A Wonderful Week of Crusade and Safari

Wow what a week!  I had been looking forward to this week for months and now it  has finally happened.  I never knew that I would both participate in an exorcism and witness a lion kill a wildebeest in the same week…it was definitely a week to remember.

Translated “never again.” This is a genocide memorial in Burundi that we stopped at to show Mom and Dad

It started in Kirundo, where I did the second segment of the crusade.  I brought Dad Neufeld with me in order to expose him to rural Burundi and he loved it.  There were many Haiti comparisons—which I expected—and there were many new experiences for him as well.  All in all the crusade went even better than the last one as far as I could tell.  The people were very receptive to the worship as well as the messages.  Many people came forward to receive salvation and this always makes me happy.  While I was performing an alter-call, one of the ladies that came forward started to manifest a demon, so I separated her out from the rest of the people and got 4 pastors to pray for her.  When I finished up with leading the other people to Jesus, I returned to the lady and began to pray for her.  The demon was very resistant and would not release his grip on her after praying for her for awhile.  I left the Burundian pastors to pray for her because they told me that they had much experience in these kinds of things…which was good because I do not.  All in all I was happy with my time in Kirundo and I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.  Even the Safari that I was going on the next day.

Such a beautiful landscape in Tanzania

Dani, Mom and Dad Neufeld, the boys and I all headed out to Tanzania to see the Serengeti.  I have been waiting almost a year for this trip and when it finally arrived I was really pumped.  We drove from Bujumbura to the Mbalegeti Lodge in the middle of the Serengeti over a period of 3 days.  Staying on the Serengeti is one of the best experiences I have had.  There are people that hear hyenas, zebras, elephants, and other wild animals outside their room.  Unfortunately, we did not get such noises outside our room, but perhaps our experience of the wild was even better. inside our room.  As we entered our room the porters helped us get settled when all of a sudden I noticed a rather large snake on our windowsill…inside the window, not outside.  After pointing this out, everyone kind of freaked out because it was between 6-7 ft long.  Dani and Mom picked up the kids very quickly, and I proceeded to ask the Tanzanians in the room what kind of snake it was and how dangerous it was.  They told me that it was not poisonous, which made me very happy, and when I looked at the size of its head, it did not look like it had very big teeth, so I tried to catch it.

The smile on my face masks the terror in my heart

You can’t see me in this picture but I am standing on top of the couch on the left. The snake is hard to see, but it is on the ground

The head of this snake had the consistency of porridge after we were finished

Just so you know…every single African is absolutely TERRIFIED of snakes.  This is mostly because they all know someone who has died of a snake bite and also because for some people there is a spiritual element involved as well as a physical one.  Being from Canada, I did not share this phobia so naturally I simply wanted the thing dead.  I hopped up on top of the couch as one of the Tanzanians handed me a pinching tool for catching snakes.  I promptly pinched the snakes tail as the head began to flail.  As the rest of the Tanzanians in the room saw the head of the snake start to move frantically around, they informed me that they were mistaken on the species of snake.  They told me that in fact this snake was poisonous.  Thanks for that!  At this moment two things happened.  The first thing was that every single person in the room except for Dad ran out screaming.  The second thing that happened was that the weight of the reality that I was holding a Black Mamba (Google it…I dare you) by the tail started to get my heart-rate going.  After shouting aloud that I was not very happy with the people that told me it was not poisonous, I realized that I was going to have to be very careful with this one.   It was wrapped around the coffee table and the couch, which prevented it from being able to bite me because I was standing on the very top of the couch.  I was holding on with all my might because the strength of the snake was challenging the grip that I had on its tail.  At one moment I had the opportunity to pinch it in the middle of its body and I capitalized on it.  As soon as it felt the pinching tool on its mid-section, the head came around super fast and started attacking the tool.  When this happened, I saw another opportunity to pinch it in the neck, and I took advantage of this moment.  The second I got it around the neck, it went berserk, flailing and shaking, trying to free itself from my grip.  I pulled the snake out from around the coffee table and under the couch, realizing that it was at least 2 meters long, possibly more.  I paused for a picture (naturally) on the way out the door before I put the snake down on the ground in order to crush the serpent’s head before it could bite my heel.  Finally the evil snake died and I was able to Google Black Mamba’s.  Wow.  Lucky it died before me.

The snake in the room was only the beginning of the adventure.  The next day Dad and I went on the best safari that I have ever been on in my life.  It was all self-driven and we were able to see things that people rarely ever get to see…such as lions killing a wildebeest.  We saw the whole thing, from the time the wildebeest was running till the time that he ate dirt.  It was an amazing spectacle and our guide was even surprised.  We also saw a leopard, which is rare, as well as elephants, hippos, crocs, buffalo, and a few thousand wildebeest and zebra.  It was simply stunning and was a theology lesson for me…our God is a creative God.  I have never seen beauty like I saw on the Serengeti…it was new to me.

These elephants were a bit smaller than the ones I saw in Botswana, but still very impressive

So we are home now with many memories and many stories.  We get to enjoy the next week with Mom and Dad Neufeld and continue our adventures.  The prayer requests/thanksgivings for this week are obvious.  Thank God that he blessed me so much during my preaching and also that he gave us such a good experience in Tanzania.  God is good!!