Snapshots of Pemba, July 1st 2011 - Serena H

Thought I would share... :) Church: at least 1000 people made up of local mozambicans, mozambican bible students, international students and visitors. We sit on wooden benches or grass mats on the floor... energetic, sweaty praise and then time spent saturated in God's glorious presence... Picture beautiful mozambican children lost in the presence of God, just wanting more of Him and so thankful for all He is and has done in their lives. Picture international students from many different nations including the states, Brazil, Australia, Nepal, Madagascar, Holland, the UK, Germany and many others just pressing into all God has for them as many of them have given up everything just to see what He has for them here... Picture mozambican bible students, both young and old some of whom have walked days just to get here for 3 months and have left their families behind for the sweet privilege of learning the bible, learning to read the bible and growing in the ways of God...

We had a guest speaker from Texas a couple weeks ago, she was talking about Love. About the incomprehensible love of God. So she did an altar call at the end for everyone who wanted more of God and who needed his LOVE and his STRENGTH.

So I was up there, on my knees and my face was just like blergh, wet. I opened my eyes and there was a little moz girl (about 6 or 7) in front of me holding a little moz boy (under 2 years) and they were both staring at me like they were concerned. Then this little boy starts trying to gently take my glasses off my face. I didn't want to lose my glasses because I only just got them in Malaysia, to replace the frames that broke in Nepal. So I put my face on the floor instead. Then I feel a little hand just gently patting my shoulder... ohhhh Jesus loves me! After a while I had to sit up a bit because my nose was trying to empty just like my eyes and I didn't want it to. So I sat up, opened my eyes and there are these two boys (around 7 yrs old) on their faces before God. hehe one had his pants falling down so I could see his obama undies, and the other one had this rip in his pants right in the middle (not too big so you could see anything)... soo cute. Only in africa...

Village outreach. I spent a few days in the bush bush with a team of Mozambican students and mission school students. We visited the village of the Mozambican pastor in charge of our team. He had lived there as a boy. God also organised it so that I was on outreach with another Australian girl who is here to help out, and 2 other people from my school last year! One of them was on staff at my school and now she works long term here with Iris. The other was a student on my school and is now staffing. It was so great to hang out with them and catch up! The Mozambican bible students on our team were also a lot of fun and we all got along great :) It was the most peaceful outreach I had ever been on. It seriously felt like a holiday. It's like that - the dirt feels better than a nice comfortable home with everything I could need and a lot of stuff I actually don't! Not that I don't appreciate those things too, but there's always something about going out to a village that I love.

The first night, I stayed with the tents to help keep an eye on our stuff (we didn't stay in a yard this time, we stayed out in the open but I felt safer than on previous outreaches). There were around 1000 people at the Jesus film that night. We were told that because we only arrived after it was dark, most people didn't know it was on and so to expect a lot more people from surround areas later. The second night, I spent mostly just loving on this one teenage village girl while the Jesus film was showing. Her friends came around as well and braided each others hair. We were also joined at different points by some more friends who smelled strongly of alcohol and kept asking the girls to go with them. Eventually the girl's friends left, but she stayed and ended up accepting Jesus that night! She also came to find me the next morning, just to hang out and be loved on some more :)

We went house to house praying for people during the day. There was one lady with a racing heart who was 6 months pregnant and her husband and whole family of another religion came to Jesus. Her heart rate also went back to normal. We prayed for a lady with a migraine who got better. We also took part in a church inauguration (made of mud bricks, wooden posts and mecuti roof with dirt floor) where all of us - pastors, students, villagers - got to walk around the church anointing the outside with oil and praying over it - we got a joy party on! That is something so great about this particular village - during our whole outreach they would randomly get the drums out and start going all out - voices raised, dust rising as feet pounded in the dirt in energetic praise to our king! There were a few hundred people hanging around us and our tents constantly. We bought a pig for lunch and shared it with the people.

