WOW WOW WOW!! Haha what a journey! I don't even know where to begin on this final blog. I first want to thank every single one of you who followed me on any part of this trip and especially if you read all of them. I hope that you were encouraged and blessed all throughout the messages and if any unnecessary negativity was put across i truly apologize. My heart has been for these blogs to open eyes and bless the people from my home land that I will always hold close to my heart no matter how far and long I travel for. So many of you have been such a part of where I am today and what I am going to do in the future. But for my last blog I want share my final feelings on Mozambique and what it was like and then go into my two weeks of Zimbabwe and all the amazing testimonies that occurred, and then finish with some final comments.
Mozambique was 10 of the most incredible weeks full of maturing and growth that I could never experience anywhere else in many ways. Some of it was difficult and some of it so amazing at the same time. Living in one of the most impoverished countries in the world will change you forever though no matter how hard or easy it was. I want to leave you with some thoughts that will most likely never leave my mind for as long as I live. One of them is of course the little children. Jesus is all over these little children it's amazing seeing them once orphans and now adopted into the kingdom and realizing that everything is now theres instead of having nothing. And just a reminder over half of the population is under the age of 12 i believe. Another memory with the children is that of the fighting over food. At least 5 times did I watch left over food be thrown in the middle of the kids because there wasn't enough and then see 50-100 kids kick punch scratch and throw each other to get to the box of bread or bag of chips. All bets of friendships were off when it came to this and never did my mind accept that it was okay even though I had seen it multiple times. I just got more pissed off at the devil every time it happened. Another one was eating the same 3 meals for 10 weeks. Two pieces of bread for breakfast, rice and beans for lunch, rice and a sauce for dinner (and a piece of chicken on wednesday dinner). I will also never forget the humility of the Mozambique pastors. I could go for pages on how they would never take credit for anything they did and never once puffed up there chests at anyone. They always took the lowest route without taking any credit, which is just what Jesus would have done. On the sad side I will never forget the lack of emotion many of them had due to the many tragedies and loss that they have had in their life. The only thing they knew for so many years was poverty and hunger which deadens life after a matter of time and before you know it it's easier to not let the good or bad stuff affect them so that it's easier when the bad stuff happens which was very sad at times. It's obvious that I will never forget the fact that over 90% of the people live in a hut made of mud and straw that contains a couple pots to cook and maybe a straw bed or two to sleep on. But with that comes the atmosphere of relationships and built on people instead of stuff like phones and tv like it is here. And most of all I will remember the verse "the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few." These people are so hungry for the true gospel and have the opportunity to be more prosperous if there were just more people in the world who wanted to see it change and decided to do something about it. Those are just a few nuggets I wanted to leave you with on my journey in Mozambique. A quick funny story before i go onto Zimbabwe.
I was determined to eat food like a king in the Johannesburg airport before going to Zimbabwe and it backfired on me real quick. Because my body was so use to bread and rice with beans the fruit and meat did not settle so well in my stomach. Haha within 48 hours I had stuff flowing from both the top and the bottom and was not able to keep anything down. I don't know if my stomach has ever felt so much pain before, and the funny thing is I would probably eat the same way even if I knew it was going to happen because it tasted that good haha!
But anyways, Zimbabwe was one of the coolest experiences if not the coolest I have ever been through. The spiritual atmosphere is very similar to that of the US in that 80% of the country sais there Christian and probably half of that walk in the love of Jesus. But let me just brag on the fact that everything, especially the food is so cheap it's amazing. Because the economy collapsed years ago they now use US dollars. I bought plenty of $3.50 chicken dinners with a drink and plenty of 25 cent bakery items. Not to mention I went on a $6 safari and got within 5 feet of a zebra and 5-10 yards of a giraffe and plenty of other amazing animals. Zimbabwe was once the power house of Africa along with South Africa until the government became corrupt and everything crashed. Now it's a law that a picture of the prime minister must be in every single building. The most amazing thing is that they SPEAK ENGLISH. Haha after 10 weeks of a language barrier it was so amazing to be able to minister to people without an interpreter. To give you an idea on the economy it's almost a perfect middle ground from Mozambique to America. Many people still didn't have electricity or cars but they had houses built of concrete and mattresses to sleep on. They still live on a month to month bases but for the most part people are able to feed there families and get by with a couch and mini TV in the living room. As we try to take in the change of culture we get a few days before we go into traveling mode and going out to the villages to have Christmas parties for all the kids. Not only did we drive about 30 hours in 4 days to get to the different villages but we did it with 4 people to one row of seats in a car. It wasn't the most comfortable but I tell you what if you want to get to know some people than just drive 30 hours and be squished right next to them, it was all worth it. Now onto the good stuff.
