So a few weeks I read Atonement Child by Francine Rivers--even though it's a novel, it is one of the most powerful books I've ever read. The central is the journey of a beautiful young girl who was made pregnant from being raped by a man whose face she never saw. Even the Christians in her life--friends and family--encouraged her to have an abortion. Even though her emotional pain and confusion was great, she could not bring herself to abort the child....
Throughout the book, case after case--from the doctor who performs the abortions to the women who have had abortions to young girls being pressured to have abortions--shows the agonizing result of abortion.
All this to say, my heart has been more than stirred to do something about the war on the unborn. I've been praying each day for confirmation from the Lord--what action to take....if now is the time, etc. And in these last few days, I feel like I've received all the confirmation I need. The Lord is clearly leading me in that direction :)
*Just this past Sunday morning, Brian (who had no idea of how I'd been praying) made an announcement concerning an OPPORTUNITY to get involved with the local Crisis Pregnancy Center! I had tried to find out on the internet if there was one here in Springs but had not had any success. I didn't even know this center existed!
**Just yesterday, I picked up the local newspaper, which i haven't even paged through since I moved here 2 months ago, and I turned right to an article about Abortions being done in Springs. Even though there are legal abortion clinics available, young girls often go to back-alley [illegal] guys to have it done which are much more dangerous but much cheaper and more secretive. This answered the question that had been in my heart for weeks now: "Are abortions being done in Springs?" the answer is unfortunately an emphatic YES, in greater numbers than we can calculate.
***Last night I had a nightmare. I was in a classroom with many young children. All the sudden a siren went off to alert us that we were under attack. (we were apparently at war) So myself and all the children ran to the wall and knelt down, covering our heads to brace ourselves for....what i did not know. This is where it gets gruesome. Then a small, dead child was being dangled on the other side of the window by the enemy (whoever/whatever it was). This was to put fear in all the children's hearts. I remember one of the little girls being struck by the sight and screaming, "That's my best friend! and now she's dead!" I couldn't even bring myself to look at the sight of the dead child. I only tried to cover and comfort the children with me--even though the enemy was threatening to do the same to each one of them ..... that's the end of the dream and it held an intensity that I felt minutes after i woke up. There was even fear in my heart after i realized it was "only a dream".
I stumbled upon this verse this morning and could scarcely believe what i was reading: "You desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there." Psalms 51:6
I wondered why in the dream, the children were in a classroom setting, if they were to represent the unborn. This verse tells us why!!!
"Lord here am I. Send me to the young girls/women facing the decision of having an abortion. Show them there is a way out. Open their eyes to the true brutality of abortion. Use my voice for the voiceless. What a privilege it will be to fight for them....."
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Mozambique Training and Evangelism Time
Wow, I didn’t mean to let it go this long before I posted again!First I must give a bit of a recap of our trip toMOZAMBIQUE: Kurt, Shannon, Funeka and I made up the team from Salt and Light. We joined with 9 others from a couple other relating churches. After a time of training in the Kruger Park, the team split into two groups. [no attacks from the monkeys this year Heidi!!]
After crossing the Limpopo River, (always an adventure!) my group headed to Mapai to hold a Geographical Training Time for the pastors. It was mostly pastors from Assembly of God churches who attended-about 15 pastors in all. To be honest, we were shocked to find that some of them didn’t have a solid understanding of salvation, so instead of teaching some of the deeper things of the faith, we were encouraged to stick with foundational topics of the faith such as Prayer, Grace, and Sharing your Faith...
Besides the training times with pastors, we spent our time praying for the sick in hospitals, children’s ministry after school hours, and building relationships the believers. Some of this was also done after we left Mapai and went to Chicumbane.
I must say the flies were absolutely horrid. They swarmed everywhere because our camp was set up right next to a crawl [lots and lots of cattle]. Whenever we were preparing meals we practically had to designate a person to fan the food to keep flies from resting/feeding on it. There were many moments where I could see that about 15 flies were resting on me. One had to constantly be moving to keep them away. It definitely forced me to be able to put up with insects.
