A Village of Hope is Birthed
Ruth Johnson

A scorching mid-day sun beat down on the courtyard of our African home as myriads of leaves shimmered and danced in a welcome breeze. High above the towering trees, an eagle glided effortlessly in the cloudless blue sky while a peaceful silence settled on our compound once again.

The pastors from Mt. Elgon had departed just a short time ago. I sat on a wooden bench in our garden and reflected on the week they had lived with us. Their tents were still clustered together everywhere as tender reminders that our ministry headquarters here in Africa had become a little Village of Hope. We missed them tremendously and felt a profound loss. We had become a closely knit family by the time they left to return to the mountain.

With tears in their eyes, many even expressed to us before they said goodbye…

“We have many responsibilities so we must go back to the mountain. We have much to do that lies ahead of us so that we can take to our people all that we learned here that changed our lives. But we are also sad. We don’t want to leave. Never have we felt this way before. It hurts our hearts to say goodbye to you.”

Since the first year God gave us this compound as the headquarters for Lighthouse of Hope Ministries in Africa, we knew it was meant to be a Training Center for pastors and leaders of this nation.

This week was the beginning of that dream. What we all experienced during that birth was so overwhelmingly breathtaking that for several days it was difficult to put into words. But now, as I quietly sat on the humble wooden, the thoughts came.

It all began on Monday.

We excitedly opened our massive metal gate to find the pastors from Mt. Elgon standing there. They looked haggard and weary. Some looked concerned. Several we knew from our journeys to their mountain and they were delighted to greet us. But most of the faces were new to us. A heavy uncertainty clouded their countenances.

Immediately all of us who lived on the compound as a very close family welcomed and embraced them with hugs and bright, happy smiles. As love exploded, a transformation took place before our very eyes. They suddenly shouted and leaped with joy. Their faces became radiant. Later this is how many of them excitedly testified…

“None of us were expecting such a loving welcome. We never expected to be treated as equals. Never in any of our lives have we experienced so much love. And during our journey to Mama Ruth’s and Papa Barry’s, we were all attacked by a terrible sickness. Some of us were so ill that we didn’t think we could make it and we seriously considered going back to the mountain. By the time we arrived, we were extremely weak. Then a miracle took place that stunned us. The instant we walked through that gate, we were healed. The strong presence of God that we felt as soon as we entered the compound, and the overwhelming love that greeted us, set us free.

We also came from different churches and denominations and most of us hated each other as we stood outside that gate. There was no unity or love among us! We despised each other and looked down on the different denominations. Deep hurts and thick walls of judgment, intense competition and hatred separated us. Yet the minute we passed through that gate the divisions among us started to disappear. A unity began! We were all shocked by this taking place. This is the miracle we spoke about among ourselves all week long! We will never forget how God changed us in this supernatural way. And we never dreamed that by the end of the week we would be so united that we now loved each other as family. By the time the week ended we would rather die than hurt each other again. Hatred, jealousy and deadly competition are destroying the churches on the mountain. But this week we all died to those horrible sins against love. We can never go back to that hatred! All we want to do now is keep loving each other and bring this love to the mountain so that it can spread everywhere like fire!

Before we came to Mama Ruth’s and Papa Barry’s, most of us never understood what revival was. But we have seen it this week. Now we are fully convinced that revival is a move of God’s holy presence that changes us forever!”

Barry and I marveled at what had happened. What we had just seen God do was most definitely the most fruitful time of ministry we had ever experienced. Shortly after we privately expressed these thoughts to each other, Joseph stunned us with these words…

“This was the most powerful of all your times of ministry in Africa and it happened because God gave Papa Barry a very wise plan for our people. He showed him to remove the pastors from all the distractions in their lives and bring them to this compound to live close together for a week. Because they had no distractions at all, everything that took place went deep into their hearts.

The message of love and unity and intimate worship in the Holy of Holies became a fire that will change the mountain when they go back to their people. But what amazed me the most is they were willing to openly repent of all the ways they had sinned against each other. And by the end of the week they rushed to the altar with many tears and broken hearts so that they could humble themselves for hurting their wives. Never do the pastors of Africa publicly humble themselves. Never do they tell God they are sorry for not loving their wives or other pastors.

They were so affected that every one of them has told us, "I am going to return home to my wife and beg her forgiveness."

They have also decided to go to many people on the mountain and ask forgiveness for hurting them.

All of this is unheard of among our people.

It does not happen.

These pastors will never go back to who they were before they came here!

This is a miracle!”