Friday, November 19, 2010

The Best Kind of Ministry

Chieftainess Mwenda of Chikankata

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to take Caleb with me on an outreach trip. In a continued relationship with a chieftainess in Chikankata, we were invited down to show the Jesus Film (In Tonga) at a local market. Chieftainess Mwenda has a vision to see her entire kingdom (approximately 20,000 families / 100,000 people) reached with the gospel of Christ.

After visiting with the Chieftainess, we headed to the local market to setup for the film. Before sunset, we were really unsure as to whether or not people would show up. Just before it started getting dark, there were only a handful of people congregating around the movie screen. But after it got dark and we started the film, people started pouring out of the local village. By the midway point of the film, we probably had close to 350 people hearing the story of Jesus in their own language.

After the movie, we invited people up to the front, some to receive Jesus for the first time and some to pray for physical healing and release from spiritual torment. During the prayer time, I told Caleb to float between me and Luke and just be available to pray with people. At one point during the evening, Caleb ran up to me and said "Dad, we just prayed for this woman who was having leg and chest pains and when we finished praying, she was healed!!! Dad, she was healed the first time that we prayed for her."

As I reflected on this evening of ministry, I came away most encouraged not by the response to the gospel (which was great) nor to those who were healed and/or received deliverance through prayer (which were many), but I came away most encouraged about being able to participate in this wonderful ministry with my son Caleb. I came away with great joy after seeing just how excited my son had become while sharing the love of Jesus with these Tonga speaking people of Chikankata!

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