Christmas 2010

Ministry News
TTN: This year 24 church plants, 2 big crusades, 7 ministry trips into the swamps , 3 outreach teams came, 3 clinics built, 4 containers of medical equipment distributed. Lots of training seminars. Many set free from spiritual oppression. Big outreach into Tanzania (Rufiji Delta & Masai land) which has opened big doors for the future.



Masai: Very successful trip to Masai Land. The first year 100 came to seminar,
last year about 250, this year just over 1000.
















Rufiji Delta: Still about 100 thousand yet to hear the gospel. A massive area. Together with YWAM we will continue to prepare the way of the Lord into this area. A big task, we need you to get behind us in prayer, finances and your presence. Commitments to prayer and support are always needed. Pray for laborers, be one! God is moving all the time, come let us move with him.



The major least-reached group in Zambia:
The white farmers: Over decades they have been either forced out of their African home nations or killed. Many have come to Zambia to rebuild their lives and farms. They have no interest in God. Ministry is not only to the indigenous folks but also our own skin colour. Building trusting relationships can take years with hardened people and there are many. You and I are Jesus to many, let us live this role with honor…...

Times are changing - Are you?
Every part of life is influenced by change which leads us to question our self, future, government, church, God. With questions, compromise can come in. Millions claim to be Christians, but by looking who can tell? God and his kingdom is replaced by me and my kingdom. Rather “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Being righteous is to do things right according to God, not self. Giving up my rights, not proclaiming them. We are to change the world, not be changed by it. “Let us change with the times, but not be changed.”

Greetings also from Simba Ulanga. He is still going strong despite the persecution. He catches up on his sleep on his “days off” in prison. He is in need of support.

It has been 4 years. Hall family ‘planning’ a trip to Denmark (April-May) and USA (June-July). We would love to see you in your cell, home, youth groups, churches. Let us know.

FAMILY NEWS

The girls are all doing very well in school. We chose to start homeschooling them last year, and although we have up-and-down days, I know we have made the right decision, because not once have they wished they could go back to the local school they went to for a year.

Rachel is now 12 years old. She decided to donate 10 inches of her hair to ‘Locks of Love’, so had her hair cut short on her birth-day this year. She is very fond of reading, but friends and pets are even more important than books!

Acacia is 9½. She made her hair longer by having extensions braided in, as you can see in this picture. She had the braids for a month and then she and her friends spent a couple of afternoons un-braiding her hair again!

Mikaela will be 8 in January. She spends a lot of time playing with her three best friends right here in the neighbour-hood. Sadly, they will all three be leaving in January, so we are praying for some new great friends for her.

All three girls are learning to play both piano and recorder. They will be playing ‘Silent Night’ on their recorders at our Christmas Eve service this year as well as singing a Danish Carol.


Naomi just turned 4. She walks around the house singing, “We miss you a Merry Christmas, we miss you a Merry Christmas...” She still loves her preschool and is learning her numbers, colors, shapes etc. Her English vocabulary is really growing, but not so much her Danish. She understands everything we say in Danish, but seems to prefer speaking English at the moment.

Jette’s parents came out for a 3-week visit, we had a wonderful time with them. And the kids had someone beside their mom to speak to in Danish!
Right after they left we were able to go and hear Händel’s “Messiah” in a beautiful cathedral in Lusaka. What a masterpiece in music, and what a worshipful experience it was!

Jette: Although home school and family take most of my time, I also enjoy hosting a weekly Ladies Bible Study, as well as being part of a worship team at church. And having attended a week of sign language teaching, I am finding that God is giving me a burden for the deaf young people at the church, we attend. They have a great ministry to the deaf. I just hope I can learn to understand more of what they are saying….
It is so beautiful to see them sing with their hands on Sunday mornings. I especially love watching them when we sing “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know, He holds the future. And life is worth living just because He lives.” Yes, Jesus is truly ‘Immanuel’, God with us!
Merry Christmas everyone and a Blessed New Year. Hope to see many of you in 2011!

