We're not where we're going and we're not where we've been.

Yesterday as we disembarked the plane at Johannesburg airport, we bounced with excitement about being in South Africa; about the beauty of the airport and about the clear blue sky that was calling us outside. Yet in the hearts of my husband and I there were some hesitant reservations.

 See when we checked through our gate in Nairobi Kenya on our transit, we were asked for our children's birth certificates.  We thought we had mistaken her accent as she asked from behind the desk after she had just sent a family home in front of us for the same reason. She repeated herself "where are your children's birth certificates?" To which we replied "we don't have them." "Your children cannot enter South Africa without their birth certificates" she replied. "Well we are only staying one night in the Airport Inn (where our friends had booked us for the night). She agreed to let us go through since we were just in "transit".

But we were still not sure what that all meant.

So as we cruised our way over the bouncy travelators' through to immigration in the O.R.Tambo international airport, our minds wondered if we would even go through. Just before us in the line was another mother and sure enough, as she showed her daughter's passport, she was also asked to show her birth certificate. "Oh Lord" I prayed "please let us go through." There was a world on the other side of the airports glass windows I wanted to explore. From a young age I have been fascinated with South Africa, with Nelson Mandela and his movement to bring freedom to his people and the sacrifice he paid to do it; and the whole landscape that inhabits incredible wildlife and encapsulates the beauty of this country and this continent. South Africa holds so much beauty that has been born out of brokenness'.

But this time it wasn't meant to be. The rejection of our attempted entrance into this beautiful land and the paid for accommodation that was sending a shuttle to pick us up, meant we had to go back into the airport and try and come up with a plan B.

Transit airport hotels are SO expensive.

Plan C. Sleep the night in the airport then have a shower in the spa before we take our next 12 hour flight that proceeds our 9 hour flight to Sydney where my mother and sister will pick us up.

This journey started at 8:30pm Ethiopian time when we left our friends' home where we have been staying for the last week. They generously let us look after their dog and house and we got to stay in the capital and run some last minute errands before our departure. We had been without power for 11 days at our home in Debre Zeit so this was heaven for us!

So their driver picked us up a nice 6 hours before our plane was due to leave (Barak Obama was flying in that same night so we had to be cautious of security and road blocks delaying our arrival) and we tried to check in early but the airlines desk didn't open till two and a half hours early. It gets really late and there's no place to rest and we get a bit uncomfortable. For five hours. We check in and sit upstairs with a whole bunch of other people boarding to go to Kenya.

So its 16 hours later that we are hit with this news that we need to stay in the airport for the night. We explore the airport. Our appetite's whet for the things of South Africa in the souvenir shops and the classy restaurants that call us in to eat lunch. We eat, we cruise then we find our posse where we would spend the night. The sun sets outside the big glass windows and we get some wifi before we settle down to sleep. But its getting cold.

"Mum, your hugging my leg!" I wake up to my daughter lying next to me across the four seats we had gone toe to toe in. Now I wake up face to toe and I look down at my toes and there's a random man sitting there! I freak out and try and go back to sleep. My daughter informs me its 1:30 but theres a whole bunch of people surrounding us waiting to board their flight and the noise keeps us stimulated. The flight boards half an hour later and silence revisits. We sleep till 5am with cold awakenings and an acute awareness that we are no longer in Sub-Saharan Africa. We are in the winter of the Southern Hemisphere. Our bodies wake up to a freezing cold that we tried to prepare for with all the clothes we had for such weather in our carry on bags. But not even with all of that can we get comfortable enough to sleep well. We have acclimatized to our nice warm Ethiopian weather.

As I wake up at 5am I thank God that the night was over. And He whispers in my spirit.

 "You are not where you were, but you're also not where you're going."

Physically, we are not where we were (the city of electricity problems and network issues that would cause me hurl abuse at my phone). And we're not where we are going (the city that holds my mother and sister and a society that's developed to the point of heavenly proportions.) We are somewhere in between.

Also as we anticipate our visit to New Zealand with our whole family for the first time, there is some thing in the knowing that we are not in the same place as we were when we left and an awareness that not everybody will expect that. We are also aware that the people we loved and left are not where they were either when we left. We are all on a journey and we are all a work in progress.

But for those of us who are looking forward to meeting our Savior one day...THIS life is not comfortable. We are in a place that is better than where we've been but we are still not where we are going and where we are going is so much better than where we are now!!! We have to persevere through the cold and the random people who come into our lives and sit at our feet when we are trying to get some sleep. We  have to remember that the situation we are in is temporary. Its only for a season. Yesterday I read this tweet...

John Lindell ‏@johnlindell  Jul 26

In life it's important to remember the spiritual realities are the greater realities. "What is seen is temporary..." 2 Cor 4:18

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Like my children who continue to ask how much longer is our journey to "THERE", (for the last few months up until the last few hours) WE can be so busy "counting the days" that we forget to "make the days count."