There were also these huge flying ants that came out at night especially around the fire. They looked like worms with wings and I suspect that they talked to each other and targeted me most of all to bring terror to ;)
Each evening we held a crusade where hundreds of people would come just from the sound of music on loud speakers and word of mouth throughout the day. In such a rural area, the locals don’t often see sound equipment and experience the benefits of technology like we were showing through the Jesus Film and The Passion of the Christ. Many responded to the salvation call each night, and we prayed for the sick each night.
Throughout the week, everyone on the team was given the opportunity to testify/preach many times. Which WOW builds your faith so much! Reminded me of when Jesus said “My nourishment comes from doing the Will of Him who sent Me….” One of my favorite times was when our translator’s wife invited Funeka and I to come and have tea with her. This included holding the baby she was looking after and playing with the children as well. Really it was such a kind act for her to invite us to have tea with her because we couldn’t easily communicate due to the language barrier. And even though there was grace and we did understand each other through body language and laughter ;) the time we spent together truly made me want to work hard and learn Portuguese. You see even though it’s not her first language, most Mozambicans can speak it because the Portuguese colonized much of the nation years ago….
My other favorite time was when a group of us went hut to hut to see what doors would open to share or pray for the sick. And there was SO much opportunity. One of the guys we visited standing there with his wife and child asked us to pray that the demons would stay away from their home. We talked to him about the Authority we have in Jesus Christ, but it comes by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was a believe so we prayed with him for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and they had huge smiles and said afterwards that they felt different
**you can see pictures from the trip on my facebook. there is a recent albumn for Mozambique !!
After crossing the Limpopo River, (always an adventure!) my group headed to Mapai to hold a Geographical Training Time for the pastors. It was mostly pastors from Assembly of God churches who attended-about 15 pastors in all. To be honest, we were shocked to find that some of them didn’t have a solid understanding of salvation, so instead of teaching some of the deeper things of the faith, we were encouraged to stick with foundational topics of the faith such as Prayer, Grace, and Sharing your Faith...
Besides the training times with pastors, we spent our time praying for the sick in hospitals, children’s ministry after school hours, and building relationships the believers. Some of this was also done after we left Mapai and went to Chicumbane.
I must say the flies were absolutely horrid. They swarmed everywhere because our camp was set up right next to a crawl [lots and lots of cattle]. Whenever we were preparing meals we practically had to designate a person to fan the food to keep flies from resting/feeding on it. There were many moments where I could see that about 15 flies were resting on me. One had to constantly be moving to keep them away. It definitely forced me to be able to put up with insects.
There were also these huge flying ants that came out at night especially around the fire. They looked like worms with wings and I suspect that they talked to each other and targeted me most of all to bring terror to ;)
Each evening we held a crusade where hundreds of people would come just from the sound of music on loud speakers and word of mouth throughout the day. In such a rural area, the locals don’t often see sound equipment and experience the benefits of technology like we were showing through the Jesus Film and The Passion of the Christ. Many responded to the salvation call each night, and we prayed for the sick each night.
Throughout the week, everyone on the team was given the opportunity to testify/preach many times. Which WOW builds your faith so much! Reminded me of when Jesus said “My nourishment comes from doing the Will of Him who sent Me….” One of my favorite times was when our translator’s wife invited Funeka and I to come and have tea with her. This included holding the baby she was looking after and playing with the children as well. Really it was such a kind act for her to invite us to have tea with her because we couldn’t easily communicate due to the language barrier. And even though there was grace and we did understand each other through body language and laughter ;) the time we spent together truly made me want to work hard and learn Portuguese. You see even though it’s not her first language, most Mozambicans can speak it because the Portuguese colonized much of the nation years ago….
My other favorite time was when a group of us went hut to hut to see what doors would open to share or pray for the sick. And there was SO much opportunity. One of the guys we visited standing there with his wife and child asked us to pray that the demons would stay away from their home. We talked to him about the Authority we have in Jesus Christ, but it comes by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was a believe so we prayed with him for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and they had huge smiles and said afterwards that they felt different
**you can see pictures from the trip on my facebook. there is a recent albumn for Mozambique !!
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