Worship Nights

We stated our week in East London, South Africa, with the news that a man had been brutally murdered by many people in the rubbish dump community of our missions base with Global Mercy Missions. Our children had witnessed it, and afterwards, we noticed that our preschoolers were reenacting what they had witnessed, pretending to beat each other up. For some children, it was their own parents who participated in the murder. The atmosphere was thick with violence and strife.

Horrified and broken, I turned to Holy Spirit and asked Him how to respond. He told me to worship with the children.

So I led the children in a local song worshiping the Holy Spirit, and He started to move in such a mighty way that every child was on his or her face weeping and wailing in the presence of the Lord. This continued for over an hour, and not one child was distracted with what was happening around him or her.

We could see the trauma leaving the children with every tear.

This outpouring of the Holy Spirit continued for two weeks.

Every day the children would gather together to worship the Holy Spirit, which manifested in weeping and grieving.

But one day I woke up and said, "Holy Spirit, I don't think I can handle listening to my children cry again. Their cries are breaking my heart. When are you going to reveal yourself as a happy God? When are you going to bring the joy of your presence? I am grateful for how you have moved, but Holy Spirit, I know there is more to your nature than what these children are experiencing""

The Holy Spirit's response shifted our reality. 

He said, "My son, when will you show them that I am a happy God?

When will you reveal Me as the One who makes you glad?" So, full of courage, I wrote a song with the children in their own language, saying, "The Holy Spirit makes me laugh, the Holy Spirit makes me dance, the Holy Spirit makes me cry."

The Holy Spirit showed up once again, but in a new way!

The children danced upon the same ground that they had cried on. They were filled with joy and laughter in the same place that they had been healed from their trauma. They rolled around screaming with the joy of the Lord. Bear in mind, they had no reference to that kind of manifestation of the Holy Spirit. They had never seen that before.

Their laughter was so loud that the parents and the community members came to find out what was happening.

As they walked into the room, they were moved by His presence.

As a result, the community justice (murder) has come to a halt, with very few cases of violence and crime taking place.

Since the outpouring on that day, many people have gotten saved and left their old lives behind. The changing of the tides has begun, and it started with our children receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit!