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