There really aren't words to describe what we saw today. Even if I exhausted all the adjectives in my limited vocabulary it couldn't describe the things that we saw and experienced. I've been wanting students to blog but all of them have been going to bed so you've been stuck with me, sorry. We really haven't had much free time because we've been running 100mph every day and only been sleeping a few hours each night. All of them have been doing great though. Today there were a lot of tears shed. Tears of sadness and tears of compassion.
We were in Villa Zumbi again and we were doing "house visits" with the local Pastors and their wives. The purpose of the visits was to pray for people and invite them to church tonight. When we went in these houses the condition of the houses gave you the "heebee jeebees" because they were so dilapidated. It's weird but when you stepped into the houses you could physically feel the oppression. That may sound strange but it's true. I'm not one to see a demon under every bush and behind every tree but there was definitely something spiritual going on. There was one house that we went in that was indescribably sad. When we went into this house there was trash and filth everywhere. There were children in the house too. It was small, dirty, falling apart, the smell was overwhelming and when I walked on the floor sewage and mud would skirt up through the cracks. The lady who lived there was pregnant and already had 5 children. She was only in her 40's but looked like she was well into her upper 50's -60's. There were dogs and cats walking in and out of the house. There was a fresh litter of kittens that were walking around at our feet as we stood in this living room that was about 6'x6'. The kittens were actually licking the sewage that was skirting up through the cracks in the floor. I mouthed to Mary Jane that I was going to have to wait outside because I couldn't handle it but she shook her head "no" so that I would stay.
As we listened to this lady's story, through a translator, one of the Pastor's wives asked her what we could do for her and what she needed. Her response was shocking. She could have asked for anything... food, clothing, money, someone to build her a new house or even fix this shack of a home she now lived in... but she didn't ask for any of those things. She said, "she wanted to be right with God." All I could say was, "Wow!" Out of all the things to ask for and that's what she chose. We actually led her to Christ. And all the other stories were similar. Almost every house we visited someone came to Christ. And it wasn't a half-hearted salvation experience to appease the Americans. It was authentic "come to Jesus" stuff! One man told us that he was recently in an accident and died. He said he went to Heaven and that God told him that he couldn't come in and that he had to go back and get right with Him... and he said, "here you are." He came to Christ today. I could give you several other stories just like that. God is so good!
Tonight we ministered in the church at Villa Zumbi again. We taught children's classes and sat in the service as Crossroads ministered. Nick P gave his testimony and then we prayed for the sick at the end of service. After service it was the time for tearful goodbyes as all the students and leaders had to say goodbye. This was the last time we'll see these children and teenagers this trip. There was a lot of crying going on, that's for sure. It was definitely an emotional day.
Tomorrow we go to the orphanage that MJ and I adopted from. We'll put on the same program we did at the schools and then we'll just hang-out the rest of the day with these precious children. We'll cap the day off with a pizza party for the kids in the orphanage and then it's back to Betania. Please pray for us. This trip has been everything we hoped for and more and we're not even done yet. So, I'll say it again... "wow." Lord, have your way in and through us as we come to the end of this trip.
Love Ya,
Jim
No comments:
Post a Comment