“Load shedding” (another name for rolling blackouts) has been a constant challenge during my time here in Harare. The wi-fi is powered by electricity, so when power goes out, internet does too. My room does not have a desk or table, so I have to work with the computer on my bed – but my bed is not close enough to the power point to be able to charge it while I am working. Which means that at the times when we do have power, I have to choose between charging the computer or working online. Hence no blog for the past couple of days, because I have just not been able to juggle the timing.
Over the last four days the church here has been holding a missions conference. It started on Thursday night with a dinner, at which I and an apostle from South Africa, and another guy (I think he was also an apostle, but not quite sure how he fitted in to the picture) were given opportunity to introduce ourselves and speak briefly.
Then on Friday night I was the guest speaker. It was a great meeting. I delivered a pretty heavy “take up your cross” type message, and at the end four people came out for salvation! Who says you have to sugar-coat the Gospel in order to get people saved?!
Yesterday I was not feeling very well – upset tummy and very, very tired. Power was out again, and I basically slept through the morning (mercifully it was a fairly cool day.) Samson and Valerie had planned to take Thomas (the guy from South Africa) and me out to a restaurant for lunch, but at that stage I really only felt like a sandwich, and wondered if I would even be able to handle that. Samson prayed for me, and said that we would just go for a sandwich and the restaurant could wait till today. But when we were on the way, I just felt the challenge of “Where’s your faith, girl?” I said, “No. We have prayed. I believe I have been healed. Let’s go to the place you had planned.” So we did, and had a very nice lunch, and I felt fine. Praise God.
Last night Thomas took the session, and again it was a powerful time in the Lord. This morning was the church service, still part of the conference, and I ministered again. There was an awesome anointing present, and a number of people were powerfully touched when they came out for prayer afterwards.
Tomorrow we are going to visit one of the outreach churches, about 100kms from here, and on Tuesday to the other outreach church, about 150kms away. Then on Wednesday morning I fly on to Zambia.
One ongoing concern has been my visa for Kenya/Uganda. I completed the online application over two weeks ago, but every time I have tried to pay for it online it refuses my card, even though I am entering everything correctly and my card details are the same as my application details. Another option they offer is to pay it through one of three different banks. When I was in Tanzania I tried to do it through one of those banks (the other two were not available) but they said they knew nothing about it and couldn’t do it. After trying – and failing – to pay with my card online every day for a fortnight, I finally had the idea to ask Adams if he could pay it at a bank in Kenya, and I would pay him back when I get there. He successfully made the payment on Thursday, but when I go to the site to complete the application, it is not recognising the payment. Adams has phoned them, and they have said they will fix it, but as I write the problem is still ongoing and I am running out of time to get the visa before I go on to Kenya on 13th. Prayer warriors, would you please pray into this situation for me.