Then All Heaven Broke Loose

Two weeks ago we went on a three day bush outreach that was incredible on so many levels. Basically a group of fifteen mission school students and ten Iris Mozambican bible school pastors pile into a flat bed truck and drive out to remote villages to minister. We set up a screen, projector and sound system, and play some music to get every one together to dance (Mozambicans love to dance). Once everyone is gathered we play the Jesus film in the local dialect, then we preach the gospel, maybe do a short drama, then pray for the sick.

The villages our team went to were very small with only about two hundred people each. The first night we arrived to near perfect African sunset, then the whole team setup their tents before it got dark. We did the outreach service but not much out of the ordinary happened. At about ten pm we ate dinner and went to sleep in our tents.

In the middle of the night Annie woke me up because a child had been screaming near by for over half an hour. I had a moment of compassion deprivation wondering if it would even be culturally appropriate to go see what was transpiring in the middle of the night. But my good wife wouldn't be swayed so we climbed out of our tent and found another woman from our team awake for the same reason. Not far from out tents we found the child with her mother under a large tree. Using hand gestures we found out that the little girl had pain in here ear. The three of us began praying for the child and after only one minute the child stopped crying, and a minute longer seemed pretty much normal. We asked the mother to ask the girl if the pain was gone. It was!

Goshtandino

The next morning the team split into groups with the Mozambican pastors and walked around the village looking for anyone who was sick or needed prayer. We soon came to three Muslim men sitting in the shade of a veranda.

We started by asking them if they knew of any sick, blind, or deaf people in the village. They didn't since they were only passing through the village but one of them had a bad toothache. We explained that we were followers of Jesus, and who Jesus is in the Koran, then asked if we could pray for the mans tooth. Much to his surprise the man was quickly healed. We then spent about half an hour sharing the gospel with him and by the end he said he believed Jesus because He healed him.

As we were finishing with the Muslim men, a man named Goshtandino approached us beckoning for us to follow him. He led us to his house a short distance away, and once he had us all sitting down on a day bed and a grass mat he asked us for prayer. He was near sighted but didn't have glasses and was suffering from back pain caused by a hernia. We prayed for his eyes twice, each time with small improvement. Then one of the girls on our team felt we should anoint his eyes with mud. After explaining to him that this was something Jesus did she spat in a bit of dirt an placed it on his eye lids. We prayed for another couple of minutes then wiped off the mud. His eyes were now totally healed. He pointed to the house were the Muslim men were sitting and said "when I came and got you I couldn't see that, but now I can".

Filled with faith from the healing we immediately started praying for his back pain. Within a few minutes he was bending over and twisting from side to side without any pain. It was amazing to see how happy he was and he joined us in thanking Jesus for the healing.

Shortly after the man asked us to pray for a women from his house who has been having nightmares of drowning and being in a grave yard. When we first started talking with her she seemed totally numb. There was no expression on her face and she would stare off into the distance and would only speak in whispers. We found out that she had been bathing in a potion from the witch doctor because she thought someone had brought a curse against her. We got the sense that she was ashamed about going to the witch doctor so we encouraged her that we were here to help her not judge, and that there is no condemnation in Jesus. We brought her out from the shade of the house into the sun as a prophetic gesture of her leaving the darkness behind and stepping into the light. After praying for her and just loving her there was a huge change in her countenance. You could see she was tasting freedom and peace for the first time.

Nearby a group of women were sitting outside a house and they called us over.  After watching everything that happened to their neighbours one of them wanted to accept Jesus. As we were talking to them four more decided they wanted Jesus as well. We also prayed for a girl that was missing an eye but didn't see any change. Our hope was that she'd wake up the next morning with two eyes.

By this time we had to head back to camp, eat a lunch of rice, beans and gazelle, then pack up to go to the next village. Right as we were about to leave the church presented us with an offering of two huge bunches of bananas, a large basket of peanuts, some papaya and other fruit. This was coming from a church made from mud, bamboo and grass, that had an alter made of cinder blocks and ragged grass mats to cover the dirt floor. It was incredibly humbling to see people with so little give so much.

