Bill & Julia brings you an Otter Way to get the News this addition comes straight out of Africa. Babati, Tanzania
L3 International has just completed their 13th city-wide festival on the African continent. I (Bill) was there to help facilitate teams into villages, schools, and evangelism crusades. I would like to simply share testimonies and a few personal highlights, so we can all Glorify Jesus and know that HE is ALIVE & POWERFUL.
It was a blessing to have a good hotel with an amazing hotel staff. Right away, I connected with the head waiter and began sharing Jesus. I gave him a bible and started discipling him every morning. He would always have intriguing questions. At the end of our stay there, he committed his life to Jesus.
Global Xpression dancers went into villages and schools to perform and preach Jesus. I was able to run sound for all of these events. We literally saw the miraculous every place we went. One instant I thought was just amazing, goes like this. I prayed for a young gal named Margarette at a very small village school. She really wanted a bible in Swahili and so did most of the children there. I asked around and no one had a bible, anywhere. The school principal says they don’t even have a church and asked that we pray for a church and bibles. I was very upset about all of that especially since new bibles cost $12 US dollars ($27,600 shillings) and it’s not like they have Christian Bible Stores anywhere. I expressed my concerns to the team as we got back onto the bus. My friend Jan told me God would take care of it in time. That wasn’t enough. I really wanted to see something happen now. We arrived at another school on the next hill over. At the end of that school performance I met the principal there and told him about the other school’s bible dilema. He told me he was a pastor and he had some bibles he could take to them. I was so excited for the sudden answered prayer! It was truly a miracle, especially since most of these students were Muslims.
God also used me to pray with many other people and even heal them of physical defects. I prayed with a Muslim woman on the second night of a 4-Night Crusade. She was healed of a stomach issue and accepted Jesus as God instead of Allah. On the last night I saw her at the crusade praying for other women to be healed in the name of Jesus.
One night, I was making my way through the crowd to get back to the bus as the crusade was ending. Our team member, Elli, was praying for a little girl that was about 3 years of age when she spotted me. Elli said “I need help praying for this little girl because she can’t walk right or stand on her own. I’ve been trying but I don’t want to leave her yet. Can you help me please?” I told her we need to leave but I would pray with her. I tried to get the girl to stand but she kept falling. “We need to leave” I said as I was still holding the toddler’s hand. We started to take off when the girl just kept holding my fingers, but I let go and started moving through the crowd. Elli screamed something, and I turned around to see the little girl running towards me. It was a miracle!!
Through all the dirt roads, sick villagers, different foods and squattie potties, all 49 of us that teamed up on this region of Babati, Tanzania came away with no serious illnesses. A true blessing. There is so much that God has done through me on this trip that it would be hard to explain in just a letter. But, I wanted to share some of my personal testimonies with you knowing everyone there had received the same as me or more from God. Stories are still coming in.
Please be encouraged by these testimonies to play your own part of doing the will of God. It’s a lot easier than it looks. I merely showed up. As you can see, God did the rest. If you would like to hear more stories or even join one of these teams for an L3 trip then let me know or go to L3International.org.
Enjoy some of the media that was captured from this trip. Julia and I hope to update our personal website soon to add more media there as well. It's our hope to share as much as we can with you through emails, facebook and at otternessmissions.weebly.com.
One of the ministries that joined us is called Land of Hope. They brought bags full of toys and clothes. We visited this Kids Club that was over half orphans. I think these kids walked from all over to come to this day. We could hear them singing from down the dirt road as we drove up in two buses. It took us a while to unload and they sang the entire time, waiting to greet us.
Thank you for reading our letter. Julia and I will continue our missionary journeys through out America but we will go international every time God calls us. A sneak peak ahead hopes to bring many new things with the
Genesis 1-1 Arts Ministry.