We can't make time go faster. We often can't change our circumstances or uncomfortable situation but CHANGE IS COMING! Whether it comes in this life or the next, the change first has to happen in our mind. We can either anticipate a future event and totally miss out on the opportunities that surround us now, OR we can keep our eye on the prize and let that motivate us to stick it through, to endure the suffering and the pain so that we can make the most of today. 

When we can look at our uncomfortable-ness as a minor obstacle to the end destination we can thereby retain the peace and presence God wants us to carry into those situations.

He is there, (like my mum is there waiting for us in Sydney right now) ready to welcome us home and we want Him to say "well done, my good and faithful servant... Enter into the joy of your Master." Matthew 25:23. And Oh, what a JOY that will be. 

Hang in there. 

Deliver Us From Evil

"This work is spiritual warfare", advised the founder and director of a large local NGO who previously had a contract with an International organization to implement a project for women in prostitution in our town. "But we don't have time for spiritual warfare", he continued so as to explain the cessation of that particular attempt at meeting the needs of the local community. His subsequent advice to me - "Pray!"

When Jesus was teaching his followers how to pray, He included some key components to successfully address all of the areas in which God is willing and able to work on our behalf.

"Our Father, who art in heaven... "

"Deliver us from evil" was one of those key components. Evil is real. It's out there on assignment ready to take captive those who are living unaware. Unaware of its schemes', its subtlety, its power. It doesn't work alone but it has legions of soldiers in it's army that are ranked and are ready to attack on any given victim, in any given region, at any given time. And if that civilian is unaware they are even under attack...they will be captured.

And Jesus concluded his prayer with "deliver us from evil. For Yours is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory Forever and Ever!"

The battle begins in the mind and it is won or lost in the spirit of the man or woman. It happens in agreement with the victim. Like Eve believed the lie of the serpent "did God really say?" So too when we believe the lie, A lie, A whisper of doubt or fear, even a subtle thought that we are not good enough, our lives are not "fun" enough, our body is not "beautiful" enough...so too do we fall into a trap. We sign the dotted line and miss the fine print.  Evil is moving in!

Over the past few years God has taken me on a journey of discovering more about the evil that we battle against.  Growing up in a home where mental illness confused and scared the living "daylights" out of me. It also welcomed the darkness of evil in. The spirit of fear took up residence for longer than I had prepared to pay for it to stay. I however, was totally unaware that it was winning this battle in my spirit and it became a part of who I was. It influenced my decisions, my relationships, and it manifested in my dreams.

It wasn't until I became a bystander of someone else's fear that I was able to face my own. It wasn't until EVIL literally came and slapped me on the face, that I was able to see it for what it really was- an enemy to be reckoned with and a resident that was overstaying in the heart and mind of the person that mattered most to the ones I loved the most.


Me.

So I cried "deliver me Lord from this evil." Well actually it was a bit more dramatic than that but we wont go there this time. It took people who knew what they were praying against and the authority they were praying with. But not every experience of deliverance is the same.


Ok so going back to the story I began with. Part of my own journey's purpose was to prepare me for what I would encounter here in Ethiopia. Every Wednesday at Zion church where I first visited on our first week in Ethiopia, people squish into the uncomfortable wooden chairs for up to six hours on end to receive a word, a healing but more often than not, a deliverance from evil. Its real and it's raw and its pretty rough.

Unlike my experience, the experience of many here; through ancestral practices or through animistic worship, evil spirits are actually welcomed in to become resident in ones body, ones home or ones family. (We think we don't do that in the west but we do - through mediums or clairvoyants, through séances or Ouija boards, through alcohol or drug abuse or very simply by just believing a lie.)

The deliverance that occur every Wednesday at Zion Church and frequently at most protestant churches around Ethiopia, are the result of a prevalent darkness that has come down through the generations as the result of curses, witchcraft, demonic worship and idol worship sometimes associated with the Orthodox beliefs that are particular to Ethiopia.

Now take that background from which most of our women come from, then add a lifestyle of sexual exploitation which often comes as a result of sexual trauma, neglect and rejection; add to the mix a hardened heart who has built up walls or strongholds against the things of Light and you can see a better picture of what we are facing.

The restoration of lives who are bound up, occupied, deceived and discouraged takes place over a period of time. A life time. So we pray "deliver US from evil" and we bring truth to undo all the lies the evil has planted to make his way IN and we seek to break down the walls that are built up around their hearts. All of us as we go into this battle together. And we see Him set THEM free as He set us free.

"Transformed lives, transform lives."

God has called us out of darkness into His glorious light and He gives us ROYAL status. He is more powerful. He grants us freedom and victory. He desires to deliver us from evil, just as he desires to give us our daily bread. That's why He tells us to ask Him to do it, because He knows only He can. And He too has legions of a greater population that are out for our good, to wage the war in the spiritual realm where we can not go.

Gods plans for us are for good and not for evil. To prosper us not to harm us. To give us hope and a future! Jeremiah 29:11

Please join us in this battle. Pray for our ministry in Ethiopia. Especially as we take back territory the enemy has held captive for far too long. We need more soldiers in the battle. Come join the winning team! "For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory! Forever and ever, Amen."