Today was quite an exciting day with a narrative arc all its own. The climax, I suppose, was the service at the orphanage after which we said goodbye to Pastor Simon's group, but before that we were asked to speak at one of several churches.
RISING ACTION
We paired off in teams of two—I was paired with Mary Anne and we spoke at a churched called Africa for Christ. It was really kind of strange because we left a bit late and by the time we were dropped off at the church the service was well underway, the worship drawing to a close as the congregation looked forward expectantly to what would follow. The pastor and I smiled at each other, not knowing quite what to think of the other, both of us unsure what would happen next—we had never met. But then he said, "let us welcome our visitors and a servant of God will speak to us for about 45[or did he say 4 to 5??] minutes"! I did have a message to share, in fact, on the way there God spoke to me so deeply and profoundly that I started weeping and had to throw a sweatshirt over my head to hide it. So I was prepared to speak, but I wasn't sure what Mary Anne had to say, or how well it would fit. She said she wanted to speak on wisdom and it would take about 7 minutes. So I shared .. speaking out of Matthew 14 on discipleship and John 14 sharing how we have something greater than Peter did out on the water—the Holy Spirit living in us! I also shared what had just happened the day before with the children at the orphanage praying for their healing and said I would like to have everyone come up and we would like to pray for you. I gave a word of knowledge from sympathy pain of pain in someone's lower right leg, but didn't call anyone to come forward, just told them to come up during the ministry time.
First, though, Mary Anne spoke. She was a bit nervous but ended up reading a Psalm which brought strength to her, and, it seemed, many of the congregation as well.
Ministry time followed, with people needing healing on one side of the altar, and those for prophetic prayer on the other. Everyone was healed, several toothaches, leg pain, and I found my word of knowledge—he turned out to be the senior elder! Mary Anne was on the prophetic side, I guess (it was kind of hard to tell how people had organized themselves), and she said there was a lot of brokenness, hurt from relationships, and some demonic stuff that she had to break off, especially among the women. Such a beautiful service … we were able to minister to everyone individually … some were shaking, some in tears—all were touched. After the conclusion of this ministry time, the deputy pastor stood up and proclaimed to the congregation that he knew we were sent from God because what I had shared was exactly in line with what he had shared earlier that morning! If a man can come here all the way from Pennsylvania, he said, and share something right in line with what we’ve been speaking here in Kenya, can you not see that we all have the same Spirit of God to guide us?"
Later, as we waited for our ride to arrive, we had a chance to sit down and get to know the pastor (who turned out to be the deputy pastor, the senior pastor was apparently away on a mission trip of some kind), share a bit of our lives, and pray together. He asked me about the challenges facing he western church, and was quite interested to hear about the level of skepticism and unbelief in some circles, a denial of anything beyond the physical realm. As a man who finds himself regularly involved in spiritual warfare, combating spiritual attacks from the witches just down the road, this kind of unbelief was impossible for him to understand. I found this to be true for others I talked to as well, to the point where I tried to avoid the subject—the Western perspective was just too hard to explain, especially since I couldn’t claim to make full sense of it myself.
Another thing that astonished the Kenyans I talked to was that we weren’t allowed to teach religion in public schools. The way it works there is that the public school simply picks the predominant religious view of the area around them, and teaches it as one of the subjects. Quite a far cry from our system! Or is atheism our religion of choice? People will no doubt have some strong views on this, but I have no time to dwell on it now.
What really interested me, though, was what the deputy pastor thought of what we said and did. Did his church pray for each other as we had? Did they pray for the sick and expect miracles from God? His response stunned me: “We do pray for the sick,” he said, “but never like this. The pastor prays over the group as a whole, but never one on one. It is really quite a remarkable way of doing things.”
Later, when I thought about this, I realized that that was one of the reasons why people felt such a hesitation to pray for others—they had never done anything like this, they seemed hesitant to even touch another person! When I tried to release them to pray for each other as we had done with the orphans, I found no adult willing to do it! Only one small boy was brave enough to step forward and pray for others, and he did, praying both for healing and prophetic words for members of the congregation, and he saw his prayers answered right before his eyes. So at that point there was only one—one boy in the whole church who was able to step out in love and in his kingdom authority to bless others around him … but in Jesus’ name let this boy raise up more with his heart, and let this church be a place where people share God’s love with each other directly, person to person, and let no one go unloved!
This was on my mind, then, as I was asked about the church I pastored. What was it like? So of course I used the opportunity to explain what "Pastor" mean to our church, as it related to the five-fold ministry, and how a pastor was not someone who chosen because they were able to lead well (as an Apostle), but because they were able to love well! I began to see that this was all new to the churches here, but, praise God, it was sinking in!
Meanwhile, in another area, Eleana and our leader Anne were ministering to a church with only 18 members! During their service, they had a chance to pray at length with everyone, and their words were so accurate that the people there thought the pastor who brought them must have found out about them and fed lines to the visitors—but when they realized it was God speaking, their skepticism changed to awe of what he had to tell them. There were healing testimonies here as well, and Pastor Anne led the group into visions of heaven. Then afterward, Anne felt prompted to give an altar call for salvation! Pretty crazy in a church of only 18, but 3 came forward to receive Jesus! Funny, huh? But you can't argue with those percentages!
