How Does This Make You Feel?

I’m going to take you to a place today where I want you to use your imagination. I want you to think about how you would respond if this had been you. Ok? Ready? Here we go!

First, you find out that you are the result of a one night stand and when your father finds out your mother is pregnant, he runs away.

Second, you find out that your mother tries to kill herself and abort you by jumping from the roof of her house three times.

Third, you’re five years old and walking to school in the bitter cold. You have no shoes and the clothes you wear are thread bare. A school bus approaches to pick up the some children to take them to their school and you know it goes right past your school. So, you muster up courage and you ask for a ride to your school. The bus driver calls you a derogatory name and slams the door in your face, left to stand on the side of the road simply because you’re different.

Fourth, you’re now seven years old and a preacher comes to your home. You feel the love of God calling you to Him and you give your heart to the Lord. You don’t understand it fully, but you know something inside you has changed. However, two months later your mother dies. As she is buried, you want to die with her. You walk away from the grave telling God, ‘’I hate You, I hate You, I hate You.”

Fifth, you’re now ten years old. You have endured your father not wanting you and the death of your mother. You've also endured the death of the only person who truly made you feel valuable, your grandfather. You throw yourself into your studies, dreaming that one day you can become a lawyer or a traffic cop. You’re getting ready for school, when suddenly you’re taken away from your family by the farmer to work on his farm. No more school, no more dreams.

I’m going to stop here and ask the question again, how do you think you would feel if this were you? Do you think you would feel rejection, anger, hatred, jealousy? Now, I want to ask you this question…when and where do you think this story may have occurred? Please leave your comments, as I’m interested to see what they are. I will tell you the rest of the story at another time.

When God Moves!

Today’s blog is going to be long but I pray that by the time I get to the end, you will be rejoicing as much as we have been rejoicing! Brett and I have been experiencing so many things while we’ve been doing our DTS, but Sunday night and Monday morning we experienced something that neither of us had ever experienced. We saw with our eyes how God moves on people who are filled with compassion and the expectation of seeing God move.

On Sunday nights we have a time of worship for the entire base. Juanita, a member of the New Hope team, spoke on the importance of community and the common ground that we all share…first, at one time in our lives we were all sinners. Second, we are all covered in God’s grace. These are the two things that we all have in common. God created each of us, with all our quirks and talents, and when we look at each other, in the midst of our quirks, we should see Jesus and His grace. Powerful stuff!

After this, the leadership took us into a time of giving for the DTS students. Now let me stress this to you…the only people on base were DTS students, TTH staff, and the New Hope team…44 people and only 44 people. When the numbers owed were uncovered there was a collective “Oh my” that took place among many of the DTS students. Some of us owed for class time and outreach, and some of us only owed for outreach. I’m going to share these numbers in South Africa Rand and US Dollars so that you can see what God did.

Avelina…a cute, sweet, Texas girl with a heart for God who is in a time of learning to fly…R8740=$971

Sfiso, Gugu and little Christian…a husband and wife from Mbon, one of the communities we work in, who are running hard after God and just want to know what He has for them in their life...R30,000=$3,333

Ronny…A young man who is looking to improve His life and learn what God has for him, who also takes care of his mom. He is from another community we’ve worked in before, Kabokwani…R11,657=$1,295

Ncobile…A beautiful young woman who has worked at one of the former feedings, a mother of three, with wisdom beyond her years, 28, who is hungry for the things of God…R14,200=$1,555

Mimi…a beautiful wife and mother of 4 kids, who moved here almost two years ago to do ministry with TTH…R10,000=$1,111

Mzwandile…a wonderful young man who has a mantle of leadership on him. He is from Mbon and we have known him for two years…R19,250=$2,138

Rebekah…A young woman who is the daughter of missionaries. She grew up in Kenya and Zimbabwe and then moved back to the states. She has a desire to work with AIDS/HIV orphans using art therapy here in Africa…R12,211=$1,356

Lafo…This wonderful, Samoan young woman was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, actually worked and earned money to pay for her entire class and outreach. She didn’t want to lean on anyone and wanted God to know that Lafo could do it. God is teaching her so much about letting go of “I can do it myself” to “I trust you Father.”…R0=$0

Brett and Wendy…That would be us and you can read about us further in this blog…24,000=$2,666

The grand total of this is….R130,058=$14,425

That’s a lot of Rand and a lot of US dollars!!! You can see why there were many sighs when the amount was shown. Now that I’ve given you a very clear picture of how much money was owed and how many people were there to give, let me give you the totals that were on the board at the end of the night. Hold on now cause this is going to get good!!!

