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Our God is just so good and wonderful! It is such a joy to live a life, laid down in love for Him! We have been in a war these past few months, that’s for sure! But we didn’t sign up for the life of Christ expecting an easy ride, living in comfort and style, living solely for our own happiness! We have chosen the life of a laid down lover – actively loving our God and ​Savior with passion, and actively loving our neighbor with compassion! It is truly no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me! We are seeking out the hard places, the poor places, the devastated places, and the dark places, so that we can shine even brighter with the light of Christ and manifest His glory for all the world to see! Obviously, this makes us very unpopular with the enemy of our faith, and a target for him! So we wage a good warfare, holding to our faith, and standing still, after having stood, and stood some more!
In the midst of all this adversity, we have learned to trust in the Lord with all our hearts, and know that although many are the afflictions of the righteous, the Lord is faithful to deliver them out of them all! Our God is Good and Mighty!
At one point in the midst of all this opposition, I was driving throughout our Northern region that we oversee. I had to visit all the government officials of the 5 districts we work in, in one day! We drove all day, hundreds of kilometers, passing hundreds of villages, and as we passed each village, I was hit with a new conviction… It is my responsibility to reach each of these villages with the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and not only bring salvation to these thousands of lost souls, but to disciple them in the ways of God, plant churches, and build them up in their most holy faith! Each village we passed brought a fresh wave of conviction, and I felt almost a panic coming over me as I realized the magnitude of our responsibility, and the impossibility of our tiny team to accomplish what God had sent us to do! I began to pray, filled with emotion and compassion for all these unreached villages. I asked God, “but what am I supposed to do Lord? How am I possibly supposed to reach all of these villages, plant churches, and then effectively disciple them so they don’t just go back to their witchcraft and three wives the next day?” I was overwhelmed! “Lord, we don’t have the people or the resources to do this! We have thousands of villages that need to be reached! We don’t have enough people to send out and preach, and we don’t have enough money to go out every week!”
Suddenly, the Prince of Peace came and wrapped His arms around me. The peace of God, which passes understanding, filled me as the Lord spoke His will to me! “I want you to build a Bible School, and train leaders who will go back to these villages to disciple the souls that are saved! Teach them my Word, and fill them with my Spirit! Raise up an army Ros!” He spoke to my Spirit, and I knew that this was the answer.
So that is our number one vision for this year! We have already seen God perform amazing miracles of provision, and are excited about what will happen next! God provided a huge piece of land just outside of town, which we will use to build a big Church and a Bible School. This land was overgrown with bush, and we had no idea how to clear it though, so we paid some locals to cut it down by hand, but because the roots weren’t taken out, the weeds grew back quickly! We knew that what we needed was a bulldozer, but where do you get a bulldozer from in the African bush, and how do you pay for it once you get it? So we went down to the beach to strategize and pray, and as we were talking, we heard a loud noise like a truck driving down the road behind us. Ash jumped up, and sure enough, there was a bulldozer driving down the road! We ran up to the road, and managed to talk to the driver, who took us to the home of the owner of the bulldozer! We explained our problem to him, a lovely Portuguese man who worked for the mining company, and told him the measurements of our land, and before we knew what was happening, his bulldozer was clearing our land for us, free of charge! What a mighty God we serve!
Next, I started talking to God about how on earth I am supposed to write up a curriculum for a Bible School?! I had no idea how to do that, or where to get the teaching material from. I left it in God’s hands, and before I knew it, I had met a wonderful Pastor, a man of God, in South Africa, who had access to an amazing 3 year Bible School curriculum, written by Spirit filled men of God, who had travelled throughout Africa, learning exactly what needs to be taught to African bush Pastors, to help them run churches and walk out Godly lifestyles! The Lord has answered us every step of the way on this amazing journey!
I thought it was crazy and impossible to think that our tiny little team could do something so big and daring as start a Bible School, but the God we serve is wonderful and powerful and does things exceedingly, abundantly above what we could ever ask or imagine!
So now we are looking at our next step in this adventure, and we need your prayers! We are so excited about this Bible School, which will teach African pastors in the bush to become Biblical, Spirit filled leaders of the Church, equipped to take this generation of formerly unreached villages into the arms of a loving Saviour!
​We still have so much to do, but we know it is not by power, nor by might, but by the Spirit of our Living, Loving God that we will see this dream come to fruition!
