Teaching in the morning… Evangelizing in the afternoon… and an invitation to the Cinema for the evening.

First was to teach the church members and minister to the children. Second was to go out into the villages with an interpreter and share the good news and invite others to come and watch a movie at night.

Ministry is so wonderful. Much of it began with the children in song and dance. We also brought soccer balls and bubbles to play. Yes, bubbles, it is something that the children become fascinated with as they have never seen a bubble before. Our last village, Pastor Jan and myself were assigned to minister to the children. It started out with 25, but quickly grew to 100 children. We played and distributed candies (bon-bons). After sharing with the children about Jesus, I asked them if they had any questions for me…. OK… here they come!!! Question 1: Why are you so different from us. You’re kidding, that blond hair, blue eyes, and white skin stands out?????

I was able to share that God created each one of us. All of us were different. That no two of us are the same. For God used the dirt of the earth to create man. There are 5 colors of dirt in the earth: Black, Brown, White, Yellow and Red. I just had more white dirt, but showed them my black freckles and told them that really, I was black. We had a young girl of Hispanic descent on the team, she is brown ~ when you lined us up, you saw the color spectrum from white to black. I told them that if they came to America, they would see people of all colors, and we all look different but were created by the same Loving God. To wrap it up, I told them if any of them wanted a hug, I’d give them one. I had over 100 takers. It is something that is priceless to them for two reasons, 1. Affection is not shown often in the nation. 2. I’m a white person (a Nasala), and that is something that just does not happen. It is one of the greatest joys I get from ministering to the children ~ Dispensing hugs and praying over the children.

This particular village was in the northern part of the country. It is a place where the land changes over to desert and the sand changes from red to a golden color from sun bleaching. It is a place where the truth has been absent and many forms of abuse are so great. To rape and abuse children was normal……to use children as slaves (labor, sex and militia). Many of the people struggle with the oppression/depression that comes from being abused.

They may not “know” that it is wrong, but their spirit knows it is not right. Many children are withdrawn and have no “hope” for a future. They don’t understand where these feelings of despair come from. They just go through the motions. It is inconceivable to many that people live in these conditions…. Here was a place where to beat your wife and children into submission was normal… Hard to believe and even harder to see.
We ministered to a lady whom the Lord revealed to us that her condition was not the result of a sickness or disease; rather, she suffered years of physical abuse from her husband that left her deaf, unable to speak and in need of “crutches” to walk (really sticks fashioned into a makeshift set of crutches). It was what the Lord revealed and then confirmed as we were ministering and was confirmed later through another person. The Love of God overwhelmed us as He touched her body and healed her wounds. She was so grateful that we came… even more grateful that we gave her Jesus and she could experience true “Love.”