Uruguay – Deeper Into His Spirit
God told us to “Live with them.” Little did we know how powerful that one statement would be and how deeply impacted we would be by doing this simple act. Living with them, with our hosts in Uruguay, doing daily life with them, serving them, worshipping with them, eating with them, talking, laughing, working, just doing life with them all impacted us beyond words can contain, but even so, I’ll try.
Coming from the bustling and quick-paced city of Paraguay, entering into the cold farmlands of an Autumn Uruguay felt like entering Eden. From the start, the Lord was up to something and our team was soon delighted to find He was preparing a space for us to rest, receive, go deeper, and find a new layer of love in his presence.
Uruguay holds a special place in our team’s heart for many reasons, but it began with the fact that we were the first Global Challenge team to be there. We were pioneers, essentially. What an honor! As we charted this space, we soon began to fall more in love with the place, the people, and the vision of what the Lord is doing in a land that doesn’t seem to know His name.
The spiritual atmosphere there seemed somewhat dull. Like nothing was really happening. No life, no major attacks, just a numbness. After talking with our hosts we soon discovered that Uruguay is for the most part unreached. If you stopped someone on the street and asked if you could talk to them about Jesus, they’d probably say, “Sure. I vaguely recall his name. Who is he?” There is both a sadness and a power to this. For our hosts, a group of missionaries living together on a farming homestead, this is exactly where God has called them to be. And our team, still young and learning in many ways, received the privilege of living with them as they carried out His mission.
Passionate. Bold. Gentle. Humble. Spirit-filled. These are just some of the words fit to describe the community of believers we stayed with. Many were from South Africa, some from Namibia, others from Germany, and the United States. All were on fire for the Lord and we, in turn, were ready to receive more of that flame.
Purification often comes when the Lord takes us deeper into his heart. I believe this is a major part of what He did in us. Since the majority of our time was spent working in the fields of the land, doing manual labor to help the families build their homes and settle in, we often had time to just talk with the Lord while we worked. Or should I say, He had more access to our hearts, since our minds were not so busy, and could do the work He’d planned.
Jesus met us there in profound ways. On open and clear fields, while raking, wielding a pick-axe, chainsawing wood, and cleaning kitchens. He spoke to us and began to uproot pride, reveal fears, reassure hurts, and teach us more about Himself and his Kingdom.
One evening, as we sat around the fire after a hard day’s work, a spontaneous hour of confession began. We began to share with each other the areas in our lives that God had pointed out that weren’t submitted to him. We confessed sin, we asked for forgiveness if needed, and we forgave. We brought darkness to the light, and we received love from the Father through the love of each other.
After that, many of us began to experience a richness of the spirit. There seemed to be an outpouring of dreams and visions. Some of us were gifted with the ability to see in the spirit, and others with prophetic singing or heavenly experiences, or deep revelations of the Word and God’s promises. They started small, these experiences, just tastes and glimpses, but they are there, and we celebrate that and the work of purification God is doing.
One of our team members, Kaitlyn, commented on what this process felt like. She said,
“The months leading up to Uruguay, I had been praying to see more into the spiritual realm, specifically hoping to see angels. However, before this, I began to see more of the dark side of the spiritual realm more than anything else and I realised I had a fear towards these things. But I started to notice that God was stirring something in my heart.
In the middle of all of this, little frustrations, bitterness and unforgiveness started to grow towards my group members, specifically during our time in Paraguay. My heart grew hard. Yet after a tough and humbling Travel Challenge, where we hitchhiked 1500km, I stepped into Uruguay with a softened heart and a refreshed mind.
Within our first few days, we had a confession night as a team. We were given the space to speak what was on our hearts and there I brought forward my thoughts/emotions from the weeks prior. I was met with grace. This moment was the key to what was next for my time in Uruguay as after this, my eyes felt open to a new world.
Slowly, I started to see things I had never seen before: Angels ministering to people, worship angels, personal angels watching over the team members, and many more things. Though I didn’t understand all of it, my heart posture was set on learning as I watched all of this unravel before me.
A short period of time after this, one my of team members reminded me of something God had spoken to me before one of our worship nights in Uruguay. I had felt Him gently say, “I have a gift for you”. In that moment, I realised that this was His gift. Not because of anything good I did or anything nice I said, but because He is a good dad who likes giving good gifts to His kids. And His timing was perfect, as it always is.”
All the depths of God’s heart is beautiful, and the more you know Him, the easier it is to fall deeper in love with Him. As our team left Uruguay with tearful goodbyes and softer hearts, I look back and truly believe that we all experienced a new layer to God’s fatherly heart. He poured into us his gifts, his secrets, his love, and as we left for Argentina with a fire in our hearts, we were all ready to step into the next journey, ready to pour it all out.