The past 4 days...

     These last four days have been pretty amazing. More memories than I  can even count. So I'll start with the fun then end with the amazing ministry!                      Monday we passed out tracks around the Esso Village of Arusha. The Smoaks started a church right in the middle of this village. I love the people of this village. They are so friendly and just ready and willing to learn about God. Of course there were times we would talk to certain people and they used not nice slurs with us. I'm just glad we didn't understand them. But those are the ones we are trying to reach so badly. Everything you see on TV about Africa is true, but about 10 times worse. I've seen it on TV and in movies, but when i saw it with  my own eyes it was heart breaking. Tanzania is such a poor country. People  literally live in shacks. and i cant even explain how bad it is. It's worse than shacks. You just honestly have to see it. Trash is just piled in the streets. There are rats running around and even dead rats in the streets. And the roads are dirt, not concrete. Only in the more advanced areas is there concrete roads. Barefoot kids running around in the filth, no telling where their parents are. It just surreal. And we can't take pictures because it makes them very angry.        Later Monday  afternoon we headed to the Haven Nature Camp about 3 hours outside of Arusha. It was quit the journey. African roads are terrible! But supposedly it was considered a "good" road. We stopped and shopped along the way and got all of our souvenirs out of the way then headed back down the road. All along the road to the crater their we're Maasai tribal people and Maasai warriors. The warriors are considered protectors of the tribes and are very aggressive and DO NOT like their pictures taken! One of our girls on another jeep took a picture of one and the warrior threw his SPEAR at the jeep! All of our jeeps decide to STOP to check it out and my jeep was in the lead. So our jeep is turned around looking at the the others and then we turn around... Then next thing I know there is a PACK of Maasai Warriors in all black and white painted faces RUNNING straight toward our Jeep with spears in hand and in the air as if they are about to throw them. I was scarred for dear life!!! So as everyone is pushing their windows closed, mine is BROKE and would NOT close!!! I seriously thought I was gonna die! So, Dullah (our driver who was awesome!) said, "OK! We go!" and pulls off so fast! I was terrified!!! They are crazy! It was like a "Welcome to Africa" moment! It was hilarious but terrifying all at the same time.  ;) when we arrived at the camp some people got tents and some got rooms. Me and my roommate, Elizabeth, got a room, thank God! ;) our room was small and we had to sleep with nets over our beds to keep out mosquitoes. There were SO many bugs! we probably would of been better off staying in a tent! And their was a gegco in our bathroom! A Gegco! (lizard) ahhhh! Another "welcome to Africa" moment. ;) but the camp was absolutely beautiful! On a mountain top, and the weather was beautiful. Just kinda cold at night! We had a huge Bon fire one night at the camp and our waiter told us stories of himself and his tribe growing up. He went on to tell us just how important education was to his tribe. In America kids don't even want to go to school. Here in Africa, the only chance of leaving their tribe is by going to school, even without the families blessings. And he wanted to leave his tribe, so he was accepted to school and did exceptional well. He now starts university in the fall and is VERY excited! Kids here are literally begging to go to school. And not all of them can, it's so different from the states. We also had performers from the Maasai tribe perform a series of tribal dances. It was so fun! They called us up and we danced tribal dances around the fire. It was just an honest and good time. The tribal people were a blast!       Tuesday we went to the Nogorongoro Crater for an all day safari.  Which it was so cold!!! Considering this is Africa's "winter" on top of the crater it was probably about 40-45 degrees! So cold!  The Nogorongoro Crater is basically a huge "crater" like hole in the ground surrounded by mountains and rainforest. It's a huge ecosystem in itself. It is part of the "Great Rift of Africa".  It was amazing, I still can't comprehend I was there! We saw everything! Wildebeest, zebras, flamingos, warthogs, ostriches, elephants, hippos, water buffalo, gazelles and lions and a lot of others I probably left out! It was truly the opportunity of a life time. Oh! And baboons that could eat your face off! They were a little mean! But So funny! They take over the road and like, don't move! And if you "shew" them off your safari jeeps, they will chase you! And grab at your legs! ;) We had a very rare chance to see a pride of lions feeding on a Water buffalo they just killed. It was some Discovery Channel stuff we were seeing with our own eyes!  It was amazing. I got great pictures! We stopped to eat lunch at the "Hippo Pool" in the crater, and it literally a big pond of Hippos! They were everywhere! Just barely popping their heads above the water just watching us. The safari was a chance in a lifetime thing. And it was beyond amazing! So glad we saw everything there was to see in the crater. This was an all day event, and we got back to the Nature camp at around 6 then had dinner. And by the way, the food has been really good! Definitely not what i expected. Now, some meats are questionable....but other than that NOT BAD. ;)      So we had the "fun jeep" as we called it! Nicole, Julianne, Gordon, Jessica, Jennifer, Zachary, Tabitha, and myself. We had so much fun the 3 days we had the jeep! The whole time driving down the road we had the roof popped open and we were "Jamboing" saying "HI" in Swahili to EVERYONE we saw on the road, which was a lot of people! And with that, I have lost my voice! But it was worth it. ;)  Dullah our driver just thought we were the funniest people! He was laughing with us so hard, he was crying! He said, "the Americans are in town and they are crazy!" we loved Dullah. And I totally got him  to call the hogs! I'll have to put the video on Facebook! ;)      Wednesday we left the Haven nature camp and headed to Majenga Kia which is where one of the churches in the UPCT (United Pentecostal Church of Tanzania) is. The church is right in the middle is a Maasai village which is really cool. Luckily no warriors! ;) The village was located right between Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro! But it was too cloudy to see either one :(  So we set up tents right in front of the big church tent. Yes, TENTS. (pics of all this to come) We slept on the hard ground, and had to go to the bathroom  in a hole.  