so we were not overly worried. Well, the other day my grandmother was told of our loss and she said the cheque was never cashed and that she would send another one. She added, “If you find the other one you can keep that too.” After that she received a call from a lady in NB saying, “I found a cheque…” God’s timing was perfect, not only yo find the cheque but now our offering has been doubled! It’s awesome to watch him work in his unique ways!
Many have said that revival is something that must take place in the church before we can receive the promised harvest of souls. In the past month I’ve begun to see revival break out and it is starting where it should – with the ministry! On the 17th of last month I was asked to speak the closing session of our District Conference. I was honored that the leaders put that kind of trust in me. I spoke to the men of God on what it takes to establish a church that God will want to dwell in. I told them that God is looking for a man like David, a man passionate about the presence of God. I told them that I felt the reason God so favored David is because he knew that the presence of God does not just magically show up. He didn’t stand back and say “The Spirit is like the wind, no man knows where it comes from or where it goes”. David was a man willing to do whatever it took to make sure God’s presence was in Jerusalem. Sometimes he failed, but he always passionately pursued God at ANY cost. He even said, I will not offer to God that which has cost me nothing. Yet, many of us as church leaders want harvest without the sacrifice. We want God to bless what we haven’t earnestly prayed for. We want God to anoint when we haven’t studied like we ought to have. We want His presence without paying the price. When I told them that God wants them to be like David and be willing to sacrifice and pay a price to enjoy His blessing, the place broke into repentance and prayer. I stayed about 40 minutes and prayed with the pastors, then I went, ate lunch, fellowshipped with the local pastor and came back. There were still men bowed at the altar praying that God would help them be men that would see the presence of God in their churches. Most of those men who stayed over 2 hours praying were Bible School students. They came home from that meeting and started a prayer meeting at night. Now every night from 10PM to midnight they gather together and pray for the work in this country. Else where, men are gathering for times of prayer and fasting. It has been amazing. They are not responding to my message, but they earnestly and honestly want revival in this nation. I’m excited to see what God is going to do in the future. When the pastors humble themselves before God and the people of God, then there is no force of hell that can stop this coming harvest! I believe the church in this nation is at a crossroads and the men of God are choosing to follow after God!
We recently attended a local church that is in a poor area of our city. The roads leading to this church are so bad we almost didn’t make it. Ours was the ONLY car on the road and for good reason! In Canada I wouldn’t have attempted these roads in a Hummer but we got through in our little Honda City by the grace of God. Like many rough roads it was worth the journey to receive what was waiting on the other side. During the service that night we had many people receive miraculous healings and at least 6 were filled with the Holy Ghost!The building was so packed we were not able to get testimonies from people. There was a balcony as well and the people were so jammed in up stairs that no one was able to verify if anyone received the Holy Ghost up there. They were packed in so tightly that many of the people on the balcony couldn’t move enough to indicate they received a miracle. The church is 15’x40’ and there were about 400 people in service that night! It was a hot sweaty night, but worth every sacrifice!
As much as I am excited to be back into our field of labor, we are quickly reminded of the things that make this country a true “mission field”. A recent article in the local paper described an incident in which a man had an argument with his wife and in anger he slapped her. The next day the wife’s brother kidnapped the man and bound him and locked him in a dark room. He was held captive there for the next 33 years! It gets worse. On one occasion someone had found out about the illegal imprisonment. The police broke into the house and found the man tied up and locked in a dark room.When the police asked the man’s brother in law why he was treating the man in this cruel way, the man replied, “He is mentally retarded.” So the police returned the man to his dark room and left feeling nothing was wrong! This story is SOOOO hard to believe on so many levels, yet there it is, in black and white in the local paper. I can’t even think of a comment for this horrid debacle.