We walked 1/2 hour to the river on our last morning there, meeting many women on the way with water pots on their heads. We walked through stalks of corn at least twice my height, with thick morning mist all around us. This river is where the villagers get all their water. One of the guys said he prayed for someone who had gotten bitten by a crocodile and that was why he needed prayer! We sat on the bank and just rested in the peace of God...

My time in Pemba so far has felt like a gift that God gave me, where I'm getting to process a lot of things and just be saturated in his presence... This place is just such a place of his Love and His presence... I think I've mentioned that word "presence" a lot already in this email but it's just so true. The night before outreach we had a complete lunar eclipse where the moon turned red... the ocean is just, there. All the time and so blue and sparkling and it feels like you could just lose yourself in it and in God. I keep catching myself thinking, how did I get here? and thinking how much of a privilege it is to be here!

On Saturday we had a wedding! We had it at the beach about 20 minutes by cameon away from the base. Anyone who wanted to could come! So we had over a thousand people - Iris kids, Iris workers, Iris missionaries, Mission school students, bible students, visitors, villagers who wanted to come, village kids from the area around the beach, the groom's family from the states and the bride's family from down in southern Mozambique. It was an absolutely GORGEOUS wedding with the waves rolling in from the ocean being the backdrop. God's presence rained down as we prayed for Him to come. His Love was so there!

The database went well - there is so much more that I could do with it than I originally thought! I think I got more done that what I thought I would, but not as much done as what I wanted to and what the base would have liked me to. I ran out of time, basically. If I had made Pemba completely about the database and nothing else, I may have gotten more done... but the Lord had other things for me there as well. Connections with people, friends old and new, a lot of heart surgery and processing... Pemba was truly a gift!

This visit has been so peaceful. I am staying in the visitors centre and so many groups and people have come through while I've been here. There was a team from Holland, a team from Scotland, a team from Virginia, a couple from England and a family from South Africa on sabbatical from their ministry :) Now there is a team from Prince Edward Island (Anne of Green Gables!!) and a team from Texas, as well as a brother and sister from texas - one of whom is a missionary in Burkina Faso and a few people from Australia - so if you notice me coming out with any Aussie-isms its because my roommate was from Queensland!

Just another story to share and then I'll end this "newsletter". Our outreach team went out for lunch after outreach, to "Frango Assada" for chicken and fries. As we were waiting for our food to come, I noticed a young girl probably in her teens come in with an older man. He could have been her dad but she didn't look like she was having much fun. He sat her down in the corner on a crate and bought her some food, then went and started playing pool. She looked unhappy and I felt to go over to her. Me and another girl who spoke spanish (close to portugese) talked to her for a bit. She told us her name and said she was okay, but then the man came back. So we introduced ourselves to him as well, then our team had to leave... I asked one of the Moz pastors about it and if there was a chance it was a bad situation. He said yes it probably is. A lot of girls here have not many prospects or ability to provide for themselves so a man who wants her can just come and take her. I asked if he would marry her or just use her and he said he would just use her... Please pray for people of Mozambique! If God wanted me to stay in Pemba, I would do it in a heartbeat. My heart is so there and so for the kids there and the people there. I feel like I have some great friends there who are long-termers... This time has been both a gift and also a re-surrendering and re-laying down of everything. It sounds adventurous and fun to travel the world for Jesus and that is so exactly what it is! But it is also not without it's sacrifices. I want my life to be a continual "yes" to God no matter what he asks me to do, or when or where he wants me to go. He is my constant, my only one who is always with me :) He is everything I need and more!

http://adventureswjc.blogspot.com for more news and photos

Back to Mozambique! - Serena H

In just less than 2 weeks time, I will be heading back to Mozambique! This time will not be as a student at the mission school, although the next school will be in session. This time I have the privilege of helping out the children's centre director with setting up a new database, to store all of the children's records. There are at least 170 children currently living on the base. They are all either full orphans (both parents gone) or half orphans, or it is just not feasible that they live at home.

