God is on the move!

I want to thank everyone for their prayers in moving from Polokwane to Kempton Park and having a smooth transition. It's never easy to move to completely new place, especially from a smaller town to a large place. I was very nervous about traveling around but then my housemates blessed me by lending me their GPS. I took it with me to Polokwane a few weekends ago and sadly enough it was stolen. So then I was really thrown out there LOL. But God has really helped me with grasping the areas and how to get from place to place and I am really not having any problems at all. I also want to magnify God by saying that I am very blessed to be living where I am living at. The house is nice, we have a pool, we have two dogs (who I must say are extremely cute!), and my housemates are amazing! So again thank you for all of your prayers!!

Moving on... After Sarah and I moved we had another meeting with the National Youth Committee. At this meeting we became more focused on what our goals are for the rest of this year so that we can be prepared and ready to go for 2012. One of the items discussed was the importance of going to the different youth events coming up as a National Youth Committee. This is to introduce the committee and let the youth know young people are representing them. Also, this allows us to build relationships with the youth and to also see the health of the districts youth. Thus, a few weeks after this meeting we traveled to Free State for their youth rally.

This youth rally was very awesome!! The youth were very vibrant and passionate about seeking the face of God! I love singing to God with the Africans, they sure know how to do that. Everyone just singing out loud without holding back to God. It's so powerful! Beyond this, they had very great speakers, who were speaking about the glory of God. This was a great rally! Next we are going to Limpopo's youth rally which is Sept.30-Oct.2 and then Guateng's Rally on Oct. 8th. I am very excited for all of these meetings. I love getting to know the youth and also seeking the face of God right with them.

Again, thank you for your prayers. With the new National Youth Committee being formed and their passion to see the youth established in South Africa and then also with the vision the International Assemblies of God recently cast at the Sept. Minister's Institute where Denny Miller was in for an Acts 1:8 conference, I see great things happening here in South Africa. Please continue praying that the Holy Spirit will pour himself out upon all people here and that the people will be empowered to do greater things for the Kingdom then ever before!

Comfort Zones

It's amazing to me how God always seems to show us a little bit of the picture at a time and then after a while He brings it all together. Then He begins another picture. It's almost like a puzzle. He knows what the entire thing put together looks like, but all we see is one piece at a time. Once that puzzle is put together He starts another one. I can attest to this in my life.

In May I moved out of this big house, where I had 5 housemates and we always had people over, to a flat with just one other lady (Reza) and I. I loved the big house. We had so many get togethers with friends and such great times there, but I felt God was moving me into a quieter season where I could be more focused on Him and learn to be more intune with the Spirit. I was fine with living with Reza only, I was COMFORTABLE with leaving with Reza only. My friends were all still around me, so we could have coffee or dinner at any point, so I was fine with that. I was also really enjoying the quietness of our place and the times of studying I had with the Lord, but I was also enjoying the bonding with Reza and others when circumstances would allow. I was COMFORTABLE with this change.

At the end of June the National Youth Committee was voted in, with this Sarah and I were given our new instructions as to what we are to be doing. Since we have completed the Youth Leadership Training Seminar in every district, we are now to develop a Train the Trainers Program. In doing this though we are to have the national leadership help us formulate this training. Also, another part of our new direction is to assist the national leadership in anyway that is needed. Many of the National Leaders live in Guateng and our meetings usually take place in Roodeport. Thus, Sarah and I really felt that it was the will of God for us to move to a more central location.

When I thought of moving from Polokwane to Pretoria, Johannesburg area all I could do was cry. At first, I must admit, I was a little angry. I didn't want to have to move away from all of my friends. I have made such good friends in Polokwane. Also, my best friend Elviera who had been gone for 8 months working in America had just gotten back, and we had started praying together again at 4a everyday. I love the time I have with Elviera and how the Holy Spirit moves between us, it's so powerful! So anyway, this was definitely not COMFORTABLE!

I am reminded of the scripture in Matthew 16:24 "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and 'follow Me'." God doesn't always call us to do the things that are comfortable and the truth is normally it is uncomfortable. I find it so funny and interesting. I had just gotten comfortable in America working with "Our Kids" at Oasis and then God said, nope I want you in South Africa. Then once in South Africa, I had just gotten comfortable in Polokwane and God says, nope I want you in Johannesburg.

Now here is the thing it may not have been comfortable, but God's ways are always the best ways. Prov. 3:5,6 says "Trust in the Lord with all of you heart and lean not unto your own understandings, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." I have trusted in MY GOD with all of my heart, in every circumstance and I haven't followed my own understandings but I have acknowledged His leading and followed Him and He has NEVER let me down.