We arrived in the second village late in the afternoon. It was situated on a hilltop overlooking a large plane of Mozambican bush and backed by low mountains behind which the sun set. We were given the luxury of setting up camp in a fenced court yard adjacent to the mud church which granted us some extra security. Considering the small size of the village the homes were incredibly spread out. From the church I was only able to see three other buildings, and one of them was the pastors house. There was a serene feeling to the village, very little activity and a strange absence of children inspecting what the Akuna's (white people) were doing. Yet while there was a sleepy lull in the natural a storm was approaching in the spiritual.

The team gathered to pray in the court yard. Outside the music and dancing video gathered an unreceptive crowd who chose to sit in the dirt rather than dance. As we prayed with hope and anticipation the word breakthrough stirred in our hearts. There was a felt barrier in that place that needed deconstruction. By the end of the prayer time the presence of God was rolling in like a cloud charged with expectancy.

Half way through the Jesus Film the Lord spoke to a girl on the team telling her we should pray that the whole village would accept Jesus including the chief. As this word was passed among the members of the team that could be found in the dark we began to pray and prophesy over each other. It felt as if we were being filled up for what we were about to pour out and we prayed at length for the pastor that was going to preach within the hour. After the film finished pastor Carlos began to preach and concluded by asking anyone to raise their hand if they wanted to accept Jesus. In the midst of the many hands raised I saw a man in a white Muslim cap sitting down. Holy Spirit told me it was the chief and I needed to pray for his heart to be softened. The incredible thing is that Holy Spirit independently revealed the same thing to other members of the team around the same time.

After every member of the team introduced themselves to the crowd Pastor Carlos gave a call for anyone who needed healing to come forward for prayer. The first person to come forward was the man with the white cap I saw sitting earlier. He was the chief of the village and had been suffering back pain. The significance of this action and its outcome crashed in on me, but the amazing thing is that when the stakes are higher Jesus has a reputation of showing up more powerfully. When we step into situations that are completely beyond our human ability then the Lord can glorify Himself even more because we are unable to take any credit.

2nd Village Chief

A few of us gathered around him and began to pray and after about two minutes we asked if anything had changed. His countenance remained almost stoic yet he insisted the pain was gone. The pastors had him bend over and twist his back to ensure all was well then asked him to testify with the microphone what had happened. Then all heaven broke loose, healings were happening faster than we could keep track of.  The crowed quickly transformed into a huge dance party in celebration of what God was doing and soon enough the chief joined in with a huge smile.  At one point I told a guy on the team to make sure that any people healed get the mic and testify. His response was that they had just healed four people who had since dispersed into the crowed. The bulk of the ailments were headache, body pain and stomach issues, and Jesus was healing them all almost instantly. Over all we estimate 30-50 people were healed of their various ailments.

The next morning the chief was present at the church asking for prayer because the Muslim leaders from the surrounding villages will want to kill him because he has now converted to Christianity. Its a very real threat and the Muslim leaders will certainly try to curse him through the witch doctors if not try to stone him.

As we sat squished in the truck on the way home I felt in my spirit that the chief is the keystone to the village. An arch is unable to support itself with out the key stone in place. If the chief of a village is against Christianity then the village as a whole will be much more resistant to the gospel.

Through out all of this and the stories from other outreaches the thing I've been learning is how much I had complicated praying for healing. I had bordered on formula, sometimes thinking I had to include certain things in a prayer in order for it to "work". The reality is that praying for the sick is a commandment not a theological exercise. Its our job to do what Holy Spirit tells us to and just be an empty vessel for Him to work through not try and contort our faith so its strong enough. Its our job to love the person more than we desire to see a miracle. The healing itself is entirely up to Jesus.

-kyle