Advanced Missions Training

Advanced Mission Training has started and is going…It has been such an adventure already. The very first week we departed for the village for our first expedition where we spent a week ministering. We spent one day ministering in a few village churches and encouraging the Christians there and then we started off to the next village very much in the bush. On the way there our huge truck decided to sink in the mud so that one side of the truck was completely leaning. It really looked like it was going to tip over! It was crazy. So, after trying to pull it out with another car we tried a tractor, but when the Zambian pastor driving it started pulling, the tractor went up on two wheels and the pastor fell off the back of it! Then they couldn’t get it to shut off. It was so crazy and a little scary, but God was faithful to keep us safe. After one more whole day, the base sent another truck that pulled us out and we were on our merry way.  Look at more pics on facebook.

In the village, we ministered to families and saw over 300 people give their lives to the Lord. We also saw people delivered from demons and one little girl was healed of her deafness! They stood behind her and whispered and she repeated exactly what they said! Another day we talked to about 200 kids and about half of them gave their lives to Christ. We also visited an orphanage in the middle of the bush that these missionaries started and we were told the children were scared by demonic spirits. We told them the story of Gideon and prayed for them and they started sleeping in their own rooms again which was so huge. The next night we went there they laid hands on their "moms" and prayed for them. It was so cute and so powerful! I felt I needed to share how precious this 16-year-old was to Jesus and how he desired to heal her wounds the way he healed mine and she burst out crying. I knew that was from the Lord because they really don't show emotion in their culture. We also played a lot of soccer with the people and won at least one of the games.  It was a powerful expedition.

It has also been powerful being here and learning so much in our classes. We started with bush cooking and GPS navigation. We learned to cook over a fire in the bush and I killed a chicken and took off the feathers and everything! I never thought I would do that, but I knew that I would have to do it someday so I might as well do it now.  It was so nasty when the blood spurted all over my foot though! Our GPS class is so helpful to get to villages that have never been reached and connect coordinates together with google earth to find villages that are unreached all over the planet!

The other classes we have done are a culture class and teaching by Mike Petzer, a pastor out of Arizona who teaches the scriptures in context and about true salvation. He talked a great deal about God’s completed work and how we have to believe we are now perfect in Christ. He died for us because of our sin nature, but so often we are told it is our sin that made Him have to die for us. He died for that too, but our sin nature is what kept us from Him. He died for the whole world and took away all of their sins already so what is it that keeps some from knowing Him then? Unbelief! Incredible. When we continue to live out of our old nature, we are living out of character. We are no longer that nature. We have been cleansed completely and it is no longer about being cleansed of our sin, but about renewing our mind to believe who we truly are in Jesus, “the righteousness of God”. Amazing! Pretty great stuff. We had his teaching for six days and it truly changed my life and my mindset. His grace is so sufficient for us.

As we continue our training this week, we are starting a Come Back Alive Survival Course and another Bible class. I look forward to all the things we are going to learn and the challenges we will face. I am so grateful for the prayers of my faithful friends and supporters. Please continue to pray for unity of our team, endurance to finish the course, a closer relationship with Jesus so that I can share the gospel effectively, and financial provision. I am still asking for monthly supporters as I will be staying as a staff member and it will only be possible through your help in order to keep this work going. Thanks!