T160

Wow! The Lord is blowing my mind bringing people I know here to see and be a part of what our mighty God is doing in South Africa. I have always thought about it but didn’t know if it would actually happen. I love it. A special thank you to everyone who helped send the group from Five Points Baptist and Mamma Kay and Brodrick from Northport Church of God. What a blessing it was to have Mamma Kay and Brodrick here this week. I was so thankful for being able to share with them what God was doing here and be a part of what he was also doing in them as well. I must say that the Lord poured out joy and laughter and I was more than happy to receive it in the name of Jesus. The love and hugs from back home were awesome and I sent many back to you! You must know that all is well and the Lord continues to move in this place. The second Brook Hills team was here as well and was originally supposed to do Hospice care for the dying patients in the communities we minister in. I love that the Lord changes every plan that is not exactly what He wants. Everything they had planned and prepared for that week was turned upside down and redirected by the hand of God. He had bigger and better plans that we could not see in the beginning but looking back it is phenomenal to see how it all turned out so perfectly. We split up into groups and were blessed to work with the Home Base Care group from Refilwe. They are locals who live in the very communities we minister in. They speak the language and can relate in ways we could never imagine. We were able to pour into them and lead them more and more to the cross. We spent the week in six communities and two of them were where we held the clinics the previous week. We spent time with the sick, encouraged them and poured prayer for healing over them. We assessed needs and made sure they had been taking the medicine they were given. We also checked on a few patients who were taken by ambulance and who were bad off during the clinic. We did find out that one of the young girls who was deathly sick from the previous week had passed away. She had a case of chicken pox and could not fight it off and it killed her. She was 22 years old and cousin to one of our translators. We pushed through the week with the strength of the Lord. I named this blog T160 because we had a list of people we had to check on and it had their house numbers on the list. One of the first one’s was houseT160. We prayed before taking off for the day that the Lord would have his way and send us to the sick people and to those who needed prayer. The whole morning we were searching for this house. We asked around and no one really knew but they pointed us in the direction they thought it was in. As we were asking we found out that people were being hidden and were sick. It is cultural to do this with the sick in the communities and we were led to these people in need of a touch from Jesus. We prayed for several people and then were back on task of finding T160. The Lord continued to place the sick in front of us, so we pressed on with prayer….only wanting what God had in store. We ran into a lady who showed us to 5 sick people. She was an angel to us that day and had no idea. I want to share a few stories with you about what we saw and how God is bigger than the enemy could even come close to. We had bags of candy and stickers with us to give the little cherubs and we passed this house where 3 or 4 kids were outside with a young momma. I walked up to only give them candy but started talking to this woman. I noticed one of the children had something wrong with her eyes. She was about 2 years old but looked like she had cataracts and was completely blind. I ask about her condition and the woman told me that she had an eye disease and that she could see very little. The babies name is Thepang and when I hugged her and kissed her little dirty face, I was overwhelmed with love for her. Shana and I laid hands on her eyes and embraced her little body as we prayed for her. She only stood there and received. Some of the little children here will cry or run when they see us because of fear or just not at all used to seeing us. She was the complete opposite. I went back another day to check on her and I claim the healing is coming. In my spirit I believe even with no healing, it will be used to bring glory and honor to our Abba. I pray the Lord raises this young baby girl up as a mighty woman of God. She is special. I believe she will be set apart.
We also met Unis and Minis. He was in a car accident and has lost use of his legs. We saw him at the clinic but wanted to check and see if he was doing his leg exercises and taking his medicine. His wife has stuck close to him even in this trial. She now works and is also the main caregiver for her husband. As we began praying for him, the Lord wanted to minister directly to her that day. He wanted her to know that she was loved and it was okay for her to rest. She is weary and the Lord needed to fill her up that day. What a beautiful Jesus we serve. They asked for a bible because people with evil spirits were coming to stand at their window and casting spells over them and the house. We think we have it bad some days and we have no idea. She asked for a sword of the spirit to fight off the enemy. No better way than with prayer and the truth in the word. I told her to continue speaking the name of Jesus and the enemy would flee from their presence.
Sara was another lady we met who was very sick and could not breathe. Her lungs were weak and each breath was heavy and exhausting. She told us that she was lying in her bed the day before we came to see her and she felt as though she was going to die. She said she could not catch her breath at all and she thought that was it for her. She tells the story like this…”I rolled over in my bed and grabbed my medicine and I just said glory to the Lord.” She said that instantly she could breathe and when we saw her, she was sitting outside and was feeling much better. Her testimony is amazing because it speaks volumes about the name of our Lord being spoken out. There is power in HIS name, healing in HIS name and freedom and restoration in HIS name. There is no other name higher or more powerful than the name of Jesus. We also prayed with a man who was skin and bones and bed ridden. He was feeling pain in his ribs and chest and wasn’t able to get out of bed. We just simply prayed a prayer of healing, encouraged him and we were on our way. Two days later his wife saw us and as she walked by she told us that he was better and out of the bed and he wanted to see us. When we went to see him at his house, praise the Lord he was not there because he was so well that he was not even at home. He was well and we all shouted “Hallelujah”. Another man we met was Thomas. He had heart failure and his lungs were filling up and his belly was swollen from the fluid. He had open sores on his legs and his feet were very swollen as well. The spirit of the Lord was heavy as we prayed for him. Two ladies with us washed his feet and wounds as we prayed healing over him. We honestly were thinking he wouldn’t be there when we went back on Friday because he was in bad shape. Once more the Lord showed us that he speaks life when the enemy speaks death. God continues to remind us that HE is in control and way bigger than we give him credit for sometimes. Thomas WAS there on Friday and was feeling and looking better. His wounds were starting to heal and his swollen ankles were going down. He was a precious man that allowed us to serve him and attempt to love him like Jesus. I could go on and on but I know the Lord is being glorified by all of the stories above. He is a mighty God and I am thankful to the depth of my heart for being trusted with this opportunity to serve.
I pray we all continue to yearn for HIM and burn with passion to be in His presence. He is calling some of you to a deeper place of worship or a different place all together. He is with you and will never leave you but you have to step out on faith. Without faith in HIM and HIS love we have absolutely nothing. For now, the Lord is calling Steve, Teresa and I to a time of physical and spiritual rest. Pray for us as we enter into this time with the Lord. I know it will be so anointed and filling but I am personally praying against distractions. I just want to enter into the throne room like never before and sit at His feet and soak up that goodness. I will also be praying in this time for the Lord to reveal what His plans are for Leigh Ann and me over the next four months. We are open to whatever and just want to be in His will. Please pray with us about this. I will keep you all informed and look forward to sharing with you all that is revealed! Blessings over you all!

