Saturday, June 13, 2009

PRAYER RETREAT


                                                    Yo! WHAT IT BE LIKE!

After 40/40 I was ready to get back to the Sue, but God had more he wanted to reveal to me. All of the famous Sudan six meet up and we all went to LuKenya fro a prayer retreat. The purpose is just to search your heart and search for God and talk to Him about everything and praise Him and lift our prayer to God. We met together and told each other are prayer request the first day and then the next day we went by our selves to be with God the hoe day.

Man I had such a blessed time! I can’t even began to describe the feeling that God gave me! The next day I just walked and talk to God all day! I walked through the fields of Africa just letting God lead me to where ever he lead me! I kept talking to him and asking him questions. I thought of Jesus when he walked in the desert or Elijah and how so many times in the Bible it said they went to a mountain or place by themselves and just talk to God! That is just what I did.

 As I walked and talked with God he showed me some gazelles and impalas and even a giraffe! It was amazing! I also walked up a mountain and looked over God's beautiful creation and just began to praise Him. He reveal things to me that I had on my heart for a long time. I tried to really search for God's heart out there and I feel so recharge and ready to get back to work in Sudan! Continue to pray for me and my team as we have these prayer request.

Pray for the Lewis family, as they are coming into Sudan with in a week or so and waiting for their house to get approved to come in Sudan by the government. Get a helper, language, and a nanny (they have three kids), that they get settled in, so they can ministry to the people of Taposa who are currently unreached!

The Jur people group, that the Dinka and Jur will stop fighting so someone can minister to the Jur. 

Our health!

Job replacements for our ministry

To bring an Logistic coordinator , for our team

Hygiene ministry for the young ladies,( Lura and Jamie)

Volunteer teams, That we are able to use the teams as to help Logistically strategies a better ministry.  That God clearly reveals to me and my team on how to use the teams.

Abraham, is church planting great and fast! he is a leader of the Dinka pastors..so pray for him.

Cattle camp and (CAP), Jenifer and Whitney as they work to minister in the cattle camps and that God bring someone to minister to the camps. That God use CAP to teach the Dinka people effectively about Aids.

Youth Centerr, God had blessed this Center so much! That God just let us use this center to bring more to Christ! That God moves all through the Youth Center!

Thank you so much for these payers

Jermaine Edwards

 

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Well I made it through 40/40. I really enjoyed myself and I had a lot of fun! But when I first got there it was so COLD! Man was it COLD! I was freezing and I didn’t bring enough warm clothes! I slept with all my clothes on plus a hoody with cover! Then I got a cold within the first week or so. I was so mad. But I just said Lord just get me through this. My throat was soar and I had dripping of the throat too! I became very weak and my sinus filled with mucus!

   So I just laid in my bed and let my Daddy heal me. I got all those symptoms in one night and then I got up and went out to do my DFA sick as a dog! We road into town on a flat bed, while the wind cut my ears and nose! It was the worst! But Imma wolf and God has blessed me since birth with the gift of a healing factor. So I did my DFA and then got back to the seminary and crashed! I just laid in my bed and missed dinner. Than my healing factor kicked in after a long night of swallowed mucus, sinus head ach, and a wasted roll of toilet paper of my snot! Man I woke up feeling so good.

Ok enough about how I was sick, lets talk about 40/40.

So when I got there it was cool seeing the people I went through FPO with. Just to see God using others all over Africa is hot to me! Our Lord using each and every ones talents and gift to glorify His name, man that’s tight!

Hmmmmm…man I don’t know what to write about. How do sum up a month? Ok lets see. Everyday they sent us out on these assignments to find out more about the Zams (Zambians). So we basically sat down with them and got to know them and let them know who we are and tried to learn from them to be able to present God’s word better to them. I was with Ethan who is a journalist/videographer for the IMB. Now as we go out on these assignments we get to witness to them if God allows it.

So one time Ethan and me and are guide Elias saw some bed makers, so we thought…. lets go talk to them. God really lead that conversation to witnessing to those brathas! They really open to hear what we had to say. So we just kept witnessing to them. Ethan was talking to one dude who knew God but could not stay with him. He said he knew the things he did was wrong and he wanted to change. So Ethan told him “you know it’s like two dogs fighting in your body and which ever one you feed will win. You gotta feed the good dog” We prayed with him and had are guide get with him and invited him to the Bible study they had there. That was cool to see.

We got to visit a lot of people in Lusaka, Zambia. O yeah one thing I must say. Man Zam is beautiful with beautiful people! Man it is such a nice place! Everyone is so cool and welcoming, I love them! Ethan, Alias, and I got to sit and visit Miss Ireen F. Sakala, who is a widow. Man I think she is one of the strongest women I met. Ireen was so dependent on Christ and just wrap her self in His love.

