MIRACLE ON AN AFRICAN SAFARI
I must
admit that I didn't rough it much on my first trip to Africa. Actually
it was a planning trip for my first mission to Kenya, leading a group
from Grace Point along with a team from Houston Northwest Baptist. But
God taught me an amazing lesson on the trip, experiencing what I
consider a miracle and encouraged me that I was on the right course and
in his will.
I had recently
taken the missions pastor position at Grace Point in San Antonio, moving
from Hyde Park in Austin where I'd spent 20 years on staff. I had to
fill some high expectations as it was Grace Point's vision that everyone
in the church go global at least once in five years. So our first trip
to Africa needed to be a success to give us some momentum.
I
traveled to Africa with Pastor Dwight Davis from Houston Northwest
Baptist. We stayed in a 3 bedroom lodge at a large national park in
South Africa north of Johannesburg. We were joined by two other pastors
from Africa, one from Kenya and the other from South Africa and we
spent three days planning our mission trip and how we were to help
an orphanage in Kenya.
On the second day we got to
experience a picture safari, no guns on this trip. So we
loaded up in a Range Rover which had three bench seats, open air for
great viewing of the amazing creatures.
The three other pastors jumped
in the top row, which left me to sit on the second row with a couple I
didn't know, a mother and son from Scotland. The son was about 30 years
of age and this was their dream vacation that they had been planning
for years. And the safari was the highlight of this trip of a lifetime.
We
took off and made our way through the park stopping to see zebras,
giraffe, rhinos and all sorts of animals and birds. Near the end of the
trip we pulled up along side of a mother lion and her cubs, which were
just off the road about 15 yards away. We were instructed to stay in
the vehicle and not to make any sudden moves. We were very exposed,
with no top to the Range Rover, so it was an exhilarating, yet unnerving
experience.
During the safari which was about two hours
long, I got to know the couple beside me. I talked mostly with the son
and soon found out that he had become a Mormon about two years
earlier. I asked him questions about his faith and then shared what
some of the differences were between my Christian faith and
Mormonism. I told him the biggest difference was that Mormon's believed
you had to earn your way to heaven. Their faith was like most all
religions in that it was based on works. Where the true Christian faith
is based not on works but on God's grace as I shared from Ephesians
2:8-9.
He readily agreed with my assessment of the Mormon
faith, saying he could see that they were very strict about following
rules that would lead you to salvation which was what he didn't like
about the religion.
I'm not sure how it happened, but by the
end of the safari this Scottish Mormon wanted to accept Jesus Christ
and be freed from the rules and legalism he was experiencing. He prayed
to receive Christ and agreed to meet with us again the next day.
I
just couldn't believe what had happened. Here we were experiencing a
trip of a life time and this young man was receiving a gift of
eternity! Even on a trip when all of your attention should have been on
these incredible animals, I was far more interested in sharing the
living water with this man and what was more incredible was that he was
not distracted by the beautiful scenery or the amazing animals.
But
God was about to do more. This new believer came to our lodge the
following day and we talked some more about his new faith and encouraged
him. The lodge had a small swimming pool on the porch. It was smaller
than a lap pool and just a little larger than a whirl pool
sauna. Almost like a large baptismal, provided just for occasions like
this. I baptized him in the pool and we prayed with him and his new
life in Christ. What was also amazing was that Dwight Davis had brought
one book to read on the trip, thrown into his suitcase as an after
thought. It was The God Makers, a book about the Mormon church and what
they really believe. Dwight said he didn't know at the time why he brought the book along, but does now.
This
experience really encouraged me as I could see God's hand directing me
to follow Him. It was an affirmation that I was in the right place and
God would provide me many more opportunities, adventures and miracles
along the way. For the former Mormon, he and his mother came to South
Africa to experience God's wonderful creation and in addition got to
experience God for eternity!