We went to one of our villages this past weekend, and God showed up in power and great love! I was praying before we left home, and Holy Spirit gave me a vision of hidden darknesses being revealed. He told me He would shine brightly through us and reveal the hidden things! I shared this with the team before we left, and we were excited to see what the Lord would do!
That night a crowd gathered and I preached the simple yet profound message of Hope and Glory! Jesus is the answer! Many responded and were saved and the angels rejoiced with us that night! In particular, one man came forward to receive salvation. He was an alcoholic, but with tears in his eyes, he gave over to Jesus, trusting in Him to bring freedom! Oh what a glorious God we serve, so ready to receive the sinners and wash them clean with His love!
The next morning this former alcoholic was the first to arrive at our little camp, to share breakfast with us, and prepare to go down to the river with us to be baptized. There was a lot of joy in the camp! Soon, others started arriving, sick people in need of the Healer. We prayed for them and watched God over shadow them. One old mama came to be saved. When I asked her name, and she told me what it was and I was overcome with love for her. Her parents had given her a very insulting and derogatory name at birth, and she had been called by that name her whole life. I told her, “No more! You belong to Jesus now! He is your loving Father, and He has a new name to give you! Immediately, Holy Spirit gave me the name Lindelilo, which means 'Hope' in Makondi, the local tribal language. I gave her the name, and told her that her Father gave it to her because Christ is now in her, the Hope of Glory! We laughed together as the joy of the Lord filled her!
When we prayed for a young blind girl, however, she wasn’t instantly healed. When we prayed again, I knew that she had witchcraft tokens that were binding her in darkness. When I asked her about them, though, she denied having any. I remembered the Lord’s word to our team before we left home, though, and rejoiced that He loved this girl enough to send us to her with the Light of Salvation. We told her that God had already revealed to us that she had these witchcraft tokens, and to not be afraid, because the Lord had sent us in love to set her free. We went to her house, and called her family together. As soon as I walked into their little mud home, I knew through the Spirit that the witchcraft tokens were hidden in the bamboo roof. I told one of my Pastors that that’s where it was, and he agreed that he felt the same. We sat with the family in their home, and I was appalled to see how terribly bound this whole family was by the devil and deep darkness! The mother and father were there with their 3 children. One child was the blind girl we had already prayed for. They also had a young son who was also blind, and they had another older daughter who suffered from epileptic fits. She was covered in scars from the times she fitted and banged her body into things. I was overcome with compassion, and we began to share the gospel with them, and tell them of the love of God, and His deep desire to set them free, and turn their curses into blessings! We asked the father if he had any witchcraft in the house, and he denied it, but then his wife cuffed him on the shoulder and said, “Tell the truth! We have witchcraft hanging in the bamboo rafters!” The pastor and I smiled at each other. Thank You Jesus! She then confessed that there were also other things buried under the house. I exhorted them to give them to us to be burned. I shared with them how the Lord had revealed these things to us before we had come, because of His great love for them. He had seen their suffering, and had sent us specifically to break the chains of darkness that were holding them bound! Overcome, the parents agreed to give their hearts to Jesus, and to give us the witchcraft! Oh how mighty is our God to save! We dug up the witchcraft under the house, consisting of odd bits of roots and paper, and we untied the hidden things from the roof. Then we took them out and burned them! They had no more stronghold in this family, glory to God! We marched back into the house, exultant, and prayed over the whole family: parents and children. The presence of God descended and we could feel angels in the room, turning darkness into light! Everybody was rejoicing.
We baptised new brothers and sisters that day in the nearby river! There is so much joy in salvation, and in the work of the Kingdom! There truly is no joy greater than partnering with Jesus in His great work of salvation!
This is one of many villages we have reached and are continuing to reach with Jesus’ love! We are so excited to one day be able to bring people from these villages to come and study at our Bible School, to be equipped with the Word of God and His Spirit, and take them back to disciple the villages and reach even more people! The Kingdom of God will be advanced! The darkness will be pushed back! God is raising up an army, not only in Mozambique, but where you are too! Go out in Jesus’ Name and call the lost home to the King! The Spirit is in you, and will make the impossible possible for you! There is nothing more exciting than giving your life to God in total abandon and trust, knowing He will pick you up, fill you to overflowing, and send you out in power and love! Go! He is worth it all!!