After I returned from Uganda in December of 2017, I began to get requests from several Asian pastors, similar to the confirmation experiences I had with Kenya. For instance, I would encounter friends I had not seen for a while, and I began to notice that almost all the requests to visit Asia were from a specific area. Most of these pastors did not know each other, but I prayed and tentatively accepted invitations from two of the people, whom I did not know. They had watched what God had done through me in the villages in Africa, and they wanted those experiences brought to Asia as well.
I had to book 10 flights to cover all the places we were to visit for our three-week trip, and I had to coordinate with an African pastor who would be traveling with me. We met with our first host, JV, and his family in an airport. From there we traveled to a hotel.
Other than a couple of people I saw in the airport, I was the only Caucasian I saw for almost three weeks, and my friend was the only person I saw of African descent, save for a handful of people I saw in a major airport. People often glanced at me as I must have looked out of place, and a couple of small children cried when they saw me. Being white served me well in the villages of East Africa, where people tended to be very welcoming, and where it was perfectly acceptable to share the gospel with people. My uniqueness was a potential liability, however, where outsiders particularly Christians or Christian humanitarian groups are often not allowed. Christians have often been attacked, killed, or displaced, though not uniformly enough in practice to draw international attention. Most of the people I encountered were engaging and open to sharing good things about their nation, but the hotel manager where we stayed threatened to report us to the police just because he suspected we were not tourists, even though we had done nothing wrong.
We traveled across paved, windy roads through rice paddies adorned with coconut trees, occasionally passing man-made ponds used for fishing. Once we stopped in a village area and were warmly invited by villagers to come and share tea or soft drinks with them. They gathered all the neighbors to listen to the strange-looking men and have pictures taken with them. We prayed for some who were sick and saw pain leave a woman’s neck. Other neighbors in the area were not as receptive, and some even refused prayer.
During the first part of the trip, we mostly taught in a pastor’s conference where the pastors were so encouraged that they organized another conference in a remote area. At least 75 or more pastors attended the second conference, all of whom were poor and had little or no funds for transportation. I brought cash for the trip because I wanted to help cover our expenses so as not to burden the pastors. I converted my dollars into the local currency, and part of the money was used to feed the pastors and also give them some money for transportation, a practice which is not uncommon in Africa. Someone later told me we impacted the lives of around 150 pastors, and those pastors took our messages and preached them in their churches.
I had words of knowledge for five pastors at the first conference. I shared those words publicly to demonstrate the gifts and also to share stories about being led by the Spirit. This was both encouraging to them and very practical for me because I have learned to be flexible. I never know the situations I will face or what type of ministry I will be doing, even if I plan or have a general idea. On one occasion the Holy Spirit directed me to change my sermon while I was awaiting my turn to preach. My obedience resulted in an invitation to receive Christ, answered by 30 to 40 people.
One of the most significant reasons to be led by the Holy Spirit is in knowing how to reach people. In Africa, I had experienced many miracles but was confounded one time as to why a woman was not being healed from her headache. I stopped to ask God what was happening and I heard God tell me to have someone else pray. My obedience led to a village accepting Christ.
On this trip, I was immediately frustrated when I did not witness healings as I had seen in Africa. Was I the cause of this problem? I had traveled four flights to get to this place, and I wanted there to be fruitfulness. I certainly wanted to represent Jesus, especially in a country where Jesus needed to be shown as different from the numerous idols people worshipped. As we wrestled with the idea we realized people would come to me for prayer, go to another pastor, and come back to me for prayer. While I appreciated their persistence, the mindset seemed to be a combination of faith in the man of God combined with a desperate sense that maybe they would get lucky enough to have a prayer answered.
After some prayer, I focused on passages from Matthew 8 and 9. The believers in this church had Bibles and would shout the Bible passages aloud once the passages were given. I picked two rows of young ladies and asked them each to read a selected passage from Matthew 8 and 9. These verses all showed Jesus’ positive response to requests for healing, I wanted to show that Jesus was willing to heal, and I was hoping that realization would turn into faith on their part. This time there was a better response to healing prayers, and I asked other believers to pray for the sick instead of me. One such person was a young lady who was a fairly new believer. Both people for whom she prayed had positive manifestations of healing, but she still seemed very reluctant to pray, as if it were OK for me to pray but not her. Somehow this mindset needed to be broken.
