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.

We 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.

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)