You see talking to her, me and Ethan came to find out how funerals work in Zambia and it’s a lot that goes on but the one thing that stuck out to me is the fear that comes over surviving spouse especially a woman. Traditional beliefs and witch doctors come to play at the bringing of death. The traditional beliefs have the women taking out all the pictures and paying unnecessary money to the witch doctors to protect them from their spouse ghost hunting them. So this is what I got from are sit down with Ireen.

You can have a young Christian widow at her husband’s funeral and the witch doctor will come up to the young lady and say, “ your not Christian let me protect you from husbands ghost!” Than the next thing, she is paying the doctor to help her. But you see Ireen is an older lady who is strong in Christ and other elder ladies of the church made these type of situations their ministry. When they hear of women that lost her husband they go and help her with the funeral and witness to them and also give her strength against the witch doctor, who talks in her ear and putting fear over her. Ireen had been through all of this and told them I am Christian and God will protect me.

Now you people in the States might say why would you listen to a witchdoctor in the first place their fake. Ha ha ha ha ha ha…lol! But man! It’s real over here! Satan has got Africa in his hand of fear. They see things we don't see!

 Satan gets us at whatever he can do. In the States satan get’s us by money and the total opposite of a God thought. “Man I don't see no God, I am a science man and I can explain everything through science”! Satan goes to Africa by revealing himself to them. Actual physical fear! I will talk more on this later.

 So back to Ireen, basically funerals really become a spiritual battle. Man Ireen is so strong in God. She got all her children in school and she don’t know how they going to get through but she knows God will take care of her. She was smiling so big as she told us how God provided for her after her husband’s death. Man that’s what is about! Ireen Sakala asked that you pray for her and her two kids, Charles Sakala, that he finish school, and Smut Sakala, her legs, that they be healed.

I think the best part of Lusaka was going to church and seeing these young men, I mean younger than me and up to my age, was holding Bible study before Church! Man I thought that was awesome! They really got into God’s word! Than after church we went to a youth rally. As I was in church dancing in Africa with my Zam brothers and sisters praising God, I just felt out of world but in God’s arms. I wish I could hold on to that feeling forever as that feeling grows stronger and stronger.

 I have to give a shot out to our guide Alias. Man he took such good care of us out there and he was so wise in God’s word. Please pray for him and his family when we left his dad died from a bike accident.

We went on to Petuke and did kind of the same thing we did in Lusaka. But at Petuke I got to stay in my own tent…Yeah! I seen some cool things at Petuke and learned a lot as well!

One day we had to share are testimony, but in a way that Africans can relate to it. For example like in America we refer to God in are testimony as “saved us and guilty things we had”. But in Africa they relate to fear, control, and power because that’s what satin does in Africa he physically blinds them, controls them, and puts fear over them from getting to God.

So I told my testimony in words of power, control, and fear. When I did this I felt God really spoke to me and reminded me how far he has brought me. It felt really good, I know that and it was a better testimony to me I thought.

O yeah before this I got to talk to a witch Dr.! It was pretty awesome! It was just said to see how lost they really are though, man satin really has them in his hand. But one of the other missionaries got to tell a bible story to an x witch Dr. and at the end he asked him if he want to except God and not have those demons, and he said yes! Then Mike the missionary, had the translator to hook up with the x Dr. to make sure he gets disciple and stay on the right path. So I thought that was a real blessing to see!

But the Witch Dr. we interviewed was an odd experience. We where to interview them to see how things work and just to know the knowledge of something like this. So as we were interviewing him I felt cool at first until one of the other missionaries asked “Have you healed anyone?” he said “Mmhhm yes, her over there. She was mad when they brought her to me.” And it was this young lady peeling corn on the ground, then I looked at her again and she did not look up at us once the whole time we were there. I started to feel a dark feeling come over me. She just did not look right, kinda tame you know.

The hardest thing though was to sit there and listen and see how lost they are! I was constantly praying for them and looking to see if God is showing for us to witness to him, but he wanted the demons, spirits is what he called them. He told us that he healed people by whatever the spirit tells him to do and what traditional meds to give the sick people that come to him. I looked around and he was pretty wealthy for in the village.

He told us that he got his powers when he went into the bush and got thrown into the lake and stayed there for a month under water. And when he finally came up he could talk to the spirits with his little object.

You see how satin works out here, man he totally blinds them completely from God in fear and power and even money. It was very sad to see that and hear him.

Lets see….next we went to are home stay, which is when we went and stayed in the village at someone’s home! This was my favorite, cause of the great food and just seeing the everyday life of an African. I loved each day and I thought it was a great experience! The family served us so willingly. The best part was working beside them picking maze and helping them build a Maze (corn) storage. They really didn’t let us help much and they did most of the work but it was cool to work with them and learn new things.

 So that’s all folks, that was manly 40/40, now I’m ready to get back to work, in the Sue!!!!!