| Video Summary of USA Team Part of Mission Trip |
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In late September, we were joined in Mozambique by the largest western team that has ever come to Mozambique with this ministry - nine persons plus Danny and Lindy. They were all from Danny and Lindy's home church in Apex, North Carolina, USA. We were amazed that during these two weeks+, we witnessed God performing the greatest number of healings that we have ever seen since we started in Mozambique so many years ago. And many of you know that we have seen Jesus do some pretty amazing things. So many deaf people regain their hearing that we actually lost count of them. A lady blind in one eye regained her sight in that eye. And so many other signs and wonders. Thank you Jesus.
Below are parts of some of the reports and prayer requests written by Danny from the field:
Danny before arrival of USA Team
Hello prayer partners. Just a quick update to let you know that I am safely in Mozambique. The flights, luggage, customs and border crossings were all very very smooth, no problems at all. That's an answer to all the prayer for God's favor. We were even able to check in for free one bag per person more than the airline had said - they said one, we prayed and took two ready for Lindy to bring some back home if necessary. They allowed it. Favor.
We hit the ground running. Drove to Mozambique from Malawi yesterday Saturday. The first service was a couple of hours after arriving. I'm always so encouraged to see so many people so deeply involved in worship, with tears coming down their eyes. The worship was so intense that we needed to deal with three deliverances, and probably more that I didn't know about as I needed to focus (someone told me a total of 6). Two of them were quite physical. They were all newcomers to the church, so good to see the Holy Spirit at work. It's quite a while since I find myself in that situation so I needed to adjust quickly. The power of God has set them free now and they are very relieved. I'm always concerned about the loving spiritual nurturing that needs to follow this, sometimes it doesn't get as much attention as it deserves. We'll see how it goes, our African team is very experienced at this.
Then I was asked to preach this morning. This was timely since on the airplane on the way here the Lord had given me a very specific message that I needed to deliver to them. I thought it should be given later on because of some of the content, maybe they needed to get used to me again before addressing it. But something happened near the beginning of the service to confirm that this was the moment. I love it when the Holy Spirit makes things very clear. During the worship the children came up to sing - I was impressed that the leading of the singing was being done by a child that couldn't be older than 4 or 5. Another child came up to lead the prayer - and wow did she lead the prayer.
After the service I had a chance to catch up with so many people that I have grown to love. Got to practice my very broken Portuguese and my tiny bit of Chichewa. We even seemed to understand each other. Funny how it comes back to you when you need it.
Please pray for me over the next couple of weeks as I settle back into a lot of vision casting on the one side, and detailed planning on the other. And the requests for outreaches are mounting, I need God's help in managing priorities. I haven't had much time to relax after the journey that I couldn't get much sleep in even though I tried (not usually a problem when I fly). So please pray that I'm also able to rest before the rest of the US team arrives on Aug 23rd. The two weeks here with the US team will be exciting, especially since it's the biggest team we've ever dealt with here in Mozambique, 9 US missionaries in addition to Lindy and myself. And we'll be travelling with 15 African missionaries.
USA Team in Vila Ulongue
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USA Hope Chapel team
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"Big Sunday" in new church building with makeshift roof
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Worshiping the Lord on Big Sunday
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3 vehicles taken on journey
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Coming for offerings on Big Sunday
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Live chicken offering given to Lindy
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This is the largest western team we ever bring to Mozambique ever since we started coming more than ten years ago. There are eleven of us including Lindy and myself. Every team member knows he/she was called by God on this trip - for such a time as this. They have been fantastic, doing whatever is required very effectively, and putting up with the less than ideal physical conditions without even a murmur of complaint. The whole team came from Hope Chapel in Apex NC and is made up of Pastor Bryan Finley, Charles Balan (team leader), Katie Head, Tina Fowler, Shauna Artz, Linda Williams, Christian Reyes, Brittany Marshall, Zach Allen, Lindy and myself. I am so impressed with the love that all of them are pouring out, and the effective way they are teaching. We are going around with a complete team of 26 - the 11 western members and an additional 15 Africans that take care of everything from preaching to translating into 3 languages to cooking to driving to carrying. All the missionaries and supplies are going in three vehicles; our Land Rover, our bus, and a rented small minibus.
When the team arrived in Malawi, we stopped to buy a few more things that we had not had a chance to buy beforehand, and continued to the mission base in Mozambique on the same day. They could not stay at the base because of not enough space, so they stayed at a Dutch Reformed guest house which we consider to be luxury compared to most of the places we need to stay at on these trips. The next day we had "Big Sunday" at the Foursquare church that meets at our mission base, when representatives from many of the Foursquare churches that we have helped to plant in the area come together to worship. This was a special one not only because of the American visitors, but because it is the first worship meeting in the big new church that they have built but still has no roof. They built a stick and grass shelter inside the brick walls to protect from the sun. The church is huge compared to most churches in the province, but when I looked at how many people were there, I was a little concerned that it may still be not large enough!!! And that's even though three churches could not come due to a funeral. We do need to help them get the roof on the building. We encourage couples that have been married in secular weddings, or that have not had a wedding at all as is very common here, to repeat their vows before God in a Christian setting. So Charles and Bryan were honored to officiate a mass wedding of 15 couples. It was very moving. Near the end of the 5 to 6 hour church service, so many healings and deliverances. We're always so excited to see the Holy Spirit at work.