“Join our Village” The Hall family is looking for 50 committed partners to our life and ministry. Committed to prayer and $40-50 monthly support. Prayer keeps us spiritually, $ keeps us physically. We live on the front line and homeland support is crucial. An African proverb says, “It takes a whole village to wrap around a baobab tree.” Come join hands with us for the baobab is a big tree. Thank you & God Bless

Tanzania trip - part 1

Tanzania Trip – September 2010

The time has come again for me to go north into Tanzania, this time not only to Masai land but also to the Rufiji Delta where the Rufiji River runs into the Indian Ocean. The Rufiji Delta is about 200km south of Dar Es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. I have been into this delta on several different occasions. This time I go with a team from Australia.

Between Dar Es Salaam and the Mozambique border in the south, are at least 21 unreached people groups. Most of these groups live within the Rufiji Delta itself. In the delta there are hundreds of islands, many of these are occupied by small people groups, some groups are just a few hundred and other groups are up to 2000 in population.

I have been told that only one in ten thousand make it through high school. Life here is hard and all about fishing. This is the livelihood. They net, smoke and sell most of their catch. Fish, prawns and crabs are caught and put on ice, once a week a truck delivers ice and loads up their catch and is off to the big city to sell the fish to the local market. Crabs and prawns go to all the places where the wazungu (white people) go, the hotels and lodges. Most locals do not eat these creatures. They are considered dirty, I personally quite enjoy them. The team and I have ate four kilos of prawns while we were on the island called Simba Uranga, that was just for dinner and we paid about 4 bucks per kilo. On this particular island nearly all houses are built on stilts because the tide covers most of the island during the high tides of the full moon.

Very few fruit trees grow here because of the salt water that comes in from the Indian Ocean and mixes with the river water. The few doctors who pass through here say that the people living on these islands have high blood pressure due to the amount of salt water intake. I always thought high BP came from stress, at least in my case it does…

When we arrived to the island of Simba Uranga we were escorted to the chairman’s house, or the mayor of this island community. Over the hours he became quite friendly. He raked the sand clean from rubbish so we could set up our tents, he cooked rice for us, then he wanted to be our night watchman because he said the community was full of thieves and that we could trust no one. We thought it funny that he was so friendly but you know relationships are important out here so let’s build this relationship with the ‘chief’ because this relationship will possible benefit us in the future.

We showed the Jesus film and then got into our mosquito tents next to our now fearless watchman who by this time had a few drinks. After a great night of ‘sleep’ we awoke with the sun. It did not take long to notice that there was a box missing from among our things; the box that held all our fishing gear. Our fearless watchman said “I told you that you can trust no one here!”
Not long after the police showed up on the island making their rounds. Their small boat flipped just off the shore of our now homey little island so they had to swim in. This island was not on their scheduled route but flipping your boat makes you do things out of your routine.

We met the police and told them of our dilemma. They were ready for action, they took our fearless watchman aside and after about a half hour he was handcuffed along with another guy. Our friend reluctantly admitted that he was the guilty one. He was actually fearing for his life, the police could have just killed him right there and then. He set us up from the beginning, that “corker”. Anyway, as the sun lifted higher in the sky, the police said they were leaving. They told us to take the chief and his friend in our boat back to the mainland police station. So we loaded them up with the rest of our gear and we pushed off. While we were sailing our ‘friend’ wanted to make a deal with me, “Hey Simba” he said, “I will tell you where the box is if you let me go.” I was told once that one is only stupid if he makes the same mistake twice. Being a bit wiser we reached the mainland and dropped the two men off at the small police office. I was told the next day that he would go to prison for two months and maybe longer if he does not return the items. It is likely that he will pay his way out and we will never see that box again, but I do know where he lives and will likely be back to his little island in the middle of the delta. One thing that is true about Africa is that time is always coming, so here in this situation we sit and wait and time take its course. Stay tuned ‘For the rest of the Story’ in 2011, maybe 2012 or maybe even 2013….

