Training for War

Wow this past week has been crazy awesome! This past week Todd, Mike, and I taught a class on Spiritual Warfare at TBTI (Turkana Bible Training Institute).

For starters, I did not feel anywhere near qualified to teach this class. With only one year of Bible College, one class on teaching, and a curriculum, handed to us two days before we were supposed to teach it, here are some of the thoughts going through my head and yes they were numbered:

1. You want me to teach on what?!?!

2. The Turkana should be the ones teaching me on Spiritual Warfare.

3. Are we going to have to face demons and stuff?

4. How well is this stuff going to get taught with the language barrier?

5. Will they even get what I am trying to say?

6. My prep for teaching is going to be nothing like what I learned in school.

7. How am I going to be able to teach without visual aids? 

8. Oh boy, can we go back out to the BUSH? That seems easier.

Lets just say I was caught up on all the negatives. Then God brought something to my attention.

The power is not in the skill or wisdom of the messenger. But the TRUE power is in the MESSAGE that the messenger brings and root of its power comes from GOD ALONE.

Each and every day I was reminded of this.

1 John 4:4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.

On Tuesday we arrived 15 minutes early. I was going to start off the teaching and believe me I was more than nervous. Gene had prepared a written prayer for us to pray before we started. We recited this prayer in unison, that we would recite each morning before teaching:

Lord Jesus, we stand together and affirm the truth that you are with us and you love us, and even as we speak you are preparing a way for healing and forgiveness, deliverance, and freedom. We ask you to speak directly to any parts of all of our minds that you would like to teach and heal today. We pray for your precious blood to cover us and for the Holy Spirit to be with us and to guide us.

As the Prayer guide, we confess that we have sin, wounds, and lies in our lives that hurt our faith in you. We ask for special grace to fulfill the part you want us to play in teaching and healing. Help us listen to you and follow your lead.

In the name of the True Lord Jesus Christ, we take authority over all demonic spirits present; you must be bound in and under the name of the True Lord Jesus Christ. You may not oppose the Lord’s work through us as the prayer guides and the teachers in any. You will manifest only as the True Lord Jesus allows, to further the teaching and healing of everyone here.

In the name of the True Lord Jesus Christ, command all demonic spirits, which Jesus wants to permanently remove to go directly to Jesus feet. He will deal with you as He sees fit. Lord Jesus we ask you to now fill any place that has been left empty or will be empty by the enemy with your Holy Spirit and with Your living presence. May we all experience Your living presence walking beside us each day. Lord Jesus, we ask you to come with any additional blessings you want to deliver to us today. Thank you for being with us Jesus, in Your name, Amen.

Wow, that was the tone setter. Talk about in your face, upfront, taking control of the situation by giving it to Jesus. We were ready to go. Instantly, the nerves calmed and everything just seemed to feel better.

At about 9, we began with singing, granted every song was in Turkana and we could barely piece the meaning together, but it was worship! It felt like the weight had been lifted. I was happy that we did this every morning and throughout the class time.

Starting class about usual Turkana time, half an hour to 45 min after something is supposed to start, I started out the teaching on the general principles of spiritual warfare. Trying to teach was just…wow. Am I going to fast or slow for my translator? Are they understanding? They don’t answer person questions, so do they get how close to home this stuff hits? Instead of visual aids or PowerPoint, I had to use exaggerated hand gestures. High, low, big, small, acting like fighting, whew…cross-cultural teaching is exhausting. We taught extensively each day on the Full Armor of God and what it means for their lives and ours, the power of prayer, and who we are in Christ. We constantly would refer to Ephesians 6:10-20. 

Explaining the Shoes of Peace

Some crazy awesome things were happening though. Each and every time it was my turn to teach I could just feel the Spirit with me. Multiple times the Spirit put verses into my head that weren’t on the script and weren’t prepared to use. It was an awesome feeling not remembering what you said when you stood up to teach because it wasn’t you teaching at all. It was the Holy Spirit using me to share the message Jesus wanted to share. We weren’t sure how much they actually learned until Friday morning rolled around. Gene told them to each prepare a lesson as if they were going to teach it on spiritual warfare. Every person that spoke and gave their lesson plans knew what we had been teaching them all week, even with the language barrier and some of the broken translation. God deserves all of the credit for what happened this week. Apparently, they thought we were good teachers though because they were adamant that we come back as missionaries and teach again.

Each day something new or exciting happened. Here are a few of those stories:

Diviner Story

There was a week when the pastors in the area were praying and fasting specifically for diviners. Diviners are witch-doctors and many times the admit to being in the service of Satan. So on the last day of prayer and fasting a missionary in Lodwar saw a diviner coming to his house. He thought he was going to be wasting his time because he came around regularly and wasted his time, but God said go talk to him and tell him his sin. The missionary walks up to the diviner and tells this diviner that he has sinned. The diviner then, shockingly, admits to his sin, and then confesses even more sins he has committed. They both start weeping as the Spirit comes over them. The diviner said that Satan wanted him to join the missionary’s church, so he would know how to destroy the church from within. BUT, the diviner says that whenever you read from that book Satan doesn’t talk to me for many weeks. He tells the missionary he will feed, shelter, and treat anyone who comes to his house like a son if they read the word of God and teach his family and him the bible. But everyone was too scared to do it. They feared Satan! It took them being reminded about 1 John 4:4. However, the diviner believed in the Word of God and ends up becoming a Christian and people in the class knew who he was.

Simon

So everyday at lunch break I had planned to read or pray or nap just be somewhat productive. That changed when Simon showed up. Simon is crazy. I’m not talking like just normal little kid crazy, he was literally in constant motion. There was never a dull moment with him around. One minute you are just sitting there reading and he will just come up and sit right beside you, get all up in your grill, and smile that goofy smile. Almost as soon as he was there, he was off and running screeching as loud as he could. He definitely wasn't camera shy. Whenever we went to take a picture he wanted to be front and center. After the flash, he would scream, get all excited, and run around in a circle. Probably the most fun we had with him was just chasing him around because he would run away scared, but then sneak back up and peek through the window to see if you’d see him…once you made eye contact he was off and running again. We also tried to teach him some very entertaining English. Most kids know “How are you?” but he now knows… “Where the white women at?” absolutely historical.

To top off a great week, tomorrow we will go get to see Lake Turkana. Hopefully, do some swimming and wrestle a crocodile or two. It’s hard to believe that I only have three weeks left here. This summer is flying by and God is teaching me so much.

Spiritual Warfare class