Sunday Morning Church
That Sunday was the first service of this new church. The pastor asked me to preach. So, I prepared a message on Foundations of a Christ Centered church. I thought it was an applicable message for a new church plant. When we arrived, there was another church holding a service just outside. It was obvious that the Pastor and leaders from Great Commission were concerned that those invited from the previous night's crusade would confuse this church with their church, but everything went ok. There were about 8 in attendance including the pastor. And the reports we have received since that weekend is that they are still meeting. Please continue to pray for this young church as they seek to reach their community with the gospel.
Sunday Afternoon Hike & Hospital Visit
That afternoon, we decided to hike up a nearby mountain. I think I quickly realized just how out of shape that I am. If you watched the video, you will see just how much I was huffing and puffing. After returning from our hike, we stopped by the local hospital to visit with patients. Kasempa is home to one of the best private clinics in Zambia. So, people come from all over to receive treatment. The men's ward that we visited was full with guys suffering from burns to malaria to you name it. It was a difficult place to minister in a place like this, but also rewarding.
Sunday Evening Prayer
So, near the end of the trip, the pastor shares that his wife has been struggling with some physical ailments that the doctors can't seem to provide medicine for. He asked if we (Luke, Me, Alex, Pastor Kandela & Laban) would anoint her with oil and pray for her. There was reason to believe that some of the things she was suffering from were spiritual. As we began to pray for her, she started convulsing and collapsed to the ground. She began telling the pastor that he was a bad man and when we asked the demons to tell us how many there were, she said "We are many." Now, this is the first time that I have encountered a situation like this. Coming from my conservative western perspective, I was of course skeptical, but as we prayed, it was clear that this woman was either possessed or being spiritually oppressed by demons. After about three hours of prayer, she was released from her bondage. I'll try to post some reflections on this as well as some other things that happened over the weekend in a later post.
Monday Early Morning Drive Home
So, on two hours sleep, we all loaded up at 3:00 am and headed back to Lusaka. After getting to Solwezi, we heard something squeaking in the car. When we stopped, we determined it was the engine belt. Knowing that if we stopped to try and find a mechanic, we might be spending a few more days up north, we decided to continue our trip and hope that the belt didn't fall apart. About 30 minutes after seeing the belt loose, while we were driving between Solwezi and Chingola we blew a rear tire. Apparently, there was a piece of metal in the road that the front tire through into the back tire and the tire exploded. So, our hopefully 9 hour trip quickly turned into an 11 hour trip.
I'll stop here. The next Post will be on some of my reflections from the trip. Until then...
1 comment:
Wow. The demon stuff really blows me away (freaks me out, etc.) Would love to hear more of your thoughts about it.
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