By the way, the ‘Jesus’ film was a great success. It was the first time for many of the 70-or-so onlookers. Another great thing was that it was all done by batteries. The projector is about the size of a small book, tiny speakers and tiny DVD player, all of this fits into a small bag. Gone are the days of generators, PA systems etc, etc. Pack your little bag and away we go. Now one is free to set up just about anywhere, what a tool! I remember the days when I was in Haiti, we went to a small island off the Haitian coast to show the Jesus film, all the work carrying the generator and 16mm films etc. People have asked me where I got my muscles. Well, that trip gave me most of the few muscles I have…

While in the Delta we also stopped by other island communities. One of those islands is where they build the Dhow boats. This is a vessel that has been on the seas for hundreds of years. These smaller vessels continue to this day to travel the rough seas reaching as far as India. Now this little island community with a population of about 500 have mastered the skills of building these Dhow boats, this island has passed down the skills on for generations. It was a fascinating to sit and watch as a half a dozen men used their handmade tools and handmade spikes to build not just a boat but a piece of art. We watched as they ran their panel planks into a fire and with the right amount of pressure put a twist in the board to mold around the ribs of the dhow. No machines here just true skill. How fascinating it would be to stay with them for a few months to work with them from beginning to completion of a dhow. The smaller ones take 2-3 months while the bigger ones take up to 6 months to complete.

We also stopped to visit a school and a broken-down clinic. The nurse and some of the elders of this island were looking for help from the white man. ‘Because the white man has all the money you know’. I was looking around for the white man with all the money, because neither I nor my mates that were with me had any money.

One of my highlights was the chance I had to sit with most of the island leaders and talk with them about stewardship and serving their community. That if each family were to put 5-10 dollars a month into the community account then in about a year they could get books for their school or have a very nice clinic etc. Well, the excuses kept coming, “we do not have any money”, “ we do not trust the mayor here, he will steal the money”, “we are only fishermen”, “we are not educated”, etc etc etc.

This is the way it is in many places out here. There is no trust among anyone. But I challenged them to be investors in their community and not just consumers. It was good and they seemed to enjoy my little speech. They agreed with me, but to actually start living it out, this is another big issue. This is where you need a long-term missionary to continue coming back to these places to follow up, work with them and help them plan, setting goals together, someone to push them a bit and get them to believe in themselves. We as outsiders (both church and government) have come in for generations and have paid it all or built it all for them. Our view has been that we need to help the ‘poor’ Africans. That they can’t do it. They may not be able to do like we do but they can do with some guidance.

To a large degree Africans are not poor, in their mind they tell themselves that they are poor and this leads to poverty. People blame poverty on lack of education but I struggle with this as well. There are millions of well educated leaders, locals etc throughout Africa, having degrees on their walls, but this has had little effect because their minds are not changed. A good example is with the Masai, they also have a poverty mindset yet they are some of the wealthiest people in Africa. I have been going to Masai land now the past three years and I have continually sat with the church and community leaders as I did on this island in the Delta.
I think they just need someone to believe in them and not look at or treat them as poor people, but challenge them, give some guidance and getting them to believe in themselves to give them self worth and self respect. This has been an important key for me each time I go to Masai land. Salvation is truly important, but much of Africa has been saved a hundred times over it seems, but still they live in this mindset that keeps them under such a destructive curse. Money is not the answer for Africa; it is a change of their world view.

Back now to the Rufiji delta; We made our way back to the mainland and packed up the car in the tropical heat and made our way out of the delta, with our hearts full and our spirits high with the hopes that one day soon we will be able to have a more permanent presence here.
As far as TTN goes, we are communicating and wanting to work with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) who also has a desire to work in the Delta. Missions is too big and is becoming too logistical anymore to do things on your own. This again is another topic.

Packed up and on our way out of the Delta, Noah (our host and guide) took us to the outskirts of the Delta to see the Barabaig people. (I visited these people with Noah a few years ago). This is a nomadic group very much like the Masai. For generations they have been the number one enemy of the Masai. They have fought cattle wars right up into the 1990’s.

At this time many of the Masai have begun to settle down and become more stationary. Rather than moving with their cattle, families settle down but they send their cattle out for grazing and return after several weeks and even up to a year at a time.
Unlike the Barabaig people who still pack up their families and all their goods and with their herds move about in search for ‘greener pastures’.

