If Christ be Lifted Up

'And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.' John 12:32 (NIV)

Hello Everyone,

I have recently had another wonderful opportunity to be part of a new community, Malakata, getting ready to start feeding and caring for its most vulnerable children. The Service Centre team have been very faithful to visit for more than six months, looking for Care Workers who have answered Christ's call to serve. It has been such a blessing to see this 'call-out' to the churches for people to come forward and volunteer. We now have Care Workers from many different churches. This brings great glory and breakthrough for Christ within the community, if the churches can stay in this unity and be joined together to work in the purposes of God.

Christ has said that if he be lifted up, he will draw all people to himself. Our Heavenly Father has lifted Jesus up to the highest place, in his rightful place, by the throne of God. It is now up to us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to lift Jesus up for people to see his glory and be drawn to him. In African communities it is absolutely vital that Jesus be lifted up as the one and only true God with all authority, over all created things. African culture is very conscious of the spirit world and many Africans can have a 'foot in both camps' of the kingdom of light and darkness. They can be good church people and pray and praise sincerely but on any other day, when trouble or need appears, some look from help from witch-craft. This idolatry bears no fruit. No one is healed and no help comes, only torment, as the demonic gains access into people's lives.

We have been witnesses to the power of God to give glory to himself through many healings that have taken place. The first gift of healing came on the very first time I visited the community. The small church was full and people had come from all the churches in the area. I was asked to share the Word from God and I shared from the Book of Jonah, which was the Hands at Work Bible Story for that month. Everyone responded to the mercy, grace and forgiveness of God that was shown to Jonah and the people of Nineveh.

After the service, I was found by a man desperate for my attention. He was drunk and scorned by the community that had once respected him. He was the former Village Headman but was put down from his position, when he became a drunkard. He cried out to me like Blind Bartimaeus, "Madam, please come and pray for my wife. She is sick!'. He called and called and told me again and again that he was Headman in the village. At this people laughed, shooed him away and turned their backs on him. I ignored him too because we had a programme to follow. We already had families that the potential Care Workers had arranged for us to visit. Vulnerable families who had been selected from the poorest of the poor. Whose children, they had determined, should be in our care programme. As I am visitor, in need of guidance, explanation and translation, I fall in step with my hosts and team and follow in their path towards the homes we are to visit. All the while, this man is walking behind us crying out for me to come and pray for his wife. I am torn because I hear him but know we have such a short-time in the community. It took us three hours to drive here and it will be another three hours to get back. So, how can I divert the programme? Who knows where his wife is?

We walk on and eventually someone says,'He lives here.' 'What? He lives here?' I say. My guides point to a small house I can see, right across our path. Now, I know the Lord is at work because we have been brought right to this man's doorstep. I announce we have to go to his house because he's a Ninevehite, like the Bible story teaches us. God wants to reach and sends us to the ones we struggle to accept.

There we find his wife, weak and gaunt. She would like to be prayed for but not infront of so many people. She is like the woman with the issue blood and these things are private, maybe even embarrassing. So, we ask the bigger group to walk on ahead. The lady shares that she has been to the hospital and has another appointment to return. We lay hands on her and pray for her. Her husband speaks loudly but beyond the alcohol effected speech is a man full of fear. 'I don't want her to die, what if she dies?' The Holy Spirit prompts me to assure him his wife has been healed, she will not die. I encourage her to go back to the hospital but this time they will find nothing wrong with her. We finish this unscheduled Holy Home Visit and carry on visiting the other homes and the rest of our programme.

I returned to the community more than a month later and was told by a Pastor's wife that the lady we prayed for returned to the hospital and like you said, they could find nothing wrong. All glory to God for how he revealed his power and set a loved daughter free from her sickness. I think of her husband whose persistence and care brought healing to his wife, despite the pitiful condition we found him in. The hand of God was over the whole event. From the Bible Story, to the man meeting us in the road, to our path leading directly to his house.

The story had got out and now more people wanted prayer for healing. They too received this gift and people who were once in pain and limited in their moment started throwing arms and legs about in freedom. On my third visit, we came to the community to conduct some training for those volunteers who would become our Care Workers ready to serve our children. The first session is a gospel presentation introducing people to the Jesus we know from the Bible. It is important the we lay a strong foundation for this ministry and the only foundation is Jesus Christ. The only one who died for our sins for our redemption and was raised again for our new life. This gospel has to be a full gospel for it to do a deep transforming work in people's lives. That means it must testify to the supremacy, authority and power Jesus Christ has over everyone and everything. Jesus is the only answer to fear, pain, illness and need.

At these meetings there were more healings and deliverances from demon spirits. People publicly renounced with-craft and shared their commitment to walk with Jesus, as the one and only true God. These encounters reveal Jesus in all of his glory. He heals, he saves and he delivers. There is no-one else who can set us free and he is worthy of all our praise and adoration. As the Scripture from John testifies. If he be lifted up, he will draw everyone to himself. He deserves all the glory. In his name we come to help very vulnerable children in a community far out of sight and mind. It is right to serve and walk alongside the weak and oppressed but if we don't testify to Jesus as being the solution for everything, then we empty the gospel of its real truth and power. In his name we don't just do good deeds but powerful deeds also. The Lord has been lifted high. Will we be obedient to lift him higher still? When faith arises, we set an even stronger foundation of Christ crucified for the redemption of all and everything. There is no other Lord but Jesus.

Please pray for:

• more and more divine appointments and encounters. They keep coming constantly, this is one story amongst many.What a joy to see Christ lifted high and glorified amongst his people! I am deeply humbled but want the Lord to keep using me and my coworkers for his purposes beyond ourselves.

• protection upon us as we go into enemy territory to take back people from Satan's grasp.

• strength and energy to keep going. Half way through the year and still so much more to achieve in our work programmes.

• the teams I support in Kabwe and Chisamba. Godly people wanting do the Lord's work. May they be filled with faith and not weary in doing good. Pray for health, provision and to finish the race the Lord has marked out for each one.

I am so grateful for your prayers and support.

Bless you,

Emma

Malakata Care Worker training