Reaping what you sow

Hello again.

Since I last posted incredible things have happened, in the school we were in SP (please pray for!) Jesus had a massive impact, of the 200 or so pupils who attended about 140 of them filled in forms, saying that they'd become a Christian, were interested in becoming a Christian and/or wanted to meet up with someone. During two days i was enabled to share the gospel in front of a class of people four times,
and able to make one altar call. I felt like I was speaking with an authority not my own, at times when i was speaking you could have heard a pin drop. It felt like nothing short of revival!
The path to this impact was an interesting one, Before we came to the school we were warned by our team leader Stanley that this school, had a number of Muslim parents who had lodged complaints against unbalanced religious influence in the school. He said to expect to be the last group in the school. This led me to believe at the start of the week that our impact was going to be limited, my first few days gave me the same impression.
Wednesday night was arguably the turning point, nobody before this had wanted to speak to me on any topic of greater depth than whether or not I knew Wayne Rooney or David Beckham, however on the Wednesday night I felt challenged to pray that God would bring an impact on that school beyond which I could possibly imagine, and bring freedom to this school.
I should explain that, i learned that in this school and the school we visited last week Moshipandeka, it was common place for teachers to take sexual advantage of their pupils, something seemingly the senior members of staff turned a blind eye to.

This all turned however on the Thursday God brought our team the words that he was our banner, and we were working underneath his power and also most pertinently for me that we would reap what we sowed.
This came to me in a time I was spending reading the bible, in 2 corinthians 9 Ïf you sow generously you also reap generously, in which I felt God saying to our team and myself that the more of yourself you give, the more you are open about your problems and past as well as your hopes and feelings the more of a response we would see from the kids.
The team were all so obedient to this, one girl even sharing the story of being raped, with great courage and dignity.
That day God answered my prayers and then some. In the first class I entered into I sensed God telling me to let the kids dictate what we would do in the lesson, so I asked what they would like to talk about, to which one girl replied, we want to know about the "knowing Gods", these are an evangelistic leaflet which explain how to enter into a relationship with Jesus, this meant I had a platform to speak for thirty minutes about the good news of Jesus! I had a further opportunity the same day.
That afternoon, we ran out of knowing God leaflets! Indeed in one class I had only three left for a class of 20 and when i said who really desperately wants one of these three quarters of the class raised their hands as if I was offering ten pound notes!
On the Friday we were able to reap the harvest that God had given, Fresh with more knowing Gods our classes and break times were filled with the sound of talking about the incredible love and sacrifice of my Saviour and the scribbling of pens of girls and boys filling in addresses to receive Christian literature and to declare either their new found or rediscovered faith.
One of the highlights for this day was running an assembly for the school outside in the playground/ car park because the school did not have an assembly hall. During one of the songs our Namibian team mates were dancing to, the teachers all began dancing as well as well as most of the pupils on the front row, it just felt like the holy spirit was bringing his joy.

The highlight however for me was how incredibly faithful God was to my prayers, I prayed once again on the Friday morning not just to be excited by What Jesus was doing in the School but astounded, For some reason seeing swarms of children clammering for knowing God leaflets and the smallest amount of our time did not do this for me. It was only in the afternoon when somewhat reluctantly I forwent my customary afternoon nap to collect some knowing God's from a school we had not taught in. On our way out, we (Joey the American Brit, Francis the former pastor and I) saw one girl standing on her own outside the school gates after giving her a knowing God we asked if she would like it explained to her, and after two minutes of explanation most of the time reading out the leaflet word to word, she agreed to praying the prayer and giving her life to Jesus. This left me in the place of being astounded, the first person i led to Christ using none of the intelligence, or hours of evidence or examples I have compiled over 5 years of Christianity, i usually employ in the past fruitlessly. My role was minimal, but Christ was at work in her heart and her barriers of unbelief were down. She prayed the prayer and began her life with Jesus. So in summary this week has been one of them sot amazing of my life (though i might simply have inherited the American spirit of over enthusiasm and hyperbole in saying this though i do not think so!)
In terms of prayer the outreach is all but over we are spending the next couple of days in a safari park called Etosha, then back to Youth for Christ head quarters in Odeygos and then off to Cape Town!
But the work here in Oshakati schools has only just begun. Please would you pray that the amazing work that God has done in the schools would be built upon by the guys left up here Fanny and Eristo, that those who want to be met up with are and those who want literature recieve it. The ministry has started now it must go on, and it won't without prayer!

We are also heading into another orphanage so could you pray that God would use us there!

Thanks so much for reading

Love Nathan x