While in Tanzania, Rachel Monahan learned that God is still present in places experiencing spiritual warfare. She thanks God not only for their experience in these places but also that his presence will remain long after they’ve left. If you’re curious what God wants to teach you check out our Adventures page for upcoming trips.
I wake up
every morning, roll out from under my mosquito net in our little cement house,
and walk outside to absolute pure natural beauty. Tanzania is without a doubt
one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been. And underneath it all are some of the hardest
things I have ever faced.
From the
moment we stepped off the bus into this country, I could feel a weight over
myself – a heavy one that has not gone away in the weeks that we’ve been living
here. Tanzania is a tough mix between the most beautiful and most
spiritually dark place I have ever set my feet on. There is
darkness here, a darkness that I can feel, and it tears at my heart every
single day. I spend this time walking through villages and streets filled
with witchdoctors, and conflicting religions, and a lingering feeling of
godlessness and brokenness; it saddens me this is the only world that most of
these people will ever know.
I walk
outside at night to brush my teeth and the feeling of darkness exceeds the mere
fact that the sun went down. I wake up exhausted after ten hours of sleep
because there is such spirit of tiredness and confusion and distraction and
disorder here.The feeling I
often have being in this place is not something that I can easily explain or
give justice to, but it is physically tangible.
Even though
living here has been an emotionally and spiritually and physically stressful
experience, it is also the place where my eyes have been the most opened.
I have witnessed firsthand what the essence of spiritual warfare looks
like. Missions are
not always cake and ice cream and holding hands with cute little kids.
Evangelism is not always about walking around and telling happy people about a
happy message that will merely make their lives happier. No, this hard.
This is breaking chains and dealing with bondage and casting out things that
choke.
It seems so
far from it sometimes, but I have no doubt that God has blessed this land. I
look around the villages and farmlands where crops grow, and the rain falls, and
the rivers run full, where kids burst with laughter. God loves Tanzania. I love
Tanzania. Although this is a hard place to be, I am
thankful for every minute that we have spent here. There is no instant
gratification, and I may never see the fruit of the seeds we have planted or
the ministry that we have done, but every house that we prayed over and every
person we confronted and every night that I went to bed a little scared was not
in vain.
“But I am confident of this I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”
Psalm 27:13
I am thankful
for this promise, I am thankful that He who started good work here will carry
it to completion. I am grateful that when we leave here next week, that
the Spirit of the Lord does not. I am grateful that the believers who do
live here who we have worked with are some of the strongest and most committed
ones that I have ever met. I am thankful that the people here are wise
and aware, and I am thankful for the fact that they are so committed to prayer.
They are living fully alive despite the darkness. And I am thankful that I can
be confident that Tanzania is seeing the goodness of God, and that though there
is a battle, this is becoming the land of the living.
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