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Banovs In Mozambique Africe - With Rolland & Heidi Baker
March 27, 2002
Mozambique
The first stop on our awesome African trip was in Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique. There we were invited to host a Jesus Celebration Conference at the headquarters of our dear missionary friends Rolland and Heidi Bakers? orphanage.
When we arrived at their main orphanage base, we were profoundly impacted by the passion and intense efforts that Rolland and Heidi are putting forth towards the poorest of the poor. It was a great lesson on pure religion. We observed how they managed to handle the responsibility of their huge operation, and yet stay focused by taking care of the personal needs of that little child in front of them. Time almost seemed to stop as they poured into the object of their love, as if there was no tomorrow and as if this was the only child in the world. It was truly life changing. Who can do this supernatural work without being totally possessed by the Holy Spirit? In our nearly thirty years of full time ministry, this precious couple is the closest image of Jesus on earth that we?ve ever seen. They are truly a demonstration of "Christ in you the hope of glory." Along with their dedicated staff they have opened their arms for more then one thousand street children and orphans, believing the Lord to provide for their daily needs.
Many of these abandoned children Heidi personally found and rescued. These children each come with their own unique story. For example, a lion ate one child's mother whose father had been blown up by a land mine. There are also many AIDS orphans, and many war orphans. Some children were found left out on the street, while others were saved from the city garbage dump. Because of their phenomenal mercy operation of saving so many babies and children from death, they even minister in an open air structure right on top of the trash. The "garbage dump church"
We accompanied Heidi on one of her bi-weekly trips for a service at the ?garbage dump church. When we arrived there, we were greeted by a group of children who live for the rush of finding some little treasure among the cargos of each incoming city garbage truck. There were also several women sitting on the cement floor of the church breastfeeding their babies on their lap.
Right away your nostrils get hit with a sickening stench in the air and your mind crashes trying to process the thought of how anyone can even breath here, much less exist in this inhumane, degrading condition in which a whole community of people actually live, calling it their home. You can imagine how our hearts began to break for all of these little human beings for which Jesus gave His life on the cross.
We bought bags full of bread from a local bakery and the children went into a frenzy as we were giving out the fresh loaves. Then we just stood there and watched them as they were devouring the bread. We hugged and loved on them and then sang together songs of praise and worship to the King who died to save us all. The presence of the Holy Ghost showed up right there on the filthy trash heap and we had church. One beautiful young lady invited Heidi to bless her home and so we followed the whole group all the way down through the mountains of trash, until we reached the village of houses made up of tin and cardboard material, situated in a valley at the far side of the dump. Our hearts were aching uncontrollably as we prayed for them, cried with them and shared more of the love of Jesus. As it was getting dark, we could barely pull Heidi away from them. In her jeep driving back to the orphanage, I was wiping my dirty hands with a wet napkin, thinking of the children who couldn't do the same and would die very young because of the constant intake of diseases and lack of basic hygiene. Yet their hearts were washed clean by the blood of the Lamb and made pure white. Back at the base we joined with the worship team of our Conference and continued to minister in the richness of the presence of God as the Holy Spirit was pouring out His fresh Anointing. We couldn't stop praising our heavenly Father who took away all our sins, curses and filthy rags, and nailed them onto His Son Jesus on the cross and laid them down forever in His grave. There was so much glory in the voices of the orphans as they were singing their songs of adoration. The fatted calf In the past, we have always looked for ways to meet some physical need of the people we?re ministering to. Lately, we have added what I call a "fatted calf" dimension to our open-air crusades. This means that we will feed people on the spot with some sort of a hot meal. Last Christmas in Nicaragua for instance, it was a "fatted pig" feast since that is what they like to eat down there. Here in Mozambique, we were told that people love chicken, so the "fatted calf" turned into piles of fried chicken. With the money that you had blessed us with, we were able to purchase a piece of chicken for each of the orphans, plus the volunteers and staff living on the base, as well as all of the pastors attending the Bible school, or visiting for the Conference. But, the guests of honor were the people that we invited from the garbage dump.
The fried chicken miracle
Saturday night after the service, we went to the kitchen to watch the cooks as they were frying the chicken. It took them all night to prepare for the Sunday lunch, as our expected total was for almost 1200 people. Because Heidi had gone out to the garbage dump and compelled the people to come in, the crowd had virtually doubled by noon. When the main chef saw the multitudes arriving, he ordered the cooks to begin to fry some small fish in order to feed everyone. The Lord had a different plan. To the chef's amazement, He began multiplying the chicken until every one of the hungry guests had their plateful, 2300 people in all! Hallelujah! Wow God, You are so awesome!
We've all read in the Bible how Jesus fed the multitudes then, but it's different and so much more fun to see Him do the same type of miracle today while allowing us to take a small part.
Thank you
The little boy in the Bible was willing to share his lunch with Jesus and as He blessed it, God multiplied it and the hungry multitudes were fed. As you share your time in prayer for us, or send us financial support, the same miracle will happen again and again. God never changes. As we open our lives in giving, the Father will continue to multiply our efforts and limited resources and do the impossible by enabling us to help meet the big needs around us.
Our prayer for you is that God will multiply your finances and all other blessings supernaturally as you offer sacrificially and support us with daily intercession, as well as missionary love offerings. Not only will He enable our ministry to keep throwing more "fatted calf" Jesus Celebrations all over the world, but He will meet all of your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 Thank you for being a partner with us, both in giving and receiving. We expect a great harvest for you in return for your sowing into God's great commission by sending us with your prayers and offerings to do more of these types of soulwinning love feasts in the future. More to come
There is so much more that we want to share with you. Soon we will be sending you part two of the story of our trip, and will tell you more about what the Lord is doing in Africa. We also need to pray and spread the word to others for an urgent request made by Rolland Baker who says that many of our brothers and sisters from the 4000 new churches they have planted out in the bush in Northern Mozambique and Malawi are starving to death as a result of two years of flooding and famine. Currently only 40% of the bare minimum of the food that they need to survive is getting into the country. They are in immediate need of several containers of food, especially corn. If you know someone in a position to help in this crisis please let us know. We'll continue our testimonies next month, which will include our stop over at the Miracle Center in Uganda and the new friends we met in Ethiopia. In the River of His Love,
Georgian, Winnie and Yana Banov
Location: Africa, Mozambique
Website: http://www.riverlution.net/
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