MAURITIUS

May 20 — August 10

In Mauritius, me and my team paired with local translators to share the gospel, pray for people, and help disciple those who wanted to know more about the story of Jesus and the Bible.

Why?

Matthew 28:18-20: “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”

I personally decided to go on this trip because I have interest in becoming a long-term missionary with the Antioch Movement, the multiplying church-planting church movement that I am a part of. This internship introduced me to the day-to-day life of an overseas missionary and is a requirement to be sent by the Antioch Movement long-term. Last winter in the Middle East, I heard the Lord's voice clear in that He is calling me to ministry, & that He wants me "to minister to the coastlands." This seemed like confirmation to go to Mauritius last summer since I had already applied for the trip and was actively seeking the Lord for clarity about whether to accept the invitation to GO.

Mauritius is a diverse African island close to Madagascar. Most of the island speaks French, Creole, or English and identifies as Hindu or Muslim with European, Indian, African, & Chinese ethnic backgrounds. Mauritius, as tiny as it is, is home to over a million people and is considered the most developed African nation.

Although Mauritius is an African island, it is quite different from mainland Africa. For one, Mauritians speak French. That is because the island was colonized by the French in 1715. But the island actually got its name from the Dutch who were there before. The Dutch arrived in 1598, but they abandoned the island in 1710. Then, Mauritius became a British colony in 1810 under the Treaty of Paris. This lasted until Mauritius gained independence in 1968.

The reason why Mauritius is so diverse is mostly due to their history of slaves having been brought from Africa, Madagascar, India, China, and Southeast Asia. The descendants of these diverse slaves form a significant portion of the Mauritian population today, and the island nation is known for its long tradition of tolerance and peaceful coexistence among its various ethnic and religious groups.

I had a picture of me walking on water with Jesus, like Peter in Matthew 14:22-33, from mainland Africa to Mauritius. Many Mauritians have never left their tiny island. I believe the Lord is wanting to “bridge the gap” between this island and the spiritual inheritance of mainland Africa. If there is to be a move of God in Africa, Mauritius will not be left out.

Unity

The people of Mauritius have grown accustomed to living isolated lives of distrust and hurt. Even within the church, there is disunity.

Our greatest place of prayer for our team going into the trip was that we’d be an example of unity for Christians on the island. While building close friendships in Mauritius may be a longer, more intricate process, the locals were open to us. I’d actually say we experienced accelerated nearness in our friendships with them. We prayed that the Bride of Christ in Mauritius — all believers —would be unified, because the Bride is beautiful to others when she is whole and one. This was our witness to the island.

We were told not to let the enemy take away the weapon of friendship from our team. And to this day, we believe whole-heartedly that to the extent that the church in Mauritius unifies, the nation will unify as well.

We found a filling of joy from a place of fellowship, whether in our time spent with God, our team, or those that we met. 1 John 1:1-4 says,

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”

This was felt by all during our time in Mauritius.

Something New

Someone had a prophetic word for our team from Mark 2:21-22 which says, “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

The way he interpreted this for the trip is the old wine skin being the way previous teams have approached the trip or the rhythms that have worked in the past. The new wine skin is our team trusting in God and living in obedience to what He is calling us into despite whether or not that aligns with the past methods or not. Others mentioned God plowing and preparing the harvest. For us to be true workers for what God has already sown, we had to come from a place of abiding in Him and obeying even if it made no sense to us. We lived this out in our day-to-day, choosing to outreach in certain parts of the island that our movement hadn’t sent people to before.

God of the Impossible

We believed God delivered and moved us towards a new thing during our trip where His protection was so abundant and complete that there was no place for fear or thoughts of possible defeat. Whatever we thought might overwhelm us was the very thing that God used to take us to the depth. Things that shouldn’t have worked were carried out seamlessly because God’s grace was on it. We testified our God being

SIGNIFICANCE

This is a word I had that speaks to the significance of Mauritius, and this “coastlands” word on my life:

”You who laid the foundations of the earth, So that it should not be moved forever, You covered it with the deep as with a garment; The waters stood above the mountains. At Your rebuke they fled; At the voice of Your thunder they hastened away. They went up over the mountains; They went down into the valleys, To the place which You founded for them. You have set a boundary that they may not pass over, That they may not return to cover the earth.“
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭104‬:‭5‬-‭9‬

God could have created the earth to have smooth and clear boundaries between land and sea, but He chose to hold back the waters from burying islands like Mauritius for a Divine purpose and such a time as this. Lord, raise up the coastlines, You are worthy to be praised by the waters. Amen!

AUTHORITY

God specifically gave me the word AUTHORITY for my time in Mauritius. I recently heard someone define authority as “the right to use power.” God has been building my faith specifically in the power and effectiveness of a righteous person’s prayer by having me witness healings, deliverances, etc from the laying of hands. I believe we will see this in Mauritius and that even just the name of Jesus would drip freedom for the captives. But where does this authority come from?

THE GOSPEL

Genesis 3 describes the fall of man, the first sin ever committed on earth. Before, Adam and Eve, the first people on earth that God created, lived in perfect relationship with God. Because of their disobedience, like our own,  our just God could have left us to die, as was the punishment for our sin. But His love is so much greater than that. He sent His Son Jesus to live a perfect life and to die for our sins. Jesus was buried but rose from the grave after 3 days. Now, He sits at the right hand of God and prays for us. The curse we brought upon ourselves by disobeying God has been broken by the blood of Jesus. Jesus appeased the wrath of God so we can live blessed by God. Where before we were enemies of God, now we are His beloved children and co-heirs with Christ.

Now, let’s review Matthew 28:18-20 from earlier. “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus says our response to Him having ultimate authority is to GO with Him to make disciples of all nations.

A couple months ago, I had a dream of a black mamba biting Jesus’ heel as He carried me. The black mamba snake is the deadliest in the world. They reside in sub-Saharan Africa, so thankfully not in Mauritius! But they can slither up to 12 mph, raising the front third of their bodies up to 4 feet off the ground as they chase you. There is a 100% fatality rate when bitten with a minimum of only 2 drops of venom. When Jesus was bitten by a black mamba in my dream, He said, “I’m ok” and was unfazed as He led me to safety. Does that not sound like Genesis 3:15?  

“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
   and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
   and you shall bruise his heel.”

This verse is God cursing the serpent right after the fall of man, aka when the enemy led Eve and Adam to eat from the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Here we see that the serpent will bruise Jesus’ heal. However, Jesus, who will be born from his mother’s womb in Eve’s lineage, is being alluded to when it says,

“he shall bruise your head.”

This is the gospel, the good news we will be sharing in Mauritius. Jesus came and bruised the head of the enemy once and for all. He reigns over every other principality & dark spiritual force. Even in the midst of voodoo, witchcraft, and whatever ancestral religions we will encounter in Mauritius. Jesus is greater!

Amen.