Double meanwhile, back at the orphanage, Tyson, Sonja, and the rest of the group were blessed beyond measure by the love, joy, and passion of the service at the orphanage led by Pastor Simon, his wife ____, and Pastor ____.
CLIMAX
Later, we all met together for an afternoon service at the same orphanage. We were a bit concerned, however, because the service was supposed to start at 2, and by 3:30 no one had shown up yet. So Pastor Simon decided to “jump start” African time by beginning the service even though there were only a few people at that point. He was concerned about beating the weather, because, he said, the clouds would be on their way soon with rain, and though ever since our first day of ministry here in Africa the weather had obeyed us, Pastor Simon sensed that our grace in this area might soon come to an end. If the rains hit, Simon knew that the dirt roads down the hillside would be too difficult to navigate, and if our van started off in it, we would no doubt be stranded as soon as we set off, it would be better to spend the night in the orphanage.
An association of pastors were attending this service from various areas all over the region. We as a team were meant to be leading the service, so as we rode home together the night before, we decided what we were going to do. Pastor Anne asked us all to seek God about what we should focus on that Sunday, and Mary Anne had spoken out about how we all bring our own gifts and there is always enough to share with others. Everyone else seemed to have words related to this, but my word was intercession. I had a vision of all of the children in this orphanage interceding for their entire region with just as much passion as we had seen the day before. These kids would one day shake the world! So what Pastor Anne decided to do, in line with the gifts words and the differing words people gave, was to do something on the theme of living stones, and have each one of us share something that we were gifted in, or passionate about—something we felt we could impart to the rest of the group. Then we would get our word in Swahili and put them all together in a puzzle representing God’s temple. After Jesus as the cornerstone, our words were: Forgiveness, Glory, Healing, Passion, Adoration, Acceptance, Prayer, Dreams, and Grace. (Along the way mine had become “Healing”, because I thought that better reflected my current passion.) Each person then spoke on their word, sharing why it was important to them, and imparting it in some measure to the rest of the group. The most memorable ones for me were: Forgiveness—Andy shared personally from his life about receiving forgiveness from God after he had wandered from him, Glory—Anne shared about God’s glory on the orphanage and prophesied that the place was ripe for God’s glory, that signs and wonders were going to break out that would make this place as famous as Heidi Baker’s group in Mozambique, that people would come to this place from all over the world to experience God’s glory. This really stuck out in my mind because I had a similar picture in which I saw this group as Heidi Baker’s group, except in my picture Anne Tubbs was Heidi Baker! I’m not sure if she is willing to accept it, but that’s what I saw! While Anne was speaking, however, rain began pelting down on the tin roof so loudly that it was almost impossible to catch what she was saying. She would share it all again, though, before we left. The problem at the moment, however, was that it had already begun to rain, and thus we would either have to leave right then, or be stranded there for the night. Pastor Anne finished her word, and asked Pastor Simon if we needed to go. Simon, however, said no, we were fine, so we continued—I spoke on Healing. I was just going to get up and go through the different categories of healing, from the healing of the spirit (forgiveness of sin), to the healing of the mind (past hurts), to the healing of the body, environment, and world. For some reason, though, it came out in a firey, passionate, preacher sort of way, and the group responded … then I found myself shouting out an impartation, ending with “be healed, and heal others in Jesus’ name!” But the speaker that stuck out most to me we Pastor Simon, who stood up to speak about Prayer, and gave the very same vision I saw on the bus, and imparted this gift to the rest of us. The presence of God came powerfully when he spoke, as it did for Pastor Anne and I, but the level increased when Pastor Simon spoke, and rose even higher after, when Pastor Anne called for the people there to come forward and impart their gifts to us. Other pastors stepped forward to impart Encouragement and Faith. Then an even greater outpouring as the children came up and imparted Love and Joy! After this, all the pastors lined up to pray prayers of impartation for each one of us visitors before we had to leave. But I think some of them felt a bit unsure as to how to pray prayers of impartation, and there may have been some language barrier issues as well. … One man grabbed my hands and said, very haltingly but forcefully … “Dear God! … … Please bless! … … This … guy! … … And his ministry!” Then the group of pastors went around and shared their names and a little bit about themselves, and I discovered that one of the men was the senior pastor of the church Mary Anne and I had visited! He thanked our group, because he had heard that one of us had spoken at his church, but he didn’t make any significant eye contact with me, so I knew he didn’t know which of us it was. Also, by this time Mary Anne, feeling sick, had left to recover someplace I never quite found. Later, however, the Pastor (Maurice Alex was his name) came up to personally thank me for the work in that church and ask about Mary Anne, but left without being able to thank her directly.
