poitu varam

THE CHRONICLES OF A FLEDGLING MISSIONARY CALLED JOLLYBEGGAR "i still gaze fondly at all of the pictures, drink ginger beer, bunch my food, listen to punjabi dj tunes, play my dholki, wear my sarong (around the house only because in canada it is still really uncommon for a man to wear a wraparound skirt in public) and speak way too much of the differences between east and west..."

Sunday, August 14, 2005

voodoo curry and crystal meth

august 14: day 5: sunday (part 4)

our hosts for the evening, this is one of the many families currently opening their home in the heart of colombo, that the church would come to their neighbourhood rather than trying to find a way to get their neighbourhood to come to church...

we went to the home bible study/ house church prayed for in the morning service. colleen led with a strong salvation message, delivered to a crowd of at least thirty-five to forty gathered in a block-housing apartment.

ben passed out for a little power nap during the worship singing, but this appeared to be God-ordained, as he would need some focus and 'Holy Ghost power' later on during the prayer time that followed the study.

the worship singing itself was extraordinary...
all i need is an outta tune guitar, two chords and the truth
everyone was here on purpose- and you could hear that purpose all throughout the projects.

following the study, prayer time began again. this time, the doors opened and the neighbours from the complex poured in- many with accurately expressed need, many with spiritual need and fabricated infirmities, all wanting prayer.

as i was praying, i heard God speak:
no more of these prayers; i want you over here.

i looked over to see ben and lazarus praying hard with a little old lady whose head kept nodding from side to side (but not the good kind of nodding) with pendulumic regularity and precision. again i thought what do they need me for? and again came the reply: they don't, but you are invited to be part of this work today. i joined the prayer circle and was used of God to bring freedom to this old woman who was a relative of the host family... another 'voodoo curry' (my phrase) sufferer.

it occurs to me that the whole charming of food thing is the more directly spiritual expression of the same evil that would cause a person to lace a drink or a cigarette with crystal meth. it exists wherever one human being seeks to enslave another in order to gain some realization of power aspirations. in some ancient languages the words for sorcery and illicit drug use are interchangeable, as are the words for wizard/sorcerer and pusher.
***

after the prayer time which lasted nearly an hour and saw probably between sixty and seventy people come through for prayer, the place finally cleared out and we were asked to sit down to be served as guests. exhausted, colleen mentioned feeling a bit like an animal in a zoo, sitting there being stared at by our hosts... then we noticed the bananas on the table...

(upon hearing the banana story the next day, al said 'okay, just don't anybody scratch yourself!' thanks al.)
***
as we left that evening, pastor lazarus said "in my language poitu varam- not 'goodbye' but 'go and come again'"
***

i went to bed praying that God would move at northview, my home church in canada... it was 11:00 p.m. here and church was just starting back home.

could it be that, at any given time on a sunday there is a gathering of believers taking place somewhere in the world? now that's a globalized Lord's day.
***
i awakened about three times that night from 'nightmares' but said 'shush' in Jesus' name. (i remembered hearing lazarus saying this to the spirits earlier.)

i knew that the snake was just trying to create distractions without having to actually do any work by pushing exposed subconscious buttons...

lazy bastard. musta been all tired out after a rough day of having it served to him by some humbly yet boldly faithful servants of the one true God...

2 Comments:

  • At 10/02/2005, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I've just spent some time catching up on all the posts I missed. Wow. You know, American's for the most part, seem to take on this higher than you type mentality. No one would ever admit it, but it's true. We seem to think that our country is the whole world. There's so much more out there, and how awesome that you got to see some of it. I can tell you've been changed. God's using you! What an awesome road you have ahead of you.

     
  • At 10/03/2005, Blogger jollybeggar said…

    yeah, change is good. c.s. lewis said 'prayer doesn't change God- it changes me.'

    the same could probably be said for doing something missional. it's not that the world changes hugely on the one hand, but that the person on the mission sees life with new eyes.

     

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