The Barabaig are an unreached people group. Noah has been building relationships with this particular group that moved into the Delta area about three years ago and he is doing a fantastic job. They have accepted him into their community, thus we were able to visit. Just getting accepted into some of these communities can take years, yet often the first time we come visit we insist on preaching the gospel. I was once told that people will not ‘hear’ your story unless they see your heart. We are not much different in the West. We may appear to listen but the message is not truly heard.

Like the Masai, the Barabaig are still hunters and gatherers. The men hunting with spears and the women and the donkeys are the gatherers. Many still wear goat skin clothing and are decorated with red paint and metal rings around their necks and arms. Through the dedication of Noah one of the Barabaig men gave his heart to the Lord last year and now this little Barabaig community sits and watches to see what will happen. If this new convert is truly transformed and continues to walk a changed life, we will see that one day the whole family will come to Jesus, but it all takes time - this is why we stay…

Our visit would not have been welcome if Noah had not been there. The leader of the group who has six wives gave us permission to take a short walk-about to see his cattle. While we were in his little mud hut, he must have spit on the wall next to him a dozen times. Not sure why, I thought it was a bit gross but hey, I am a Westerner, what do I know? We took a few pictures but was soon rebuked by the ‘chief’ of the group and had to stop. We took some of the pictures after we left and got them developed in Dar and gave them to Noah so that he could take back to the people. I would guess that most of them have never seen a picture of themselves.

After an hour or so we were off to the big city of Dar es Salaam, full of people, traffic, business, a far cry from the seemingly peaceful Barabaig people.

We went off to sleep at a small hotel on the beach, spent some more time with Jeremiah (YWAM director) talking about the future of our work in the Rufiji Delta. The Delta is a vast area of hurting, searching people, a lot like us I suppose, just in a different location.



PS. Please feel free to comment and share your own views and experiences!

Lyle is in Masai Land

Dear friends,

Please would you take some time to pray for Lyle and the team as they will be ministering to the Masai people in a small village in the north of Tanzania this week.

Lyle is there together with two missionaries from here, and a team from Australia, that include a family with two children. Pray for the team as they minister to the people, and pray also for the two kids that are there.

The team left from here about a week ago. They have spent a lot of time driving the long distances, but were able to take a boat into the Rufiji Delta for a couple of days. This is a remote and predominantly Muslim area, and what an exciting opportunity it was, that they could show the Jesus Movie in one of the villlages there, that has had no or very little exposure to the gospel.

I have received a few text messages over the phone and even connected via Facebook with Lyle. I am sure he has some great stories to share when he gets back near the end of the month.

The girls and I are doing well here at home, thanks for all you prayers, may the Lord bless you!

In His love,
Jette

Lyle is in Masai Land

Dear friends,

Please would you take some time to pray for Lyle and the team as they will be ministering to the Masai people in a small village in the north of Tanzania this week.

Lyle is there together with two missionaries from here, and a team from Australia, that include a family with two children. Pray for the team as they minister to the people, and pray also for the two kids that are there.

The team left from here about a week ago. They have spent a lot of time driving the long distances, but were able to take a boat into the Rufiji Delta for a couple of days. This is a remote and predominantly Muslim area, and what an exciting opportunity it was, that they could show the Jesus Movie in one of the villlages there, that has had no or very little exposure to the gospel.

I have received a few text messages over the phone and even connected via Facebook with Lyle. I am sure he has some great stories to share when he gets back near the end of the month.

The girls and I are doing well here at home, thanks for all you prayers, may the Lord bless you!

In His love,
Jette

Newsletter August 2010

Hello everyone and it is that time once again to give a report on what the Hall family has been up to.

The girls: They are busy with school in two languages (Danish and English) and taking care of pets, 5 rabbits have just joined the dogs, guinea pigs and parrot. We also just cut off Rachel’s cast today from her broken ankle. Naomi enjoys going to her little preschool, has learnt a few songs in Bemba.

Jette: She is busy with home school, (a full time job) also a hosting ladies bible study most Thursdays mornings and also hosting the missionary bible study some Thursday evenings, as well as hosting after-church tea for about 40 kids and adult on most Sundays. Our house is an open house.

Lyle: He has been busy with different things in the last four months, two clinics have been built, and loads of medical equipment has been distributed to different medical facilities. Several more churches have been planted so this requires follow-up and discipleship to the new churches. As an average, TTN (To The Nations – whom we work with) plants about 20 churches a year so discipleship is continuous.

