Me and Sunda
Good friends,
I wanted to send a message out to you guys telling you a little more about what’s been going on/how you can be praying for us. I don’t know where you all (or “y’all”) stand on spiritual warfare or if it’s something you’ve experienced, but it is potent here is Swazi. Since we’ve been in Swazi the guys (5 of us: Neal, Billy, Landon, Ryan & I) have been attacked in our dreams. Satan’s got some good lies but we have a great God!
Last night (Thursday night/Friday morning) was the worst though. Landon woke up abruptly in the middle of the night and fear and lies just paralyzed him. He started praying when he heard a Swazi voice outside our window say “bhuti” which means brother. He woke us guys up via yelling. It was, umm, pretty terrifying to say the least. We started praying in Jesus name and inviting His light to shine over the darkness in our room. When Christ died on the cross and conquered death (hell) we were given the authority over the darkness in His name. Quick side story that ties in… While traveling from Jo-burg to Swazi our first day I saw a bumper sticker that simply had “Psalm 91” on it. I took a mental note of it and read it that night. Please take a second to read it. The next morning I really felt like I needed to share it with my team. Liz, who is a leader and had previously been to Swazi via the World Race, had woken up from a nightmare on her previous trip in Swazi and God had laid Psalm 91 on her mind to comfort her. (It’s our hope, in a promise, of protection over our trip.) So back to my story…We read Psalm 91 and thanked God that his promises of protection remain true. Neal, my other team leader, felt like we needed to pray around our girl’s (or sisters “cicis”) hut. We spent time praying for their safety and dreams as they slept. Then we came back to our room and worshipped for a while just proclaiming the name of God and the characteristics of who He is and then once again prayed over our sister’s hut. (The first time we were soo shaken that we didn’t pray confidently proclaiming that our God is a mighty warrior that protects his people.) We then returned to our room, we thanked God for his protection and sending a fleet of his angels to uphold and protect us and eventually we went back to sleep.
When we got up this morning to go running Kaci was already awake. She told how she had woken up a few minutes before hearing the yelling in our hut because she heard someone walking around the girl’s hut. Then she heard someone go over to one of our outhouses and slam the door over and over. Her heart was pounding and she also was paralyzed by fear. She silently prayed for us as we prayed over their hut and, from her hut, she worshipped with us.
While we were running this morning Billy told me that after we went back to sleep he dreamt that Katie had had a rough night with nightmares. When we got back she was awake and Billy asked her how her night went. As you guessed, she had nightmares for the first time in years.
So this might sound a little weird to you or maybe freaky, but it‘s real. This is not coincidental or just thinking we were hearing voices. That is probably what Satan wants us to believe . There was no person on our homestead trying to pull a prank or scare us but it was clearly a dark spirit or a demon. We are here in Swaziland doing the work of the Lord and shining his light to this oppressed nation and Satan is going to try to do anything he can to stop it. He is worried about us, as he should be. Unfortunately for him, we have the authority through Jesus Christ and Satan has no stronghold against us!
Here is what we need–
Satan is attacking us at night while we are sleeping frankly because that is when our minds are most vulnerable against his attacks. It’s been happening around 3am Swazi time. So can you please make an effort, at 8pm Hoosier time, to stop and pray over my team as we sleep? Nothing is going to stop us from what God is doing through and to us while we are here in Swazi. He is moving in incredible ways! Thank you so much for your prayers, support and especially your friendship. You have spurred me on and encouraged me to become that man of God that I am today and I am so grateful for you.
Ryan (temba)
2 tim 1:7
Our house and outhouses.
