An Expedition Distilled
Sunday. Get up early. Finish packing the truck, run through the (still mental) checklist. Set the GoPro, make sure the music's working, and use the toilet.Ten minutes down the road, GoPro needs adjusting. Tim broke the car door. We're just getting started. By the way, how's the new truck feel? Is the suspension ok? How do the brakes feel? Figure it out now. We're just getting started.
Power's good. A/C's cold. Been a few hours, and the roads aren't that bad. Just make it to the first stop. There's a restaurant and a hotel. Last night of sheets and a pillow...
Up early again. Truck did great yesterday. Luggage is still there, and gas mileage was awesome. But now it's time for the unknown. We'll hit the villages today. If we can pass. We heard the road was bad. There might not even be a road (earlier than we expected). No sweat. This is what we do.
The road is bad. 2 river crossings, a couple of gnarly ditches, and the bamboo shoots are wicked. It's alright, we got tires. I have good eyes on the road. I've got an awesome team. The bent tailpipe won't kill us. The crack on my bumper is cosmetic. And Tim's broken door handle...
It's always a relief when we make it to the village. The truth is, we never really know. Everything is exacerbated out here. The difficult terrain and shoddy roads. The stress on the truck. The stress on us. The effort to get food, water, and just about anything you could need. But when we land, in itself it feels like an victory. But we're just getting started.
Camp gets set up in a few hours. Dinner gets cooked in a few hours. Greeting the elders and bathing and setting up for the seminar tomorrow takes a few hours. Wait. We only have a few hours. It all gets done. It always does. But we need to keep room for the Holy Spirit...to introduce us to a witch doctor from a neighboring village. His granddaughter is sick, and he wants to see our guest doctor. Hmmm...God just opened a door for us to be invited into this guy's village. Sweet.Early mornings just got earlier. The roosters - hundreds of roosters - begin at about 4:45 am. There's a really weird one that sounds like Howard Dean running around. If I find him, he's dinner for sure. Time for devotions. Granola with powdered milk for breakfast. That's a great bush meal.
Seminar starts at 9. We've got 4 sessions a day. Keeping villagers engaged in a class all day will be a new challenge. After 5 hours we're on the move. We have a new village to visit today. We have an appointment with a witch doctor.
90 minutes is a short hike. It was a brisk hike. We walked past leopard poop. I wish we saw the beast. I really wish we did. The villagers with us didn't. But we made it, and the stage was set. That's how things go when God sets us up with meetings like this. The baby was doing better already. She pooped in my hand as I held her. And her grandfather invited us back to his village just before he let us pray over his family in the name of Jesus. This is what we live for.
The hike back is faster than the hike there was. We're fighting dusk now. It's kind of fun to follow these guys through the grass and trees knowing they're really uncomfortable being out at this time. The leopard tracks we want to stare at are clearly not entertaining these guys as much as us. It's ok. I'm not too anxious to get back to cooking dinner and bathing and gearing up for tomorrow in the dark. The river is freezing when the sun's not up. Oh well.
Another morning, another serenade from the insane rooster and his choir of obsolete animals (the UN estimates 7 billion people have cell phones - which means they have alarm clocks). Today the seminar really gets moving. We go from lessons to interactive sessions today. There's another village to visit, and some of the witch doctor's family lives there too. Wow. Favor is going viral.
It was pretty amazing how well these guys got it. I didn't know what to expect. From our ability as teachers, to our students' ability to get comfortable in a classroom setting they aren't used to. But they got it. By the end, were even about a dozen that we certified to teach these classes. Even cooler, in the Foundations of Faith sessions, so many stepped up and were eager to pray.Even with all of this going well, there is that one piece that we are always looking for. We're always waiting for the moments when the Holy Spirit does something you didn't have on the itinerary. Like the meeting with the witch doctor, for instance.
I Have A Spirit...
On the second night of our seminar, while dinner was being cooked by half of the team, Javen and Caitlin went to walk the village with some of the elders. There was an old lady, obviously sick, curled up under a mango tree, alone. She was cast off, it seemed; it's a strange scene, an elder not being cared for, disrespected, and all alone.
As they knelt to talk with her, it was quickly apparent that there was more wrong than just sickness. The old lady was almost unresponsive. She mumbled in vague recognition that there were people talking with her. Her words were unintelligible and she struggled to even look up and make eye contact. But there was a point where Javen addressed her assertively and as he and Caitlin began to pray with her, he gently demanded that she explain what was wrong with her. Her reply was "I have a spirit." And so was born an opportunity.
Opportunities are not so clearly set before us. We choose the direction. Here was an opportunity to pass by. Here was an opportunity to hug her and pat her on the shoulder and feel good about giving her a few minutes of precious time. Here was the opportunity to take a stand in spiritual authority. And there was the opportunity to listen and obey. Javen and Caitlin are good at choosing the latter.
The next day, the rest of our team showed up. My family was with me in the village for the first time. Steve and Donna arrived to setup the next phase of building the village church. They brought cookies. And a few extra tools and gifts. Like discernment. And sensitivity. One of mom's (Donna) greatest gifts is her ability to detach from everything, look someone in the eyes, and minster compassion. She pounced on the "opportunity" as soon as Javen and Caitlin shared it.
As mom knelt to speak with the old lady under the mango tree, it was hard not to notice the group of guys mocking. They were hanging out and drinking, not doing particularly much with their day, but found it funny someone would try to talk to "the crazy lady" again. For mom that was just fuel for ministering the love of Christ. And after ten minutes, after getting this women who we were told was mute and unable to understand, engaged in a conversation about the love of Christ, the doubters were paying attention. "God wants you to have peace," Donna told her. "He wants to spend the end of your days with you knowing who he is, knowing joy, and knowing you'll be with him one day," she went on. And after praying together with her, Donna turned to the small crowd.
She told them that they didn't know how long this old lady would be with them. She told them that they all knew what the search for peace was about and that they would see this woman would have it. She told them that her presence, for however long they would have it, was a gift. It was no more than 2 weeks later that the woman passed. But not before a great change occurred. For the time she had left in this life, she was different, she was at peace, and she shared her joy with those who had written her off. People were amazed at what had happened. And when our team returned to the village, just as her funeral was taking place, the history of her departure was changed forever to point at the mercy of Jesus Christ.
And even the mockers knew it.
That is how God sets the stage to move in people's lives. But you cannot miss the opportunity. Sew seeds - the right seeds of faith, and hope, and love - every chance you get.
