find the forgotten

I'm sitting in an airconditioned office in a 5 star hotel, having just sat near a sunny beach off the Indian Ocean while sipping a chocolate milk-shake and reading my Bible. No, I didn't check into this hotel, just wanted to get online, and sad to admit it costs about $10 per hour to use this computer but you are worth it. Across the street is where I've been staying, which is just a 5-6 minute walk but the walk seems like a trek across the earth. In stark contrast to the elite surroundings I currently see I pass by cripples, beggars, and orphan children who play in the trash for fun hoping to find a new toy.

Welcome to the emerging paradox of Africa. I loved the journals of David Livingston and the others that went through this land when it was untouched and raw untamed, but now in Africa of the 21st century lions don't walk around on the streets they are kept in game reserves, village people live in huts yet posses radio devices and can walk to a thatched roof shop and get a Coke (a warm Coke, but a Coke nonetheless) and I may add Coke is in more places than the Church is. Having a piece of technology and the occasional cold drink across the street has provided me a sense of being "back home" around the holidays, trying to stay in touch and enjoy the wonderfully natural beauty of Mozambique.

My eyes have seen now thousands of villages on the 4 day drive from South Africa to northern Mozambique. Potholes, gravel roads, and a cop who said I was speeding only to gain his pocket cash (thief!) made an interesting drive. I arrived weary and tired, having pulled over and sleeping in a tent wherever we found a patch of dirt. We did find a house along the way via a Mozambiquan friend I met in SA, and as he hosted me in his small home his mother said the night before God gave her a dream that a white man would come to her house. I quickly adopted her as another spiritual mother and asked her to always remember me in prayer knowing I need people who walk in the Spirit to pray for me. I was encouraged knowing that surely the Lord had a reason for me to be here.

The next few days of the week found me a bit disappointed as I wanted to attend a conference by Iris Ministries here, only to find the dates I was given were wrong and I had missed it. That's where the short walk to the beach became a daily occurrence, and have had hours of time freely given for prayer. Not even so much have I loved God as much as just sit and let Him love me. That has been wonderful beyond words. Slowly I just allow myself to see myself as He sees me, and just wait upon Him for all the things I need to hear and know from Him. My Jesus has spoken, though not always with English but with words of heart and emotion.

Then, suppressions, amidst a few days of no direction the door flew wide open to go into the bush for 3 days with Heidi Baker, a hero of mine. I was able to see villages transformed by the power of God, to see a deaf child hear and to see Africans in a largely muslim province pray through the night in adoration of the Son of God. I was able to preach and teach on Fatherly love to the hungry villagers where the gospel has only been planted for 10 years. I slept in a tent in a village, ate the food they cooked and became a theme park for dozens of little kids who touched my skin as though I was from another world. Throwing kids to the air, hugging everyone I could, trying to learn as many Portuguese greetings as I could made for a slow but steady immersion into the world of the African village. I was able to meet her and received a great impartation from the laying on of hands and prayer...Praise the Lord!!!

As of now, I'm still waiting on open doors. But I don't pass by all the chances along the way. That's why I can say Find the Forgotten isn't and likely won't be an organization; it's who I am. I can't say I ever want to build an orphanage, but I do want to build up orphans. Somehow I've been able to gather with Australians, the Engish and Irish, Dutch, Canadians and so many others who have left their lands to come here. Together there have been chances for so much one on one ministry and fellowship, to build up the saints for the work of harvest.

Pray for me, that I may go into more villages while here. Also, please pray as it crushes my heart to leave such regions...I wish so deeply for the Lord to plant me as an oak of righteousness in His riverbed on the stream He wants(psalm ch.1); which I believe is amongst the forgotten. Point blank truth is I feel like I need to begin to "pick" a group of people that someday I can settle, learn their language and bring the gospel where men have never heard the name of Jesus. Pray for me.