Ministry in Mapatizya

Thank you so much for all of your prayers as our family joined the Advanced Missions Training students heading into the bush last week.  We were gone 5.5 days and traveled 12 hours round trip on some bumpy roads as we went to find people to share Christ's love with.  We ended up in the community of Mapatizya in the Simwatachela chiefdom.  As I mentioned before, the hills in this area contain a massive amethyst supply and the majority of the people we ministered to were miners or had a business somehow connected to "the stones".  We literally picked up beautiful purple rocks all around the soccer field that became our campground and the roads were sparkling with amethyst and quartz rocks.  It was a beautiful area and very green in comparison to the dry, dusty area near our base.

Dan and I served the team in various ways – I oversaw meal preparations and Dan did all the technological set up to show the Jesus Film two of the nights we were there.  We also took turns alternating who stayed in camp with the kids and who went hiking to do hut to hut evangelism/ministry with the students that day.  Miesha  and Titus did great and really seemed to have fun although there were some challenges as we had an audience of between 20-75 kids most of the day who just wanted to hang out and watch us!  (have you ever washed your hair using cups of water and a bucket while 75 people stare and giggle at you?!)

It was an amazing experience.  The headman of the area came the final night we were there and told us that people were coming to him all week sharing of the truth they heard from us, their new life in Christ, their freedom from demonic spirits, and of the healing they received as our teams prayed for them.  He gave us an invitation to come back any time to minister – we truly had great favor in the area.  Hundreds of children gave their lives to Christ after a school program, hundreds of people came forward to receive salvation after we showed the Jesus Film, and many of the huts we hiked to had people with hearts that were prepared in advance to hear the gospel and respond to the news of their Savior's great love.

We marked locations on our GPS as we hiked and made relational connections with leaders in the area as Overland intends to begin doing formal ministry here within the next year.

There are SO MANY stories, but I'll share just a few highlights this time so that this can get out to you.  I promise to share more stories soon here on this blog.

One afternoon, we were hiking and came to a hut where an older lady, her adult son, and several young ladies were.  They invited us to share with them and we sat down in the dust in the shade of their big tree and talked for about an hour.  The Advanced Mission Training students took turns sharing about creation, fall, our great need for a Savior and what Christ accomplished on the cross to restore us back to God.   Their hearts were already softened and they joyfully accepted Jesus as their Savior.  We asked if we could pray with them for anything, and the older lady asked for prayer for pain in her body.  As we prayed over her, her joints moved and popped.  When we were finished, she stood up and danced as she was completely pain free! She is with us in the above picture.

This next testimony was written by one of our students:
"My favorite story from this time of ministry is the story of Chris ‘Cucumber’, his last name was a Tonga name which meant cucumber but I have no hope of actually spelling the Tonga name. Chris was a witch-doctor, who began his career 16 years ago because of a dream he had in which a spirit came to him and told him to gather some materials and make charms and use them to heal people. In this dream he was also told that one day some people would come to him and tell him about God and spirits, when we came he said we were those people. We first met Chris on Tuesday as we traveled through the village in a team of five. We talked with him for a time and learned about his past and what he did, we shared what we believe about Jesus. On Wednesday we went back to Chris’ house and brought along Pastor Jake to aid in our conversation. He explained the difference between good and evil spirits and articulated the power of Jesus and the need to follow Jesus and Jesus alone. By the end of the conversation we had not appeared to make very much progress but we had spoken truth and done what we could to plant the seed.

Saturday morning as we were packing the truck to head out, Chris came up and asked to speak with a couple of us from the team that had visited his hut. We asked him what he wanted and he told us he wished to accept Jesus as his Lord and to follow Jesus and Jesus alone. With the assistance of Pastor Dragon, a local Tonga pastor who partners with Overland, we made sure he understood the decision he was making and he was sincere in his desire. Then we helped him to pray to accept Jesus and we encouraged him. I am so thankful for this opportunity and for the chance to have partaken in the salvation of Chris 'Cucumber'." - Jonathan

It is such a privilege to serve in Africa and a delight to meet so many people who are ready to respond to the gospel.  Honestly, we just show up, share God's love and many respond.  When we pray for healing, God often answers and I continue to be in awe. 

We are excited to continue investing our lives into these students and seeing all God has for them in the next 10 weeks! 

On another fun note, we were surprised by a large donation towards our house project last week and we are now at 92%of the finances we need to build our home in Zambia.  I am SO SO SO excited!!!!  Thank you to all of you who have given towards our building fund.  We talked through house plan details with the president and he and Dan are taking a walk today to finalize the site where we hope to build.  Dan has been doing a lot of work to make our tent more livable in the season we still have left until the house is ready and now we are excited to officially start to build our house project SOON.

If you'd like to contribute towards the house fund, go to www.overlandmissions.com/donate  and put "Hartley house fund" in the MEMO line.

Thank you for your love and prayers for us and your generosity to us - we couldn't do any of this without you!