Alex (one of our local TTN staff) is the local hospital Chaplain, he has influence on about one thousand patients a month and I go for hospital prayer visits with our team from time to time.

The heart of TTN: has always been evangelism and evangelism comes in different forms. In the last months TTN has lead two city crusades; also we put up our big tent and hosted the world cup football matches. We showed the matches on a big screen and preached during half time. At the end of it all, just over 400 had responded and were followed up and also directed to different churches.

Zimbabwe: I was in Zimbabwe for a week with James (another local TTN guy)teaching 34 coaches on different principles of how to reach the youth through sports. Teaching about HIV/AIDS is always a part of these seminars because it all too real for the youth here as well as the adults. So we spend a bit of time on this subject and try to take out the taboo of it all. It is my heart to see the churches start talking about this subject but it is all taboo so most will not touch it.

Conference: We spent the past week in the local OM mission conference, then I went to another conference and did some preaching and teaching for three days. It is amazing how many African brothers and sisters can fit in a small church, around 400 is what I counted. I slept in my tent but it was so very cold for me, the temperature these last weeks have been about 6C (40F) at night. Not fun at three o’clock in the morning. We are in the Southern Hemisphere so it is our winter time here.

Story: In the last few months I was blessed to see God work a miracle in a lady who was cursed by her father, she was unable to walk for over 12 years, after breaking the curse in Jesus name she now walks. The story on our blog, www.lylejettehall.blogspot.org worth a read if you didn’t get the email about her.

YWAM: I spent a few weeks teaching classes on spiritual warfare in the DTS in Lusaka.

Australia: I spent the month of July by invitation in Australia to meet the TTN board, also was invited to speak at about 12 different church functions. We also loaded three more containers full of medical equipment. Two containers come to Zambia and one will be shipped to Tanzania. This makes 12 containers in all being shipped out of Australia full of medical equipment. This has opened so many doors for all kinds of ministry for us. There is a hospital there that is moving locations next year and they have offered to give us all their equipment, this is about 120 containers full. All the logistics in this is huge but it is being looked into. Operation Lift is the organization in Australia responsible for loading and shipping and TTN is then the partner here on the receiving end, we unload and make sure equipment goes to its location, a big job. I did spend half a day on a boat in the big blue sea and caught a nice 10lb fish.

Some not so good news: Three different churches have dropped their support to us due to church politics (missionaries are generally the first to go) so this is making things a bit of a challenge, so I am taking on some building jobs here to help make ends meet for us.

For those of you who have supported us over the years; a continuous big thanks from us. For those of you that are still praying about our financial support, pray about becoming the answer to that prayer. Do get in touch with us or check out our blog to get information on the support info. If you need tax receipts, they are available.. As a whole it is more expensive to live in Zambia than the US, just to give you an idea.

Pray with us: We often encounter spiritual warfare issues here as you may imagine, so thank you for keeping us in your prayers. Here is something to think about, Believe it or not:

During one of our past crusades a witch was flying over the meeting place on her broom stick for several nights in a row and the team did not see many miracles etc, so as a team they all gathered together after a night meeting and while they were praying guess who fell out of the sky with her broom. She came crashing down in front of the team. She looked up, screamed, and then ran off into the night. The victory was the Lord’s, and the very next night hundreds of people encountered God and miracles were present. This does not happen every time we go out, but it is not all that uncommon either. So this is why your prayers are appreciated.


Come for a visit: As I have said many times before, if there is anyone or a church team that would like to come out for a missions trip please let us know, you are most welcome, as you can see there is a lot going on.

A look ahead:
September: I will be in Tanzania with a team going into the Rufiji Delta and then on to Masai Land where I have been several times before. TTN is looking to open up these for ministry.
In October, up to Nsumbu at Lake Tanganyika to build another clinic for about two weeks.
In November we go on a very remote river area called Kafue for research and also to visit churches that were planted there several years ago.

This is all for now, the Lord bless you all and remember to drop us a line.

A quote from Mother Teresa that has helped me over the years, “God has not called us to be successful, rather, he has called us to be faithful.”

