November 1, 2005 | Outreach to Tanzania
I just wanted to thank everyone who responded to our last newsletter (see below). You are keeping our fires fed with all of your encouraging words. Thank you everyone that has sowed into our Congo trip. Earlier today I thought we would not have enough to purchase our tickets, and then the good news came in. Thank you for blessing our lives and making all of this possible. We have a more official departure date. We plan on leaving now on the 11th of November, and we are flying, instead of driving, to Tanzania. We have to fly now because there is no bridge. We also heard today that there have been confrontations between the Congo and Rwanda on the border where we are going to drive through. Please pray that the King's angels will be surrounding us each and every step of the way. Blessings to everyone!
WILL
P.S. The Global Awakening conference is this weekend and I highly suggest going if you are able to. For more info go to www.globalawakening.com
October 30, 2005
It was five in the morning; we were up and packing the Iris Land Rover. These vehicles are solid, rock climbing, bushwhacking, go-anywhere-do-anything vehicles that ride more like a tractor than an SUV. This is exactly the vehicle needed to drive north to preach and evangelize in a territory Iris has not been to before. Herb, an 18 year old on-fire missionary with Iris, and Pastor Abraham, a resident evangelist and teacher here in Pemba, and I all traveled north to the border of Tanzania for a three-day outreach.
Two weeks ago Herb and I heard that fighting broke out between two political parties in the north, and decided that is where we wanted to go. We decided to pack up and ship off the next day. We eagerly spread the word around that we were going to leave ASAP. Our plan was not to go where the fighting was, but it was to start looking for new territory that Iris has not been to before. That day we talked with the head pastor of Northern Mozambique, who told us that we had to be patient and get the proper documents and permission to go and preach.
We waited one week, and then two weeks rolled around and we had no word about the documents. We actually forgot about the north and got caught up with life in the base here in Pemba. Then last Monday the papers came, and we started packing. We drove five hours up to a town near the border of Tanzania and picked up another pastor, who is in charge of the surrounding villages and territories. After a hard drive over dirt roads, and pothole-infested paved roads, and along pathways through a village, we finally reached his house. His family greeted us with smiles and brought us three of their nicest chairs, along with water to wash our hands. We sat there for a little while and discussed how we were going to go about this outreach.
After a little while we packed up and headed out to the truck only to find its rear tire was completely flat. It took us thirty minutes to finally get it jacked up, the flat off, and set up to get the tire on, when the truck rolled forward and fell off the jack. Somewhere in the process of the truck falling, the pastor, who we had come to pick up, had split his finger down to the bone. I have never seen a cut that bad on anyone¬¼s finger in my entire life. It was split in four places, making his finger more like a banana peel than a finger. His bone was protruding out from the center.
The vehicle was in gear with the parking brake fully extended on a level surface. I have changed enough tires in my life to know that we did everything by the book, yet the car had still lunged forward for no reason. At this time we switched into a different gear; some were praying while others were jacking up the truck again. Instead of leaving for the outreach, we had to get him to a hospital. We did the truck work all over again now, with a little more urgency in our actions. The pastor stood there in no pain the whole time!
We finally got the truck mobile again, and rushed him to the hospital, where I was kicked out for being a foreigner. Herb and I decided to take advantage of the time get the tire properly fixed and then returned to the hospital to pick up the pastor. Much to our surprise he was ready to hit the road and go evangelize. He lost a lot of blood just one hour before and was in pain, but he could care less! He could have easily sent us on our way, but instead he hoped in the back of the truck and we drove into the Bush. These pastors won¬¼t let anything get in their way. Even knowing this was a blatant attack, he didn¬¼t think twice about letting this hinder our trip.
After a long drive down a dirt road, we arrived at our destination: a humble house made of dirt and cement, topped off with a thatch roof. We pitched our tents outside the house and set up for a small meeting of local church members and neighbors. There is one pastor from this village that is a recent graduate of the Iris Bible School. He has no building and has a total of five in his congregation. All of them came, along with a lot of children and some locals.
Herb preached the Gospel and taught from the Scriptures. It was a perfect picture of church in the Bush. When we finished the meeting, we turned the generator off, took down our lights, packed it all in the back of the Land Rover and went right to sleep in our tent.
Four thirty in the morning is when the chickens start making most of their noise. Once they get going the chance of going back to sleep is impossible. You can put clothes around your head to try blocking out the noise. I started to believe they have some sort of primal instinct to annoy the only two white people within hundreds of miles. They came closer and closer to our tent, until the only thing separating us from them was a thin waterproof piece of nylon fabric. I crawled out of the tent to find not only chickens staring at us but a number of children as well.
The pastors who were with us were already up and ready to go. After breakfast and a two-hour trip to town and back, we headed down to the local village to minister to the people. We pulled up in the Land Rover and instantly had a crowd of fifty. We all sat under a giant mango tree and preached our hearts out. Forty young men came and knelt before us as they said the prayer of salvation. It was a precious moment as they knelt in the dirt with their eyes closed, calling out to Jesus to come and save them.
When we were done, more people had come to see what was going on. We prayed for all who wanted prayer. I called out a few words of knowledge and men came forward to receive healing. It was an incredible time of worship and prayer. This was truly the reason why we came north. We all piled back into the Land Rover, grinning from ear to ear.
The new plan was to get some rest and then prepare for tonight¬¼s outreach. We were planning on spending that night at our camp, but the thought of being able to sleep next to my wife and also knowing that the pastor's finger should be looked at again, we decided to preach early and then drive the six hours back to Pemba. The latest we thought that we could make it back by was two in the morning. We rested for a little while, packed up our tents, and cleaned up our camp, and drove to the village¬¼s soccer field. It was around four when we pulled up, and we had another instant crowd. It was another great time of worship and dancing unto the Lord.
Mozambiquans love to dance, and when they get going it¬¼s an all out, no holding back style of dance. It was precious to see the young men who were just saved a few hours before dancing in worship to Jesus. The pastors handed me the microphone, and I spoke from my heart. I have been to Mozambique a few times, and I have been in the bush before but I have never been handed the microphone on an outreach. I felt the Holy Sprit fill me up and I preached like never before.
I spoke about Bartameus and how nothing could stop him from receiving the gift that Jesus had for him. I could watch the people who were talking and disrupting the service quiet down and actually receive the words being spoken over them. I called them to come to Jesus, and Holy Spirit brought them in, one by one. Their hands went up, and we prayed for them. I know that this has been a long newsletter, so I am going to cut it short here.
The whole drive back Herb and I were glowing from this experience. We pulled into the base around one in the morning. I surprised Musy, who had no idea we were coming back that soon. It was an outreach that I will never forget. It did nothing but make me hungrier to get out there and preach more, and plant churches. I have a feeling that this is just the beginning of our time here in Africa.
Musy and I are leaving for the Congo within the next week and a half. Please keep us in your prayers as we jump into this next challenge. We are both excited and nervous. I have been in touch with Rolland and Heidi about this and they are really excited to have us going. I will try to keep everyone up to date on our trip as it unfolds. Right now we are planning on driving up to Tanzania then flying to Rwanda, and then driving into the Congo. This will take a few days but it is worth doing it this way; it saves us a few thousand dollars. Well, I am going to let you all go. Once again, thank you for all your prayers. We are truly blessed to have all of you in our lives. If you have any questions about this trip or anything else just email me at will@hartministries.com
P.S. Musy is going to hate me for doing this but it is her B-day on the sixth of November. Just in case, her email is musy@hartministries.com
BLESSINGS,
WILL AND MUSY