Where am I?

There was talk of agents and underwater meetings, necessary sacrifices, curses of power outages, fire, and destruction of buildings, there is sickness, and talk of directors urinating in porridge. And there I was sitting there listening, wondering, was I hearing my friends discuss some horror movie they had seen recently, they can't seriously be discussing real life, life in a secondary school, can they?
Well I'm certainly not in america anymore. But where am I?
I was in the hospital room of Dina, who we had visited just the day before with many youth to pray for her and encourage her. and now we came back, just as the leaders, to pray and get the real scoop. Dina has been sick on and off for this whole last school term. One of her classmates said it was because her "mzungu"(white person) was not around to provide for her, but she had a different idea. She says that there's demons in that school. Many. And I've heard it from others, yes, that school has so many demons. And I can't help but wonder, what does that mean? What does it look like? She continued, there are two girls who go to the school and during a day of prayer and fasting they demanded that a sacrifice needed to be offered at the school. Apparently the director wasn't buying it so they gave the warnings, if you don't offer a sacrifice, there will be fire, there will be power outage, and one of the flats will fall. And then that week, one of the boys dorms started on fire, and in one class the light bulb burst and the youth ran out, and only came back in the morning to find their shoes...there was a rumor that the director had come in the night to make the porridge and had urinated in it. So everyone refused to take it and there were no classes that day and they called an assembly that night. And then the details get kind of hazy, as Dina begins talking of how the agents had to meet with the director underwater. I feel a little naive as I ask, what are agents, and what does it mean to meet underwater? The agents are of course satan's agents that he has chosen to work through, i.e. these two school girls, and maybe the director could be an agent also, otherwise why would he be meeting with them underwater. And underwater means in the underworld. Again, naively, I ask so how do you have a meeting in the underworld? They describe how sometimes its the spirits meeting, and other times they will meet physically. A person will just disappear for a while. We then continue discussing, why if the director was also an agent was there disagreement as to whether the sacrifice needed to be done. But it was suggested that the girls could be his bosses... And I'm thankful for Paul, my co-leader, who handles this conversation and situation so well. He recognizes that whether any of this is true, or it's all rumors, it's still of the evil one trying bring domination and intimidation through fear. And we question Dina as to what this has to do with her sickness. And why as a child of the Light, would this darkness have such an effect on her? We try to encourage her, speaking of how we are over-comers, and He who is in us is greater than he who is the world. But she's still insisting that on wednesday she will return to school, but only to pick her things, and then she'll be going back home. She spoke of how her dead mother has come to her in dreams, and then how afterwards she got sick. We tried encouraging her to finish the term out, that what if all of the strong christians leave this school out of fear? What will become of the place? I thought this was even a christian school? She just laughs. We prayed for her and we headed on our way. I don't know whether she will go back to school just to pick her things, or she'll find the strength to continue. But I do know I learned something this day. I was reminded of satan's tactics of fear, intimidation and deception, and how much power we often give to him, when in reality he has none. In the states we don't seem to even acknowledge how satan is involved, and out of ignorance he wins out, while here, he's too much credited and fear paralyzes and wins out. Oh that we would claim our victory that we have in Christ Jesus. We are more than conquerors! Lord have mercy on us.

Prayer

It feels good to be back. Today Angelina came over and chatted with me for a while.  It is always encouraging for me to hear her perspective on life, and living as a follower of Christ. Even though she is blind I gave her some pictures that my mom took of her while she was here and also a picture of my little 5 year old friend Josie who is in michigan and faithfully praying for Angelina. As she brushes her fingers over the photos and around the edges, she thanks me because now she will take them to church and they will use them as catalysts for prayer. Most of the photos are of our mu.sl.m friends with Angelina, so she is very excited to be praying for them with her church. Then she'll also be praying for Josie. And she requested that I print a picture of just me so that she and the rest of the interceders can pray for a husband for me. She spoke of how they prayed for Tim and Angie to conceive and was happy to hear that Eliana is now a healthy baby. She encouraged me to not give up praying for our mu.sl.m friends as I sometimes feel like doing.
Then later I went out to kamuda for our bible study with the Alive with Purpose group. Many youth have been gathering every saturday while I was gone and it was good to see them again tonight. During the meeting we got a call from one of youth saying that she was in sick and in the hospital. So, we prayed from the bible study for her, then they began collecting money from everyone to give a donation to help with the hospital and other fees. Then they decided to fit as many people as possible into my car so we could go deliver the money and pray for her in person. I think I had at least 14 in my Rav4 and there were 4 on the motorcycle that one of our youth drives. So we reached the place, all packed into the room, which had maybe 4 or 5 beds in it, but only one patient at the time, and we woke up our patient, took turns giving her words of encouragement, worshipped our Lord and then cried out to Him to heal our friend and sister.  After that we all packed back in the car and headed for our homes, dropping youth along the way as I headed back toward town.
Sometimes I can really wonder, that even in the poverty and suffering that is here how privileged i am to minister among such people. It seems like so much of the time I'm the one being encouraged by them. The faith that they have as they turn to our Father in prayer for each and every thing puts me to shame. It is something that I missed while I was in America.
We have drought in the midwest but how many times have we humbled ourselves and prayed? Is it just global warming, or could it be something else????  I was just struck by this verse in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 "If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My People who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

Perspective-again

This morning I was feeling stressed about all the people I still wanted to meet with in the little time that I have left in the states. Then all of the sudden God reminded me that, indeed that was pretty lame. He brought to mind what I had been reading in the news last night. A rebel group called M23 in DR Congo, has recently taken over a couple of towns. The head guy has a nick-name called Terminator. This group is known for abducting children and forcing them to be soldiers and also using sexual violence as a means of control. Therefore, here I am worried about having too many people that love me and want to see me, while at the same time there is most likely holed up in some one room house some mother with her children praying to God that the rebels won't find them and steal her children and rape her. Now who should really be stressed in this comparison??  Oh Lord, forgive me for my selfish poor seeing heart. Lord, I pray for the women and children in Congo, in these towns, let the light of your face shine upon them. Be their protector. Let them see the way you are gathering them and hiding them under your wings. Bring peace. Drive out the evil with Your light and Your goodness. Give hope. Let them feel Your presence among them.

Here are a couple of the articles to become more informed:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18762918

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Who+are+the+M23+rebels+in+DR+Congo+/-/688334/1448808/-/vld8aiz/-/index.html