Along The Way

Our history with this village is more extraordinary than what can be expressed in one quick read. Death threats from witch doctors, vehicle breakdown after vehicle breakdown each time we planned our trip, delay after delay, yet God has had His perfect timing in it all-- this has been their year. 

Throughout scripture, we see a lot of "along the way" moments. While Jesus was on His way to Jairus's house the woman with the issue of blood was healed, the disciples on the road to Emmaus encountered Jesus as they walked, the blind man Bartimaeus on the road- just to name a few.

We have seen a dramatic transition this year, and the frequency of our "along the way" moments is staggering and awe inspiring. This dear woman stopped us while we were hiking down the mountain leaving her village, calling out to us for prayer for healing. The Lord also gave us a word of knowledge for her (something only the Lord could know about her life's circumstances). Up until this point in life, she had not yet made the decision to follow Jesus but wanted to immediately.

People in our villages are seeking more than money or aid. Jesus has stepped into their every day lives, and they have been privileged to see miracle after miracle- neighbors getting healed, friends and family members, the list goes on and on. In our Mountain Village, we saw what the aftermath of Jesus "walking" through a village looks like, we were stopped over and over again by those we met along the way, each with a simple request, "Would you pray for me?". They have encountered Jesus, and they have no need to look for anything else.

Let me paint the picture for you. We are talking about people in mud huts who make their "living" by subsistence farming. People who deal with malaria on a regular basis and premature death due to simple things that we would NEVER see as life threatening in our world. Simply because we have relatively "easy" access to modern medicine, our children don't die of fever, our mother's don't die from tetanus due to a pricked finger, and a broken arm doesn't mean we will never be able to use it again. So, when they see us (foreigners), it is natural for them to flock to us with a litany of requests for medicine, clothing and so on, knowing we (at the very least) came from a town and possibly from a much more developed country. It is amidst this backdrop that we minister.

And now for the transition...

While doing hut to hut fellowship and ministry, we were hit with a tidal wave of awareness- Jesus has walked through the Mountain Village. He has been there. Every hut that we went to had at least one person in it who had been healed of something. Many times, we didn't even ask, they themselves excitedly told us their miraculous stories. People no longer stopped us on foot paths to discuss their sickness and ask for physical help. They stopped us to ask for prayer. There was no reason for the shift except for the simple fact that they had experienced the One who really had the power. Not the foreigner who might happen to have antibiotics on them, but the Jesus who had healed their friends and mended their hearts.

Our prayer has always been for the world to not remember a thing about us but simply remember the Jesus that they encountered through us. I feel like I have gotten to experience the fulfillment of that prayer.

"Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will become thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.'"- John 4:13

What we have to offer is nothing compared to what you give, Lord.
May our faces, names and everything that is less than you be forever forgotten, lost in the beauty of your Presence that remains behind.

When you come to a town, a city, a village, a heart, they never "thirst" again. 

May we remember that at every moment of every day, you are looking to "break out" of your home within our hearts to invade the world around us... 

... And may we never cease to give you that opportunity.