Jennifer's Story

While I was in Zambia, our team of Advanced Mission Training students took an expedition to an area named Choma. Choma is located in the Nyawa Chiefdom of Zambia. Each day of the expedition we sent out teams of four or five people in different directions, to visit every hut they reached. The first morning we set out I was with two other AMT students and one translator. We headed out on foot and walked for only about 30 minutes before reaching the first hut. We spent around an hour with this first family, they were already believers so we spent the time encouraging them and helping to build their faith.

The second village that we came to was the home of Jennifer. She and her brother brought us small stools to sit on and we all crowded into the tiny bit of shade cast by the thatch roof of her kitchen. We began to introduce ourselves and share with her why we were there. It wasn't long before she began to tell us her testimony. She was very very sick a few years before, almost on the verge of death. She had many people come to her to try to make her well. They came to her with witchcraft and spells. They came and put charms (strings and pendants) on her to protect her and heal her. Nothing was working. One day someone came and shared with her who Jesus was. They told her about how He could heal her. After she allowed them to pray for her she was healed! She said that from that moment she gave her heart to The Lord. She KNEW that God had healed her.

We were amazed to hear her powerful testimony of her salvation. My teammate felt led to ask her if she had every received the Holy Spirit. She said no. We taught her scriptures from the Bible and explained what she could have, then we asked if we could pray with her for this gift. She accepted the offer. She and her brother immediately received the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. I asked her how she was feeling and she said that before we prayed she was doubting and skeptical about what we had taught her, but when we started to pray she said that she could feel that God was with her. She knew that He was there with her like never before. Her face even changed, she smiled nonstop until we left. Jennifer was so grateful that we came and shared with her the power of the Holy Spirit. She was so excited that she invited us to her sister's wedding the following day. She begged us to go.

Jennifer was a completely new person after we prayed for her. When I arrived at the wedding the following day she ran up to me and gave me a big hug. Then, later, when the team had to head back to camp she wanted to still feed us dinner. The food was not ready for the rest of the people at the wedding so she very quickly gathered some food for us in her best bowls to take with us back to camp. I know that Jennifer's life was completely impacted by the Gospel of Jesus Christ being brought to her village. She is only one of many with a testimony...