Fishing in Deep Waters. . .

10.22.07

Each student is divided into a "color" team of about 12 people. Each team is scheduled to feed the village kids on different days and spend ONE weekend going on outreach in the African "bush bush!" Yep – waaaaaayyyy out there where kids cry when they see you because they 've never seen a white person! My blue team was the first scheduled for outreach. I was pumped – I've never really been camping before, but I said, latrines, bring it on - in the name of Jesus I am more than a conquerer!!!

Friday afternoon we got packed up, prayed up, and settled into the back of a flatbed truck – our team of 12 and about 15 of the African pastors. The village we were spending Friday night and Saturday morning in was "3 hours away" we were told. In Africa ….no one really knows how far "3 hours away " is considering we drove through the city first…picked up some more people ….the pastors were saying "Hi", greeting everyone on the way …picked up a few more people to give them rides all throughout the trip….we 're pretty sure that "3 hours" in Africa might only be 30 miles away! Haha, the " 3 hour" trip ended up taking 5 (once again …maybe 50 miles away, we're not sure), but I was absolutely LOVING it. (Funny …they warned us that we would have to die to our "time-orientated" Western culture and adapt to seeing time as more flexible …I seem to have no problem with this;)

When we got to the village, it was almost dark so we set up the Jesus film, and the African pastors gave a salvation message at the end. Two of us "internationals " gave our testimonies, and then the people were asked to raise their hands if they wanted to accept Jesus as their Savior. Because I had been watching the people 's serious expressions in this Muslim village, I was absolutely shocked when I saw nearly every single person raise their hand and repeat a prayer of salvation. Afterwards, we invited those that were sick & those struggling with alcoholic/other addictions to come forward for prayer. We got to pray over people for a few hours (I was loving my life!) and once again, it seemed as everyone was just desperate for a touch from God. We ended (OF COURSE …this is Africa!) with dancing/worshipping/celebrating. The next morning we performed a wedding and took a 3 mile hike to baptize about 50 of the people who made decisions. The Africans did most of the baptizing and we got to form a prayer line, and I got to pray over every single wet head as they came out of the river (yeah ….way cool).

That night we headed to another village and repeated Jesus film/testimonies, etc. Once again, I was amazed to see nearly every hand raised up and people kneeling down on the ground to ask Jesus to save them from their sins. Maybe it was my lack of faith, but I couldn 't get over just how many people were hungry for God. Often I 've felt like in the West people really don't want you to pray for them …they feel offended …or want to be independent. At first it made me think of fishing. I think of how the disciples " toiled all night" trying to catch fish in a certain area, but then when Jesus moved them to different waters – there, the fish were biting! (Lk. 5:5) I said "Lord, I feel like you've moved me into the deep waters. " However, later that night, when we were talking about all the decisions for Christ/healings, etc. one of my teammates said "In America, they would say yes too….for prayer, for accepting Jesus …if we just asked them." That made me reevaluate what I perceive to be true and what really is truth. Maybe the co-worker or friend that I perceive wants to be left alone or "independent " really is longing for the gospel and for the body of Christ – and maybe they need it just as much as these people even though they 're not as needy and hungry looking on the outside. Jesus SAID the harvest is plentiful and the people are ripe, we just must "look around "! May He give us the strength to begin seeing not with just our natural eyes but with spiritual eyes (for we live NOT by what is seen but by what is unseen) to see the harvest that He himself promises is truly around us.

That night I stayed up talking with Egues, our translator between us and the pastors. I wanted to ask him questions about the follow-up for the new believers. They 've set up a church there but I was mainly wanting to know about the Bible situation. I kept coming back to "How many of these peoples will get Bibles?". . . "Does this person have a Bible"…. "Is it Portuguese or Makua?", etc. He finally just looked at me and said, "Valerie, they can' t read!" 10% or maybe 15% are able to read in the whole village. Once again, I was frustrated because I KNEW that with my head, but I was in denial. I simply could NOT imagine a believer not having their own Bible when it has been such a special part of my life. "How will they grow? " I asked. Egues was obviously not as worried as I was. "In America, it 's different. Here, we have to experience God in different ways. " Yes, we eventually want these people to read, yes, we eventually want them to have Bibles, but until then, Egues reminded me that they have a relationship – one that is real, living, and still wonderful. One that produces love and joy in people that is not forced or fabricated.

Eventually I got Egues to tell me his story. He was born out of wedlock, his parents both ditched him, and he was one of the street children in the capital city in the south. He lived with the cruelest of kids – always hungry, going through garbage, and stealing for food. At 7 years old he had a dream one night and God appeared to him and said, "Before you were in the womb, I knew you …I set you apart" (sound familiar?). In the dream God also told him that He was sending someone to rescue him tomorrow. The next day, Heidi found him and he and a few other boys were one of their first orphans. 12 years later …Egues is 19 and by the way he lives, he teaches me about love, righteousness, and integrity, and I see so clearly the spirit of the living God oozing out of him in his every move. Although he has a Bible (his favorite book is Jeremiah, by the way), he knows that it all started and it all ends with a relationship. And this is what I 'm learning… there's more to knowing God & growing in your walk than knowing His Word. Obviously Abraham knew that. David knew that. Jacob knew that. They didn 't have " the Bible" or 15-minute devotional books like we do today, but I don 't think they would've traded what they had for the world.

I'll never forget 3 years ago when I was in a service in Ireland, and I heard a woman of God who I admired very much say to us college students, "Don' t stress about the papers…don 't stress about money or life or what you will do when you get back home. Stress about the fact that maybe YOU DON 'T KNOW GOD the way you should - - and the way you COULD." Somehow that struck something in me, and I realized then that if there were more realms of knowing God, walking with Him and becoming intimate with Him than what I am experiencing, it 's of utmost importance that I find them. And not only find them (they are all over the Bible!), but I must enter into them. How did Enoch "walk with God and was no more? " How did Moses feel when talking face to face with God as a friend and how did John find God on the island of Patmos? I know these people were men, like James says of Elijah, "just like us" and the way that they knew God was undoubtedly what compelled them to become the people they eventually became.

Have you ever heard the sound of a man wailing because suddenly he was blind but now he can see? Have you ever seen a woman praying with authority & feeding the poor in Africa, her face " never covered in shame", because God met her and set her free while working in the pornography industry in America?

I've seen both of these things in the last two days. And I believe I 'm seeing and learning again what the gospel really is, what it really does. There is nothing more powerful than it. In the words of my friends here "HALLELUJAH" ! that this journey with this incredible lover and pursuer called JESUS will never end and only get sweeter and sweeter.