Shifting to Sending
A shift was happening. Like tectonic plates crashing together, things were being shaken. It was exactly the midway point of the 50 Hours of worship and prayer in East Africa and deep intercession had erupted in the room. The prayers changed from, “Lord, mark laborers,” to a cry of “Lord, send me.” Then something very significant happened. An indigenous leader stepped up to pray, and he was filled with the spirit of prophecy. He began to pray, “Lord, don't just send us [to the people in this region]. Send us to the lost sheep. Send us to the original pasture. Send us to the lost sheep of Israel.” The shifting and shaking in the Spirit was causing hearts to be uprooted from their homeland and drawn to nations not their own. Aaron, an indigenous believer, suddenly felt the call. “I had previously talked to him about one day going into full- time ministry,” said Felix, the Director of the MAPS Global East Africa Missions Base. “And then he said, ‘no, I don't think so.’ But that night, he came up to me and he said, ‘Remember when I said, ‘No?’ Today, I feel that the Lord is marking me and I know, deep down inside, that one day I'm not going to be with you in this room, because I'm going to be sent [out to the nations in full-time ministry] through you guys. You're still going to be a spiritual family, but I'm going to be joining you in the Spirit from another nation that the Lord is sending me to.”
Less than a week earlier, a local believer had a vivid dream that was directly connected to what God was doing. “He saw the manifest glory of the Lord in [a room full of people], and then he saw angels coming. The angels put Bibles on the altar by the stage. Then he saw people from our team…taking the Bibles. The individuals went to a different location and they started going in different directions in the streets and handing out the Gospel!” God was working not only in the heart of Aaron, but also in the heart of another local believer named Esme. Following is another testimony from an indigenous believer during the 50 Hours.
As the Spirit began to shake this prayer room in East Africa, a long-buried desire was brought to the surface of Esme's heart, like an eruption. “She had this burning desire to be sent out to Israel. But then [that dream] was buried for two years, because we hadn’t talked about it since then,” said Felix. “We were now talking about it again.” With all of her heart, Esme was also saying, “Here I am, send me.” Her desire was not only being brought to the surface, but was being joined to the heart of the Lord.
The Lord is stirring in hearts and shaking the very foundations of the lives of indigenous believers in East Africa. Believers like Aaron and Esme are experiencing a shifting that will become a sending. The sending will fill the 10/40 Window with indigenous Gospel-proclamation that starts in the Arab world and ends in Jerusalem!