Chiure, MozambiqueSaturday, November 14, 2009
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Outreach in Chiure
I think I mentioned before that part of our training at the IRIS Harvest School of Missions is going into the bush with our color group teams in the Cabo Del Gado province to do outreach and evangelism. The first village we went to this last weekend was the village of Chiure. Arco-Iris (which literally means rainbow in Portuguese), or IRIS Ministries already has a church presence in this village. We still showed the Jesus film nonetheless the first night where many prayed to receive Christ and many were healed, including three people who were deaf but received their hearing. We were blessed to have Heidi with us again on this outreach. There was a really cool drama about Noah and the ark, which some visitors to IRIS Pemba put on. I played guitar as we led all the people gathered in a song called, “Mwari Wakanaka” in the Makhua language (I love playing the African rhythms on my guitar). It was a wonderful night.
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The next morning we woke up to village children’s faces surrounding Jesse and I in our tent. The no privacy-thing is normal when we stay in villages in Mozambique. Children are very curious, but at least in this part of Mozambique, often want whatever you will give them, including empty water bottles. They are even pushy at times, but they are poor, and have survived with almost nothing somehow, so they will do whatever they can to insure their survival. Only Jesus can truly change people from the inside-out, breaking the poverty spirit. Our job is just to love them and share the gospel of Jesus with them, in word and in deed.
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Anyway, we woke up to Heidi making Starbucks for us. We chuckled together as I told her it was her Starbucks ministry in the bush-bush. Then we walked to the pastor’s house where Heidi officially opened another “children’s center” because he is taking orphan children into his home to care for them. It was beautiful as Heidi asked each of the children what their dreams were; what they wanted to be when they grew up. We got to pray for those children, too.
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Then all of us students split off into groups with other Mozambiquan Bible School students to go house to house throughout the village, praying for people and helping the people get rid of their witchcraft. I was in a group with Daniel, his fiancé, Yohan and two Bible School students, one of whom is named Marques. The people in the village mostly spoke Makhua, and the Bible School students only spoke Portuguese and Makhua, which left me to translate for my fellow Harvest School students from English to Portuguese. It has been a stretching time for me here in Mozambique, as I have needed to learn Portuguese quickly. God has been giving me so much grace in this area, and I was able to successfully translate for all of us as we ministered in the village that day (it also helps that I learned Spanish when I was younger, making Portuguese not too hard to pick up). We saw AMAZING VICTORIES!
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The first house that we went to, we caught an older woman heading to the machamba (garden) to work. We asked if we could pray that God would give her strength to work in the machamba. She agreed. We also talked to her about receiving Jesus Christ into her heart, even though she was already Catholic. She didn’t have time to, or just wasn’t interested (I’m not quite sure which one). But her son and daughter both had heard us talking to her about salvation, and right off the bat asked us if they could receive Jesus. They both prayed right then, repenting from their sin and asked Jesus into their hearts. PRAISE GOD! The next house we went to there was a mother, father and son, and we could smell alcohol. The son admitted that he had demonic spirits tormenting him and that he wanted freedom. We proceeded to lay hands on him and pray for deliverance. We have also been learning how to speak some Makhua, so I said, “minepa tchotakala tchorowa,” which means, “leave now demons.” We also taught them the simple gospel message, and telling him the need for the Holy Spirit to come and dwell within him through faith in Christ, so he also prayed and received Christ. Then we prayed for an older woman to be healed from Malaria, who said she felt the fire of God flowing through her. She felt much better after we prayed for her. Then we prayed for another woman who was barren. Daniel’s fiancé shared the story of Hannah with her. She was so thankful that we came to pray for her. Another man wanted us to go to his family’s house to pray for his sister who was suffering from asthma. We began to pray for her, anointing her with oil, and had her breathe deeply in and out, but she said nothing had changed. We were about to pray more for her, but I felt led to stop and ask if she had been to any local witch doctors to receive traditional medicine for the sickness. Her mother confessed that they had. We then had their entire family publically pray and renounce the witchcraft and prayed again for the young lady. Immediately I felt as though something was happening in her. We told her that it was our belief that she would be well by morning. We taught the family about the importance of following Jesus alone and trusting in him alone for her healing, and for salvation. After many victories we headed back to eat lunch, then prayed for a man named Sikari who had been blind from birth. One of his eyes was completely white, the other one missing the eyeball. Our team pressed in for over an hour for his healing, but he didn’t receive his sight right then. Please pray for Sikari, that he would be able to experience what it is like to see for the first time in his life. We comforted him and challenged him to never give up on praying for a complete healing.
The next morning we woke up to village children’s faces surrounding Jesse and I in our tent. The no privacy-thing is normal when we stay in villages in Mozambique. Children are very curious, but at least in this part of Mozambique, often want whatever you will give them, including empty water bottles. They are even pushy at times, but they are poor, and have survived with almost nothing somehow, so they will do whatever they can to insure their survival. Only Jesus can truly change people from the inside-out, breaking the poverty spirit. Our job is just to love them and share the gospel of Jesus with them, in word and in deed.
.
Anyway, we woke up to Heidi making Starbucks for us. We chuckled together as I told her it was her Starbucks ministry in the bush-bush. Then we walked to the pastor’s house where Heidi officially opened another “children’s center” because he is taking orphan children into his home to care for them. It was beautiful as Heidi asked each of the children what their dreams were; what they wanted to be when they grew up. We got to pray for those children, too.
.