On Monday there was a visit to the prison where Katie preached very well and Zach and Shauna gave testimonies, all very effective with a great response as most of the 85 prisoners accepted Jesus. Later that day Zach and Moses gathered up many young men from the church and headed off to the the soccer field together with others from the team joining in from the sidelines. The youth were very appreciative as they received soccer balls as gifts.
Mucumbura Seminar, Outreaches and New Wheresoever Council
When we drove to Mucumbura, we knew it would be a long drive, last time it had taken 12 hours plus time for stops in capital city Tete. We're always very encouraged when the enemy tries to stop us, knowing that he's really concerned about the damage that we're about to inflict on the powers of darkness. This time was no different. Two flat tires on the same car, when trying to fix them we found out that the jacks had been stolen. Of course, one of our neighbors "just happened to drive by", and he lent us his jack and had the tires repaired. We replaced the jacks in Tete along the way. The small minibus whose engine had been running perfectly well, started sputtering and stalling - after an on-route tune-up it was fine again - amazing what new spark plugs together with some prayer will do. And then as we were approaching Mucumbura, the drive shaft of the bus broke down. So we had to shuttle the bus people to their destination in the other two vehicles, and then tow the bus there. So it was around 5am that all these things were done, with a seminar due to begin at 9am. We did start a bit late because everyone was so very tired. We could not find the needed spare part so we had to modify a similar one to make it work on the bus, and of course the bus was running fine again just hours before we set off to our next destination. Since then we found the correct part when we sent one of our team members all the way back to Tete and it's reassuring that we have it as another spare in case it's needed. During the whole process, nobody on the team seemed worried, just excited about what God is doing.
The first day of the seminar in Mucumbura there were only a handful of pastors in the school room we were given. So next morning at 5am a number of us were praying powerfully in that school room, and the next two days there must have been more than 60 adults, I'm not sure of the count. The teaching from the team, both American and African, was awesome. I believe the Holy Spirit re-kindled many fires during those two days. Katie, Christian, Brittany and Zach went off to teach the children as an example to the local churches - on the second day, 60 children accepted Jesus! We overcame some significant political obstacles - some jealousy and fear fear of losing sheep - and were even able to establish a new Wheresoever Council in Mucumbura which is now committed to bringing the lost into the Kingdom in unity between the churches. This is in a place where unity was unheard of before we came last year. There were pastors from 15 churches in 5 denominations at the seminar. Of those churches, there are two that have a church building, one that uses a stick shelter with grass roof, and all the others meet under trees - so they cannot meet during the rainy season. I believe that situation will change over the next couple of years.
Many came to Christ at the two night crusades in Mucumbura. There were so many healings and deliverances that I lost count. One example is the time that Pastor Bryan had a word that someone could not hear in their right ear. One lady came up and was prayed for, and she could hear something. So she was prayed for again and her eyes got real big, her smile went ear to ear, and she ended up complaining of too much noise. Thank you Jesus.
Magoe Seminar and Outreaches
This morning (Saturday) we drove to Magoe, the capital of the district to run another seminar and crusades. The pastors in the morning session seemed very emotionally and spiritually cold. But they seemed to warm up in the afternoon session. Then there was breakthrough at tonight's crusade that was held in the center of town. A large crowd formed, emptying the nearby bars - lots of young men and women still holding their beer bottles. We estimated somewhere between 750 and 1,000 salvations tonight. Victory in the spiritual & physical realms! Hallelujah! The crowd here in Magoe was very receptive to the team drama, Shauna's testimony and Pastor Bryan's salvation message. We saw God heal one person of complete deafness (both ears), three individuals with one deaf ear, one blind eye healed, 13 persons with various leg/knee/feet issues healed, smoking and alcohol addictions broken by God's power, four people healed of severe back pain, and one healed of whooping cough. God is at work here in Magoe!! Hallelujah!!
Tomorrow morning - Sunday - the team will split to minister at three different churches, with the seminar continuing in the afternoon followed by another night crusade. It's not clear at this point whether the seminar will continue through Monday or end tomorrow. On the long way back to the base, we will hold a baptism in the village of Chirodzi where we started a church just over a month ago. May be a bit challenging since the river near Chirodzi is still dry, the rainy season should start in October, but I'm sure we'llfind a way. After the 2-day drive back to the base, we are planning to bless our Vila orphans and to hold another baptism near the base.
The Magoe seminar which had seemed at first like it was going to be so difficult, changed totally. At the outreaches and at the guest house where we were staying, lost count of all the healings, many deaf people hearing, some deaf-mutes, blind people receiving sight, the iris reappearing in a white eye, so many others that it's difficult to comprehend. I don't even remember when each one occurred during the trip. I take it all as confirmation of God's desire for this area, combined with a team full of faith and hunger to see the glory of God. In Magoe, we did not feel they were ready yet to start a Wheresoever Council as we had started in Mucumbura - It will happen in God's timing.
Baptism at Chirodzi
On the way back to the mission base, we baptized the people from the new church from a couple of months ago in Chirodzi. It was FREEEEZING, but still fun. Back at the mission base, the team baptized many people from our home church in Vila Ulongue. Then the team returned home, exhausted but enthusiastic. It's funny but so many times mission teams seem to take off their spiritual Superman outfits when returning to their regular routine at home. I'm confident that this team will keep theirs on!
Observations from Pastor Bryan
These two links into the Hope Chapel website are interesting observations from Pastor Bryan. Enjoy.
(After reading, click the "Back" button on your browser to return to the Wheresoever website)
Jesus Keeps Changing my Theology
Baptizing Demons