We said our goodbyes, but found ourselves sitting down for a final meal with Pastor Simon. The rain had stopped by this time, but how would we make it home through all the mud? But we needn’t have worried, when it was time to go, we found ourselves making good our escape, not in the van we had always taken, but in the back of a pickup truck, with iron bars crossing the top to stand in between for stability. Now Dani finally got her ‘Indiana Jones ride’ experience she had been talking about every day for the duration of this orphanage trip. Trekking down the hill in the African moonlight, none of us could prevent our minds from drifting to songs, or at least, inspirations for songs, and Toto once again filled my head. Well, we soon made it down to the van, which had managed to avoid the worst of the mud by taking a longer, less direct way. And now we discovered clearly that the truck we had been riding in was blessed with shocks where our van was not. We continued bumping and rattling home, our path now redirected because of the mud.
DENOUMENT
After a bit, we noticed some commotion to the left of our vehicle … screaming and shouting … a girl and a young man. The girl is running after him, yelling and trying to grab him. Did he rob her? Are they just playing around? The girl yells something about suicide … we slow down, our lights shining on them. Pastor Simon begins to talk to the young man from the van, but he won’t listen. He is carrying a rope or towel of some kind. The impasse continues, with the man running along the side of the road, and the van driving alongside, for a few minutes. By this time Pastor Simon is calling out to the man with the sliding van door open, and rebuking the spirit in him—something has got to give soon. Then, it does. Pastor Simon leaps out of the van and grabs the man. He begins to struggle. He is clearly demonized and set on ending his life. Pastor Simon, holding the young man, is commanding the spirit to go. We in the van are interceding as well, and I see a picture of a huge lion, the Lion of Judah, leaping out of the van onto the man. As Simon drives out the demon, the man suddenly goes completely limp. Pastor Anne, Tyson, and I rush out to minister to him and we discover that his baby had just died. The girl running behind him was his sister. His whole family had been pursuing him but he broke away from them and in the darkness no one could see where he had gone until our van lights shone on him. As we were praying for him to be filled with the Holy Spirit, his relatives caught up with us and began to minister to him as well. We stayed as long as we could to make sure he was alright, and Pastor Simon spoke a bit to the family and the young man and planned to reconnect with him. Tonight, one life was spared.
FALLING ACTION
But even more excitement lay in store. As we tried to navigate this new route along the muddy roads, our van made a wrong turn, and had to back-track from a dead end. When we reached the fork where had made the mistake, and turned onto the correct road, we saw a car coming down after us from the first road we had come from. This car then began to tailgate us, and kept flashing its lights, as if it meant to pass us, which it couldn’t do in such a narrow, rocky road, unless we intentionally pulled over to let them by. Knowing this was a bad area, our driver wisely sped up, hoping to leave this troublesome situation behind. Soon, however, our van was accelerating down the rocky roads at a breakneck speed. The noise was so loud, and the movement so jarring, that it became too much for us passengers to be heard or even to speak. And yet, the car continued its pursuit, still attempting to pass us. There did not seem to be any explanation except that this car had seen that we were a van full of westerners, and meant to rob us, possibly at gunpoint. By this time our van was going so fast that we began to smell something burning as the engine began to overheat. Then, thank God, we reached a more public area, with a few stores and people—a welcome sight, late though it was. But the high speed chase continued, as if it were straight out of a movie! Quickly we made a right at a crossroads and turned into a gas station. The other car followed us there, but spun around in the middle of the road, waiting for us to come out. Our driver made as if he was going to turn right, the same direction the other car was facing, and as they began to accelerate in that direction cut left, tore quickly down the road, made a left at the first road he came to, and turned into the courtyard of a nice hotel, and waited. We had lost them, for the moment. But what to do now? Pastor Simon and the driver instructed us to remain in the idling van, as they went for help. Songs of praise were sung, prayers of intercession were prayed. I watched with concern as other cars pulled up beside us, all the time expecting to see the lights of the white vehicle that had been trailing us. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, they returned, and told us we were getting a police escort. After this, however, the stepped out briefly, and before I knew what was happening (I could hardly process it at first), I saw the SAME CAR that had been trailing us come up behind us, and some guys in suits get out! Well, the explanation we got (which was not believed by all of our team, but which I accept), was that the car behind us was actually on the run from another car chasing them (apparently the men in the car were politicians of some importance, senators or something), and, seeing our car pull out in front of them, from the dead end, thought we were in league with each other and were intending to sandwich them between our vehicles. Later, however, they began to think otherwise. When they saw our white faces peering out of the back of the van, they no longer thought we were after them, but that we were taking down their license and were reporting them for pursuing us. Thus they kept up pursuit, so that they would be able to explain the situation, that they meant no harm to us. Do you believe that? Anyway, that was the explanation we got .. but we did go home in the company of an officer, just in case, and praised God for our safe passage and arrival back at our hotel. I have to admit there were some scary moments in this last leg of our journey, but I was comforted through it all by a word from God: “That same lion you saw earlier tonight is still with you protecting this van.”
"Something like this happens on every trip we go on." - Pastor Anne
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