“As Trees Bow Down to the Wind, so is the Power of Prayer” – Ministry in Makhathini

As we journeyed from Jbay to the rural village of Makhathini in KZN, it felt like something new was stirring. Perhaps it was because we’d just been released from training and were eager to get to our first ministry point. Perhaps it was because we could sit, sleep, and rest for the two days of travel. But perhaps Jesus was up to something more.

I believe He was stirring our hearts to advance His Kingdom through the power of prayer. In the green, humid, song-filled land of Makhathini, a battle awaited us and soon became very real. There, the spiritual atmosphere was thick and heavy like a blanket draped over the land. Only a few pockets of light shone through the holes cut open by those who walked before us in the authority of Jesus. But let me say, those pockets shone brightly.

Our hosts, a couple leading a local church, live in one of these pockets of light. Their house is a place of rest in a land of striving. They are well-equipped in battle, armed most strongly with the shoes of the Gospel of peace. They educated us in the ways of the Zulu people and especially in their practices of ancestral worship. Interestingly, many Christians go to church on a Sunday and still consult witch doctors (sangomas) throughout the week. We witnessed that the people in Makhathini often felt confused and trapped. But we know the One true Light as we are His children, and so this was the perfect place for God to intensify our training, where we could finally put into practice all that we had learnt during our six weeks in Jbay.

Because Jesus is the Light and the darkness cannot overcome Him, we soon had to learn how to walk in the authority of His Light as a unified team. Spiritual warfare is real, and we felt it within the first few days of arriving. About 80% of our team was struggling with headaches, an obvious attack from the enemy. As soon as we started to pray together, the headaches lessened.

While praying for this, one of our team members had a vision of barbed wire wrapped around the heads of the people there. She felt that the headaches were also an opportunity for God to reveal to us what the community was experiencing. They were spiritually bound by the lies of the devil. We prayed into this and soon the atmosphere felt lighter. From there, we launched into our first form of one-on-one ministry, knowing the power of prayer.

‘Buckets of Love’ is one of the main ways our hosting church there spreads the gospel. It’s an initiative designed to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the people. Our team’s main form of ministry was driving to different local families, distributing their buckets of food, and spending time talking and praying with them. It’s all about loving through relationship.

Poverty runs deep in Makhathini. The people have little, but they are still abundantly generous. Most of the families we gave these food parcels to were single mothers, often raising children with disabilities. Depression is common. Hope is scarce. And without God, like us all, they are drowning. This is where Jesus holds a certain appeal.

On one of these house visits, we saw clearly how Jesus alone brings hope in hardship. Greeted by a single mother with three kids, our group sat on broken plastic chairs outside a nearby tree waiting for our translator to introduce the woman. Her house was rundown and her clothes dirty and torn. She couldn’t speak much English. But despite all our differences, we knew that since we are all made in God’s image, she carries a piece of Jesus and we could connect with her spirit.

So, we asked the woman, “What’s your story?”

And she told us of a life that cries out for Jesus:

Her two eldest were born with cerebral palsy. Her youngest child is healthy. This third child brought her great joy but the other two seemed to symbolise shame and were a big burden to her. Her husband was absent. He once tried to kill her and their two disabled children with an axe. Since then, she’s struggled to sleep, her thoughts were always occupied, and she’s lived in fear.

Our translator then turned to us and simply said, “She needs encouragement. You can share anything with her.”

We were silent for a moment. Then we told her about a man called Jesus.

We told her how, though He walked the earth thousands of years ago, Jesus still heals people today. We told her that He was God’s Son and that He carries love in the purest form. We explained to her the story from John 9 where Jesus tells his disciples that a man was born blind, not because of his or his parents’ sin, but rather, so that the glory of God could be displayed. We told her she could glorify God through loving her kids well, and that she could experience love through Jesus and through them. Her children’s disabilities were nothing shameful. Instead, they were an opportunity for her to bring glory to God.

We prayed for her. A simple prayer for healing, good sleep, peace, and an encounter with the love of Jesus.

Afterwards, she turned to us and said, “When you prayed for me, my heart felt light.”

We praise Jesus for that day.

Prayer has power. During our time in KZN, we experienced many more beautiful encounters with people. Encounters that were simple, honest, and deeply touching. Ones that taught us that talking to Jesus does not need to be complicated or eloquent. It just needs to be raw.

A man we met once said that just like the trees bow down to the wind, which shows the tangible bowing down to the intangible, so are the effects of prayer. As we pressed into this, we saw how much of God’s Kingdom is advanced simply through the moving of our Father’s heart. May we all experience the power and joy of prayer just as a child enjoys sitting on their father’s lap. And may we never forget Who it is that has conquered all and Who it is that moves the wind of the Spirit.