Through prayer, I came to Ephesians 1, where it states that we have a spiritual inheritance. Though we have not fully received that inheritance in this life, we have a down payment in the form of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had promised in Act 1:8 that we would receive power through the Holy Spirit, power that would enable us to be His witnesses. That commission has not changed, nor has the need for us to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to be able to fulfill that commission.
The next day I used an illustration about someone coming to their village to announce that one of them had received a very large inheritance. The person who came to make the announcement told the person of the coming inheritance but kept the down payment for himself and spent it. I asked them what they would they think about the person who did such a thing. They said the person would be a thief. I shared with them how they have a down payment in the Holy Spirit, and that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are valid for this time. They won’t be needed in heaven. If the people allow the man of God to do everything, they allow themselves to be cheated out of the down payment of their inheritance. This revelation started to bring a breakthrough.
We left the airport for another city, where we were greeted by the family of another host, followed by a short trip to a village area. The son shared the testimony of how the father had been part of a group sanctioned by the government to persecute Christians. He had led a group of men with weapons to attack Christians at a crusade, but the message he heard touched his heart to the point that he could not start the attack. He became a Christian, went to Bible school, and now reaches the unreached.
The son was the only family member who spoke English fluently. The rest of the family understood English and could communicate somewhat, but the son served as our interpreter for the few days we were there. This was somewhat miraculous because the son “happened” to be available only for those few days before his exams, and because he was able to interpret the English of both an African and an American, no easy task.
Three of the days we traveled two or three hours each way to get to villages on the fringes of the tribal areas. We had planned on going to very remote tribal areas, but some governmental leaders had been killed just before we arrived, so our travels were limited to areas less remote. The farther we traveled, the bumpier and more winding the roads became, making travel slow, even for the rented SUV. The mother and daughter frequently would become car sick, an issue they normally did not have when they traveled by motorcycle. The pastors and believers in those remote villages walked for miles on foot but joyfully worshipped God with such pure devotion. The songs were unique to their culture, and even though I could not understand the language, there was a beauty in it that made the whole experience deeply touching.
One of the remote areas had to be reached on foot by crossing a stream. I took my shoes off and walked across, putting my shoes and socks back on when I reached the other side. The countryside with the rice fields in the valley, the hills and mountains, and the streams made a beautiful picture. We passed a family with small children loading rocks into a three-wheeled vehicle. They and other passersby looked at me somewhat suspiciously.
We entered a village and began to tell people about Jesus. My hosts and fellow believers did most of the talking, but they invited me to talk for a bit. One of the reasons we came to the village was because there was a family there that had a sick child. They stated that if God would heal the child they would join the church. We found the child but the parents had gone away for a short time. The woman who watched the child held the child out for us to pray for it. I prayed, inviting the kingdom of God to come into the body of the child, and I commanded the sickness to go. The child responded with a smile, and I think I remembered hearing later that the child is now well.
As I walked along a group of houses in another village I felt led to stop and talk to a woman (through an interpreter). She had some pain and a fever. I invited a small child to pray for the woman and the pain and fever decreased. We repeated the process at another home, this time with two children, with the same results. I try to involve children to train them in the kingdom and so people do not become dependent on the “man of God”.
People fed us well, something that was consistent through the whole trip, regardless of where we were. The food was always good, and the hosts tried to be sensitive over time to our response to the spices. One night we were in a village area, the service had been long, and we were facing at least a two or three-hour drive back home. After we finished the service we discovered the people had prepared a meal for us, and even though we were tired, I felt we needed to honor the people and their love in preparing the delicious meal for us, so we ate.
Because of the travel to the remote villages, we hired a driver and his SUV for several days. The driver was a young man but not a Christian. After being with us for a few days he decided he wanted to accept Christ. We went to his home and prayed with him and his wife for salvation and also for them to have a baby, something they had not yet been able to do.
