July 27, 2010

Africa, Day 7, Part 2

7-15-10

Upon returning home from an emotional last night at The Father's House we washed up and were ready to share in a feast with the entire family.  Normally at meal times the four of us (Jake, Jeremiah, Matt & I) would sit around the dining room table with David, or maybe Ellie and eat, while the women were in the kitchen cooking and cleaning up and the boys fend for themselves.  This is their normal, it's what they do.  But since it was our last night we had an all out celebration.  We all filled our plates with fried chicken, goat kabobs, fish and rice jaloff and grabbed a soda and had a picnic on the living room floor - the whole family.  Celestine even busted out a bottle of sparking grape juice to pass around and toast with.

It was a good time of eating, talking, laughing and just being together.  Some minor horse-play ensued...

And some time was spent making sure everything was in order for Jeremiah's visa application... 
but by the end of the night we turned to worship and prayer with the family, as had become routine.  There was music and prayer, and coming together as one big family and it was so heart warming.

The four of us said our good-nights and headed back to our area of the house for our nightly debriefing and prayer.  I was not feeling well at all by this point, I have no idea why, but I felt very feverish and kept getting chills - which says a lot because it was a bajillion degrees in the house.  So I decided to tell the guys about it and they all laid hands on me and prayed.  I could physically feel the fever leaving my body, starting with my legs and then moving to my arms, but I couldn't feel it leave my neck/head area.  After they were done I did feel a lot better, so we went on with our debriefing, talking about our thoughts on the day we had and on the day ahead.  In the meantime my fever came back with a vengence.  I felt even worse that I had before and it all just hit me at once.  The boys prayed over me again and this time I felt it ALL leave, when they were done praying I felt 100% better!  The fever and aches never came back either!  It was so amazing to feel God's power flowing through them and into me to heal me - without any medicine of any sort!
We ended up staying up pretty late... until around 12 or so because we all knew it was the last night of us being together in this place.

This place that we'd grown so comfortable in.  Talking, sharing what was really on our hearts and minds.  Being open to each other.  Being vulnerable with each other.  Praying together.  Singing together.  Laughing until we cried with each other.
We knew we'd all have an early morning, since we were getting up to see the boys off to school and say our goodbyes to them around 6:00am, so we finally parted our ways and went into our rooms.  I called Bill, as was practice each night before bed, and was greeted with a "What are you doing up so late!?"  It was 12:30 our time so I guess I can understand his greeting :)  We talked for a few minutes then I handed the phone off to Jake so he could call Chanda and I got to writing.  I wrote in my journal, I wrote a letter to Jeremiah encouraging him to keep on fighting for his visa. I listened to my mp3 player and worshiped and thanked my amazing Father for the opportunities He gave me on this trip.  Around 2:00am I finally fell asleep to the sound of some classical praise on my headphones and the feeling of peace in my heart.

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