first outreach

This weekend was my first weekend bush outreach. Up until this point I have not been more than 15 miles outside of Pemba…which is not a great representation of the rest of Mozambique. Mostly, because it is close to a city which has tourism…so they have running water, electricity and some other things that you will never find in the bush. The villages are similar to the rest of the country with mud huts and latrines but in the bush there is not running water or electricity. And because many do not realize that they live in such poverty they are very taken by white people and digital cameras…most of the people in the bush have never actually seen themselves. The village we went to was about 6 hours south of Pemba in a Mucundi village. This particular village is the 2nd most resistant village to the Gospel since Iris has been in Pemba. They also still practice cannibalism...I was finally happy to be skinny. Of course these two bits of information were not revealed to us until we returned…probably not a bad idea. I truly felt like I was living the book of acts while we were ministering in this village. Iris had planted a church in this village and we were going to support them in the ministry. As we walked through the village our Mozambican leader was teaching us how to be praying prophetically for the village and what we were to do while we were there. There was heavy witchcraft, really severe alcoholism, and spirit of mockery and unbelief like I have never seen before. As we preached during the first afternoon many people were laughing and insulting the gospel…which caused people who truly felt God to not come forward for prayer. At the night service it was so much worse…I imagine because everyone was drunk. After we showed a film and called out the deaf and blind, a large group who were drunk and mocking the gospel approached the stage asking for prayer for anything they could think of. The language barrier made it so hard to talk to them and find out what spirits might be on them. At a point I just stopped and went back to the truck. A few minutes later the leader felt hostility and we all jumped in the truck…I was driving and he said “speed up” I wasn’t sure why until I realized that they were throwing rocks at us. It was a little different then the persecution I am accustomed to in America…like, “Christians are hypocrites.” The last day we were there was a Sunday. We spent our time encouraging the church in the village by talking to them about spiritual warfare and praying for them. The next day at the school the different teams were giving testimonies of deaf ears being opened and the mute speaking and witch doctors being saved. I thought about our experience and realized how important it is to see the unseen and be asking for the prophetic. It would have been easy to be discouraged about what we saw; however, one sows and the other reaps…we were part of the pioneering into an extremely dark place...it just looks different. I am looking forward to seeing how this experience changes the way I walk down streets in the U.S.

This website is the July newsletter for Iris Mozambique and particularly Pemba if you want to a bigger picture of the ministry here. I think Rolland wrote it.

http://www.irismin.org/news/36.php

I do not know if I mentioned it earlier but while I was here so far I have met a film crew from LA that is doing a documentary on Iris that is for a secular audience on what God is doing in Non Profit ministries…it will include the miracles they have seen while they were here…I think they filmed a blind and mute being healed and a few deaf people. I am excited to see it…Also a girl from Pittsburg is writing a book on Heidi for the same audience. Please pray for these, because I think they could be used to save so many who have become hardened to the gospel and see the church and the religion instead seeing the living God.

Also, there was book just written by the Baker’s…I forget what it is called…if anyone in West Chester is interested in reading in, I think it should be in my pile of mail at the Clark’s…you can open it and check it out. It details many of the miracles Iris has seen since being in Mozambique.

Bless You

-Steve

If you feel led, please pray that God would give me wisdom…I am getting so much vision…I just need to hear God’s voice.