“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.” (Rom 10:14-15) If you knew of a place that people were just waiting to hear and know about Jesus wouldn’t you want to tell them, wouldn’t you be willing to pay the price in order for them to hear of His love and receive the gift of eternal life? God allowed me to meet some of His children this summer who had never heard the name of Jesus. Just 10 hours from Swaziland (where everyone here knows Jesus or knows about Him) God sent a team to a small corner in Southeast Africa to share the love of Christ with them.
I remember praying as I was seeking direction and I simply asked God to send me where people were hungry. He answered that prayer in a way that was beyond my imagination. I have experienced many cultures where people know I am American and immediately begin asking me to give them something. People want money, clothes, food, job, etc. Never before though have I encountered people begging me for truth. The people in the area we were in Mozambique have never been told about Jesus. There was a Mosque and a witch doctor and that was all they knew of spirituality. When we told them of Jesus they would inquire why they had never heard the truth before, why didn’t someone tell them there sins could be forgiven. These people had an insatiable hunger to know more of Him. They would come to us, sit down in the dirt, and ask to hear more of the beautiful reality of God offering redemption to a fallen world by living among us, dying for us, and defeating death. They would say “feed me” and were not talking about their stomachs.
We were blessed to see the truth of Jesus radically change even the youngest lives in Mozambique. It is amazing to see that as a child of God wherever you go you can bring life- the life of Christ in you can bring change to an entire community and bring light to the darkness. When we first arrived the children were solemn and devoid of joy. I remember looking in their eyes where the light was dim and noticing that laughter was not present. We spent our days pouring the love of Jesus into their beautiful little lives and His joyous light began to take over. Where silence had been before the sounds of children laughing and singing “Jesus loves me” (Jesu A Coranza) could now be heard. A little love can change a little life and can bring warmth and joy to their hearts. We awoke to the sound of the children’s praises (they were louder than the roosters… and trust me they are loud) and heard them singing as we walked along the simple sand roads during the day. Their mothers came to us to thank us for the love we had shown their children. One mother told us her son said to her, “since the missionaries came I now know the truth that Jesus loves me and died for me.” It was incredible to hear that even though we fed him, bathed him, and clothed him that the thing that made the greatest impression on him was that he heard truth.
Word spread throughout the community that there were people there who served a real and powerful God. One day a man showed up saying a relative of his had heard of us and told him we served the one true God who had the power to heal. His wife was sick and had gone to see the witch doctor and gotten worse. He realized the witch doctor had no power so he walked for miles to see us and ask us to pray for his wife. There is something powerful about not just preaching the gospel but showing the gospel… that was our prayer that we would come to them not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power…(1 Cor. 2:4b).
A woman named Isabella sold me tomatoes. I talked with her for a while telling her about Jesus and sharing truth with her. The Lord prompted me to ask her about her string necklace and she told me the witch doctor had given it to her. She had been having chest pains and night terrors for six years, which is why she began paying to see the witch doctor. She showed up to our showing of the Jesus Film and she was the first to come forward (with her necklace in her hand she had ripped off) to accept Him in front of 200 people. What she had been hoping the witch doctor would accomplish for the past 6 years Jesus did for free with one utterance of His name. Jesus brought such a change into her she had been standoffish before but after she met Jesus and received His healing she was warm and full of light and joy. She came to bring us tomatoes as a love offering to say “thank you” because since that night she had no more pain or night terrors.
I still weep thinking of the people that came to bring us their first fruits and to say thank you. I looked at the feet of my teammates that were dirty, tired, but beautiful (beautiful to Jesus as we brought the good news). God had sent them all the way from America to share His truth in the middle of nowhere. Just as the wise man brought Jesus gifts these people were bringing gifts to us- but is wasn’t us- it was unto the Lord. All we did was ask the Lord where to go and He sent us to these people who were so hungry for truth but never had the opportunity to hear it.
I saw what following Christ is all about… my theme this summer was that this is “no sacrifice this is our life”. It is the normal Christian life and the heart of the father from Genesis to Revelation to go and make disciples and to proclaim His truth to the ends of the earth. This is why I said “here am I send me…” because I am compelled by His love to preach the good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.. comfort those who mourn… to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes. So Lord would you send us to the lonely ones, hurting ones, angry ones, broken ones, dying ones, lost ones… their names are engraved in the palm of your hand and your love will never leave them the same.
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:35) He is worth wasting my life one, spending my time on, living for and dying for. There is a price to pay and I am willing to endure hardships, spiritual warfare, sleepless nights, persecution, suffering, and eating beans and rice everyday (: for the sake of the Kingdom of God. I am comforted knowing that the Lord is with me and I am not alone and everything I need is found in Him. It is also amazing to have encouraging friends and family who encourage me to fight the good fight and don’t become weary in doing good; they serve as an army behind me as I step out in faith. It is about the body of Christ working together to see the Kingdom of God come to earth and His love and truth spread to every tribe, tongue, and nation.
We serve a living God who wants to be actively present in our lives and those around us. He wants to restore, rebuild, redeem and bring life and light to all who call upon His name.
I saw this summer that His power is just as real today in a small corner of Southeast Africa (otherwise known as the Bush) as it was 2000 years ago in Jerusalem.
