Staff Blog

This week, we spent five days in the Simwatachela Kingdom. It was like walking in what I would imagine Acts chapter 29 would have been like if it had ever been written. My team and I were in an area that some of the people we met that were in their 80’s had never seen a missionary! We were some of the first white people many of them had ever seen.

One lady even said, “Who is this Jesus, bring him here, I’ll meet him!” ha ha ha We had a blast! We ministered all week in villages where there had been no missionaries or westerners for generations. It was the front lines! The favor of the Lord brought forth salvations, restoration, deliverance and healing, literally! We saw the amazing things that books are written about! Praise Jesus! Just some of the numbers from our recent ministry trip: 2881 people were ministered to, 1037 of which received salvation and 169 were healed! All in 5 days time, we split into 3-4 groups a day and covered 5 villages… How good is our Jesus!

One day, only a handful of people showed up to one of our meetings so we had a bit of a bible study with them and gave them some teaching that they could chew on. We really felt like there was more to be done so we gathered up, walked into town, gathered all the business owners, customers and all the people from the local bar. As about 80 people gathered under the large shade tree in the middle of the courtyard amongst goats, drunks, dried fish and some chickens, we preached Jesus Christ and the love that only He can give!

We shared the life, death and resurrection of Christ! If they won’t come to us, we will go to them! About half of the crowd came forward for a salvation call. Two guys ran to us afterward and begged us to please come to their village because their families had never heard this and wanted them to know of this Saviour as well!

The night before we left, we spoke with leaders from the community around the campfire, under a full moon, next to a grass hut. These pastors and community leaders are those who often teach not-so-biblical teachings. Most of the time it is because they haven’t had any training, teaching or discipleship. They really desire to lead people to God, sadly to say, no one has shared the Gospel with them. In saying that, one pastor shared with us that he was like the guy in Acts 8 who was reading the scripture and could not understand the writings until we came and taught them what the scriptures were saying.

Another pastor told us that the Lord sent angels to Sodom and Gomorrah to warn them of their wickedness and sin so they would not be destroyed. He felt that we were angels sent by the Lord to warn them that their teachings were not right and could not wait to implement our teachings of faith, hope, servant-hood and love.

All in all, I would have to say that the Kingdom of God rejoiced this week and threw the biggest party you have ever seen! I am so honored to be a part of the unfolding of the Kingdom of God on this earth. Praise be only to Him, Christ Jesus our Lord!

In His Grip, JD Brown