My apologies
for not posting for such a while!
Here’s an
update on the trip. The plan is to fly
out of DFW towards Lubumbashi, DR Congo on May 19. After 10 and a half months of missionary
interning, I plan to leave the DRC on April 1st. That… is a year minus a week from today. And I take off in less than 6 weeks. Wow.
Three other
interns have hopped on board as well.
I’m excited about the ministry and learning opportunities we’ll have
together!
I recently
went through an intense and life-changing experience in preparation for
Congo. Over Spring Break, Mission TEN,
the SAGU initiative to send a short-term missions team to every country in the
world in 10 years, conducted a training seminar/mission trip for the trip
leaders in New Orleans, LA. I’m very
grateful that I was adopted into this experience. Through running around NOLA in a mock all-day
Amazing Race, passing out flyers and praying for people in lower-income areas, homeless
ministry underneath an overpass, street witnessing on Bourbon Street, pulling
off a huge service outreach in a local park, and even just picking up trash left
over from Mardi Gras—this trip greatly affected my life and revealed many
things about who I am, how I function in ministry, and how I lead others. I’ll share one insight and story this time,
but I’ll post more very soon!
There’s a
few things that determine the effectiveness of an opportunity to share with
someone about Jesus. The situation, the
person you’re talking to, and your personal evangelism style. You might do better at just talking and
relating with people, or by being up-front with more impersonal but pricking
questions. But regardless of what you’re
best at or what the situation is, there are two definite actions that will make
an impact on people for the Kingdom: an
act of service or prayer. Here’s a
couple of opportunities I had to do both of these…
I think one
of the first few thing that comes to mind when one hears “New Orleans” is
voodoo. I didn’t know I would get so
close to something like that so soon. Every
time a team went downtown, they saw this dude dressed in all black, a top-hat
with voodoo skulls on the front, a staff with crystals at the top, and skeleton
paint on his face and hands. He was
there when we were street witnessing on Bourbon Street too. He would walk up and down the street,
stopping occasionally to spin his staff and wiggle his tongue fairly creepily. We stopped on the sidewalk looking for
someone to talk to next, and he walks right in front of us… and I just could
not pass up the opportunity to talk to this guy.
I yelled “Hey
dude!” at him from the sidewalk. He turned around and pointed at me, and a kind
of fear instantly gripped me. Without
thinking about that too much, I yelled again, "What are you
doing?!" He responded, "I'm
f***ing up, man! What are you
doing?" "I'm talking to people
about Jesus!" I said. "That's awesome! Keep it up!" he said as he walked
off. Huh. My team and I went on talking to people after
that. But near the end of our time, when
we passed by him again I felt the Spirit leading me to give him a water bottle from
my backpack. I ran back to him with the
bottle and a clementine orange. When I came up to him, I asked him if he was
hungry or thirsty and he gratefully said that he would, but when I offered him
the clementine, he declined with “Oh no,
I can't eat those,” and then he pulled his bottom lip down to revealed two
filed-down vampire teeth. Yeah. He then cordially introduced himself as
Lumbar, saying that he was called to save this city and bring it to Azuri...his
voice trailed off so I didn’t quite get that term. I introduced myself as Zach and said that I
was called to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. To this he responded in a similar way as the
first time with “Yeah, keep doing your thing,” but then he pointed again back
down the street from where I came.
There were a
few things running through my head at this point... I gotta get back to the
group because we were about to leave, or I could just share a quick 10 second
soundbite of the gospel, or... but when he pointed, it was like by whatever
spiritual authority that he adhered to, he was telling me, spiritually, to
leave. That was so overpowering, and
everything I learned about us being seated in the heavenly realms above all
spiritual authority didn’t enter my mind… I left. I actually obeyed this dark spiritual urge to
leave and did not share the gospel with him.
I don’t know why I did that. But
I did give him some water in the name of Jesus and waved at him as I left, and
I remember his name and will continue to pray that he is lifted out of
spiritual darkness and into the light of Christ.
More to come
next time! Please pray that the Lord
would continue to work out the travel plans and everything else that goes along
with the trip! Thank ya’ll again for
your support!
