Mission Report for trip to
Southern African (Botswana, Namibia and South Africa) 2004
I would like to thank you all very much for praying, supporting and
encouraging Taiwo and I as we embarked on this trip.
Saturday
Left the UK on the 13th February and arrived in Johannesburg, took a flight to
Gaborone in Botswana. We headed straight to the Pastor’s house where a day
retreat was in progress. Before we arrived they had been sharing on vision.
Pastor Taiwo and I then tagged teamed. God enabled us to share on vision and
purpose and the Lord spoke prophetically to people. Towards the end of the
meeting a young man walked off the street came to the front, asking what most
he do to be saved. It was a joy to see. Little did we know that salvation would
be the theme of our trip to Southern Africa.
As we arrived at Living Spring Church in Old
Naledi a ghetto part of Gaborone marked by orphans and poverty, my heart
rejoiced to be a part of the solution of bringing hope to that young generation.
There must have been over 25 kids from the neighbourhood, barefooted, those
that had any clothes were torn, but they sang to the Lord with joy in their
hearts. It was a sight to see. The Lord then gave a word to the church saying I
exist to support and care for these children. We declared a party for the kids,
for the next Sunday in response to that word. The report that came back was
that on the following Sunday the church feed and ministered to over 100 kids
from the neighborhood.
Again we ministered together in the church
service. Pastor Taiwo went first then I followed, while I was speaking I was
led to call a woman out who we discovered was not saved. As I spoke with her,
she wanted God to give her a passion to pray. We led her to the Lord and then
she prayed for the children.
In the evening, the Lord gave us opportunity
to minister to a couple who needed God’s input in their marriage. It was a
remarkable experience and a door opener to some other events that followed. We
also had a strategy meeting with the leaders of the church.
Visited the Botswana Television Studios
Pastor Taiwo was looking into opportunities to express the kingdom of God via
the media. We had open does to see the Channel controller to talk about the
gospel and the TV media in Botswana. We then met with a Missionary working in
the Old Naledi area. His name is Nathan he is based out there for 3 years
working among the youth.
We started the day by visiting the PR manager for the Botswana
government’s relief loan scheme. He was a Christian and we had a great time of
fellowship and sharing together. That evening we were back in Old Naledi for a
prayer meeting. A prayer meeting is not the place where one would normally
expect to see a harvest of souls. As we got to halfway through the meeting the
local Pastor Henry felt that people needed salvation. He made a call for those
who would like to receive Jesus and 3 people raised their hands and got saved.
Thanks be to God. At the end of the meeting we were invited to pray for a young
man, a brother to one of the ladies who came to the Lord in the prayer meeting.
He got saved too.
Namibia (Land of Contrast) – Windhoek – Opuwo- Windhoek
Spent most of the day travelling. We saw the Lord’s faithfulness, as the
first plane we boarded had to land because of a suspected engine problem. When
the engineers looked at the engine it was fine, but there was a fuel leak. That
was an indication to us of the importance and the intensity of the second part
of the mission. When we finally got to the Namibia’s border, we were refused
entry because we needed a visa to preach in Namibia. God gave us favour and we
were allowed into the country without a visa, but allowed to preach. Despite
the delays we were able to make our connecting flight. We then had a 4-hour
drive with our host and two American missionaries to Opuwo. We arrived in time
for the Junior Secondary School CU meeting there were around 150 kids. Once
again we minister together sharing on Purpose and the fear of God. A call for
salvation was made and there were around 25 decisions for Christ. We left with
hope because the executive members of the CU seemed to be focused on follow up
and discipleship. We were privileged to meet a Christian teacher who was once a
member of the CU.
Thursday
The day started off with us visiting several villages and hamlets among
the Himba and Herero people. We must have visited around 8 villages/hamlets
maybe more. We worked in 3 teams. Each team was made of 2 missionaries and one
translator. Everywhere we went, we were well received and most of the time, the
people gathered around a tree or a central place in the community. At times we
had up to 15 people congregate and each time we saw many respond to the
salvation message. There were around 50 first time decisions for Christ maybe
more. The greatest joy for me was to see Christians who had given their lives
to the Lord on previous visits (from the Good News Church in Opuwo) and many
testified of God’s goodness. In one hamlet one of the teams met a woman who had
been healed of blindness and she was sharing her testimony with all the people
gathered round. One of the teams went to a village school and saw lots of
decisions for Christ too.
After this we headed back to our hosts house where over 30 kids gathered
to watch a preaching video from Hatfield Christian Church in South Africa. It
was amazing to see young people gather to hear God’s word. The Lord seems to
have taken hold of the hearts of the youth in Opuwo, which is a credit to the team
in Opuwo. Please continue to pray for the church in Opuwo.
We ended the day ministering to the students of the Senior Secondary
School. We saw around 15 - 20 kids come to the Lord we didn’t have translators
for this meeting because there understanding of English was very good. There
most have been about 80 – 90 kids, also in attendants were teachers their
families and other workers. We shared on getting rid of fear and laying hold of
purpose and we had a great number of testimonies of the impact of the message
on lives.
Woke up about 3am to start the journey back to the heart of Namibia. It
was a good trip back. We met up with our taxi driver who was heaven sent. He is
a Christian too and he served us and made us feel welcome. We then went to meet
with an influential local Pastor for lunch. It was very challenging and
insightful. The rest of the day we spent resting.
Still overwhelmed by our experience in Namibia we headed off to
Johannesburg on Saturday, then to Pretoria.
We spent most of our time here with a family who are in the process of
setting up a Non Governmental Organisation for the development of Africa by
working professionals. God honoured our time together and spoke quite prophetically
into some situations. On the Sunday we attended Elim Church in Pretoria. There
was a visiting evangelist from the US and through him God performed amazing
instanteous miraculous healings. Two people blind in one eye received their
sight, growths disappeared, partially blind eyes restored, demons cast out,
people released to the glory of God. It was a joy to see God move among His
people.
This trip has been for me a stirring in these areas
Thank you for your prayer support and encouragement.
We speak to Nations “Be open”.