Last year during my time at the Iris Harvest Missions School each dorm had the opportunity to really get to know a specific dorm of children, and my house was paired with a dorm of 8-11 year old boys. There were 10 precious boys in the dorm, all with their individual, precious personalities! About 3 weeks before the end of school we invited the boys over for a movie night (or rather one of the more outgoing boys begged to be invited). As they all trooped into the house we noticed a new boy who hadn't been there before. We questioned the boys and they insisted he was new, he had just arrived the day before. So we had them all in, put on A Muppet Christmas Carol (one of the few movies we were able to scrounge from what was available!) and most of them promptly fell asleep within 1/2 hour! (we were happy about that later because a scary part came in the movie). We ended up carrying some of the boys back to bed... a very precious Mozambique memory! We found out later that the guards had found this new boy sleeping in the latrines, so Iris investigated his background and took him in.

I am so excited to have the privilege of going back to Mozambique, to serve there for a few weeks, possibly go on outreach to the bush bush and to love on the boys again! I am going in faith expecting the Lord to provide, expecting to see miracles as He loves on the least of these in the dirt, pouring out the best He has for the forgotten of the world. He is a good Daddy :)

Kids in church on a Sunday

JOY!

Beautiful village children

Some of "our" boys

Family, in Jesus!

Please pray for more of Jesus - like seriously crazy Holy Spirit filled precious times with Jesus!
That I would walk in the presence of Jesus all day long (and sleep in his presence all night long, visitations!)
Provision - that the Lord would stir the hearts of those who are to partner with what he is doing,and just crazy testimonies of provision!
That I would not hold back from loving people fully - especially as I know that I am always to leave people soon after meeting them. I do not want this to stop me from loving and giving of myself fully!
That he would move in the hearts and lives of my family here in Malaysia - I have 3 weeks left
Connections with the right people and divine appointments!
Restful sleep!! No interruptions unless it is the Lord!
Jesus' words
Jesus' HEART
Jesus' thoughts
JOY!
Hunger always for more!

If you would like to recieve my newsletters, please email me at serena xh@gmail.com (remove the space between serena and xh) or by clicking here

Latin America - September 2011!
Things are also gearing up for Latin America! We as an Iris Ministries Missions Team (Rolland and Heidi Baker) to the Latin Americas will be leaving in September from California, bringing revival fire to the nations of Mexico, Central America, South America and the Carribean! This is a trip expected to take around a year but may change depending on the Holy Spirit! We are focussing on the unreached people groups and will go wherever He sends us, however He sends us, no matter how hard to get to or how trecherous the way. The initial costs are to buy motorhomes and RVs, as we will be 4WDing it through the nations! The main costs throughout the trip will be just gas/fuel. We are excited as we were originally given the vision for this during the last missions school in Mozambique (Oct 2010) and we have been preparing since then. Learning Spanish, researching the people and the lands we are going to, praying and meeting together, speaking words over the trip as the Lord has been guiding us. The team is coming together from all over the world, from The United States, the Americas, Australia, Africa and others! Lord use us to bring revival fire to the Nations!! We are laying down everything and giving up everything that the world would know His LOVE!

Always remember that we are all each one of us missionaries in our own sphere of life. Wherever you are, whatever you do. Stop for the One. Go lower still. Let Him Love on you! Love on the one... and... Love LOOKS like something. What does it look like for the ones He has laid on YOUR heart? It looks like smiling at that stranger, it looks like wiping away tears. It looks like praying for the sick. It looks like sitting in the dirt or on the sidewalk with the one. Having them over for dinner. Visiting them in their houses or front yards. What does Love look like? Lets be Jesus' hands and feet in the nations! Lets be Jesus' hands and feet in our own backyard! The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few - so pray that the Lord would send Labourers! Who will go? Will you?

Love, blessings, Joy, and MORE of Him!! I pray Papa's love over you!