Being in Asia was similar to being in Africa in some ways. There were poor slum and rural areas, a similar climate, and a people group where I was the clear minority. What made the most difference for me was the oppression of Christians and the inability for me to minister freely. I was used to approaching people in Western Kenya or Uganda to share the gospel, but I did not feel free to do so in Asia, not just for my sake, but out of consideration for my hosts. I felt awkward sitting in the vehicle when we stopped at a store, and I kept thinking how I would go talk to store owners in Kenya, yet I needed to watch what I said to people here.
Fortunately, there was a breakthrough for us one evening when we stopped at the relative of one of our hosts. We were invited to come in for tea, and there were about 12 family and friends that came in as well. The people were polite and asked for prayer. I started getting words of knowledge. I asked who had a headache and someone raised their hand. After we ministered to them I had a word for a woman close to my age. I had a picture of her working in a field as a child, doing a certain motion where she was raising both arms above her head. She told me it was true, saying she was lifting something up onto a cart. I shared that since I did not know her and yet God was sharing these things from when she was little, it showed that He knew her and cared about her then. It gave us an opportunity to pray with her and tell her about the true and living God.
One of the things I have learned while traveling to poor areas internationally is to be aware of how to pay for things. Many places where I travel will only take cash, and in one African capital city, I had to go to five banks before I found one that would take my card at an ATM. I did some research and discovered that there have been occasions where ATM machines did not have cash, so I determined to take a certain amount of cash which I would convert at the airport. Part of that amount was determined by trying to estimate with my hosts how much would be needed for that part of the journey, especially for those areas where we would be traveling to villages.
My host told me they had an immediate need for 300 Bibles, so we had planned on buying as many Bibles as I could afford. I stopped by a few banks to get cash. The Bible store only took cash, and I only had enough cash for 180 Bibles. I wanted more, so we prayed for God to somehow multiply the number of Bibles. When the owner of the bookstore learned that we were sending the Bibles to the tribal areas, he discounted the Bibles to the point where were purchased 60 more Bibles.
While we rejoiced in that miracle, I had no more cash and no way to get anymore. We no longer had the car the next morning, so we were going to have to go by faith the next week as we continued our journey with two other hosts. Thankfully the next host was not far away, and he was able to send his son with a vehicle to come for us. Later, however, I discovered that the hotel would not accept international transactions with my two different types of credit cards, even though the sign stated those cards were accepted. My host paid for the hotel and I had to reimburse him at a later time.
Sometimes it is difficult to say good-byes to people you with whom you grow close. We had fellowshipped, celebrated a daughter’s birthday and ministered to a group of young friends of another family member. We had gone through the streets in the village to pray for people and led some to Jesus. We saw a young driver and his wife give their lives to Christ. As we sat around, waiting for our ride, I found myself starting to cry. It was going to be difficult. When our ride came, I hugged our host and we both wept. Language difficulties are often not a barrier to love.
We arrived at our next host’s church on Sunday morning, just before the service. My African friend and I both preached and then went to the host’s house for lunch. That night we had an outdoor meeting where we preached, and I was privileged to help lead a couple of people to Christ.
The next night we went to a slum area with people who were largely uneducated. As I walked in I had children gather around me, greeting me and shaking my hand. We celebrated the birthday of a little girl, and I was able to dance with a young girl to some of the songs. Later I preached and was again able to lead someone to Christ.
The next day we went to the airport and flew back to our previous city, where we were picked up by another host and his son. It was about an hour drive to the village. This host was called by God to start a church in an area where people doubted a church could grow. Yet the church has grown and planted at least one other church. The first night we preached at a church dedication, and the next day we spoke briefly at the dedication of a new home. The home dedication truly was a celebration, with food, guest speakers, songs, and prayer. God had taken a family and blessed succeeding generations as they were faithful to Him, and they wanted to honor God.
There was also a child dedication at one of the services. During these dedications the child is given his first solid food, so we were tasked with praying over the child and helping to feed him. There were also birthday cakes on two of the nights as we celebrated the birthdays of children.
