Monday morning in Wale Wale started early with pop tarts and cereal bars for our team as the sun was coming up, and around 7AM Baba and his mini-van (which seats approximately 22)rolled into the Presidental Lodge parking lot. Our mission team picked up about 10 church members from Central Baptist and headed out for revival services at two villages…..Goabuluga and Timpanie. The two villages were about an hours ride down mostly dirt roads and countryside. I sat next to Joseph Braimah Tahira on the trip and we had a great time laughing as i told him i kept expecting to look out the window and see lions, elephants, zebras, and monkeys. I said “what part of the country can they be found at” and his reply was “the zoo in Tamale”. Apparently every American that goes to Africa thinks they are going to see a National Geographic special in real life…..but pretty much all we saw throughout the week were goats, dogs, chickens, pigs, and cows with an occasional donkey sneaking it’s way into the scene.
We arrived at the village of Timpanie where an older man named Thomas is pastor. The very first thing we did was go visit his church, a little mud hut that was about 25 feet X 10 feet with no electricity……just plenty of windows. Our team held hands and prayed a prayer of blessing over the building, which became the tradition at every church we entered during the week. We then began gathering people from the village and met under a huge tree. Approximately 1oo people came out for the service, many were church members, but most were just villagers who were curious to see the white strangers.
Pastor Barnabas asked me to speak to the group and i offered the same words that i offered to every group all week. I said to them “5 years ago our church started praying and asking God to lead us in our mission work. We prayed that he would tell us where to go and tell us what to do. Out of the entire world, God sent us to you…….in this village on this day…..to tell you that He loves you, that He has not forgotten about you, and that His Son came into this world to save you”. Ken Warner shared the story of Jesus and Nicodemus from John 3 and there was lots of singing. At the end of our time together there were 4 salvations and 14 rededications. It was a great day for the village. We tried to end our tiem by handing out candy……and we quickly discovered that candy and african children are a recipe for disaster. Kids were swarming us, hurting each other, and willing to risk losing a limb for a tiny sucker or stick of gum. We were lucky to get out of there with nobody getting hurt.
We next went to the village of Guabulgua where Pastor Selifu is serving. We went in his church and prayed, and began our service under a great mango tree. Janet Larson gave her testimony and i shared about how God spared Shadrack, Meeshack, and Abendigo from the fiery furnace and told them that Jesus would walk through their fiery trials with them as well if they would only trust him. At the end of the service, the invitation began and 7 people accepted Jesus as their lord. One moment that was very powerful was when some women who were present started laughing and Pastor Barnabas looked them right in the eye and in front of 150ish people said “you in the green dress…..you need to quit laughing and give your heart to Jesus”. One older man who was present accepted Christ and said he was coming forward in hopes that Jesus would save his entire family.
Again we barely escaped death with the candy distribution. This time we tried to stay close to the van and throw it out right before we made a fast get-away……but people started jumping on the roof of the van which made Baba (van driver) unhappy………and one thing we learned during the week is that when Baba is unhappy, everyone is unhappy.
After a lunch of chicken and rice, we rested for a few hours and headed to the village of Kpawuga for a crusade Monday night. We saw 86 people come to Christ, we saw Pastor Barnabas cast demons out of several women, and i was asked to come forward and heal a sick girl who had been coughing up blood. I asked her if she believed that Jesus could heal her and she said “yes” and i just prayed for God to intervene and heal her so that she might be able to tell the world what God had done for her. I make no claims that she will get physically better……but i know that if it is God’s will…….He can and will heal her. Kpawuga was a village without a church, and in a very powerful moment at the end of the night, Pastor Barnabas stood up and said “From this day forward, there will be a Baptist Church in Kpawuga and the 86 people who came to Jesus tonight will be their first members”. It was waaay too cool to put into words how exciting that moment was. A 29 year old English teacher from Central Baptist in Wale Wale will most likely become their pastor……so pray for Ben as he begins this journey.
A long ride back to the Presidental Lodge ended a long, long day……..a day that turned out to be one of the best days of my life. 104 people came to know Jesus as their lord, a new church was started, and lifelong friendships were made. It was a good day in Africa.
