Dear beloved: Thank you to all who have read the posts and prayed for me while on the mission trip to Africa. I have been back home for a little over a week now and am starting to get my feet back on the ground and feeling better physically. I will be posting several times in the next few days about different experiences that happened to me over there, I hope you find them interesting and also it will give you direction for prayers, as well as give you a glimpse of the body of Christ worldwide in all its many facets.
In the previous post I talked about the outbreak of praise and dancing that occurred in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. The crusade meeting spoken of happened in the afternoon, in addition, that morning I preached in a church in Goma, the Deliverance Center of Pastor Joel Amurani. The city is a city of a million or so people built on top of a lava flow that comes from a volcanic mountain just a few kilometers north of the city. In 2002 the mountain erupted and covered Goma in lava and ash, destroying 50% of the buildings in the city, so the city is in a state of rebuilding; the aftermath of the eruption resulted in much of the city being rebuilt on top of lava and ash. Pastor Joel's church is in a neighborhood that is totally black from lava rock, all the roads, yards, and walls between houses are black. A depressing sight in the natural, but the Spirit of God was certainly in that church, and the light of the world was shining bright for all to see as I went there that morning to preach to a packed house of about 500 people.
The night before I was to preach in Pastor Joel's church, I got very sick and spent most of the night up with diarrhea and vomiting , due to some bad food or water. I got up after very little sleep and was wanting to cancel out of the preaching for that morning, but the bishop who came to pick me up said to me, "the people are waiting for you!", so how could I beg out of the commitment? I hurriedly went back up to my hotel room and vomited again, then came back downstairs, jumped in the car, and took off for the church. Soon I was packed in the church with 500 believers hungry to hear the word of God, and as I got up on the platform to preach, I was weak and frail, gasping for air as it was very hot and stuffy in the church. I got down on my knees in front of all those people and prayed for about 5 minutes for God to give me the strength to stand and preach with power. God answered! I got up and preached for an hour and a half, then before leaving I laid hands on and prayed for every man, woman, and child in the place. Bwana a Safiwe! Praise the Lord! Phillipians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 2 Corinthians 12:9 And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. v10 Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. God bless you, by His grace, Jim
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