IN THE CROSSFIRE IN RIO
"We are not in Texas anymore!", I recalled one of our team members
remarking as our mission team sat in a church in the heart of Rio de
Janiero, Brazil trying to make sense of the crazy events of the past
three days. We were getting some counsel from two different Brazilian
pastors concerning two hair-raising experiences since we had arrived in
Rio four days earlier. The first occurred following a Sunday night
worship service in the small Juaniza favela (Brazilian slum).
We
had divided our mission team into two groups for worship at two
different churches. The larger group went with pastor Daniel Camaforte
to his church in the favela. We were doing most of our work with his
church. I kept a smaller group with me as I was preaching in the church
which was our lodging for the week, located closer to the downtown
area.
The team at Pastor Daniel's church had a great worship
service and were fellowshipping with the members of the church outside
in the courtyard beside the main road of the favela when the Rio police
drove into the favela. All of a sudden, shots began to ring out coming
from the drug gang in the favela directed at the police. The church
members were suddenly in the crossfire of a shootout between police and
the drug gang.
Pastor Daniel quickly and calmly urged
everyone back into the church. He directed all of our team into a back
room to avoid being hit by stray bullets and waited for the shooting to
die down. During a lull he tried to get our team to leave but the
shooting started once again, and so the team returned to the
room. Finally the shooting stopped and Pastor Daniel got our team back
on the bus and walked down a couple of blocks beside the bus to the exit
of the favela to make sure we were safe.
You can imagine how
disturbed and worked up everyone was when they returned to the church
where we were staying. Two of the young ladies explained that they had
just returned from the small store a couple of blocks from the church
before the shooting occurred. If the police had come in a minute or too
sooner, they would have been right in the middle of the shootout.
Needless
to say, our team spent a restless night but got back to work the next
day doing some construction on the church in the favela and ministering
to children.
The following day,
Tuesday our team took the morning off to go to Copacabana beach. On the
way back to the bus, about 10 of the team were walking through a nice
neighborhood. Four of the team had stopped in a magazine stand to buy
some refreshments. I was about 20 feet back from the stand when I heard
a shot ring out. Now we were all very sensitive to the sound of
gunfire, and so my first reaction was someone was shooting at us, the
Americans. I heard someone yell get down, and I fell face first beside a
tree. I looked up and saw a Brazilian man staggering from the magazine
stand muttering something in Portuguese. The front of his chest was
covered in blood. Obviously he was the one who had been shot. Todd
Riddle, our Singles minister hollered "let's get out of here. Run!" I
wanted to help the man but I couldn't understand just what was
happening. I'm sorry to say, my fear took precedent over the care of
the man and I along with the others took off toward the bus. As I began
to run I saw some police on the far corner of the street and hollered
for everyone to walk fast. I didn't want the police to think we had
committed the shooting.
We made it
back to the bus where we met the rest of the team. There I found out
what had happened. Those that were in the magazine stand said a young
Brazilian man was in the stand with them. He pulled out a gun and shot
the manager in the chest and took off running. They didn't know exactly
why he had shot the manager, perhaps he had been caught stealing
something. But you can imagine how distraught they were. One of the
ladies on the team who was in the magazine stand just wanted to go
home. She had been involved in two shootings within days of the mission
trip.
We had planned to go to
another favela to do a sports camp with kids that afternoon. But the
shootings had unnerved the team to the extent I thought it best to take
the afternoon off and allow the team to process what had happened and
pray. I asked both the pastors, the pastor of the church in which we
were staying and Pastor Daniel from the favela to talk to the team to
help us understand what had happened. It was interesting the different
perspectives from the pastors. The pastor of the church where we were
staying, which was in an upper income area of Rio, was very surprised at
what had happened. He said he had lived in Rio a long time and never
had witnessed anything like this. Pastor Daniel, on the other hand,
said it occurred all the time in the favela and it was something that
those who lived in the favela dealt with on a regular basis. He assured
us that God was in control but that we should realize that we were in a
dangerous place.