Avelina…$0

Sifiso, Gugu, and Christian…$0

Ronny…$0

Ncobile…$0

Mimi…R8,360=$929

Mzwandile…$0

Rebekah…$0

Lafo…$0 God showed her what she needed to sow into the outreach AND had her send a letter to her family about supporting outreach. There are things happening and when it all shakes out I’ll update!

Brett and Wendy…R16,560=$1,840

That’s a grand total of R105,138=$11,656! 44 People gave $11,656 towards 11 people going on outreach!! CAN SOMEONE STOP RIGHT NOW AND GIVE GOD A PRAISE??!!!!

Now, yes, the numbers went from a lot to zero in some cases and from a lot to a lot less in others but that’s not the biggest thing that God was doing! In seeing their numbers come down, these guys began to really understand how valuable they are to God.

Mzwandile said it showed him how much God valued him! In the African culture Mzwandile was not valuable. In Mzwandile’s heart he was not valuable. He didn’t think God valued him, but God showed him Sunday night just how valuable Mzwandile is to Him!!

Ncobile said the Lord told her to give all she had. Her response? She searched her room and all her belongings to give all that she had. She found R80, most of it was in coin. She was embarrassed to give the coin and so decided to ask Jaco, a new staff member, to exchange it for paper currency. This in itself is awesome because Ncobile, in the past, would only have gone to someone she was in relationship with, Carla or John, and asked for help. But on Sunday she turned to Jaco. Ncobile took her R80 and sowed it into someone else’s outreach. Wow! How many stories in the Bible does this parallel?! I believe that if the Bible were being written today then you would find the name Ncobile…obedient one. God showed Ncobile that He provides her every need!

Sifiso never thought that God would provide this kind of money for him. How could He? But now, Sifiso knows that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills what’s R30,000 to Him?!

Gugu got a realization that she really is important to God. That He does care about her and that He did create her wonderfully and full of gifts. God really does love Gugu. It became real to her.

It’s not about the money but what God taught them in the moment! He is provider! He is love! HE IS ABBA…FATHER GOD!!!

One last thing…Sifiso has been going to Home Affairs, trying to get his ID, for the last seven years. Every time he goes they tell him to come back. Every time he goes they tell him there’s no proof in their system that he was ever born in South Africa, therefore he doesn’t exist. Every time he goes he hits a road block of great proportions. If he doesn’t get his ID, he doesn’t go on outreach. So, outreach is paid for, now what? Will God continue to provide? These are the questions going through his mind. I know this because we’ve talked about it.

Tuesday morning we pray and believe that Sifiso is going to get his ID. We pray, believe, and declare that God wants him to go on outreach with his family. We start class. Sifiso has gone to Home Affairs. Time ticks by. Tea time comes and goes…no Sifiso. Lunch time comes…no Sifiso. Right after lunch Sifiso arrives…he gets out of the car and we are all trying to read the expression on his face…Yes or No? We start asking Yes or No?! He tries to hide the smile that is slowly coming to his face. He tries to “pull our leg” and say no but he can’t hide the smile that reaches his eyes! YES! YES! YES! I’M GOING ON OUTREACH WITH MY FAMILY!!

And so, the blessings of God continue to rain down on this family. God continues to say “I love you Sifiso and Gugu! I see you, I know you, and I’m here for you!” And we all begin to rejoice anew with our brother and sister. We rejoice for provision, we rejoice because in our doubt and unbelief He, God Himself, says “watch this!"