My throat has been improving over the last couple of days. I’m still coughing but not quite as much, and my throat no longer feels like I have been swallowing razor blades.
The past two days I have been ministering with one of our most long-standing affiliated pastors, Pastor Charles. He joined the network around 15 years ago, so it has been really great to meet him in person.
We have had two meetings, one on Thursday night at Divinity Church in West Point, which is Pastor Charles’ main church. Three people responded for salvation, and one for recommittment. One lady testified that when she came to the meeting she had chest pain, but as I was preaching she felt God touch her and the pain went. Praise God for His awesome power.
Yesterday we had a morning meeting at Brewerville, where Pastor Charles operates a school for 108 children. When they first went to this area there was no school in the community, so it is a real blessing that they have been able to provide education for these kids.
Brewerville is around 2 hours drive from Pastor Mac’s home. He had a funeral he had to attend, so he drove me into town where we met Pastor Charles and continued from there in a kik-kik (tuk-tuk).
The meeting was supposed to be for pastors and leaders, but I gave a salvation call at the end of my message anyway – and sixteen people responded! This was almost half the congregation.
This anointing for salvations is growing. Last month the total for the month was 27, for the first two weeks of this month it is already up to 26, with one more meeting to go. I love what God is doing, but it has totally baffled me. I am not an evangelist. My call is to the Church, not to the lost. And, as I have said before, I usually don’t preach “salvation” messages, but rather fairly strong messages to the Body of Christ – and yet people respond.
But yesterday afternoon the Lord gave me a bit of an insight into it. As I thought about the fact that sixteen people out of a gathering that was supposed to be for Christian leaders had not been born again, I found myself wondering, How many people are there in our churches who go through all the motions, sing the songs, do the stuff, but have never entered in to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ – and are therefore heading toward an eternity without Him? That thought makes me very sad. Then I realized (I won’t say God spoke, but I know He was the one behind the revelation) – my calling to the Church includes calling the Church to Christ. How can she ever fulfill her destiny of becoming like Him, when so many of her members don’t even know Him?
My time here in Liberia is almost over. They are having a farewell meeting for me tomorrow afternoon, then on Monday it’s off to Kenya for the last two weeks of the trip – this kinda feels like going home before I go home. Looking forward to seeing Adams, Mary and the kids again, and to the ministry there. I’m sure they will keep me busy.
Meanwhile, I have begun preliminary planning for my next trip, which will be to visit our Asian pastors at the end of this year into the beginning of next year.