I said I wanted the whole African experience, and now I can say I truly got it! My first service here in Africa was a kids church service in the village. I couldn't even contain my joy when I was in there with the children worshipping ONE God, (when many of the tribes believe in many God's) and praying and singing his praise, I cried the WHOLE TIME. No lie. But this day Tabitha and I taught the lesson "Daniel in Lions Den" to the kids. It seems appropriate. ;)  We had big pictures that illustrated the story  and you would think they had never seen it before. Their eyes just lit up every time we would turn the page. We had to speak through an interpreter which was pretty cool ;) It was just an awesome experience. I absolutely love the kids. They are so playful and sweet! After the kids crusades we had our evening service. I was so humbled to be at the service with all the people I cried the whole time too. I've pretty much been a ball bag through out all these services. I'm just so humbled to be here. It's just the coolest thing to see these people worship, the same God I worship. The one and ONLY God. I just can't contains my tears! Even while typing out my blog!         Let me tell you, African people KNOW HOW TO WORSHIP! They dance for HOURS before the Lord! Just worshiping and crying and smiling. They are so happy and so free. They love the Lord so much. I asked a preacher why they dance so much and for so long, his response was this, "David DANCED before the Lord. The Lord loved David very much, and he danced. So they dance before the Lord." We jumped, and danced and shouted and just had one SPECTACULAR worship service. Their worship services probably last at LEAST an hour and a half to 2 hours! But they love the Lord so much, so it's all they want to do. They had another service that started at 10 o'clock at night! And went on well passed midnight! People were sleeping in the church tent just so they wouldn't miss it! It was their fourth service that day! It's like, WOW.  So wednesday was a beautiful day. But we didn't have showers out there and we all were SO dirty! Africa has red dirt, so my TOMS are officially dyed red!  I think we all gave up on looks like the second day here anyways. There's NO way to stay clean here. You can only imagine the locals. Its heart breaking. I also learned a new game called ninja that I can't hardly wait to take back to my youth!       So thursday I think I'm on?... ;) I got absolutely NO sleep the 2 nights while camping in the Maasai Village. But, it was a fun experience. So anyways! Thursday we headed out into the Majengo Kia area and around the "market". We spilt up in groups and started distributing tracks to locals. My group was with Brother Jury (our chaperone) and an assistant pastor of the church there, and there was 6 in my group. We started handed out tracks and it got crazy. I was not scarred while in the Esso Village back in Arusha, but here it was a very different story. Walking down the streets you could honestly feel the evil spirits. I've never experience anything like that before. I tried not to let my fear take over so I started quoting 2 Timothy 1:7 over and over again. Men were doing very inappropriate things as we girls walked by, and they had camera phones held up in our faces screaming things at us. I had no idea what they were saying but I know it wasn't good. We stopped to do a "street service" here (which I was still freaked out) and in the service one girl testified. While she was testifying a huge circle crowed us and people were cramming in as close as they could to us. A man held his camera in my face the whole we were talking. We started to sing "Set a Fire" and I'm telling you the very second we started singing the crowd swarmed us! People kept getting closer and closer and closer. Men were pulling us and trying to grab our hands, they were literally hanging on us. All I could do was keep singing that sweet song. As we sang the crowd got EXTREMELY intense. It was mainly men in the entire area since its a mining town. They were screaming at us, and videoing us. The evil spirits got very heavy during this time. I was so scarred. I tried hard not to be but it was very intense. The pastor finally said we need to leave. So the crowd FINALLY broke and us girls walked holding hands while looking down at the ground. We turned down a road that was filled with hundreds and hundreds of men. But we had to go down this road to get to our meeting spot. The evil spirits were so heavy here. Major spiritual warfare. The men continued trying to pull on us and take our pictures. The men were yelling dirty things at us, as if they'd never seen a girl before. I still kept quoting that Scripture and grabbed my prayer cloth that my church gave me. The good Lord protected us. He truly had his hands on us that day.       We had problems with immigration in this city. They did not think we had the right to be in the village, so we had to stop. We still handed out tracks while walking to the bus station. But I could tell we were NOT wanted there. Like I said the spiritual warfare in this town was so strong. SO, so strong. They want to start a church in the area, I truly believe thats why it was so strong. The devil has his dirty grip on so many people there.       