The Power of Prayer
Africa Mission Trip from Washington, D.C.
November 2007
Where do we start? There are no words to describe what one experiences in Africa. We felt God’s hand in every event and every gathering from the onset of the trip. We were in Africa for a total of 2 plus weeks and spent about a week in Zambia and about another week in Congo. Our schedule was packed: trips to the market to preach the love of Christ publicly to anyone that would listen; visitations to private homes to reach out to church members and strangers alike and share with them the Word of God; traveling to the Bush called Munguli where the people did not have much but they impressed us with their amazing voices and their love for God and their thirst and hunger for the Word (and where one of the missionaries, who shall remain unnamed, got a marriage proposal with a dowry of 30 cows!!); visiting the orphan’s school in Lusaka; visiting the little piece of heaven called Kasisi orphanage established by Catholic nuns; meeting with servants from Co
ngo that drove 1500 kilometers on their BICYCLES to come and see us; praying liturgies; prayer meetings; praise and worship meetings; sharing Quiet Time; and last but not least Bible studies.
One thing no one can deny throughout the whole trip was the power of prayer. Each and every one of us felt and saw the amazing power of prayer. Prayers that heal, prayers of tears, prayers that made the impossible possible, prayers of worship and joy and much much more. We saw God working in us, in other people and in circumstances beyond our control as a direct result of prayer. Documenting each of the instances where we saw God’s hand working as a result of prayer would be virtually impossible but two particular incidents will be hard to forget.
The first was on our second to last night in Congo, Bishop Paul and the 7 “Abousas” (which is how the Zambians say “abouna”), decided to have an overnight prayer at St. Mark’s Church where all the people of the seven Coptic Orthodox churches in Congo were invited. Our group got there around 9 p.m. to find the church PACKED with over 100 people. Men and women of all ages, children and even infants were there to participate in this night of worship. We prayed, shared the Word of God and sang fiery songs of praise and worship and we could honestly feel the presence of Jesus Christ in our midst. At one point in the night a spirit of sleepiness hit us all- our group, the congregation, everyone- but God was good as always and used this opportunity for His glory. We started to sing a fiery song to lift our spirits up and to fight the temptation to sleep when slowly the congregatio
n, the Fathers, and our group began circling the church in praise and worship. No words can describe the scene. Pictures and videos don’t do it justice. We felt we were in heaven. We could see God’s face smiling up in the heavens at this sight. All the men, women and children, young and old were circling the church, rejoicing and proclaiming the glory of our awesome God. We felt the Holy Spirit fill us up. We felt joy. We felt peace. We felt God. The remaining events of the night were equally glorious. We went back “home” at around 5 a.m. and even though we hadn’t slept and were tired, we received a blessing that each one of us would trade off for sleep any day.
The second incident was on our way back to Zambia from Congo. Abouna Abraham woke us all up very early in the morning to make sure that we were all packed in the bus and ready to go by 5 a.m. The Fathers had been very careful to rent a huge BRAND NEW bus for us to go to Congo to make sure that we wouldn’t have any technical or mechanical difficulties since that seemed to be a common problem with any trip to the Congo. Nevertheless, the bus wouldn’t start that morning. Instead of going back into the building where we were staying, some of us went to get help to fix the bus and the rest of us remained on the bus to pray. The Quiet Time reading the day before had reminded us to rejoice in the Lord at all times and so, even though we were up early after a long and tiring week and even though we were stuck on the bus with no prospects of leaving anytime soon, we bowed our heads in thanksgiving and prayers filled with joy for God’s unfailing love and wonderful deeds. What was strange was that despite the unfavorable conditions, each one of us prayed with confidence knowing that God would find a way out for us and the majority of prayers focused on thanking Him, praising Him and glorifying Him, as opposed to asking Him to get us out of this particular situation. Then, miraculously, when everyone on the bus had prayed and as the last person was finishing praying, the bus started! We all rejoiced and thanked God for being a faithful and awesome God. Even more amazing is what we heard from those who were trying to fix the bus while we were praying. They told us
that even though they went out and got help and try to jumpstart the battery and made several attempts to revive the bus, nothing worked and all of a sudden (at the point where we were about to finish praying) the bus started!
We honestly felt God working in us and through us each and every day, hour and minute. We felt God’s love manifest itself amongst the missionaries that lived there, amongst us and in the true fellowship within the group. We experienced the meaning of being poor but rich in the Spirit. We shared things we never imagined we would share with each other before, like bedrooms, bathrooms, clothes, toiletries- you name it- but all of that allowed us to experience the Lord in such a personal and deep way. The Holy Spirit is working a hundred fold and a thousand fold in Africa. May God continue to bless the mission and all those who are working in it. In the meantime, just as any person who has gone on a mission trip will tell you, you can hear about God’s amazing work and how He changes lives on missions, but you will never be able to understand it fully, unless you go and see for yourself.
