AFRICA TRIP, Day 7

Friday, August 15, 2008

It has been another fantastic day in Tanzania!

Praises:

• For the opportunity to run a mobile clinic out at a boma that had never received medical care. Up to that point, they had only sought the witch doctor to ‘help’ them with their ailments. No team had ever come in to introduce western medicine. They had fairly complex cases, and were very receptive of our care.
• For the way God was the Ultimate Healer in these Massai people’s lives today, touching them in a profound way. As a result of our clinic today, many people received spiritual healing and about 25 came to believe in Jesus for the first time. We were also able to aid in their physical healing, of anything from treating worms, to respiratory infections, to malaria, to fungal skin infections, to thrush, to joint pain (arthritis), to eye irritation (from the sun, wind and dust here).
• Even the chairman of the school, a leader in this particular community, came to know the Lord Jesus for the first time today!
• Ginger is feeling lots better!
• For being able to watch Massai preschoolers do their Swahili school lesson this morning. Adorable! These children ran out to greet us as soon as we got there, and continued to interact with us all day through play and Bible stories. Perhaps the most touching part of the entire day was hearing them sing and dance with Bariki. They sang a song that translated Run to Jesus and He will heal you. The schoolteacher, who is a Christian, has been teaching these little ones about the Lord, which is awesome!
• For how God is touching and changing the lives of everyone on our team. Someone on our team shared, for the first time tonight, that God is calling her back to Africa in a few months to live here and do ministry. Another team member shared about a particular part of Tanzania that God is laying on his heart. Many tears were shed tonight over what God is doing here.

Tonight, I lift up:

• Michelle, who we think has malaria.
• The children, women, and men at the Boma who have no water to drink, nor water to give to their livestock, because they’re in the middle of a severe drought.
• For the new believers who came to faith today (and two days ago), to continue to walk in the faith and grow in Christ all the days of their lives.
• For the gospel to continue to spread! In Jesus’ Name!
• What my role in all of this is. I ask and wonder if God is calling me back here to Africa, and how the other areas of my life would fit into that.
• That God would continue a healing work among the Massai people group.