This night we had church. And boy did we ever have church!! Brother Jury spoke on repentance. The alters were full of people praying and seeking after the Lord. We had 4, Maasai tribe members to receive the Holy Ghost. FOUR! It was worth all the spiritual warfare we fought! Because one of the tribe members who came paid all he had to get a taxi to the tent because he was handed a track in the streets that very same day by one of us. THATS PLANTING SEEDS PEOPLE!  You may not think the little things you do count, but do they ever! FOUR Maasai tribe members, who worship many Gods! Prayed through to the one and ONLY God, and were filled with the HOLY GHOST! That made all this passed year of struggling and the nightmares and the panic attacks, it made it worth it! Seeing the Maasai people speak in tongues, made it SO much more worth it than I ever imagined! Now they can take this back to their tribe and I pray they listen! One of the tribe members told the preacher His heart was racing and racing and racing. And he was speaking a language he had NEVER heard before. He said he felt so free and happy. THATS THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST FRIENDS! Also, a lame child was healed! The child could not walk, and though I couldn't understand the language, when the preacher was praying for his legs while his mom held him, then that child WALKED OUT OF THE CHURCH with a huge smile on the moms face, I knew exactly what had happened!  Hallelujah!       So this morning we packed up camp and couldn't wait to get back to the hotel! And the showers! and a toilet at that!! It was Heaven ;) But still so glad I had the experience of  camping in Africa for 4 nights! So we got back, SHOWERED! And i know its gross, but we sponged bathed for  3 days! A Motel 8 would of been Heaven to us! ;) We had Kid and adult crusades back at the Esso Village church today. They children's church went off with a bang! So many kids showed up outside the church where the service was held. When it was alter call we started praying for the kids.       A Muslim girl came to the crusade and started praying at the alter, she was probably around 9 or 10. We prayed and prayed over her and her family. I don't know who sensed it but someone felt something on her so they took her into the church. The muslim girl told the pastor (who translated for us) that she had been having nightmares that scary things (demons) were chasing her. When they finally caught her they would throw her into a coffin and she could not get out. We continued to pray hard over her. But let me go back! Cause this one dealt personally with me. ...I noticed a girl that was standing by the gates of the church yard just watching the alter call. She had tears in her eyes. She was probably about 12-13. I kept watching her. My spirit was so heavy for her. She finally walked up beside me to the front. (keep in mind we were outside in the church yard) When she walked up I immediately laid my hands on her head and started praying for her. The SECOND i touched her, she somewhat passed out on the ground, and sprawled out and started shaking. I knew exactly what was happening. But I was not leaving her. I was motioning for some of the ladies to help me. We carried her into the church and laid her on the floor. She was shaking and convulsing. I immediately started rebuking spirits in the name of Jesus! Some other AYCer's noticed and came to pray also. I knew this girl was possessed. I knew I would see demonic possession but I didn't know it would be for someone I personally first starting praying for. She looked me right in the eyes in between one of her attacks and at that moment I realized just how strong of a hold the devil held on her. Her eyes were screaming for help. But she could make a word. I was so scarred but never once let my spirit show it. I prayed for power and annoying in the name of Jesus. And I know He gave it to me! I held her hand the whole time through her attacks and convulsions. This demon made her so sick and she was violently vomiting. She was shaking and was clawing my hands but I would not let her go. We rebuked demons for the next hour out of this girl. She would calm and we would start thanking the Lord then she would convulse again. The demon was so strong. The Lord truly gave me and my friend Tabitha anointing during this fight.... The muslim girl was also possessed. We prayed and prayed for her. She was screaming so loud it was nerve rattling. She was trying so hard to run she was clawing us. She laid out on the ground and was shaken so violently. At one point both of the girls were being attacked and they tried so hard to get to each other. They were fighting us to touch each other. I don't know what was happening here  but I know it was the demons. We prayed as long as we possibly could for them. I have never in my entire life felt such an anointing and power in my prayers then I did with these girls. I know it was all from the Lord. When the pastor finally came in he had immediate control over these demons, and at this point he asked us to leave. We left before I could find the girl I started praying for,  but I pray for her tonight and for the Lord to give her a peace in her spirit. Lord give her rest and peace! Rebuke the spirits! The Muslim girl told the interrupter that she felt delivered from her nightmares.        Let me repeat my self on these girls...They weren't even over the age of 15 and the devil had that much of a hold on them. I can only imagine how many more there are. There are so many people that need reached, so many demons that need rebuked. The devil has such a strong hold on these kids at as young as 10. Please friends, I BEG of you! Pray the seed we sow here grows and prospers! Pray that EVERY chain the devil holds on these people is broken and released!!!  It's so easy to not think about it because your not here. But happening all around us! And there are so many people that need us. I don't want to leave till they are all touched. Is that too much to ask?      Africa has been so much more than I thought possible. My heart is here and will forever be here and with the African people.       Until next time...