We prayed a long time and then talked about
how none of us had been injured, that God had protected us. We prayed
for the man that had been shot and later heard that he was in critical
but stable condition. We prayed for the people in the favela, for
Daniel's church members who lived in the danger zone. We prayed that
our mission would not be deterred, that fear would not cause us to
divert what we were called to do in Rio.
That night our plan
was to go to the Favela in which we were to work in that afternoon,
where I was to preach. I told the team that I was going to go and
anyone that wanted could go with me but if there were any that felt
uncomfortable, they could stay behind. Everyone would understand. All
but a couple of the team went with me. We had a tremendous service
where I challenged the men to step out and lead their families and the
church. Afterward the pastor of the church took us to a house which had
an open porch that overlooked the city of Rio. A lot of the favelas as
this one are built on the side of the mountain. The view was
unbelievable. The pastor introduced us to a man who had once been a
drug lord and sold drugs from this very spot. The former drug dealer
explained that had given his life to Jesus Christ and walked away from
his old lifestyle and now led a Bible study on this porch where he once
sold drugs.
The pastor then asked me, "Pastor John, would you
like to meet the Drug Lord of this favela?" The question caught me
somewhat by surprise. My wife, Barbara was with me and I glanced over
at her to get an idea of what she thought about this. I could tell she
was very concerned but she gave the approval, saying "I understand, it
is up to."
I looked over the team and asked Nick, one of our
young guys if he wanted to go. He agreed and we took off along with the
pastor, our Brazilian guide,Cesar and a female translator. There are
no roads in the favela, just a small path up through the
neighborhood. It was dark and very creepy, the only light coming from
inside the houses. We would stop from time to time to visit with the
neighbors as we made our way up the mountain.
After some
time we stopped to talk to some men that were sitting on a porch
alongside the pathway. They were dressed in army camouflage, three on
the porch with several others hanging out behind them. I leaned over
and asked our translator if this was the man. She said yes, he is the
Drug Lord. I still remember his name, Carlos Gabriella, and he was much
younger than I anticipated, in his mid twenties.
I was
introduced to him and I began to tell him about our interesting
adventures with bullets and shootings. As I told about the shooting of
the magazine stand manager, he looked very agitated and indicated he
would like to find the man who did the shooting and deliver the
punishment. I was to learn that the drug gangs acted as the police of
most of the favelas. They keep order and control over their
neighborhoods.
I remember talking to him about King David of
the Bible and how David was a leader but was not a perfect man. In
spite of his sin and shortcomings as King, the bible said he was a man
after God's own heart. I told him that I realized he was the leader of
this favela and I urged him to be a leader like David. I encouraged him
to be a man after God's own heart, that God would forgive him of his
sins if he just asked. I asked if I could pray for him and he said
yes. I put my hand on his shoulder and prayed for him. I was told he
had just become a new father and so I prayed for his new baby boy. A
funny thing was that the translator told me that Carlos' baby was a
girl, not a boy, but she had translated girl for me! Whew. Thanks for
catching my mistake!
As I think back, this was an incredible
opportunity to speak not only to Carlos but to all those who were around
listening in. This would have been lost if we had decided not to go
back into the favela because of the shooting. And the shootings
actually gave me a story to sort of break the ice with the Drug Lord.
I
recalled the words I spoke in a sermon recently which so applied to
this mission. "God has prepared you for something great and He wants to
be your guide. And If you are not pursuing a dangerous quest with your
life, well, then you don’t need a guide. If you’ve settle in your mind
to live as though this is a fairly neutral world and you are simply
trying to live your life as best you can, then you can probably get by
with the Christianity of tips and techniques. But if you intend to live
in the Story that God is telling, and if you want the life he offers,
then you are going to need more than a handful of principles. You are
going to need a guide. There are too many twists and turns in the road
ahead, too many ambushes waiting only God knows where, there is just too
much at stake for the enemy. 'Narrow is the way', said Jesus. How shall
we be sure to find it? We need God intimately, and we need him
desperately." We certainly needed to to rely upon Him totally this week
in Rio!
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