A few short stories- jess

I am incredibly tired, but decided to write a blog update of a few highlights from the past few days. There is one that incredibly sticks out to me.

STORY 1: OVERNIGHT
On monday our coodrdinator asked if we would like to add an "overnight" to our scheduel. After thinkign about it and praying about it Maegan and I both thought it would be good to do. We figured I'd preach around 7p hang out w/ the people for a while and then go to bed because we'd been told we'd have beds. The day of the "overnight" Maegan and I go hiking and just have a very fun and active day.Around noonish or so our coordinator calls and informs us that he'd pick us up at 8:30 p. This was surprising to us because most services start between 5p-8p. As we are preparing to leave for our overnight our housemate informs us that in Africa and overnight is not just spending the night somewhere, it's an all night long service!!!! EEEEKS. We def. were not prepared for that after our long hike we were both exhausted and looking forward to an early bed time. As we get in the car and tell our translator he just laughs and thinks it is absolutely hilarious while I am praying to God I'd be able to stay awake to preach. He tells me he'll ask them if i can preach before 1am... aaaahhhhhhhh.

We ended up loving the overnight. They all laughed at our mixup and allowed me to start my message at 11p. It was a great time in the Lord and I really believe God touched their hearts. We were able to go to bed around 1am and had a peaceful nights sleep until 445 when the muslim call to prayer awakened us from the mosque down the road!! The people from the overnight cooked maegan and i breakfast and really touched our hearts w/ their generosity.

I want to share an awesome answer to prayer I received that morning from one of the men in the service. For quite some time now I have been praying for the grace of God in my life to come and take over every time i speak (which I believe He does), but I have been praying specifically that people will not hear words from my mouth but seriously from the mouth of God. This man came up to me and said that the grace of God is so strong in my life that He could tell it was not speaking, that when he looked upon me he didn't see a person, but only the glory of God.... AMEN AND AMEN.

STORY 2: JEAN MARIE
Maegan and I have the most amazing driver, Jean Marie. He has a very relaxed tempermant and hardly speaks. One day I was preaching in one service then driving to another directly after to preach, so I had gotten my messages together and decided to preach the same message in both services. After the first service jean marie told our translator he had a story he wanted me to hear, it was a very funny story pertaining to what I had preached on, so I decided in the next service to tell the story.

Before I told the story (it was an english speaking service) I said "I want to tell a great story taht our drive just recently told me, Jean Marie if you're in the congregation will you stand up". There was over 500 people in the congregation and so i scanned for a few seconds and never saw him so proceeded w/ the story and rest of my sermon.

After the lesson we stuck around and fellowshipped then went and got in our car. I said "jean marie i told your story in my sermon!" jean marie replied "I know I was in the church" I said "but jean marie i told you to stand up!" Jean marie simply laughed and said "I know I just didn't want to"

I hope this is as funny to you as it has been to all of us here!!!


I'll go ahead and end because this has gotten long. Next week I'll be joining maegan with orphanage ministry and we'll be wrapping up our time here, it's hard to believe it's already been two weeks.
We love you all.
Be blessed,
J. Tate