We woke early to pray and prepare for the Seminar that was being held during the day and for the Crusade later that night. The Seminar is held at a tiny church in a village here in Songo. Local pastors, their wives, and church leaders were in attendance, totaling around 60 people. Although they are leading local churches in Songo, they have little or no biblical training. Thus, this was an opportunity to share some strong but simple biblical truths and training that they could apply to their own churches. While Danny, Lindy, Jay, Mike, Crystal, Pastor Mike and the rest of the Africa team started the seminar, Nick and Glenda were asked to take all of the children for lessons/activities, etc. (think Sunday School mixed with camp activities).
Inside at the Seminar, there was tons of praise and worship, then many people took turns preaching and sharing the word. Danny explained the vision and God’s calling for Wheresoever. Pastor Mike spoke about the spirit of forgiveness, emphasizing love, forgiveness, and acceptance through Peter’s relationship to Jesus (John 21). Jay gave his testimony, and Pastor Kenneth, Anessia, and Christiano also taught.
Outside, Nick and Glenda started off with some fun games to interact with the children, although it started off a bit tough with
the language translation. The children in the village spoke Portuguese and Nyuge, while our translators who know English speak Chichewa. So, someone translated our English into Chichewa, and another person who knew Chichewa translated that into Portuguese. Confused? Us too! (this was the same inside at the Seminar). To make it even more confusing, we spoke some broken Spanish as well b/c it is similar to Portuguese. However, a warm smile and a big hug (along with the power of the Holy Spirit) can be understood in any language! Throughout the day, Nick and Glenda had 50-100 children at a time. Most of the time was spent telling children’s stories with a biblical message at the end, singing African worship songs, and playing! Some of their favorite games included follow the leader, chase Nick around, and of course…SOCCER! At the end of the day, the children were ecstatic that we would be returning to the village for 2 more days.
After the seminar ended around 5pm, we started to get ready for the Crusade. A Crusade is when we go right smack into the middle of a village and preach the message of salvation. To get people interested we set up the sound system and pump some music as loud as we can. Typically, it is extremely easy to draw a big crowd. After a short program of dancing, worship, drama, and messages, there is a call for people to give their lives to Christ. Some of the people currently attend church but don’t necessarily have a relationship with Christ, while others may understand that there is a God or almighty being, but they have never heard of Jesus. The goal of a Crusade is to go to a village back to back days-the first day preaching salvation, and the next day to come back for prayer, questions, and to try and get them hooked up with a local church or pastor. At the end, hundreds of people give their lives to Christ. Now, we have no way of knowing if they have done this before or if they are just caught up in the moment and aren’t sure of what is happening, but we have Faith that Jesus is moving in their hearts!
With no time to eat dinner, we headed over to the Crusade around 7pm. There was great worship and dancing, and Danny gave them a background on Wheresoever Ministries and who we were. The African team did a really funny but powerful drama about the prodigal son. Mike S. preached a powerful message of salvation, and Crystal gave her testimony. Christiano and Pastor Kenneth gave the altar call, and 172 people gave their lives to Christ!
Inside at the Seminar, there was tons of praise and worship, then many people took turns preaching and sharing the word. Danny explained the vision and God’s calling for Wheresoever. Pastor Mike spoke about the spirit of forgiveness, emphasizing love, forgiveness, and acceptance through Peter’s relationship to Jesus (John 21). Jay gave his testimony, and Pastor Kenneth, Anessia, and Christiano also taught.
Outside, Nick and Glenda started off with some fun games to interact with the children, although it started off a bit tough with
the language translation. The children in the village spoke Portuguese and Nyuge, while our translators who know English speak Chichewa. So, someone translated our English into Chichewa, and another person who knew Chichewa translated that into Portuguese. Confused? Us too! (this was the same inside at the Seminar). To make it even more confusing, we spoke some broken Spanish as well b/c it is similar to Portuguese. However, a warm smile and a big hug (along with the power of the Holy Spirit) can be understood in any language! Throughout the day, Nick and Glenda had 50-100 children at a time. Most of the time was spent telling children’s stories with a biblical message at the end, singing African worship songs, and playing! Some of their favorite games included follow the leader, chase Nick around, and of course…SOCCER! At the end of the day, the children were ecstatic that we would be returning to the village for 2 more days.After the seminar ended around 5pm, we started to get ready for the Crusade. A Crusade is when we go right smack into the middle of a village and preach the message of salvation. To get people interested we set up the sound system and pump some music as loud as we can. Typically, it is extremely easy to draw a big crowd. After a short program of dancing, worship, drama, and messages, there is a call for people to give their lives to Christ. Some of the people currently attend church but don’t necessarily have a relationship with Christ, while others may understand that there is a God or almighty being, but they have never heard of Jesus. The goal of a Crusade is to go to a village back to back days-the first day preaching salvation, and the next day to come back for prayer, questions, and to try and get them hooked up with a local church or pastor. At the end, hundreds of people give their lives to Christ. Now, we have no way of knowing if they have done this before or if they are just caught up in the moment and aren’t sure of what is happening, but we have Faith that Jesus is moving in their hearts!
With no time to eat dinner, we headed over to the Crusade around 7pm. There was great worship and dancing, and Danny gave them a background on Wheresoever Ministries and who we were. The African team did a really funny but powerful drama about the prodigal son. Mike S. preached a powerful message of salvation, and Crystal gave her testimony. Christiano and Pastor Kenneth gave the altar call, and 172 people gave their lives to Christ!
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