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.Therefore GO and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

As you GO, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. Matthew 10:7-8

Healing in Soroti, Uganda - Dalen Garris

Okay, I’m telling you ahead of time, that’s it’s going to be hard to believe all this stuff – I hardly believe it myself and I was the guy that was there.

I have been in northern Uganda for the past two weeks.  A week in Tororo, and a week in the bush 50 km outside of Sororti.  Last week was good, but not supernatural. If all I am coming here to do is to be good, then I have missed my mission.  Ah, but this week, way out in the bush has been getting more and more powerful in an increasing crescendo since I got here.

Yesterday, the services weren’t just pretty good, they were … um … great!  You know it’s good when you feel like you are in the midst of a river in a raging torrent and are being carried downstream. About 10 souls got saved yesterday, which is great in itself. But more than that, a lot of these simple, country folk have been transformed.  They may live way out in the bush, but they have a clear grip on the realities of life, and they fully understand what revival is, how much they need it, and what the price is that they will have to pay to receive it from God. Not many Christians in the USA are as sophisticated in this as they are.  Knowing the price and the desperation that is required to bring a true revival, they came up to the altar to commit their lives to whatever God asks them to do, no matter what the cost, no matter what it takes. You could feel the snap in the air of broken hearts before an Almighty God.  I anointed each one with oil and prayed down God’s commission on each of them.  These were serious people in a serious commitment. It was wonderful.

And then it started. I don’t know how the healing line started, but once it got going, you couldn‘t stop it. Now, remember, I don’t do tricks, miracles, or supernatural things. God told me once in Nigeria, “No miracles! If you do the miracles, they won’t hear the message.”  (Yeah, I really did hear Him say that to me.)  So I make no claims of the gift of healing to anybody.  But this is not the first time that God has intervened anyway.

When I pray for healing, I like to ask them if they got healed.  If they didn’t, we pray some more.  If they did, we move to the next one. At first it was headaches, and I’ve never met a headache that couldn’t be healed. Then it moved on to bigger things. I knew we were on a roll when one lady told me as she came up that she didn’t need me to pray over her because she had already gotten healed just standing in the line! That’s when I realized – OMG! -- every single person that came forward was getting healed!

And then the blind lady came up.  Wow. She was over 80 years old. Her eyes had that milky white glaze over them and she could hardly see. By now, though, I am on a roll, so here goes … I anointed her eyes and prayed. When done, she starts to walk away and I stopped her. “Can you see?” “Yes, it’s better.”

I don’t know where I got my holy boldness from, but I said, “Well, come back here. God doesn’t do things half way.”  I kept thinking that even Jesus had to pray twice over that one guy. So we prayed again.  And this time, she could see clearly.  “Are you sure?” She looked at me with a grin that said of course she was sure! (Boy, did I feel stupid.)

Okay, I’m jazzed, right?  But, oh man, today it gets even better because today they came and stood up to give testimonies of what happened yesterday.  The someone who was deaf got healed, no less than three crippled were healed, the blind lady can see, others had debilitating sicknesses that were washed away, and many others that I either could not understand or had an even harder time believing.  But I got most of them on video so that everyone will know that I’m not making this up!  We are talking about over 50 miraculous healings!  Everybody who came up got healed.

That ain’t all.  They have had a drought since September – not a drop of rain.  Now, rain is a picture of revival. (Think Elijah on Mt. Carmel).  Well, Bishop Girado Ukulol keeps saying that the rain has been following me like it did last week in Tororo. Today he pointed outside to the clouds that were forming. He said that the Bible says that the clouds are the dust of His feet, and that God was walking this way.  Sure enough, right in the middle of my message, it started to rain.  Not a whole lot, but it did rain. Now, that doesn’t seem like a big deal to most of us, but to them, this was incredible because they haven’t seen a drop for months!  But get this! They had fully expected it! That’s where the level of their faith is!

