Monday, February 28, 2011

Accidental Missionary

Our most important mission fields are the ones we accidentally come across; for the simple reason that these are the places and times that we have no hand in orchestrating. That accidental conversation brought about by a detour taken on a whim, often seemingly foolish!

So here I sit, just having had exactly such a conversation and knowing that the information I received through it was not given to me for my benefit, but entrusted to me for stewarding. While I can do nothing about it physically, I can pray and that is what I did as I walked from the mall to 2nd Avenue..... It's been a while since I used my apostle ponies....!! But here I am, car-less, but full of hope and joy, knowing that because of my car-lessness God can use me in a way that might not have been possible with a car.... ;o)

Being on terra firma instead of rolling along in a bubble on wheels opens one up to so many things we otherwise miss. I find myself in a position of vulnerability that I never experience in that bubble on wheels and it is humbling to realise that all over the city, the country, the world, there are people experiencing that same vulnerability on a daily basis! As I walked the shadows of what could possibly "happen to me" clouded my view of the sunrise, until God reminded me that I have a huge, shining, beautiful angel on either side of me!! So I linked arms with them and continued with an extra spring in my step!

Oh, that we would realise our dependence on Christ's protection and power and life!! So here go me and my angels again... We have a lot to do today.... ;o

Shalom!!
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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Milestones Cont…..

Evidently technology and I are not yet seeing entirely eye to eye… ;o)

Milestones 3My last blog was kinda chopped in half when I tried to save and ended up sending it… oops! Anyway… what I was saying is that God has begun to set in place the possibilities for individual and small group discipleship. I receive literally weekly testimonies from the others on the team, Itani and Obakeng of students entering discipleship relationships and giving their lives to Christ! Two students in our Stagedoor group have also given their lives to Christ and I have entered into a discipleship relationship with the HC Culture there, so she can in turn disciple these young Christians.

On Sunday I was invited to do a short motivational speech for the first years at Mannheim Ladies Res on CUT Campus and following on that meeting a young woman approached me for spiritual support. We meet this afternoon to begin a discipleship relationship! She also has a heart for young women, like I do, and I am excited about what God is going to do with and through her life!

There are more relationships growing out of my connection with the HC’s of CUT’s Residences, but there is one thing that characterises all of them: They are each different and unique to the person or group I am in relationship with. Yahweh is a God of patterns and order and He never changes, but His mercies are also new every morning! He is a God of diversity and variety! A God of relationship who created the beauty of individuality! How Great is He!!

So… back to the concept of milestones…

milestone 2 I believe that each unique, individual discipleship relationship that God is entrusting to me, will be a training ground for the next couple of decades of such relationships that I am going to be steward of. One day I will look back and draw from what I learned from the young women I mentored and led to a fulfilling relationship with Christ, their Bridegroom, King and Lord!

He is just soooo amazing, there are no words to describe what He is and what He is doing. Even as I write these testimonies, I realise how inadequate my relatively extensive vocabulary actually is in describing His wonder and glory.

Here’s to the journey each of us in on with God, and to the milestones set up all along the way as testimonies…

Shalom! ;o)

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Milestones

Those things that tell you how far you have travelled along a road and give you an idea of how far you still have to go... Well, maybe that's not really an official dictionary meaning of the word "milestone", but that's how I understand it... ;o)

I just had a few minutes between projects today and I got to thinking that I haven't really kept a systematic log of what God has done so far on CUT, the milestones He has set up.

So I reckon now is a good time to begin...

On the "official" side of things, He made a way for the first ladies LIFEgroup, which now happens weekly at Huistech res. The HC there is very fired up and excited about learning to lead and disciple others and share their faith! I am truly encouraged by their enthusiasm! They have also invited me to be a judge at their First Year's pageant next week. I'm really looking forward to that!


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Thursday, February 17, 2011

Butterflies and Diamonds

Who would have thought… I said a while back to the peeps around the meeting table that God does the work, we just need to BE THERE! But then we NEED to BE there! ;o) Today (Tuesday) those words were proved true…

Our CUT Campus Team Leader, Obakeng, led us to do a “treasure hunt” at our weekly Campus Prayer. Both Itani and I were pretty insecure about the whole thing, since neither of us had ever done anything like that before… but first let me tell you what a “treasure hunt” is:

A “treasure hunt” is when you randomly approach people in a given area, trusting God to lead you to someone who needs prayer, ask them if you may pray for them and then trust God to work a miracle! Waaaaay out of both my and Itani’s comfort zone! But we were BEING THERE and God used us!

First we prayed for a group of third year IT students. Forgive me, but I forget their names… What I do remember, though, is the meaning of their names. Give, Trust and Answer. We Gave a request to God, Trusting that He would Answer! That was just the beginning!

