Back at Base
Ok so we have just got back from 8 days in the bush, so much has happened and God has done so much this week. We’ve written some of it down but there was so much that it wouldn’t all fit.
So friday we left base at around 9am, after being prayed out by the Overland Missions staff, it was such a great send off. We were told that our truck journey to the village would be 6 hours at the most and 10 hours later we were still on the truck stuck on a tree! After a 12 hour journey we arrived at the village to the villagers singing and dancing to welcome us. We then set up camp and ate!
Saturday was our first hut to hut ministry day, we met with the headman and we were able to minister to him and learn about his life (he has 28 kids!! Eek!) We struggled to find other families in because everyone was out in the fields harvesting. We had to move the evening meeting from 3pm to 8pm because there were hyenas around the camp and village. We also learnt today that occasionaly there are lions that follow the path up to our camping place! The evening meeting we had introduced us to African praise and worship. The praise and worship was amazing! We all really felt a sense of peace and belonging in the village. Nearly everyone excepted Jesus and we had time towards the end of the meeting to pray for each person and it was a great first meeting.
Sunday morning we had our devotion time together and then we split up into our teams and went out to two different churches around the area we were staying. Both groups found each service special and unique. Just to be apart of the locals church and be so welcomed by such loving people was wonderful.
Sunday afternoon we had a football match (Overland against the locals…. oh yes we won!!) at the local school followed by an evening meeting in the village. Once again we saw God move in miraculous ways.
On Monday we stayed in our teams and went to help the villagers to harvest maize and groundnuts which was an enourmous blessing to them. We had our evening meeting where we had an incredible dance off with the africans (it was a tough challenge but we did you proud!) Praise and worship was on fire and team members shared words of encouragement. There was a time for prayer for healing and one of the healings we saw was an older lady who had pains in her legs and struggled to walk, once the team had prayed over her she was able to run around and had a constant smile.
Tuesday saw us get into the truck for a drive to a game park. We stopped at a school on the way where the teachers there told us it was too late to see the animals, so we stayed at the school and ministered to the children. This was totally Gods plan for us!! When we arrived back at camp there was heavy rain and thunderstorms, but despite the weather conditions we ran to the local church where we were able to have an informal meeting with the villagers. This was an incredible meeting which showed us that we were becoming more and more like a family.
On Wednesday we had our last day of hut to hut ministry in and around the local school. Alot of the teachers we met had never heard about grace, they believed that they would get to heaven through reading certain books and by works, it was a privilage to be able to free them from that confusion and speak about God’s grace and mercy. Again teams experienced God in awesome ways. Back at camp we had 4 women turn up who had never heard of Jesus, we talked with them and prayed with them and they recieved Jesus into thier hearts. The Head Man of the village gave us an incredible gift… Oh yes… a real life pig!! This was to say thank you for all that we were doing. We slaughtered the pig in order to enjoy some meat and a lovely dinner. We ran out of fresh drinking water so we had to walk down to the dried up river and dig holes to get fresh water once again.
Thursday was our final day in the village, we had a great team meeting in the morning where we encouraged and prayed for each other. We then had devotion time and prepared for a huge meal in the evening where all the villagers came to our camp to eat. We were given a chicken and once again we killed and enjoyed it :) Being able to share that experience with the villagers is something none of us will forget, it was exactly like a big family party and the atmosphere was so alive and it showed just how close we had gotten to the villagers. We then had a short meeting where the headman, his wife and some other people said goodbye to us. It was so humbling to hear how they appreciated our time there, God moved in each of us in incredible ways as we worked with them, and we learnt so much from our family out in that village.
Friday we packed up early and left camp, where some villagers had camped in the Church building next to us to see us off again with dancing and singing. Another dusty bumpy 12 hour journey and finally we got to some good dinner and showers!!!
We have spent the last few days chilling out as a team, there has been extreme sports, the biggest breakfast buffet we have seen in our life and swimming in a hotel pool, the only ones who braved the cold water were us brits, we did you proud! We are leaving tomorrow for another day of travelling home so today is about breaking down the truck and packing up our stuff. Please keep us in your prayers so our journey can be as smooth home as it was out! See you all very soon!!