My African friend left a day before me, and as we took him back to the airport we stopped by the home of a pastor he had met in the USA. I immediately liked the man because he had the heart to reach the unreached people groups. This man has over 100 churches in tribal areas as well as numerous other ministries, and he invited me to come with him to reach the unsaved at a future date. He agreed with me that when big ministries come into a country and stay in a hotel in a large city, that is not a mission trip.
That evening I felt I was supposed to dedicate more time to the Holy Spirit. I preached about the need for the Holy Spirit, and we set aside some time to allow the Holy Spirit to move. People prayed in the Spirit, I spoke some prophetic words over the people, and I went around praying for them as they prayed. While I did not notice anything out of the ordinary, the son told me later that some people had a breakthrough in being filled with the Holy Spirit.
The next day my host and I visited about six homes. We prayed for people, and I felt almost like I was back in Africa, going from house to house. We returned for lunch, and later we departed for the airport where we said goodbye. I noticed that I had been bitten, possibly by a mosquito, and my arm was starting to swell. I took a picture of my arm and sent it to the prayer group and the family, asking them to pray. I held my arm up in the plane during the flight to a major city. When I arrived and mentioned it to my next host. He took a picture of my arm and sent it to a doctor friend of his, who prescribed an oral tablet and a topical cream.
During the trip through the city, I had a great conversation with this host. He had been abandoned by his father as a child and was raised by his Christian mother. He understood what it was like to be on the streets. He told me he started having dreams at age three, and how Jesus appeared to him later when he was young. God has used him prophetically and in many other ways. We both agreed that prophecy is a response to what God is saying, and we also agreed that we do not like showmanship in casting out demons, or having a question and answer session with demons. They just need to leave.
My new host had been in that major city for several years and had seen many changes in the city. He showed me a park where female prostitutes would hang out for business. Later there was a different spot for male prostitutes whose services could be purchased either by males or wealthy females. The way he described it reminded me of a modern-day Sodom.
My new host insisted on booking me into a hotel. He felt that I deserved a place to rest and he wanted to bless me. We stopped at the local pharmacy and bought my prescription, making sure I did not get out of the vehicle and driving the price higher. Then they brought me to a comfortable hotel for a good night’s sleep. This host was known throughout the city as being crazy because of the things he did. He redeemed at least six young females as young as age 12 who were being auctioned. He raised them until adult age and many of them are now married. He has rescued many babies that were left outside the hospital to die, praying and nursing them to life. He feeds street people and has prison ministries for male and female adults as well as for juveniles. He had so many stories I later regretted not recording them. I would not have had the patience to write them down and I am certain I would not remember the details.
We headed to his house for lunch. During the drive, he continued to share how he had a home for people in the last stages of their life, and how he housed children with multiple mental and physical disabilities that no one else would care for. After a wonderful lunch from his wife, my host had those children quietly come into the room and sit on the floor.
What I saw was nothing less than a miracle. There were at least ten children with multiple disabilities who were not medicated. I have never seen clients with those disabilities sit so quietly for so long, even with medication. My host and others pray for the children, and he told me that these children know when God is speaking. I gave sweets to the children and prayed over them. We then left for the airport to begin my final three flights home.
There were challenges on this trip. On the way there, I went three days before I was able to sleep in a bed. I had bug bites at the beginning of the trip that swelled and turned into sores. I had bites at the end of the trip that caused my arm to swell. Two government leaders were killed in a tribal area, resulting in our not going to the most remote areas. We ran out of cash and my credit cards were not accepted at a hotel. It has taken days for my body to recover from the trip.
Was the trip worth it? I received a call telling us how 150 pastors were impacted on the first part of our trip. Several people accepted Christ. Many people were healed from fevers and other issues, and Bibles were sent to tribal areas and villages. The best test will be the long-term effect of kingdom growth in that region.
The needs there are great and varied, partly due to the multifaceted ministries. There are orphanages, prison ministries, Bible schools, evangelism, and sewing schools. The pastors need many Bibles for the growing congregations, they need transportation for the ministry in remote areas, and they need water filters and solar lights to provide basic needs we often take for granted. Because Bibles are inexpensive there, and because it is such a common need for almost all the pastors, I have committed to helping provide more Bibles as we investigate how we can help in other areas as well.