Nakupenda

I think that if you are a Christian you should always be under some level of spiritual warfare. This however, is something I have never experienced.  Something that I have really come to grasp in the past year is that although Jeremiah 29:11 is comforting – the devil has a plan for us too.  Even though I am sealed with the Holy Spirit, the devil wants nothing more than to try and break that seal.  Jesus is present on this mission.  The devil is present on this mission.  There is a darkness that is difficult to explain and scary to feel.  

My (semi) shallow prayers a few months ago of “Please, God let me pass the Praxis exam” have now been replaced with “Please, God deliver these people from sacrificing their children and animals to the devil.”  This is a painful but beautiful struggle.  Which I can’t help but think is exactly the story of the cross – painful but beautiful.  I think I am no longer merely admiring the cross, but taking up my own. 

This past week we have visited prisons, schools, done door to door evangelism, and held open air crusades.  The 5 minute presentation of the gospel and alter call is very difficult for me to appreciate sometimes as in my past few posts I’ve talked about really needing the relationship aspect of sharing your faith.  Even when pastors come to FCA I secretly pray they don’t have some kind of “If you want to accept Jesus then repeat after me” at the end of their time talking.  I really don’t know why but I’ve always felt very uncomfortable by it.

The devil fills my mind with evil thoughts like, “They are just coming forward because they think they will get something at the end of this” or “They probably ‘accept Jesus’ every time there is an alter call.”  After seeking the Lord’s guidance in this I’ve realized that all that I’d been doing is judging others.  I’ve realized that God can use me walking into one woman’s mud hut for a few minutes to share with her what Jesus is to me to change people for eternity. 

Here’s two cool stories.

As a result of an invitation one man got to come to the crusade during door to door he gave his life to Christ on Thursday.  He spoke with Pastor Ambrose and told him that his family is heavily involved with witchcraft.  That he was given the name “Calogo” which literally means “witch” in his local language.  He said at night he sleeps only with a sheet that he and his family had given up to the devil.  It was some kind of evil practice (like sleeping wrapped up in evil spirits).  Today he came to church and we prayed over him and gave him a new name, David.  We took up an offering for a new bed sheet and tonight at the crusade we will anoint it with the Holy Spirit and pray a blessing over it. 

On Tuesday before the crusade we were doing door to door (or sheet to sheet as most of them use bedroom sheets for their front doors). We began talking to a group of women and two of them embraced Christ into their lives as result of hearing the gospel for the first time.  (PRAISE GOD!)  As we began questioning one of the women about her (very obvious) pregnancy she told us that she had been pregnant for the past 12 months.  We understood that this was not medically possible so we told her we’d be back for her later that day to take her to a clinic.  We figured that she either miscarried late into the pregnancy and her body was just not releasing the baby or it was some kind of tumor.  After getting her first ultrasound ever the doctors told us that she was 39 weeks pregnant.  The reason why she thought she’d been pregnant for 12 months is that she most likely miscarried before this pregnancy and in her mind it was one very long pregnancy.  As it’s been hard to leave the ones who I’ve prayed the sinners prayer with the past few days it was great to continuing caring for this women long after she uttered the words “Amen.”