He is the Great I am!

I can’t begin to describe what all God did this past week. I have seen the Lord move more and more over the last days than ever before. Just when I think I know how big and mighty our God is; He blows me away with miracles and salvations. His love for His people the way I have experienced it is a beautiful example of why He sent His son to Calvary for us. I can’t grasp the depth of it. Our last team was a medical team from the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham. We had amazing experiences together and saw the glory of the Lord right before our eyes. The dynamics of the team was almost unbelievable. They worked so well together and preached the gospel unashamed. We saw over 1,200 people and every one of them heard the gospel in a powerful and loving way. These people have left something in South Africa that will be here forever…the Spirit of the living Lord. We started the week off with serving the Refilwe Church people on Sunday and on to Thabo Mbeki Township Monday and Tuesday. These two days were especially hard for us because we had so many people show up to be seen we had to turn people away because the sun was going down and the team was running out of supplies for the day. I would say that 100 people had to be turned away from seeing the doctor but those who wanted prayer were asked to stay and Teresa and I prayed over them letting each one know that even if the doctor’s didn’t see them that Jesus was the true doctor. On the second day at Thabo Mbeki, I was entertaining the children so moms could be seen by the team as well as many other children who just walked up to see what was going on. We sang, danced, played cards, flew kites and I got my hair braided. I saw this little boy standing in the grass by himself just looking at everything that was taking place. I walked over to say hello and took his picture. I showed it to him and he grinned. When I reached out for his little hand he grabbed mine and I led him to the crowd of other children. He stayed by me all day and went everywhere I went. I would walk around and take pictures for the team, pray with people waiting in line and he was right there with me. A few hours had gone by and I noticed that no one had checked on him or taken him home so I started asking around. Not one person knew his precious name or who his momma was. I wasn’t worried but just concerned why a three year old was alone. A couple of hours later I told Teresa that he was still there as we were getting ready to pack up for the day. He hadn’t eaten all day and I couldn’t stand it so we had some extra sandwiches and when I handed it to him he gobbled it down. He drank from my water bottle and I washed his dusty, snotty little face. He sighed with relief of having a full belly and a clean face. He is still nameless and I hated to leave him that day but I have to know that he is being taken care of and cared for if not by anyone but Abba Father. We continued medical care for the next three days and saw the power of the Lord every day. I thought one day I would see my first baby in Africa being delivered. She was dilated 5 cm and needed to have the baby in a hospital. The ambulance never came so she had to be taken to the hospital by one of the Refilwe staff. Momma had a healthy baby girl and named her after one of the nurses who helped that day. The team saved a six week old baby who was hours from death by starting an IV but constantly praying the name of Jesus and life over this child of God. They sent several others by ambulance, pulled hundreds of teeth, prayed salvation for many and saw many healed and rescued from the teeth of the enemy. Those are only a few stories from the week because there are too many to type. I must say that I am in awe of our Savior. The medical areas were triage, doctors seeing patients, eye care, dentistry and the pharmacy. I have to admit that dentistry freaked me out a bit until I started helping them. It was the coolest experience to pull 5 teeth and a huge blessing to serve with such an amazing dentistry team. I will never forget this week because of the amazing things that happened. We were amazed everyday at the signs and wonders that were happening in front of us. He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” Mark 16:15-18