As i slowly through experience find out who I am as a son of the most high God I realize how little I have to do to see the most amazing works of my Father. The first testimony is that of a blind grandma that my friend James prayed for. She had been blind for 5 years and had never been able to see her grandchildren. As James prayed for her nothing happened until about 2 minutes after praying. The grandma then began to move her hands back and forth as if she was looking at them. She then started looking at everyones shirts and yelling out the color that they were. She was touched by the power of God and was forever changed. The best part for my friend James was to walk back a couple minutes after praying and seeing her rock her grandchild in her arms and looking at him/her for the first time in her life. If that doesn't hit you then this story might.
As we were leaving victoria falls, one of the seven wonders of the world we were laughing full of joy after enjoying one of our Father's greatest creation in the world. We were truly being kids! And that's when the power of God begins to manifest. As we left the park this man was asking us to sign this paper and my friend said no but what I can do is pray for you. This man had been deaf and mute for a number of years now. Four of us gathered around him and began to ask Jesus to touch this man with His love. After one minute of praying I look over and see a group of about 20 workers all making fun of us. They were laying hands on each other and laughing and mocking us because they thought we were just going to pray and see nothing happen and then give the man money (this is my favorite part of the story). Three of the workers were more curious and were standing right by us and finally after about 3 minutes of prayer the man begins to point to one of his ears telling us that he can hear slightly. My friend looks at the 3 workers and sais "has he ever been able to hear before?" He was so shocked that the man began to hear that all he could do was look at us in shock and say "no" hahahaha. I then look over at the group of about 20 workers and nobody was saying a word with there faces full of fear finally realizing they just made fun of an alive man named Jesus who still works miracles. A couple more minutes of prayer and he began to speak the first words out of his mouth in years. Before we were done he was now hearing out of both ears and speaking from his tribal language. I then walked over to the group of 20 workers and decided to do a quick preach and tell them that the power of God just touched that man and that Jesus loves every single one of them even if they did make fun of Him. The best part was seeing the smile on the mans face after being healed and watching his whole body light up with joy. It was truly amazing.
So our faith was high and we were ready for more haha. We then asked Jesus if we can run into a cripple before we left now that we have scene the deaf blind and mute healed. An hour later in the Chicken restaurant sure enough a man was sitting there with the bent type crutches that fit in the elbows sitting next to him. My friend James and I just begin to talk to him and love on him before we asked if we could pray for him. After a quick prayer we asked the man to stand up and try it out. He then began to slowly walk back and forth with no crutches and a smile on his face. Twenty minutes later we got to watch the man walk out of the restaurant with the crutches in his left hand hahahahaha GO JESUS!
I could go on and on of other testimonies and I know so many of you are wondering why doesn't it happen here in America? And there is many reasons but the main one is faith by the person being healed. Jesus said in scripture "Get up and walk your faith has healed you." These people truly believe that when we tell them Jesus is going to heal them that they are going to be healed. Here in America people say "oh that's so nice of you to want to pray but it's been like this for a while" or thinking "oh sure but nothing will happen". Jesus wants to heal in every situation I don't care what the situation is! He wants to bring heaven on earth! Here are some of my final thoughts.
The reason Christianity is dead and almost powerless today is because satan keeps the Children of God from knowing who they really are. If we really believed the bible when it sais "those who believe will lay the hands on the sick and they will be healed" and that Jesus is full of "love joy and peace" which is what every drug is a counterfeit of than everybody would want to be a Christian. As I fall more in love with Jesus and cut off more religion that has clung on to me I experience more pleasure than I ever have in my life even when I was on my highest of highs with weed and alcohol. Religion has so demonized the church it makes nobody want to join it. If i thought christianity was just going to church and following rules I definitely wouldn't want to do it either. Who wants to follow rules and get up early on Sunday to just fall back asleep. If this is the only thing that you take from all of this take that true Christianity is full of the greatest and most pleasurable love joy and peace. More pleasure than you can find anywhere in the world. The goal of Jesus dying on the cross was to restore us back to the garden of eden and right relationship with our Father. What does eden mean? It means pleasure. So for all of you who have been hurt by religion and the church or judged whatsoever I apologize. I don't care if you're sleeping with every girl or guy, an alcoholic or someone who just committed a mass murder and killed 50 kids Jesus loves you fully no matter what you do and I am going to do my best to love you as well. And I sit here and say out of love that when you truly meet the living man Jesus you will never be more satisfied in your life. Oh yea and you get to store up riches in heaven that will last forever that include real gold and a real house being built for you in heaven. Oh yea and you get to set people free from demons. Oh yea and you get to walk with no fear not afraid to die at any point.
In no way am I close to being holy or having anything straight all I can say is what the Lord has put on my heart. I am so far from being where I would like to be with Jesus and I mess up every day multiple times a day but that doesn't mean my goal isn't to still walk like Jesus walked anymore. That will always be my goal no matter how far I fall short. I love all of you and once again I am so thankful for you following me on this journey. If anyone at all would like to talk deeper or more about the trip I would love to anytime you can. Just send me a Facebook message or something. Have a wonderful merry Christmas with family and friends and may you be blessed times a million!
