Luke 10 testimony - Marco Ras, Hannes Roodt and Reinhardt Foley
Location: Guatemala
Luke 10:3-4 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.
The night before we left on our Luke10 journeys we drew lots to separate the team into our Luke10 groups. We were the first team to be set out and it came down to us being an only guys team. So the next day me , Hannes and Marco left Guatemala City with the idea of heading East towards Lago Issabella. So while we were walking we received images from God : a petrol station; a long straight road with something round at the end looking like a hill or arch and a toy choo-choo train.
We started by looking for the closest petrol station with the hope of maybe finding a lift there. Within minutes we found the petrol station and approached the first car we saw and asked him for a lift to wherever he is going... He was a bit suspicious of us, but he finally let us into the car and agreed to take us to his home town, San Lucas. As we were on a Luke10 we took this as conformation that we were on the right track.
When we arrived we started walking around in the city and came to a corner where we saw a painting of a long straight road and the words of Psalm 91 written beneath it: "Do not be afraid"! When we turned to walk further we realized that we were in the street which we received a vision about. At the end there was a huge arch, so we rushed down this street passing a church close to the arch, but not paying much attention to it because of the excitement of finding out what is on the other side of the arch. When we finally got there we were shocked to find out that it was a graveyard waiting for us, so we thought that we had found our home for the first night. Still being early we decided to walk around a bit and explore the area, so we circled around the cemetery having lots of fun jumping over walls and crashing a fiesta. After a while we found ourselves back in the long street at the gate of the church we passed earlier. We decided to go in and see what's happening inside.
There we met a guy that looked like a typical South-African guy, we knew immediately that this was our man of peace. After a few minutes of talking to him, he welcomed us to come and stay the night at his home. These lovely people gave us a warm bed and some supper and breakfast. It was a 5 star Luke10 destination. We had some good conversations with the family about what we were doing. It was clear that this was loosening some new stuff in their hearts.
The next day we felt that this place is not our final destination, so the family suggested that we would go to a orphanage near their house and volunteer to help them out with some odd jobs. They drove us to Cassa de Alleluya and finally we reached our destination.
When we arrived at the orphanage we received a word of knowledge, the name Alberto, but not paying much attention to it immediately. The orphanage agreed for us to work there if we were willing to pay US$35 a day for housing and meals. After saying we weren't able to pay anything they told us we could stay anyway and they will let us stay for free and give us food as well - a great and visible move from God!
When we saw the place we were staying at all of our jaws dropped! This was clearly going to be a 10 star Luke10! We were living in a fully stocked volunteer home called the Gringo house. Food in abundance, lots of beds with sheets and blankets, warm water, internet, washing machines and all the bathroom necessities you could think off! Words can't explain how cool this place was, God was clearly showing us that He is our provider!!
We stayed with 2 groups in the house, one was a bunch of guys that was in a military style rehabilitation and discipleship school from South Florida called Teen Challenge. These were amazing guys, all of them with intense drug related testimonies. The other group was a family from Michigan who came to volunteer at the orphanage. The head of the family's name was Albert, when we heard this we rushed to meet him, to find out why God gave us his name when we arrived at the orphanage. So we met him and we immediately jumped into a deep discussion about the Bible. We had some major differences about our believes but this didn't hinder us from enjoying each other's company. He also really challenged us on being able to back what we believed with scripture and I believe we also challenged him a lot about his perception of the Holy Spirit and our authority in Christ.
Our first day of work we were a bit torn between choosing to play with the children or doing physical labor but God soon answered us by leading us to a small toy choo- choo train ( which we received a vision about) in the workshop. So we put all our energy into the work at hand and tried to do as much as possible. We did a lot of wood preparation, painting and we even fitted the ceiling of a huge house. We also had amazing conversations with our supervisor, a great man of God, and uplifted him a lot through testifying about our whole journey.
The nights we had amazing fellowships with the two groups we stayed with and also had a chance to minister to the guys from Teen Challenge. The other family also joined us and got stirred when they saw the Spirit move. God opened their hearts and gave them a greater understanding of the Holy Spirit.
The theme of our last day at the orphanage was: God the PROVIDER!!
We received financial blessings from 4 different people, a total sum of about $450. This was very unexpected to us, but it cleared out all the doubt in us that He will provide, we just have to trust.
The last night we arranged to make some supper for our supervisor and next door neighbors, 2 missionary ladies. We had amazing conversations about God and all of us just testifying about what God had already done in our lives. Then the evening took an unusual turn...
One of the ladies said that she just received something from God and she felt that she had to share it with us. We were a bit unsure about what was going on, but we all felt comfortable to go along with what was happening. So she sat there with her hands joined together, shaped like a bowl, and briefly explained to us what God had revealed to her the previous two times that this had happened to her privately. This was a gift from God and part of it has to do with healing of the body, soul and spirit but there was a greater part to this gift that has not yet been revealed to her.
She approached each one of us individually and prayed impartation(Romans1:11) of this gift over us, and this is where it really got weird... As each of us stretched out our arms we felt a heavy force pressing down on our hands as she prayed over us, we experienced sensations of extreme heat and pins and needles. We also couldn't join our hands together!
Now this was very strange to us and we had some initial doubts if this was from God, but after we all just started praying, God covered us in His peace and gave us assurance that this was Him moving among us. God clearly wanted to come and teach us not to quench His Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19).What an amazing encounter we had with our living God!
So the next day we travelled back to Guatemala City to meet up with the rest of our 80Days family.
What amazing experience we all had!!! But the story continues...
A month after our journey had ended most of our team met up at a Jesus Culture Conference in Johannesburg. The preacher there felt that he had to share a dream with us that he had a while back. God gave him coals of revival in his hand and told him to share the coals with people that God shows him. So there it happened again... A force and intense heat pressed down on my hands as we prayed! A lot of other people attending the conference had similar experiences. God
Praise God for this great privilege to see Him move and for the wonderful experience for us to be part of His Luke10 story. All the Glory to Him!!!!!