| After a few weeks, here are some of the things that God has let me process after coming back from Africa...
Brief Overview of Our Mission
Journey:
Our first week was dedicated to organizing a
weekend long missions conference for 10 churches where we mobilized, trained,
and collaborated with congregations to hold 2 mission trips (within our mission
trip) for the following 2 weeks: local missions (VBS at Chisomo Drop-In Center
for street children) and rural missions (a revival at Kaboshe fishing village).
We formed a team of 12 Africans and 6 Americans to go fishing for men (hehe).
at the missions conference, chisomo, and kaboshe...
New Revelations
During this mission, God
showed me that contrary to what I initially believed, Americans are in deeper
poverty than Africans. While we don’t physically live in mud huts without
electricity or suffer from malnutrition, our more “comfortable” lifestyles have
left us spiritually dry and impoverished; our watered down gospel message,
apathy, unwillingness to suffer for Jesus’ name, and busyness from communing
with God daily paralyzes our spiritual authority to perform God’s kingdom work.
I have to admit, adjusting to life back in the States has been tough because of
this very thing I’ve been dreading--a life of sheer comfort and weakened
spiritual authority.
Before Africa,
it was so easy for me to compartmentalize my life into categories like school,
work, church, friends, and family. But what I’ve come to realize after Africa is that life really only comes down to 1 thing:
worship; all those other categories can be used for worship. And brothers and
sisters, that is what we did in Zambia,
and that is what we will continue to do here in America. Worship, pray, and follow
hard after Him. Although God called me
to Africa for short-term missions this summer, I return feeling commissioned
from Africa to the States to share testimonies
of worship. Here are some goodies:
God uses physical poverty and suffering to open
hearts and enrich lives spiritually. It was through suffering
that hearts cultivated with fertile soil received the plantings of the Holy
Spirit and accepted the gospel message. Many Africans were saved as we
evangelized in Northern Lusaka, prayed with
children on the streets, and preached about missions at the conference because
of fertile soil. During Chisomo, God created a divine encounter with a 13
year-old girl named Elizabeth.
She was kicked out of her home for her rebelliousness and unwillingness to go
to school (and we thoughts Asians were hardcore) and was on the streets for
less than 1 week. During that week, God really humbled her in her poverty,
caused her to be vulnerable to the Spirit, and opened her up to the gospel. The
day after she accepted Christ (the last day of VBS), her grandmother found her
at Chisomo and took her home. What incredible timing! God allowed suffering and
poverty in order to bring salvation and worship to His name!
“Guard your loins” (Eph 6:14-18) for spiritual
battle. While in Kaboshe (a rural fishing village), it
was clear that we were under spiritual attack. Many of the villagers there
prayed to the water demons in order to bring in a good harvest of fish and
ensure that their fishermen returned alive. However, amidst the idolatry, God
still proved to be victorious. For two nights, we spent hours praying against
such idols of addiction, alcoholism, beauty, etc. in the name of Jesus. We
claimed Christ’s authority over the demon possessed and rebuked the demons for
taking over souls that belonged to God. In the end, God revealed that He would
not be mocked and is to be feared; even the demons fled at His name. And, as believers, we are more than
conquerors in the name of Jesus. I’ve been challenged to put on the armor of
God daily and acknowledge the constant spiritual attack I undergo as a soldier
for Christ. While the demons in America
don’t necessarily surface in such obvious ways as demon possession, it’s
essential to be mindful that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against
the invisible forces of the enemy. |
