On outreach for Zion Project last week, the ladies wanted to visit a Congolese girl who accidentally burned down a hut in their district of Gulu called Kasubi. She put some charcoal in a trash heap, which caught fire, spread rapidly across an entire field next to it and then over a fence to a hut on the other side. The hut just happened to belong to a witch-doctor, who had yelled at one of our women the morning before we went there.
When we arrived, the little girl was fine, but I felt led to go over and talk with the witch-doctor to tell her sorry that her hut burned down. None of the women wanted to go with me because they were scared of her except one named Flora (who was the only one there who could translate into Luo anyway). So Flora and I ventured over to the hut, and we were welcomed very warmly with smiles and chairs to sit on. When Monica (the witch-doctor) came, her and her friend Lucy sat on a mat and listened to me share about how God's heart breaks for their situation. They lost literally everything except the clothes on their backs, and she has four children in school who lost all their books. They were sleeping outside on the ground:(
When I asked if I could pray for them, they said yes, so I knelt down on their mat, layed hands on them and prayed for God to provide for all their needs and to reveal His love to them. When I finished praying, I asked them if they know Jesus. Monica said she's not saved but her children are. I asked her if she wanted to be saved, and she said yes! So I shared the gospel message with them. Lucy didn't seem to be interested at first, but after I finished sharing, she said "I'm tired of all these bad things happening to me., I want to be saved!" Then I asked if anyone else around wanted to be saved, so they called all their children to come sit with them on the mat! Some of the children were rededicating their lives to Jesus because they had backslidden and some were for the first time. There were 8 people in all that prayed a prayer of salvation with me, a whole family was brought into the kingdom at the same time! Glory to God!
Then I did a basic crash discipleship teaching on the importance of going to church, reading your Bible and praying everyday. Monica was very interested, asking me where they should go to church and how she could get a Bible in Luo so she could start reading it. Monica's son, Simon, was there with us, and he's been a believer for 10 years, he said. He shared a scripture from his English Bible from Isaiah 30 about how God has turned their mourning into dancing and their sorrow into joy. What a perfect scripture for this time!
I am amazed at how God set this up for Monica (and all of them) to be saved. One of her kids was already walking with the Lord (probably praying for her salvation), and God allowed her to lose everything so that she would turn to Him. Pray that they all continue walking in the light, growing closer to Jesus every day and that they don't fall back into their old ways.
BWANA ASIFIWE!! (Praise God!)
Wow Naomi! Praise the Lord for your faith and confidence in Him! Even though none of the women wanted to go with you, you went and the the result was a whole family getting saved! It is so amazing to hear about the awesome things the Lord is doing through you! This was very uplifting and inspiring! Thank you for sharing!
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