Next God led us to a young woman deep in study and we prayed for her upcoming exams. She is a Civil Engineering student and she was preparing for an exam to be written the next day. She shone with gratitude after we had prayed for her.

monarch butterflyWe were walking away from these encounters when a monarch butterfly flitted across our path and I pointed it out to Itani. Then we got to talking about how we are just like that butterfly. We were so used to crawling around on the ground like a caterpillar and then God put us in a cocoon where we could grow wings, but breaking out of that cocoon is hard… Yet by His grace we did it and we flew!! It was a seriously fantastic feeling and I felt deep inside that this is what I have been created for.

When we got back to the Cafeteria to meet up with Obakeng again, he wasn’t there (thank goodness!) and so we sat down at a table with two young men and just started chatting. My Sotho name is Khanya (meaning, “light”) and when I introduced myself as such, the one young man jumped up. “Heibo! Are you prophets or something!” Right then I knew that this was a divine appointment!

It turned out that his surname is Khanya and he had a fear of prophets. (Like all of us, he had stuff in his past that he was afraid a prophet would reveal, but this only came out later on in the conversation.) Itani prayed for their requests, and I began to pray as well, but then found myself talking to them about the curtain to the Holy of Holies being torn open when Christ died on the cross, giving us free access to the throne of God! I had no idea this was exactly what my namesake needed to hear.

diamond

At one point in the conversation I looked down and there on the table was the tiniest diamond. I picked it up and held it out to Mr. Khanya. “This is you.” I told him. “You have come through a lot of difficult things and you have done many things that you are ashamed of, but this is how God sees you. You are a diamond and God wants you to shine for Him.”

There were many more things said to encourage these two young men, and Itani took Mr. Khanya’s number. I believe that God had a special appointment with them and it was extremely humbling and at the same time exhilarating to be the vessel He used to bring a message of love, forgiveness and grace to His son. The seed is planted, it will be watered and we are trusting God to make it grow!

Glory To God In The Highest!!

Shalom!

;o)

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Clean Up Your Act….

Being a campus minister definitely has it’s perks… ;o)

I really love being part of the student’s lives and their everyday activities. This is the part that takes time, effort and sometimes a little cash, but repays dividends beyond estimable value!

                        IMG00346-20110211-1713

Huistech, a residence on CUT Campus, organised a carwash as a fundraiser and I pitched up to offer my support (and, I must admit, to avoid having to wash my car myself!) Let me tell you, the old adage, “many hands make light work” holds true in cases like this! In next to no time I had a squeaky clean car! Oh… just in case y’all thought that car in the picture is mine… not so fast! This is mine:

 IMG00343-20110211-1657IMG00349-20110211-1729

Cleaned up! Inside and out!

I also have the privilege of being the voice coach and musical arranger for the Stagedoor production (a first-year concert) of Madelief, a residence on the UFS Campus. I hope to have some photographs of that soon…

The best part of all this is forging relationships with young women; young women who will one day be the people who raise children, run families, teach at schools, sit on boards and committees that influence the course of the history of our country. These are the lives we need to speak into, to guide and support and empower with wisdom as well as knowledge. The best way to transport gold bars across a river is using a strong bridge. The strong bridge in this case is relationship. I mean, I wouldn’t listen to some random dude who walked up to me and told me how to run my life, do my job, whatever…. but in a relationship, a friendship, there is trust and openness and fertile ground for influence.

This is how Jesus transferred the gold bars of truth to His disciples, and this is how those gold bars were transferred to me, and this is how I intend to transfer these precious gold bars to the next generation of leaders so that they can pass them on to their successors!

And, of course, there are the perks: building friendships with beautiful young women whose desire for truth and wisdom makes me so excited for the future of our country! And even learning from them and their circumstances… ;o)

I truly have the best job in the world!

IMG00347-20110211-1715

Friday, February 11, 2011

Hurry Up & Wait!!

Just the other day I randomly read out of Habakkuk (with the understanding of course, that in a life devoted to God, nothing is as random as it seems!) and what hit me between the eyes was God telling the Israelites that the reason they were suffering is that they were spending time building their own fine houses while His House lay in ruins. Now, I don't believe that God was concerned with the paint colour or stained glass windows or whether He had an en suite bathroom in His House. God's Kingdom is not of this world. His Kingdom is one in the Heavenly realm. His Kingdom is souls, just like us.

God challenged me to ask myself whether I am building "my ministry" or HIS Ministry. Just as I believe that everything I own is not really mine, but belongs to God, so I should bear foremost in mind that the Ministry I am busy building is God's and as such it is under His authority. I need to diligently follow where He leads, listening to His voice for guidance, asking Him "what now" when I come to a fork in the road.

This holds true for all of us in whatever ministry we are, from homemaking to workplace ministry to fulltime missions work.

When I view what I am doing as "my ministry", I will call the shots. Not good. What He wants me to do is wait on Him. To be efficient, but wait on Him to do the real work. He wants me to have that urgency to get something done; He wants to see me filled with desire to see His Kingdom established on Earth, but He doesn't want me doing the work myself, because it can then too easily become "my work" and cease being God's work. So I have to wait on Him for each and every step. Kinda like, "Hurry up and wait!"

And whenever I get busy with something ministry related I need to periodically pause and ask myself: "Whose house am I building?"

Shalom!
;o)

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