God's Hand at Work

It is late Sunday evening and it has been an incredible day for me and my Guests. Guy , Debbie and Zapata are here visiting me from America. We had a lot of fun with our GGI kids yesterday and spent the rest of the day pretty quietly but today being Sunday we were up early getting ready for the service. Guy was polishing his sermon and us girls were busy with preparing breakfast and getting dressed. We had just finished our meal when the electricity went out. No matter that happens here all the time. We all had been concerned about how loud the service would be , that it might cause Guy considerable discomfort . We were faithful to give our concerns to our Lord and now needed to move on to the church. Pastor Emanuel graciously met us at the compound here and walked the rest of the way with us. It had been a little inconvenient to get dressed without the power but you learn to go with these things when you ‘re in Burayu.

When we arrived at church the power was still out and it occurs to us that God’s hand is already at work . No power… no speakers….No speakers …no problem for Guy’s ear. Pastor Emanuel had me introduce them and then Guy delivered an amazing talk on Abraham and Isaac with Emanuel translating. It was so quiet in the sanctuary , people were really listening to the message. When he had closed Emanuel gave a very convicting exhortation to his congregation. At that time the worship leader came up and just began to sing a capella and the whole congregation joined him in lifting up praise to our Saviour. It is an awesome sound when the Holy Spirit is moving through people , through their prayers and voices in worship.

This little Church has a dirt floor, plastic tarp walls and poles holding up the tin roof. No fancy technology, no overhead, no upholstered padded chairs. To hear worship in this place unaided by speakers and microphones ,just the pure sound of convicted hearts, WOW! Several people came up to the altar and received the prayers of the entire congregation, we later found out that they all had confessed a life of backsliding. Oh and I forgot to mention how every Sunday all the children are called to the altar to receive the blessings of all who are gathered in the sanctuary. Hands are raised and stretched out towards the children while the Pastor prays over them. I can hear many people speaking softly in their prayer languages during these moments.

I do miss the wonderful wealth of deep teaching I can get from my home church and in home bible studies but I have seen nothing in America that even begins to resemble the moving of the Holy Spirit on the hearts of those convicted by Gods word. The Ethiopian people live lives focused on the simple basics. It keeps their hearts soft and obedient to God because they know how greatly they depend on him. There are no distractions to stop up their ears or to cloud their vision .

This week the Burayu Full Gospel church was having a 3 day fast and prayer session . Several leaders and many prayer warriors gathered at the church and prayed from 8 am til 1 pm and then went home to rest until about 3 pm at which time they return to church to pray until 12. They go home and rest a few hours and return to pray . This whole time they are fasting on water and liquids only. I am almost ashamed of our own churches where we are excited to have a few loyal prayer warriors gather for an hour once a week to lift up the needs of the community. I am one of those people and I used to have a sence of pride in my committment to our prayer meetings now I am just in awe of what real committment is.

Oh I know the reasoning, people are busy, they have families and jobs and other activities to attend to and its America not Ethiopia. We have become accustomed to our little luxuries and conveniences and have no shame about it. I hope you can receive this with out resenting the messenger after all I am one of you. I have not joined in on a 3 day fast , My flesh will use the excuse that I come from a different culture or I have low blood sugar or whatever. I pray that one day soon I can summon up the Spiritual courage to atleast try. God speaks to these people and they hear him. The gifts of the spirit are strong here. I do not doubt it is because of their committed prayer lives. I hope to encourage and exhort all of you who log on to read this blog, not to condemn. Our enemy would love to have us read this and give up because we could just never be that dedicated. Please be uplifted by the knowledge that our God is an awesome God and he hears ours prayers . I just want you to know that we can always grow Spiritually if we are willing to be obedient servants of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Faithfully yours in Christ ,Carole