Day Twenty

These friends from African Enterprise don’t take their preaching lightly. The program consists of some fifty to seventy gatherings per day: at churches, at schools, in the marketplace, on street corners, in stadiums, all over the city. Michael Cassidy was preaching on the street yesterday and hundreds of people were gathering around him to hear his message. Fascinating! Thousands of people are coming to Christ and this method of evangelism seems to work well here. I would just ask your prayers that the churches in the community will be able to handle the follow-up. I’ve preached seven times so far at high schools and universities since Monday. I usually just share a bit of my journey and talk about Jesus: abiding in him, walking with him, staying attached to him, living in the Kingdom of God…Bart Tarman style. I figure, if I only have an hour with a group of 500 people who I’ll never see again, the best thing I can do is talk about Jesus, whether they’ve been following him their whole life or they’ve never met him before. I’ve found that the Malagassy people have been thrilled to hear about Jesus.

Of the seven gatherings I’ve preached so far, tonight was my favorite. I went to Antananarivo University and only fifteen people showed up. I was refreshed because I knew I would get some interaction from a small group. They had the place set up with rows of chairs and a big platform for me to speak from with a microphone, and I walked in and thought, “Not a chance am I standing up there with a mic.” So I had everyone sit in a circle and I scrapped my notes and sat with them and shared my life journey from childhood up until now…the good and the bad, and the peaks and valleys of my faith. I shared a few thoughts about Jesus and a couple of passages and then I opened it up for questions and stories from their lives. They’re all college students, of course, so they’ve gone through difficulties by now and they’ve been asking the tough questions about faith and life. I told them that I didn’t come all the way to Madagascar to speak at crowds of people and then flee, but that I wanted to hear their hearts, their questions, their struggles, and their stories. I told them that I’d love to help answer any questions (or maybe leave them with more questions to think about), but that I also came to learn from their stories because I believe that they have something to teach me. So we had a brilliant conversation and they are so intelligent and they ask great questions, and we sat in a rundown building in the university, and when the sun went down, someone lit a couple of candles because their was no electricity. We sat together and talked about our lives and Jesus for two and a half hours, and the few who weren’t following Christ decided they would like to begin the journey. The time was authentic, real, and most favorably, relational.

The Malagassy people are wonderful. However, I find myself so exhausted from preaching three times per day that I want to use every free minute sleeping. So, I haven’t had much of an opportunity to really absorb the culture and experience the territory, other than at the gatherings. I notice that people live in tiny, old, rundown, French-style houses and apartments, and the streets are dreadfully crowded with people and little cars. They sell meat on the street corners. The butcher wakes up at 4:00am every morning to catch his kill. He then cleans and slices up the meat and hangs it from his little box shed for sale. The meat hangs in the sun all day, until he sells it, and if he doesn’t sell it, he cooks it at the end of the day and shares it with his family (a little sketchy in my book). Maybe the leftovers go to waste, or to the people on the street…I’m not sure. He does this everyday because refrigeration is unaffordable.

The level of poverty once again is heartbreaking, and like most third world countries, the people are able to find joy elsewhere. Unlike wealthy countries, people who live in such poverty as Madagascar, are more apt to recognize their need for God, which of course, is the first step into the Kingdom. That’s why when I preach at these schools, and someone gives an “invitation” or “altar call” when I’m finished with my message, nearly every kid comes forward. Hundreds keep coming forward, right in front of me, every time. This is happening all over Antananarivo this week. Thousands of people are coming to Christ. I find it a bit overwhelming, actually, and I fear what may happen (actually, what may not happen) with all these people after we leave. We’ve partnered with all the churches and the pastors’ have been through extensive follow-up training, and there are many counselors who have specific roles in bringing these people into church families, but there are simply too many coming forward than can possibly be cared for. Even these friends from African Enterprise, who have been doing this sort of thing for years, are saying that they’ve never seen anything like this before. That’s why I so much enjoyed being with only a few tonight. Please remember these people in your prayers.

Great hearing from all of you! To answer your question, Courtney, you are correct in thinking that I was unaware of Michael's sermon. Remember, miracles are happening all the time in our world and God's presence is everywhere. Sometimes we simply must pay attention. Saur, I'm trying to put together your comments about your tattoos...I think we need to talk when I return. Em and Klaeb, thanks for your words and I can't wait to catch up on your lives. Billy, keep up the hell fire preaching. I hope you scare more people to their senses. Nancy, I've listened to the first nine hours of lectures for Church History. Awesome! I look forward to dialogue with you. Lynn, Wow! Good to hear from you and I enjoyed our time together in Kinshasa. I'm curious as to how you found this blog? It sounds like your doing some great work back at home. I hope we cross paths again. Bob, thanks for sparing me from the diarrhea story. The visual is less than pleasant. Mom, please get the tape of Jack's sermon. I would love to hear it. Devon, my love, I can't wait to be home with you! Thank you all for your words. Much Love.