Jesus Reversed her Curse

Dear friends,
Grab a cup of coffee, sit for minute or two, and join us as we visit a woman who through a curse was left crippled and childless, but whose life was radically changed by God.

If you recall the newsletter sent some months ago, I mentioned in there a lady whose father went to a witchdoctor to have a curse put on her for fear of her getting married. And being the only daughter, the father did not want her to marry, for there would then be only his wife in the home to take care of him. This curse was intended to make her unattractive so that no man would want to take her as his wife.
After the fathers visit to the witchdoctor and paying his fee, he went home with expectations.

Now I am not sure what you believe or what your theology is, but when this young lady woke up the following morning she was unable to move. From the waist down she was paralyzed. The father is now upset at the witchdoctor because his daughter could do virtually no work around the house due to her condition.

For the next twelve and half years this young lady remained in her paralyzed condition. Living in a remote area, she had no access to wheelchairs or any other kind of handicap facilities. She had to be carried everywhere and was placed under a tree to wait for the day to go by. She was of no use to her father or to any man that may have wanted to marry her. She remained crippled, single and childless. And in this society this is very shameful and disgraceful.

Well ,one day about five months ago, someone came to her village; his name was Jesus and what an awesome road to healing it has been for this young woman.

Now for the ‘Rest of the Story’. Should I make you wait?

It was about 4 months ago that Mishack, one of the TTN staff, went off in his really tiny truck to a village for a ministry weekend with the ‘Jesus Film’ on board off. Mishack after the film showing and a few minutes of preaching made an alter call. After some time this lady was brought up to the front and put on the ground. There she began to share her heart and told Mishack that she needed that Jesus that she saw on the film.

After the evening meeting and most people found their way home in the blackness of night, she began to tell Mishack of her difficult life, the same story I told you earlier. Mishack agreed with her that they would pray together and break this curse in Jesus’ Name. Together they prayed and that was that. The following morning Mishack got in his really tiny truck and came home.

Two weeks went by and Mishack invited me to come with him to this little village, so off we went this time in a not so tiny truck. On our way he told me this woman’s story. We both hoped to see this lady again. The night came and so did the rains. We slept in the little crude church where the grass roof only half covered the building, the floors and pews made of mud. Well, we all got wet, and the dry mud turned into wet mud, then we got even more wet. I tried to pray and tell the rain what I thought, but that did not make any difference. So what do you do other than to pack up your things and run into the nearest village hut? Which we all did about 2 o’clock in the morning. It is not fun to get drenched at 2 am trying to find a hut somewhere to get into. I barged into this little hut and the poor family all sit up on their mats that were on the floor, all shocked to see this wet mzungu (white guy) standing in there door way telling them, “ Scoot over I am going to sleep in your hut.” This is probably the first white man that has ever slept in their hut. “So just enjoy it and stop staring at me like that.”

Guess who showed up for the service next morning, it was our friend. She had just walked about 6 km to get to church, it took several hours but with the help of others she came slowly. God had already begun to restore her legs and she was able to walk albeit in a somewhat crippled state.
I drove her home after church and sat in her mother’s house for a visit and she also began to tell us of her daughter’s difficult life and all the extra work that she had to do as a mother. The mother said it was a curse and there was no doubt. “But after you guys have prayed, this Jesus has broken the curse.”

Soon the grandmother showed up, she looked as old as the hills and she probably was. Her toothless smile as she sat in silence, the mother was talking and showed us the blanket her daughter slept on these past many years.

Before leaving we prayed for continual healing into this woman’s legs and body. We said our goodbyes and off we drove in that not so tiny truck.

Four months passed and the pastor from this village asked for us to come back for a visit. Off we went once again to encourage the church and hopefully visit our friend.
We had a great time of ministry the night of our arrival, dealing mostly with spiritual warfare type things. The amount of witchcraft and child sacrifices that take place there was astonishing. The fear of the strongman was evident; but that is a whole other story.

The following morning we had another service then off we drove to a hut for a visit. Upon arrival I saw a lady busily going in and out of the house bringing little wooden stools for us to sit on under a small mango tree. We all took our stools and sat there for a while, no one else was there except us and this lady who had brought these stools for us. She quickly went inside and got her own stool and came and sat with us. After a few long moments I asked Mishack if he could ask our hostess if the lady who had been paralyzed was around, perhaps sleeping somewhere.