God has blessed me with a place to stay in Johannesburg. My friend Reza hooked me up with her aunt and uncle, and they opened up their house to me. They are a young married couple, who are also very passionate for the Lord. We spent Monday horseback riding together and just talking and learning about eachother the majority of the day. And to be honest I am so excited! They are so passionate about the Lord and in all of our conversations I can tell that mutual edification is definitely going to take place. I know God has a plan and a purpose.

All I see is a piece of the puzzle but that piece shows me that God is going to be doing awesome things! He never moves us out of our comfort zones just to make us uncomfortable, He always has a plan in it. So we must move when He says move and then listen as He begins to show us the plan in it.

Food or Shelter?

Recently I went to McDonald's for lunch. As I was walking in a boy stopped me and said "please ma'am some food." This boy was probably not any older than ten years old. I felt the Lord nudging me to buy him some food. So I went in and bought my food and also bought him a meal. As I took it out to him I began to talk to him. He told me he was from Zimbabwe and that is where his mom is. I asked him why he left and he said "there is no food ma'am." I asked him if his mom asked him to leave or if he just ran away. He told me that he ran away because there wasn't any food. I asked him where he was living now and he said in the cardboard boxes and pointed me to where they are. I asked him if he had a home in zimbabwe and he said yes they lived in a house. This really made me think:

What would you rather have, a roof to live under or food in your stomach? What a decision to have to make. This really broke my heart.

What a weekend!

Sarah and I recently traveled to Johannesburg where we held the youth leadership training seminar. This training went extremely well.

The people participated very well and when we had them break into groups to discuss and work on their vision statements and to make goals in order to fulfil that vision they were all working very hard.

This seminar was a lot of fun for me. It is great when we can get together to strengthen ourselves for the kingdom and have a great time doing it!

On Sunday we were at I.A.G. Geluksdal. Sarah gave me the opportunity to preach that Sunday morning. As I prepared for this service God put a message of suffering and hope on my heart. The message was based out of Acts 16 with Paul and Silas. I was very excited for the Sunday because I knew God wanted to do big things!

This was confirmed Saturday as I heard that one of the youth in the community had just committed suicide the week before. We have been hearing so much about this thing of suicide in so many different places and with so many different age groups. I believe God is telling us we must begin to share with people the message of hope, and how in this walk with Jesus there is suffering. But John 16:33 says "In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." I thought, wow God you are awesome that this is the message God had already showed me to preach.

On Sunday they began to sing a song called "Because of Who You Are." I'm sure many of you have heard this song, but it says Jehovah Jireh, My provider; Jehovah Nissi, Lord You reign in victory; Jehovah Shalom, My Prince of Peace, Lord I worship you because of who You are. As we sung this, wow! You could tell God was moving and I began to see how God wanted the service to go. I felt there was to be people at the altar before I even shared the message. In my mind I thought okay if that's what You want God You lead. So as they introduced me and I went forward, I asked the worship team to come back and I said some more things and all began to sing. As they sang again God was moving mightily and one lady even came forward without me saying anything, I felt this was confirmation. So then I got the mic and spoke some things and the front was filled with people praying. The message went well, it was very fun for me to preach this message. At the end two girls gave their lives to Christ. And afterwards I found out that the one was planning on committing suicide and she said now she has hope in Christ! I couldn't help but cry at this. How awesome is God!

It just shows again, the importance of being obedient to the Holy Spirit and speaking what God tells you to speak, no matter what you may think needs to be said because of your own thoughts. Sarah and I were thinking we needed to preach on the baptism in the Holy Spirit but God told me this and wow am I glad I was obedient.

Run the Race

Hebrews 12:1-2 "Therefore we also; since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. "

These past 10 days we have been running the race extra hard and it has been incredible! We picked up the missions team from Ft. Wayne, IN on Friday March 14th and began our journey back to Limpopo. On the way, all the youg adults in my care were already amazed by South Africa. There was not anytime to waste therefore Saturday we were straight into ministry. They preached the youth service that night and did the children's service as well as regular service Sunday morning. The Sunday morning service was very interesting as 2 ladies were delivered from demon possession. This was the first time some of the missions team had ever encountered something like this.

