CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE
In 1992 I, along with 13 others, went on a 3-week mission trip to South Africa and Mozambique. The last 4 days of the trip, I taught in a Bible College in Soweto in the evenings. As I was finishing up on the last night, my driver came rushing in and told me ‘we must leave now. A person killed a policeman about two blocks away and a riot between Zulus and ANC personnel has developed.’ He said, ‘my car is running, and the back door is open. I want you to get in and get down as low as possible, and I will try to get you out of here.’ He also told me, ‘you are the wrong color to be here at this time. If they see you, they will take their anger out on you.’ He opened the back door of the room, I ran and dove headfirst into the back seat. He slammed the door and took off as fast as he could down back alleyways and got me to safety. Praise the Lord!
FIRST TIME EXPERIENCES
Anyone want to drink some chicha? We were in Ecuador in the jungle visiting and taking supplies to villages. Their custom was to serve their guest chicha, a drink made from a plant native to the area. Juice would be extracted from the plant, the lady of the house would spit in it so it would ferment for about 3 days. Then it would be served to you. I tasted it but did not like it. No chicha, how about some capybara! They are a big rat weighing in at 15 -145 pounds! This was meat served to us in a couple places. They roasted it over an open fire and served it cut into pieces. It was pretty good, tasted a little like chicken. To not taste the chicha or eat the capybara would have been an insult to the people, so we silently prayed over it and ate. No one got sick.
IMPACT OF THE WORD OF GOD
In 1989 Some friends and I went to Moscow, and the surrounding area, to minister. I stood on the corner of a major street and hollered out ‘biblia.’ Within about 15 minutes we gave out over 200 Bibles, all we had with us. The ministry was overall a great success. A couple years later we went back to the same area to visit and minister again at the same places as before. At the hotel where we were staying while standing in the lobby waiting for my driver, I saw a man reading a Bible like the ones we had passed out before. I went over to talk with him and asked where he got his Bible. He spoke good English. He said a couple years ago some Americans were standing on a street corner one morning (the same one we were on) and gave him one. As he told me these words, tears were streaming down his face. He was a Christian before he got this Bible but had never had one for himself or his family. He told me how precious it was for him and the family. Only his pastor, in the church he went to, had a Bible. The Word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our path. Let’s read and study it to be feed, led, encouraged and blessed!
FIRST MISSION TRIP
In early 1978 two other men and I went on a mission trip to Mexico. One night after teaching I was praying for people in a prayer line. After I prayed in English, the missionary would interpret it into Spanish. I had never studied Spanish and only knew 3-4 words of it. Suddenly while laying hands on a woman in prayer I began to speak a language I did not know. I noticed the missionary was not saying anything. After the service, I asked him about it. He said that I spoke perfect Spanish, and since he knew the lady, he mentioned that the things I said in prayer to God for her were exactly what she needed! Later in Guatemala on the same trip, it happened again! It has not happened since. When I pray in my prayer language (glossa) I may pray in one of several different languages. Some sound oriental, others American Indian, and others sound different than any language I have ever heard, perhaps a heavenly language (1 Cor.13:1). God can do much more than what we think He can do! Let us not try to put Him in a theological box, He just might jump out and do it anyway!
MINSK, BELARUS
My wife and I were in Minsk to teach in the state university about early church history from the book of Acts. We traveled over on the same plane and stayed in the same hotel as a group of YWAMers from Arkansas. In that group were some of our young people from New Life Church.
One night, we had just gone to bed when there was a loud knock on our door. One of the young men asked if I would come with him. The YWAM group had been praying for a young girl who suddenly began to manifest demonic reactions. I joined in with the prayer, but there seemed to be nothing being accomplished. I backed away to pray alone for a few minutes. Suddenly I knew in my spirit what the problem was. I saw this young girl a short time before she came to YWAM involved with her boyfriend in ungodly activity. I knew when and where it happened. I knew that as a result of that, she had great shame, and she became hardened against God. I knew that she had opened her life up to demonic power. Armed with this information I rejoined the group and in about five minutes she was set free!