This is when I felt a bit foolish for Mishack looked at me and said, “Simba (my African name) this is our lady, she is the one.” In shock and disbelief I looked at this woman again, there was no way this could be the same lady! (Shows you where my faith was…) She had gained some weight, looked healthy and walked with only a slight limp. As I sat there now looking into this woman’s face I could not help but get emotional, the joy within to see this lady once so crippled by a curse but now delivered by a blessing.

In our closing moments with her we gathered around her and prayed for her once again, but this time my prayer was not just for continual healing but it was now for a man to come into her life, a man of God, to see this woman fully restored into her society. This woman has been a testimony to me and strengthened my own walk in the Lord. To know where this woman was and to now see what the Lord has done and continues to do in her life.

Through all this I am left with questions that truly disturbs my thoughts, and I hope that these questions disturb your thoughts as well.

What would be the condition of this woman today if Mishack had never gone to her village? Would she still be sitting under a tree with no real future, no hope, all because someone did not pray with her? Can such a curse be put upon another person and never be broken throughout the cursed ones’ life? How can a father even think about doing such a thing to his own daughter? Does God really wait for people like you and I to go before He moves? Does God really rely on us that much that one person should suffer her whole life all because we do not go into the world and preach the gospel, heal the sick and cast out demons?

Would God really allow others to suffer the curse due to my lack of commitment? I am afraid the answer is yes, God is waiting. He has limited himself to work through us as his creation, his servants. Either God has limited himself because of others, which doesn’t seem very smart , or, God has such a deep committed love for his people, to see us grow and move in the authority he has given us, that he chooses to wait even at the cost of life. I choose to believe the latter of the two. What a responsibility we have!

I continue to think just how many thousands of souls continue to sit under trees or live in their cursed state of life all because of our laziness and passivity, not going out do bring deliverance to the thousands. How much more does it hurt the heart of God? When will we go and reach out?

There are people all around us whether we live in Africa or America, who need deliverance. Delivered from bitterness, hatred, addictions, from fear, rejection; and this list could really go on and on. Jesus gave his disciples authority to do only four things really; preach the gospel, heal the sick, to cast out demons and raise the dead. But these days we all know how to preach our messages, fewer heal the sick, fewer still cast out demon and raising the dead, well… We have made God so complicated we drown in our programs. So busy living ‘for Christ’ we have forgotten how to live ‘In Christ’. This I believe is where we have missed the mark.

This story is meant to encourage and challenge us all, to begin to live out our faith. Many say that their faith is the highest value in their life but did you know that 85% of church going Christians have never shared their faith with anyone, much less pray for the sick? We may value our faith but it is often only in principle not in action. Lets’ take our faith outside of our church walls. There are aspects of God that one will never find in church or from any conference. They will only be found on the streets giving your self away, and believe it or not it is that fire that many are looking for in their life is out there on the streets. It is in the alleyways, in the dumps, in the desert, on the wrong side of the tracks, its there that God will meet you, not always on the mountain top where we all want to be.

When I ponder all the people who are in bondage it is staggering, often my tears flow, not only because of those in bondage but because my own lack of love for the lost.

Lord I/we have gone to many seminars and conferences, and God only knows how many church services I/we have been to, but God, my heart has grown cold, my life is so busy it is hard to find the time. I see the desperate souls around me but the fear of man is still within. Help me Lord to overcome this old man that still entangles so much of my life. Help the lost to burden my heart, to keep me up at night, may I love them enough to fall on my knees, then get up and go, to see their eternity when I drive to work, to see my community as you see it, that I may reach out and give away what you have given me what I have taken advantage of for my own good. Lord forgive me. Amen

Pray and doors will open, then all we have to do is walk through them. It is not our job to save anyone, all we are supposed to do is to ‘prepare the way of the Lord’ and he does the rest, simple really. May we become so consumed in our love for Christ then all the rest will fall into place.

Blessings from the whole family
Lyle

A Few Photos

Easter holiday 2010