Susan’s dramatized sermon on Peter walking on the water.

By Susan Shanklin

Where do I start? What do you want to know? Do I start with the miracle at the Minneapolis airport where they found me at the LAST gate of the airport 10 minutes before we were to  board on our first leg of our trip to Benin to return my visa to me to enter Benin, Africa?????? Yep, they failed to return it to me when I checked in way back at the beginning of the airport … hours before. With no visa, no entry. My eyes glazed with amazement and wonder of this miracle which would be a start of many and infallible proofs that, “Yes, I am with you,” says the Lord.

Africa was hot … very hot, noisy, dusty, dirty, and wonderful! 

Africa was colorful, smiley, absorbing, and hungry for life.

It didn’t matter what the real temperature was. It only mattered what it really felt like. African heat smacks you like a furnace blast when the door is opened … but then the door doesn’t shut. I would be sitting listening to Tom or others speaking or listening to wild music when suddenly I felt a new and different smothering heat wave. I would check, and it felt like a searing 103°, 105°, or 107° Fahrenheit! BUT, I made it through. I secured the Father’s grace in time of need! Many times I myself would be preaching with water rolling down my back and my hair getting more curly and wild. What fun to preach in the furnace and not get burned!

Africa is very noisy. It only sleeps for a few hours in the middle of the night. The city of Cotonou reeked of petroleum, spices, and dirt, beeping horns, motorcycle revs and ebbs, and endless rumbles of heavy overloaded trucks gearing up or down.

Out in the rural areas is the same. Beep beep. Rev rev.

But if you go way, way out in the bush, you only hear the dry leaves and twigs crushing under you dusty sandals. No noise there, just like the beginning of creation.

There is another type of noise that is loud, crushing, vibrating and pulsating, throbbing … la musique, music. African music bounces off your chest or through your chest. It may have drums or not. It may have guitars or not, but what it does have is volume, sway, and beat. 

I’m not musical, but I tried in my best Minnesotan way to clap and reposition my stiff arms and legs.

Red dust rose from the ground when you walked. Red dust clouded the air. Red dust settled everywhere. I would bathe twice a day, but the first to be washed were my feet. Too hot to wear anything other than sandals for me, and red feet and sandals were the norm.

Africa is dirty. No awareness of proper trash disposal. Just drop, flick, or toss. That bothered me. Where, I wondered, was the natural instinct to know how beautiful God had fashioned and framed the African landscape. I tried to bring some awareness to this, only be replied, “This is Africa, Momma.”

Africa seems to be stuck or in a holding pattern from the beginning of time. This one thing I do know, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

The living true and merciful God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior for and to Africa. Only He is the author and finisher of Africa. 

I saw God’s mercy in Africa. I saw God’s miracle-working power in Africa. I saw beauty for ashes. I was beyond blessed to be sent there by generous and expecting partners, and wonderful, diligent prayer warriors to cover me on every step I took.

I spoke. I prayed. I worshiped. I clapped. I tried to dance. 

My voice had value as never before. I was changed by Africa. Africa changed my focus. Africa blasted the scales off my eyes for God’s vision for all mankind.

I stuck my fingers in deaf ears and prayed. God said, “Yes, I hear that prayer.” I laid my hands on heads, chests, hips, shoulders, and knees, and prayed. God said, “Yes, I hear that prayer. Be whole my child.”

God stirred the heaven’s atmosphere to create a breeze during evening outdoor outreaches just for me. For me! Because He cared for ME. God never took his eyes off me, Tom, or the team.

Truly, it was an act of God that we did not hit a person, cycle or goat in the car. It was an act of God that we did not turn over or fall into deep eroded red roads.

What can I say to show you or tell you that the Bible is true? God is breathing and alive. It’s us that have become lethargic and polluted. You might not go physically to Africa, but you can walk across the street to your Africa. Or you might get in your car and go to your Africa. 

Let’s get dirty. Let’s come together as His body, moving in unison and with direction to seek and to save the lost. 

Yah, we can do this!

Click here to see the video and read Tom’s report “Miracles in Benin 2019.”