3 Gospel Campaigns in Angola
The Goodness of God
From 4 - 21 July, while we were preparing for the six Congo campaigns, CfaN Bootcamp graduate Evangelist Randy Roberts conducted three evangelistic events in the Southern African nation of Angola. The people of Angola suffered through decades of communist rule in the 20th century, as well as thirty years of civil war, which ended in 2002. This is a nation still bearing the scars and pain of those years, a nation in desperate need of Jesus.
CfaN’s Peter Vandenberg joined Evangelist Roberts for the campaigns, teaching pastors and church leaders during the Fire Conferences (more about that later in this letter). The two main campaigns took place in the cities of Benguela and Huambo. After that, Randy and his team decided to take advantage of the momentum created, and within a few days had quickly organized a third campaign in the nearby town of Lobito. Peter and Randy shared the following reports with me.
Benguela, Angola // 4 – 7 July
“God has a sense of humor”
On the first night in Benguela, Evangelist Roberts shared:
As we pulled into the field tonight, Reverend Vandenberg and I were both excited. We could see that the crowd was a good size for the first night and they seemed lively. After we got out of the car we arrived in, I snuck around the side of the stage to see the thousands of dancing and smiling people. As I looked at them, I began to laugh at the fact that I was about to preach to them. “God surely has a sense of humor” I thought.
I walked back to a small tent they had for us to sit in while we wait. I sat down and just began to thank God and Peter joined in. I began to weep tears of joy at the goodness of God. Peter looked at me with a questioning look. I said, “I used to be a bad person, Peter.” He said, “I know. I read some of what you wrote (his wife, Evangeline, is helping me with a project) and I couldn’t believe it was you. Then he paused and with a big smile said, “Actually, it isn’t you anymore!” He continued, “You have said ‘yes’ to God and are sitting here because of it.”
All I could think of was the redemptive power of the blood of Jesus and what is has done for me, how it has transformed me into a useful vessel for my King!!
As they brought Zidane up the stairs to testify, I knew he had been set free because he was crying tears of joy, so much so he almost couldn’t talk. For three years, he had a constant buzzing in his left ear like a very loud bee. Not only did it make him deaf in that ear, it also tormented him 24 hours a day. It was so bad that he had become suicidal. He said immediately after the prayer for the sick, the buzzing instantly stopped and he could hear out of his ear again.
