Spiritual Observations from Sunday

Richard spoke to the people about persevering, encouraging them to keep on running the race and keep their eyes fixed on Jesus. From the people I’ve talked to, this is a great encouragement to them because life seems to be so difficult here. Frequently people do not know where their daily bread is coming from, and if they have any other obligations, those take priority over eating. They can delay food, but they cannot delay rent.
Doug spoke at Alice’s church and was on fire when he gave us the debrief. He was so impressed with the ministry this lady has taken on. She came to Jesus and completely left the lifestyle she was living – being paid as a mistress for a wealthy man in order to provide for her children. When she came to Jesus and experienced the freedom and forgiveness He gave her, she began telling others about it and a short time later she was leading a church of about 350 people. I think he said she has seven other churches established from hers that she helps oversee. Doug was really lead to bless the children in the service, so he called them all up front and prayed over them, teaching the church that the Kingdom belongs to children like those.
From what the guys are telling me, my teaching on the New Commandment from John 13 to love each other was a revelation for these people. In fact, they looked at me like they had never heard this before – and most everyone had a Bible with them. Emmanuel Chai followed my teaching and then admonished the congregation that, “We don’t love each other. People are in the hospital and we don’t visit them. People are sick and we don’t pray for them. People leave the church and we don’t know where they are or why.” He then had everyone come forward and we prayed for forgiveness and for the Holy Spirit to set their hearts right and begin to walk out the New Commandment. It was a powerful time.
When we had a chance to debrief with each other, we all came to the same conclusion. These people love Jesus and are compelled to share that joy with others. So they rise up in the gifting of evangelism, calling themselves “pastors” but not really having the gifting of a pastor. They don’t have a clue about caring for the flock, and we are all thinking this may be the area the Lord wants to use us in.
We also had a Holy Spirit moment praying for a young man, Lawrence, who will be leaving on a missionary journey to Ethiopia. He does not really know where he is going or how he will do it, but he is led by the Lord to take the gospel from Kenya to Ethiopia. The power of the Lord was present as we were praying for him.