I wanted to write you all an update specifically for my time leading my Color Group to the Bush Bush. So many wonderful things happened! A mere facebook status just wouldn’t suffice!
Here in the Harvest school I have many roles of responsibilities and one of them is co-leading (with my great Partner Seth Cunningham) an amazing group of Harvest School students and Mozambican Bible School Students in different activities throughout the semester (color Groups)!
One of those activities is leading them all out into the Bush Bush to share the Love of Jesus show the Jesus film to the more remote villages throughout Mozambique. For the Students it is an amazing time, but also very stretching. Many miracles happen and strong bonds in Christ are formed! It is our time to get off base, in my teams case a four-hour Camion (a big flat bed truck) ride into another village, and really experience what practically stopping for the one and sitting in the dirt looks like (Phrases commonly used by Mama Heidi and other speakers in the classes)!
However, for Staff it tends to look a little different. I was informed 2 days before our team left for outreach we would be going to the “city” of Montepuez in the village of Manupupala (I have probably butchered that spelling). And that Mama Heidi, Georgian Banov, and Mattheus Van Der Steen and their teams of about 25 foreigners would all be on the outreach Seth and I were leading!
Now on the outside this sounds so exciting and glamorous, but when you get down to the logistics…. It’s a whole lot more responsibility and pressure. I was not so happy when I found out, but God knew what He was doing and He absolutely taught me so much about myself through it and my leadership abilities!
Thursday finally came around and our 23 excited Harvest schoolers and Mozambican Bible school students all pile into the Camion to begin our journey. Shortly after filling up on Gas we get pulled over by the Police for having to many foreigners in an open Camion. Iris is then fined 5,00 mets (about $400.00 USD) and an hour and a half later we are on our way! With much Joy and expectation.
We arrive very late. Heidi, Georgian, and Mattheus (they flew in Iris’s new airplane) have already started the program and it is in full swing with a Holy Spirit Dance party. The blind see, the Deaf are hearing, a little boy with cerebral malaria was completely cured and many came to know Jesus as Their God.
My team was amazing and jumped right into the chaos and were able to set up tents and put their stuff away, which in itself was a mad Tetris game in the dark as Georgian’s team Mattheus’s team and all of the people with Heidi have already pitched their tents in a very very tight space. Heidi and the crew are coming back to their tents just before the Jesus film started. I apologized for being late and told her I was sending my team out to Prayer walk during the film. The Filmed ended and the night was coming to a close we all ate together, the traditional tuna spaghetti and headed to bed. About 10:30pm is an early night for a bush bush outreach!
The next morning we were not so sure what to expect as there was a lot planned for a short amount of time, but God knew and we trust Him!
5:30am we started our breakfast preparations! It is tradition for Heidi to serve all the visitors that come on the outreach she is on Starbucks coffee in the mornings. Other than the coffee breakfast consists of one bread role with Peanut butter and one with Jam. Breakfast started and Heidi greeted everyone. We prayed and sang together then Heidi Served her coffee and I served the Tea and bread roles.
We had invited the Chiefs of the Village to come have breakfast with us and they show up!
When you great a chief/King of a village there traditional way of honoring hand shakes, new Capulanas (traditional African fabric), and getting lower than they are sitting. Heidi wanted as many visitors to great him as possible so we got everyone rounded up we let him speak for a moment. He was very blessed and honored we came back to his Village and took us in as family!
Right after we all greeted the Chief Heidi had heard we had a few nurses on our team so she asked if they would set up a Medical tent to treat people. My team was amazing and stepped right up into getting a medical tent prepared. Not really having sufficient supplies, but totally willing and ready to pray with people and treat whomever they could. Many people came to the tent and were prayed for including a Woman who was about 6 months pregnant and had not felt her baby move in over a month. So the team prayed for her and they felt the baby kicked several times pretty hard. The woman left in tears and her friend accepted Jesus into her heart because of it! HOW GOOD IS OUR GOD!
Around the same time the medical tent was being set up we split everyone into teams of four to go out into the villages and sit with the people and pray with them. Invite them to the program that night. Many were healed and a few came to know Jesus. It is amazing how story after story like that can be the same when you just come in faith and in the name of LOVE!
Heidi, Mattheus, and Georgian had gone off to find some potential pieces of land to build an iris church on. After visiting about 3 places they came across a woman who had some land right on the road and she agreed to sale it to Iris! It was only about 100 yards away from where we had already been doing the programs the night before. We wrote up the paper work and bought the land at an extremely reasonable price and spent time honoring the woman who agreed to sale it!
Once that was finished we rounded everyone up and went out to see a well that Georgian’s ministry had paid to be dug. When we got there we learned it had been not giving out water for the last day and there was no explanation for it. So we gathered everyone to come pray, the village kids came and surrounded it they all laid hands on it and we praised God in faith for the water to spring up. After about 5 minutes of praying people began to walk away, but all of a sudden water began to pour from the pipe! Everyone cheered! The kids all fought for a hand full of water! GOD IS AMAZING!!
Soon after that Heidi and the teams left in one of our camions and the airplane. Leaving me, Seth, and our team of 23 to run the show. Everything was amazing and went so smoothly. That night we prayed together, did a drama of the Good Samaritan we had prepared, a few people shared testimonies, and then showed the Jesus film. We then asked if any one else wanted to give there life to Jesus and about 30 of the local men raised their hands to accept Jesus into their lives! We made a big fire tunnel to fill them up and bless them.
Then we played music had a fun dance party with the village until the night was over.
I had prayed for a woman who was deaf in one ear and after praying. We tested out her ear and she was completely healed!
I love how faithful God is! And how much he truly loves HIS people! He chases after us we don’t even have to do anything. His love is that great! He says if you ask in my name I will answer you!
I had an amazing time! My team was incredible and so flexible and willing to just go with what Holy Spirit was doing!
Blessed are the flexible for they will not break!
Love you all,
Many blessings,
Rachael Michelle Singleton
