The long awaited Luke 10 journey...
Well, first we should explain what a Luke 10 journey is... well, it´s precisely what happens to the disciples in Luke 10: Jesus sends them out without money or travelers bags to go preach the gospel, heal the sick and to chase out demons. So on that note we flew into Rio de Janeiro, not knowing what to expect but knowing that for the next 10 days we would truly be walking in faith.
Our team prayed about where to go... it was weird... not knowing anything but hoping you hear the voice of God... or you get to sleep on the street. So we decided on a beach after praying for what seemed like an hour. Praia Vermelha. (Or in English, Vermelha beach – for the record, Brazil is a Portuguese speaking country, and very few people can speak Spanish, and even less English... and the only Portuguese word we know is obrigado, which means thank you... ) So off we went, hitch hiking to the beach where God is calling us to go. A few minutes walk away from the airport, a woman picked us up and bought us bus tickets to Copacabana, the beach next to the one we were going to, so obviously we were going in the right direction. We were told to get off the bus at beach 5 of Copacabana. This get´s significant later, but not right now... because it meant we had to walk all the way to beach one, which meant 4km with our heavy bags. Good times.
So we arrived at beach 1, and it was getting dark... and the beach was getting scary, and as we sat against a building, we had a strange feeling of peace over us, knowing that God wouldn´t let His kids sleep outside, but doubting could´ve been easy in a normal point of view. At 7:30 we decided to walk around in the streets, and as I saw a lady and her 2 babies on the street, it dawned on me that we could actually sleep on the street. At a time we asked a man if we could just sleep on the other side of a security fence, but then God stepped in. A man picked us up, paid for a hotel room and bought us dinner. What a blessing! So that was day 1, 9 more to go...
Day 2 we woke up with a loud noise as there was a market outside our hotel, and like in a movie, people presented us with fruits of all kind. It was literally as if God fed us fruit, the most delicious strawberries we´ve ever tasted! After another hours walk we arrived at the beach that Delaine saw in her vision, and she could give a word from God to a man she saw in a vision. God is so faithful! We walked into the streets of Urca, and saw a street where it looked peaceful. Again it dawned on us that we might be sleeping on the street... but a minute later a German man stopped next to us, invited us into his home and gave us food. He calls himself a hard headed atheist, but I think God had an appointment with him. Because we could stay for 2 nights, we had the chance to climb Sugarloaf Mountain and evangelize in the streets of Urca, where there are a lot of English speaking people around. Each morning the man of the house woke us up with `morning you Christian bearers´ and a cup of coffee, which was such a blessing – for we really like coffee, and God provided in all the little things!!!
Day 4 involved a very long hike as we walked for almost 3 hours to the pink fleet and past two more beautiful beaches of Rio. While we were sitting at Flamingo beach, waiting on God, we were evangelized by the youth of a church. They invited us to their services, and usually when we think about church, we think about not more than 50 people. Well, this was the type of church where Hillsong would sing... well, actually they have already sung there! So we joined them on their ministry the afternoon and we went to an orphanage and fellowshipped with the people from the church. The church provided us with food, and while we were walking, we met two amazing girls, Camilla and Catarina who later invited us to stay in their house that night. When we figured out where their house was, we were back at beach number 5 of Copacabana, clearly we needed to do some work there. We had an awesome night of fellowshipping and prayer and God really showed up. So the next day, our plan was to leave, and as we prayed for the family, the Holy Spirit stepped in and touched the lady of the house´s heart. She blessed us with R400 and invited us for lunch. What a blessing, it felt as if we were back in South Africa with our family eating a Sunday lunch! Suddenly the family began to speak in Portuguese and we waited for a translation... they were arranging when to buy us bus tickets to get to Ubatuba (the destination we had to be at after our 10 days of Luke 10) We asked to pray about our answer, and God gave us peace, so the family blessed us further with bus tickets to get to where we were supposed to go. Well, this wasn´t the only miracle of that day...
One girl who just recently met Jesus, still had a lot to learn about the furious love of God... and Jesus was about to touch her life in a whole new way! As we were praying for her, the Holy Spirit stirred her heart, and Jesus set her free of many of the chains holding her back. It was amazing to see the light shining out of her as she finally understood how anything flees from the name of Jesus! It was mind blowing how God set up this divine meeting so he could touch their lives! They truly touched our hearts and we became instant sisters in Christ!
The next morning we were off in Ubatuba, and after almost 15 minutes we had a place to stay for the next 5 days – a hostel that allowed us to stay there if we helped out. So we met our good friends, the paint brushes, yet again. It was such a blessing from God to be able to stay there, to buy our own food and to be able to take a hot shower and sleep on our own beds, and God blessed the hostel so much in the time we were there that the woman told us that we were good luck... which led to an awesome ministry opportunity, for there is no such thing as ´luck´, there is only blessings because she blessed us, missionaries, to be able to stay there. She praised God and allowed us to pray for her! One of our team members was sick and needed to rest for two days, and God provided a place where she could rest and not have to walk around with a heavy bag for hours... we truly experienced God the father through that little testimony! We had so many opportunities to minister to the people there, as most of them were tourists and spoke English.
Each morning, afternoon and night we paraded the streets for street children with big bags (the rest of our team that also was on their way to Ubatuba after their Luke 10 journey). God kept our whole team safe and all of them arrived in Ubatuba with many testimonies to tell! I think each believer should try a Luke 10 journey, for you can literally feel your faith growing as you wait upon the Lord – and He won´t let you down. Be bold and step out in faith, for anything that seems impossible to us, is completely possibly for God. And we are living proof of that statement!!!
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