A Week in the Life... & Prayer Calendar: Week 7

Sheri Graham

Wed 8/20/14  - Yesterday it warmed up nicely; it didn’t cool off much last night. It’s been warm again today. The hot summer months are Oct & Nov according to the locals, so it feels like it’s on the way. Steph is amazing how she can bounce back with a smile & laughter after adversity. The employee she had to let go yesterday was mentally challenged, and she has attempted for months to give him work that wasn’t complicated. It broke her heart to have to let him go – he just couldn’t understand in his child-like, trusting mind that his “friends” were manipulating him & stealing from Steph & the ministries through him.  

Dinner w Carlos & family-Carlos taking pic

Dinner, fellowship & praising God w/Carlos (Rubatano), his wife Pascaul, and their 5 children. Carlos gave more details on how he came to Maforga: he was born & grew up in Beira, 22 year old with a good job in Beira at a book factory.  After a call-out from Roy, Carlos’ pastor asked him to quit his job, move to an unknown land, work for a white man, and not get paid - to serve God by serving orphans in desperate need.  After 2 weeks of prayer, Carlos moved to Maforga with 4 other young men. Talk about stepping out in faith!  

We also heard the story of how he & Pascaul met: she was working w/orphan babies & saw Carlos walking by w/a Bible; she asked if she could have one so Carlos invited her to the Bible classes he was attending.  Over the weeks of class he kept asking God, “What is this, what is this?”, regarding Pascaul.  He finally had the courage to ask if she was interested in him, which she said “maybe”, but Carlos was going to South Africa for 3 months for training, so they both agreed to fast & pray to the Lord if they should date.  When he returned they both felt God may be drawing them together, so they then asked the ministry leaders to pray about it.  After 2 weeks of prayer, the leaders told them they had their blessing, so they started dating, and married shortly after. They sought God first, before their own feelings & desires! This is just one of many awesome people and stories of the Lord doing incredible things through incredible people.

Roy & Trish left last night for South Africa to get Trish’s UK visa so they can go on to UK for his nephew’s wedding. If all goes well with her visa, they’ll be gone a few weeks. I hope they return before I leave for Cape Town. I haven’t had a chance to spend any time with Trish yet.

Stephanie sweeping the clinic                                           Sheri moving 50kg bags of cement

Thurs 8/21  - Didn’t sleep much last night – I woke up around 1 AM praying; then awoke around 2:30 AM having a conversation w/the Lord; then awoke around 4 AM singing Matt Redman’s song Mission’s Flame (I don’t usually awaken to actively doing such things). Bees are swarming the chicken coops because they’re attracted to the corn feed.  I made list of supplies to bee-net [instead of mosquito-net] the coops & also to try a couple of folk tricks.  Then I went to Chimoio w/Steph this AM.  We had a great girl-bonding time during the drive.

Sheri & Anna (she cleans & laundry)

Women’s prayer in evening: spent the 1^st hour just listening to Nanna’s stories. She says she had a dream that 6 witches pushed her to fall - to stop her work. She says she had several incidents prior to her fall of feeling hands push her although she was alone.  Then the fall that broke her hip, she also felt a forceful shove but no one was around. Sarah Tanis has had a witch in her Bible study, whom God opened her eyes a few weeks ago when they studied scriptures about witchcraft. The woman had to leave her “church” when she gave her testimony that she realized witchcraft is forbidden in scripture (she attended a “church” that mixed Christianity, ancestor worship & witchcraft).

Fri 8/22  - Enrique painted the clinic waiting room. Cecil dug a trench around the clinic for water lines for the new water tower. Then they both did some maintenance on Steph’s truck. I worked on the chicken coops.  I screened one coop window to keep out the bees.  I used the folk-trick on the inside of the coop.  And I did the tricks on the outside. I’ll check in the AM if the tricks work. We continue to pray for Stephanie’s papers. She says she trusts God’s perfect timing for them, but she gets discouraged when others are disappointed that she isn’t showing “results” at the clinic.  She is very busy with legalities, preparation, organization and due diligence to open the clinic, but it’s all “background” stuff that doesn’t look like much if you’re not looking behind the scenes.

Enrique painting clinic waiting room                                                Enrique Plumbing                   

Enrique and Lovemore

Cecil carrying water to work on clinic                                         Cecil works on Steph’s truck        

Cutting down tree that’s damaging clinic

Water system installed -
Stephanie is excited to have water!

Sat 8/23  - It was warm and humid last night, so we didn’t sleep very well.   We woke up to thick fog and a cool breeze – very beautiful.  Not a good day to see if my tricks have taken care of the bees.  At least it’s drizzly enough that we don’t have to climb up the water tower to water the curing platform.  No electricity so no water. Cecil is hunting for someone with a gas stove for hot water for coffee. I’m thankful I drink tea – hot or cold; I brought cold-brew tea with me. Enrique’s mind/thoughts were under attack yesterday, but through God’s precious Word, prayer, and meditating on Him, our Lord gave him victory over it and filled him with a heart full of praise.

Africa Prayer Calendar: Week 7

Excerpts are taken from Neal Pirolo’s book “Serving As Senders Today.”

“…strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power.”

Colossians 1:11

In Acts 1:4 and 8 Jesus gave clear instruction to his disciples to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit to come upon them. It’s a jungle out there! It is insane to step into cross-cultural outreach ministry without “His glorious power.” It is imperative to have a vital, personal, alive, active, growing, dynamic, real relationship with the third Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.

My wife leads teams on prayer walks in spiritually dark places. The atmosphere is oppressive. The powers of darkness are permeating the very air they breathe. They find it of value to pray as Paul did: “I will pray in the spirit and with understanding” (1 Corinthians 14:15).

Intercede for your cross-cultural worker that he is continually being “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). Pray that he will daily “mind the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8). Life and ministry in a second culture (actually, we all walk in an alien world!) hold challenges foreign to your worker but not to the Spirit of God. As you pray, the Spirit of truth will guide him into all truth (John 16:13).