Then all of us students split off into groups with other Mozambiquan Bible School students to go house to house throughout the village, praying for people and helping the people get rid of their witchcraft. I was in a group with Daniel, his fiancé, Yohan and two Bible School students, one of whom is named Marques. The people in the village mostly spoke Makhua, and the Bible School students only spoke Portuguese and Makhua, which left me to translate for my fellow Harvest School students from English to Portuguese. It has been a stretching time for me here in Mozambique, as I have needed to learn Portuguese quickly. God has been giving me so much grace in this area, and I was able to successfully translate for all of us as we ministered in the village that day (it also helps that I learned Spanish when I was younger, making Portuguese not too hard to pick up). We saw AMAZING VICTORIES!
.
The first house that we went to, we caught an older woman heading to the machamba (garden) to work. We asked if we could pray that God would give her strength to work in the machamba. She agreed. We also talked to her about receiving Jesus Christ into her heart, even though she was already Catholic. She didn’t have time to, or just wasn’t interested (I’m not quite sure which one). But her son and daughter both had heard us talking to her about salvation, and right off the bat asked us if they could receive Jesus. They both prayed right then, repenting from their sin and asked Jesus into their hearts. PRAISE GOD! The next house we went to there was a mother, father and son, and we could smell alcohol. The son admitted that he had demonic spirits tormenting him and that he wanted freedom. We proceeded to lay hands on him and pray for deliverance. We have also been learning how to speak some Makhua, so I said, “minepa tchotakala tchorowa,” which means, “leave now demons.” We also taught them the simple gospel message, and telling him the need for the Holy Spirit to come and dwell within him through faith in Christ, so he also prayed and received Christ. Then we prayed for an older woman to be healed from Malaria, who said she felt the fire of God flowing through her. She felt much better after we prayed for her. Then we prayed for another woman who was barren. Daniel’s fiancé shared the story of Hannah with her. She was so thankful that we came to pray for her. Another man wanted us to go to his family’s house to pray for his sister who was suffering from asthma. We began to pray for her, anointing her with oil, and had her breathe deeply in and out, but she said nothing had changed. We were about to pray more for her, but I felt led to stop and ask if she had been to any local witch doctors to receive traditional medicine for the sickness. Her mother confessed that they had. We then had their entire family publically pray and renounce the witchcraft and prayed again for the young lady. Immediately I felt as though something was happening in her. We told her that it was our belief that she would be well by morning. We taught the family about the importance of following Jesus alone and trusting in him alone for her healing, and for salvation. After many victories we headed back to eat lunch, then prayed for a man named Sikari who had been blind from birth. One of his eyes was completely white, the other one missing the eyeball. Our team pressed in for over an hour for his healing, but he didn’t receive his sight right then. Please pray for Sikari, that he would be able to experience what it is like to see for the first time in his life. We comforted him and challenged him to never give up on praying for a complete healing.
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Outreach in Mikobodi
Our team piled in the camion and drove another 25 kilometers away to a village called, “Mikobodi,” where we would show the Jesus film and do some evangelism. It wasn’t a very big village, and there was an Arco-iris church a ways away. As the people gathered to watch the film, the smell of alcohol was in the air and some men were acting very unstable, and looking strangely at the white-skinned girls on our team. A few from our team shared their testimonies before the film. Most of our team decided to gather behind the truck away from the crowd during the film, where they had an amazing time of intercession for that village. You could literally sense the spiritual atmosphere change as our team prayed. One of the visitors even saw angels lined up on top of the camion.
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After the film had finished, Jesse gave an awesome testimony of how Jesus transformed his life. When asked who wanted to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior, many people raised their hands and prayed to enter into a personal, hand-holding relationship with Jesus. Then we had a time for people to come forward for healing. Many people from this village came forward for prayer. Many were healed. Our team prayed for those who came forward. Many people who had back problems were healed. We also prayed against many cases of malaria. A very cool thing is that are team came against the spirit of addiction in prayer behind the truck during the film. During this prayer time, a couple of men came forward to testify that God had set them free from the addiction of alcoholism. PRAISE THE LORD! Woke up early this morning, first to the Muslim call to worship, then to a group chanting and blowing their eerie sounding whistles for some traditional celebration tied in with witchcraft. Overall, we had an amazing weekend of outreach!
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Christian Young
Outreach in Mikobodi
Our team piled in the camion and drove another 25 kilometers away to a village called, “Mikobodi,” where we would show the Jesus film and do some evangelism. It wasn’t a very big village, and there was an Arco-iris church a ways away. As the people gathered to watch the film, the smell of alcohol was in the air and some men were acting very unstable, and looking strangely at the white-skinned girls on our team. A few from our team shared their testimonies before the film. Most of our team decided to gather behind the truck away from the crowd during the film, where they had an amazing time of intercession for that village. You could literally sense the spiritual atmosphere change as our team prayed. One of the visitors even saw angels lined up on top of the camion.
.
After the film had finished, Jesse gave an awesome testimony of how Jesus transformed his life. When asked who wanted to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior, many people raised their hands and prayed to enter into a personal, hand-holding relationship with Jesus. Then we had a time for people to come forward for healing. Many people from this village came forward for prayer. Many were healed. Our team prayed for those who came forward. Many people who had back problems were healed. We also prayed against many cases of malaria. A very cool thing is that are team came against the spirit of addiction in prayer behind the truck during the film. During this prayer time, a couple of men came forward to testify that God had set them free from the addiction of alcoholism. PRAISE THE LORD! Woke up early this morning, first to the Muslim call to worship, then to a group chanting and blowing their eerie sounding whistles for some traditional celebration tied in with witchcraft. Overall, we had an amazing weekend of outreach!
.
Christian Young
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