Right now, it is 8 pm. I am back in my hotel in Soroti. Bishop Girado has gone back to his hometown to get his van to take me to the next place.  He just called me to tell me that the people are still there in the church that we just left. Services ended 7 hours ago, but they say that the anointing of the Holy Spirit is still there and is so strong that no one wants to leave!  Does that sound like something we’ve heard about in times past?

Brothers and sisters, keep praying and keep looking up. Revival is coming. It will come to Africa first, but God will use them to provoke the rest of the world to jealousy. The process here in Africa has begun. God is moving, and I have a feeling that no one has ever seen the power unleashed like it is about to be unleashed here in the (former) Dark Continent.

Please keep me in your prayers. My back Is killing me, my guts are strained and hurting from standing so long, and I end each day in total exhaustion. But I gotta keep going. Please hold me up.

Praise the Lord,

Brother Dale

http://garris.wordpress.com/

 

Zanzibar Muslims, Officials Stop Church Building, Erect Mosque

Islamists demolish foundation; police withhold crime report from court.
By Simba Tian

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug. 6 (Compass Direct News) – On an island off the coast of East Africa where the local government limits the ability of Christians to obtain land, officials in one town have colluded with area Muslims to erect a mosque in place of a planned church building.

On the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, Pastor Paulo Kamole Masegi of the Evangelistic Assemblies of God had purchased land in April 2007 for a church building in Mwanyanya-Mtoni, and by November of that year he had built a house that served as a temporary worship center, he said.

Masegi intended for the house to serve eventually as his family’s home within the church compound, but on Nov. 11, 2007, his congregation began to worship there.

Soon area Muslim residents objected, saying they didn’t like seeing the church in the area, said Pastor Lucian Mgaywa of the Church of God in Tanzania.

“This was the beginning of the church’s tribulations,” Pastor Mgaywa said.

In August 2009, local Muslims began to build a mosque just three feet away from the church plot, Pastor Mgaywa said. In November 2009, Pastor Masegi began building a permanent church structure. Angry Muslims invaded the compound and destroyed the structure’s foundation, the pastors said.

Church leaders reported the destruction to police, who took no action – and also refused to release the crime report for court purposes, Pastor Masegi said. When he would inquire about the case, he said, the station head would inform him that the district police chief had the crime report and therefore it was not available.

“So it’s not possible to take the file to the court, because doing so would amount to defending Christianity,” the station police chief told him, according to Pastor Masegi.

With the district police chief sealing off any possibility of a court hearing, the church was unable to proceed with plans for building a permanent structure. In the meantime, construction of a mosque was well underway. It was completed by the end of December 2009.

The planned church building’s fate appeared to have been sealed earlier this year when Western District Commissioner Ali Mohammed Ali notified Pastor Masegi that he had no right to hold worship in a “residential house.” The Feb. 16 letter from the commissioner to Pastor Masegi forbidding him to convert his house into a worship center confirmed the decision by the district chief of Bububu police station not to prosecute those who destroyed the foundation of the planned church building, he said.

“Now the Christian faithful are feeling targeted even by the government officials,” said Pastor Masegi. “The region is predominantly Muslim, and attempts at evangelizing are always met with brutal resistance.”

Since the prohibition to conduct worship services in his home, both police and area Muslims monitor Pastor Masegi’s movements, he said, and the congregation has no place to worship.

In predominately Sunni Muslim Zanzibar, churches face other hurdles. There are restrictions on getting land to build churches, open preaching is outlawed and there is limited time on national television to air Christian programs. In government schools, religion classes are limited to Islam.

Zanzibar is the informal designation for the island of Unguja in the Indian Ocean. The Zanzibar archipelago united with Tanganyika to form the present day Tanzania in 1964.

Muslim traders from the Persian Gulf had settled in the region early in the 10th century after monsoon winds propelled them through the Gulf of Aden. The 1964 merger left island Muslims uneasy about Christianity, seeing it as a means by which mainland Tanzania might dominate them, and tensions have persisted.

www.compassdirect.org

Africa - Revival, Awakenings, and the Movings of God

What is He doing in this region?
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