Assumane, MozambiqueMonday, October 5, 2009
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Preaching in Assumane
The Lord opened the door for me to be able to give the message in Assumane at the Sunday morning church service yesterday. I had a message that I was planning to give, but then I felt the Lord wanted me to ditch that one and preach another one two days before. I think one reason for the change in direction is because the chief and secretaries had recently been invited to the service, where the church would be officially started in Assumane. Knowing that the chief is not yet a believer and was going to be there, and possibly others from the village who were invited, I felt led to give a very evangelistic message, focusing on how we are all loved by God, and that God expressed that love to us by sending His Son to die for us.
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We started the service, and the attendance was a little lower than before. The worship didn’t seem quite as exuberant, and there was a strange tension in the spiritual atmosphere in the village. I felt this tension last night, when after the Jesus Film showing, there was celebration in the streets surrounding, “Uniagu,” which is a very demonic ceremony, with witchcraft involved, where children of the village are initiated into “adulthood,” by being sexually molested (part of their sex-education) among other things. This is the sad truth here in the Niassa province among the Yao people. Yet we are beginning to see a real breakthrough, where numbers of people are coming to Christ and forsaking these demonic practices. There is also a veneer of Islam over these practices. Anyway, I continued to feel this tension in the Spirit, as I began to give the message; the chief and secretaries still not having arrived to the church service, which would be an important part of the official opening of the church.
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I pushed through, giving the message to those who were there. Annelisa translated for me into Portuguese and Victo then translated into Yao...so you can imagine that messages are much longer in three languages. Many of the children were missing from the service, which makes us think it did have something to do with “Uniagu.” The adults present were very attentive to the message. And though no one came forward to make a first time decision to receive Jesus, many came forward for prayer for healing, and I believe that a good number of those people received physical healing. Jesse and I prayed in particular for a little girl who was maybe 18 months old, who had never been able to urinate or defecate since birth, but only continued to vomit all the time. As I held the little child in my arms, I believe that I was urinated on, which would truly be a miracle. It's pretty funny that I can find joy in being urinated on. It was also funny to hear Jesse pray, "Poop! In the name of Jesus!" Haha.
We started the service, and the attendance was a little lower than before. The worship didn’t seem quite as exuberant, and there was a strange tension in the spiritual atmosphere in the village. I felt this tension last night, when after the Jesus Film showing, there was celebration in the streets surrounding, “Uniagu,” which is a very demonic ceremony, with witchcraft involved, where children of the village are initiated into “adulthood,” by being sexually molested (part of their sex-education) among other things. This is the sad truth here in the Niassa province among the Yao people. Yet we are beginning to see a real breakthrough, where numbers of people are coming to Christ and forsaking these demonic practices. There is also a veneer of Islam over these practices. Anyway, I continued to feel this tension in the Spirit, as I began to give the message; the chief and secretaries still not having arrived to the church service, which would be an important part of the official opening of the church.
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I pushed through, giving the message to those who were there. Annelisa translated for me into Portuguese and Victo then translated into Yao...so you can imagine that messages are much longer in three languages. Many of the children were missing from the service, which makes us think it did have something to do with “Uniagu.” The adults present were very attentive to the message. And though no one came forward to make a first time decision to receive Jesus, many came forward for prayer for healing, and I believe that a good number of those people received physical healing. Jesse and I prayed in particular for a little girl who was maybe 18 months old, who had never been able to urinate or defecate since birth, but only continued to vomit all the time. As I held the little child in my arms, I believe that I was urinated on, which would truly be a miracle. It's pretty funny that I can find joy in being urinated on. It was also funny to hear Jesse pray, "Poop! In the name of Jesus!" Haha.
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Also, while in Poland, Teri brought us over 250 little pins that say, “I am loved,” in Portuguese to bring to Mozambique and give to people. These pins fit in perfectly with the message about knowing that we are loved by God, and I had the other fellow missionaries go to each person present in the service. They were overjoyed to receive such a gift. I told them that when they look at the pins that it can remind them of the message that they heard about God’s love to us through sending His Son to die for us. I also told them that if someone asked them about their pin, that they could share the message of Jesus with them, too. Even though the chief and others didn’t show up today at the church service, which I believe had to with spiritual warfare that was going on, the service was awesome, and God was glorified. It was neat to hear the people from the “Church of Assumane” declaring aloud, “I am loved by God,” in their Yao language.
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Also, while in Poland, Teri brought us over 250 little pins that say, “I am loved,” in Portuguese to bring to Mozambique and give to people. These pins fit in perfectly with the message about knowing that we are loved by God, and I had the other fellow missionaries go to each person present in the service. They were overjoyed to receive such a gift. I told them that when they look at the pins that it can remind them of the message that they heard about God’s love to us through sending His Son to die for us. I also told them that if someone asked them about their pin, that they could share the message of Jesus with them, too. Even though the chief and others didn’t show up today at the church service, which I believe had to with spiritual warfare that was going on, the service was awesome, and God was glorified. It was neat to hear the people from the “Church of Assumane” declaring aloud, “I am loved by God,” in their Yao language.
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Christian Young
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