Fourth Week

Before I begin the update for the fourth week of harvest school I just want to let you know what just happened. Right after class today we were all about to go eat lunch, go to town, take naps, do whatever it is we do on Friday afternoons, and we got news that a little boy from a nearby village was hit by a car right outside the center. We all rushed out to pray over him. Apparently no one saw the accident, although that seems unlikely since people are always around and children are rarely alone. Just a little bit ago they took his lifeless body to the hospital probably an hour after it happened. This kind of thing is not a stranger to this land, in fact we hear of it happening quite frequently – although not right outside the gate. I’m pretty sure some of the Mozambiquano staff from here went with the boy’s body and family members so they are praying there and we’re continuing to intercede. You can pray for the family. It’s something to think about though. Just how blessed are we that these things are foreign to most of us – however, of those who tragedy has not been far-off there was more than likely some form of help near by. This unpleasant incident was made even more difficult to observe with no one calling 911, no sounds of ambulance coming, no paramedics arriving on the scene to offer what little they could have for this broken child. Who then do we turn to? This day we celebrate independence as a nation. As we all stood around in the dirt weeping and travailing for this innocent life to be made new, I couldn’t help but feel utterly dependant on God our Father – the creator of life. It pushes us even further in the darkness if we look at something like this and try to blame God somehow. God is good, the enemy is bad – that’s all there is to it. Why did the little boy die? Why has God not raise him from the dead yet like he has others? Well that is not for me to answer but it would be an even greater tragedy if I instead blamed God for the loss of life. He knows all things, I don’t. What I do know is that God can use every bad for good. So this is still very fresh as it only just happened within the last two hours. I just wanted to share that with you. Life is precious. Therefore, love those around you like it were so.

FOURTH WEEK – Gift Activation
This week was very interrupted, busy, fun, and exciting. This week we were visited by over 4,000 guests as far (I heard) as seven hours away that came to attend the wedding supper and the conference where Pastor Jose from Maputo and Surprise (pronounced Supresa) Sithole preached along with Heidi. During all of that the students, visitors, and bible school students were all busy serving in the kitchens for hours, cleaning latrines, baking cakes (8 per house!) and doing various other tasks. I got to cut some hair believe it or not, which has been funny to do in Africa – probably the last thing I thought I would do here! And I also helped sew some of the bridesmaid’s dresses with some other girls who were much better seamstresses than I, but I did what I could (Mom, you would have loved it!). During the conference, it wasn’t interpreted so we came and went as we could, with 4,000 people it was challenging constantly, and I needed to rest a lot from all the extra work but I got the nurses’ recommendation about half way through that I shouldn’t be doing so much so that was a nice break – that’s when the hair and sewing came in, so I contributed what I could while Darryl did the real hard work. The meetings were amazing though – to be in that atmosphere is unexplainable, it has to be experienced. Everyone dancing, singing, all for Jesus! I think I wrote about it already though. But often as I was resting, Darryl would go with some others into the meetings and pray for people there. They saw malaria healed, fevers disappear instantly, and many other things including a deaf baby’s ears opened right before them. Speaking of signs and wonders, did I share about when Darryl prayed with a couple other guys in the mud hut while we were in the bush? About the man who hadn’t spoken in over 10 years? If not, I will next time.

So we were moved out of the church building and into the prayer hut which is up on the hill. It was quite a climb for me, but much cooler than in the church building. Shara said this was the week of gift activation and putting legs to our words. She taught on the power of the tongue and we prayed for healing on each other and the visiting Mozambiquanos, and we also prophesied over each other and over the visitors. Other people we hadn’t heard of who are long termers here shared as well. Our visiting speaker was Bob Johnson – Bill Johnson’s brother. He is still here and we are learning from him still this week. However, last week he just gave us an into to his ministry and how that works. They go out on the streets of San Francisco and treat “hell’s trash like Heaven’s treasures” and love the kids. He said that was the two things God told him to do to win the city. He shared about how we don’t have to clean the fish, Jesus just told us to catch them – the Holy Spirit does the cleaning. This guy is really funny and I enjoy listening to him. He tells some great stories of what they have experienced and one in particular that I loved was about this homeless guy that they had been ministering to and then he decided to give his life to Christ and as they turned to pray for someone else on the street, the homeless guy came up and said, “Hey, lemme do that thang,” which he meant to pray for the person, then asking, “What was that guy’s name again? That we’re prayin too?” So that just goes to show you we don’t have to be so wise or full of God to walk in His light.

This week with Heidi was short because of the conference but she was continuing her teaching on the Beatitudes with “Blessed are the merciful.” She shared about giving yourself away for love and love alone. Someone was telling me about a guy they knew who went to work with Mother Teresa but didn’t know the Lord and couldn’t handle the poverty. I don’t think I could handle being here and seeing what we see here, especially after today, without love.


INDEPENDENCE DAY
We’re getting some stuff from town today to celebrate July 4th with you via Africa. Today though, in class we spent time really declaring out dependence on God and repenting for national sins as more than 10 nations were represented today. Revival starts with repentance. So anyway today as a house we will have chicken, potato salad, and cucumber salad - that's the best we can do. Eat all your yummy food on our behalf! Especially the burgers and hot dogs and other traditional July 4th stuff.

So it has been mostly learning by doing this past week and even up to now. We’re really getting into the meat of the school and it is amazing. We also are starting to really really miss you all. Know that we think and talk about you often.

Love In Abundance,

Darryl & Mimi