We survived another week.

posted on: Friday 18 April at 09:57 PM

Hey Blog-readers! We survived a week in the bush! Let me summarise our week…
Monday we packed up our tents again and headed to Makuni. Tuesday was our first day in the village and our team had to walk quite far through paths, following a team of children who were stunned at seeing white skin. We met the head man first, he was the co-ordinator for the catholic church and he was very pleased to see us. We asked him a lot of questions about the village as Overland had not visited this area before. He told us he was sick following an operation and asked us to pray for him, he said he was so pleased and encouraged that we had come to his village. So it was a good start…
As we headed back through the village to start door-to-door evangelism we found empty household after empty household – it was really strange. Anyone we did find was suspicious and waved us on. We were very confused because we had always been made welcome in other villages and it’s in Zambian culture to receive guests – proving you are a ‘strong person’.
Finally we found some people, lots of them, and thought we had hit jackpot! We all started ministering, everybody shared something. Then came the appeal for salvation, normally an easy thing to do in Zambia, but instead of eager hearts we were met by nervous laughs. Wezi, our translator, began to explain to us that someone had visited all the households in the village, saying that false prophets were coming and we would share the gospel and then mark them with the sign of the beast! I’ve never been accused of that before!!! This is when it began to sink in we were really in a spiritual battle. We left feeling a little discouraged. We joined the other teams for the evening meeting they had a mixture of reports, some successful some not successful. Ruth preached that night and lots of people responded for salvation. This was more like it. Loads of people came forward for healing too many to count, and after we’d prayed they said they felt 100% well. One boy in particular was suffering from pains in his body and we quickly realized he had a huge curvature of the spine (Scoliosis). As we prayed his back began to straighten out before our eyes. This was a huge encouragement, this is what we came out for.
Wednesday was more successful for our team. Although we walked for hours looking for the headman (who may have been avoiding us) we saw the fruit of our faithfulness. Some women had seen us arrive in the village and had gathered together under a tree waiting for us to come back that way, some men found us and took us to them and we sat together under the tree sharing the gospel. We saw loads of healings that afternoon, it was moving to hear their stories, and exciting to hear of their healing. One humble man came forward before we left and asked for wisdom, he confided that he couldn’t read and desperately wanted to understand the Bible. Of all the needs that these people have – sickness, hunger following a ruined crop etc – we were so blessed that he sought wisdom first.
There was another evening meeting where we saw more healings and salvations – the head man included.
Thursday we had two meetings in two different locations. Both were really successful. The evening meeting at the school we challenged the Christians to spread the gospel among the villages, and felt like we had really imparted something to that village. They felt stronger for our visit and said they hoped we would return soon. We gave presents to the children, everyone was so thankful.
Today we packed up camp and left the site at 7am. But don’t feel too sorry for us, the early morning was all about us getting on a dinner cruise at 3pm! We had showers, mmm. On the Zambezi river we saw hippos and elephants and a beautiful sunset. We’re back at base now and very tired after a long week. Tomorrow is chill-out day – well not for some – some are doing activities like white water rafting! Me, I’m shopping, checking out the goods that our pastor/translators have crafted. Also tomorrow we are having a debrief with Phil and Sharon Smethurst to report back on our two week mission.
Today we started getting excited about coming home and seeing friends and family. God has taught each one of us some really valuable lessons, raised our faith and equipped us for our mission at home.
See you soon, bye!
Eveie