Tuesday-Thursday we visited Mankweng hospital from 11a-12p each day. There were many miracles which took place. Some included: a man could not speak and after he was prayed for he began to speak, a man was delivered from demon possession, a girl who had just tried to commit suicide gave her life to Christ, and many others gave their lives to Christ as well. The picture below is a picture of Thapelo and I. Her mom gave her life to Christ at the hospital.

We held a movie night at the University of Limpopo on Thursday night where we played How to Save a Life. There were over 800 young adults in attendance and many received Christ as their Savior and were connected with Pastor Thabiso, a local pastor. Below is a picture of the auditorium.

This whole week reminded me of the scripture in Luke 10:2 "Then He said to them, 'the Harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.'" And also the scripture in John 4:35 "Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!"

The fields are white for harvest God is just waiting on us to take action. And one person cannot do it all. It takes the Body of Christ. God has calle dus all to be missionaries right where we are at, whether America, China, South Africa, etc. The harvest isn't just ready here in South Africa it's ready all over the world. I challenge you to begin to step into your calling (Matt. 28:19-20) and further the Kingdom of God. People need the hope of Jesus.

Blessings

Everytime I go to update my blog, I always feel so stuck as to what to write. There is so much that happens in my life every single day. So I want to start out by saying that everyday is seriously such a blessing from God. I can see Him working in so many ways all around me. I know that I am here for the I.A.G. (international assemblies of God) but it is so awesome to see God working not just among the IAG but also among the other friends I have made and people that I have been meeting.

I am very blessed with the amazing friends God has placed in my life. In December I was blessed with a bicycle and have since been riding practically everyday. This has brought opportunities to connect with so many people. So not only am I getting great exercise by biking about 20km everyday, but I am also getting to share life with those I am riding with. It has been great fun! Also, since December I have been either jogging or doing taebo everyday. Several of my friends and I get together and do this and again it's so great to be able to share life with them and get to exercise at the same time. It's incredible how much exercising really does make you feel so much better and it makes me feel so much closer to God.

This new year has been very exciting. One of the reasons is I am currently taking Sepedi language classes every Thursday and I am also trying to learn Afrikaans. The Sepedi classes are going so well. I was just doing my homework yesterday where I had to write 20 sentences, 10 using the noun forms and 10 using the pronoun forms. As I went to our house cleaner to ask her if they made sense, much to my surprise they all made sense but two. I was so stoked! I can't wait to actually be able to speak it fluently. Please pray with me on this. With the Afrikaans language I am not formally learning the language but I am currently living in a house with 4 other South Africans who speak Afrikaans and the majority of my friends speak Afrikaans. I have started attending the Sunday evening Afrikaans service and I am very much enjoying that. As they sing worship, I am learning to read Afrikaans by listening to them and seeing the words on the screen. During the sermon my friends take turns interpreting for me. I have been very excited because I am now able to follow along in my English bible as they are reading Afrikaans and know right where the pastor is!

Now on to ministry... I had the amazing priviledge on Feb.2nd to baptize my friend and housemate Natania. This was the first time I had ever baptized anyone and what an awesome honor it was to be apart of this special moment in Natania's life. Her family and friends came to our house, as I baptized her in our pool. What a great night that was!

Also, just recently on Feb. 16th and 17th Sarah and I traveled to Johannesburg where we held a Training Seminar for the National Youth Leaders of South Africa. This seminar went amazing! It exceeded my expectations. Every disctrict was represented except for 2, and we had great responses from all those who attended. The highlight for me was Wednesday night. We had a service where Sarah preached on Being vs. Doing. This was such a powerful service! She talked about how sometimes good things can be the enemy of the best things. Sometimes we get so busy because we are saying yes to good things but they aren't actually things that God has called us to do so we are actually taking away from what God really wants us to accomplish in our lives. And in doing so much we are causing ourselves to get burnt out and causing ourselves to miss out on God. We need to focus on what that thing is that God has called us to and say no to the other things because we have already said yes. The leaders were challenged and renewed as they spent time after the service seeking the face of God for what there yes is and allowing God to give them the ability to say no. There have been many things that have been taking place, but I'll leave you with these things. Feel free to email me if you would like to know more.

Please be praying with Sarah and I as our schedule is full until August, with our schedule being full comes great opportunities for God to do great things through us. We have a missions team coming in from Ft. Wayne, IN on March 4th-14th and we will be ministering at Mankweng IAG, at Mankweng hospital, and also at the University of Limpopo.

Thank you for your prayers!

Falling in Love with Venda...

There's a song by Johnathon Butler that says "Falling in love with Jesus, Falling in love with Jesus, Falling in love with Jesus, is the best thing I've ever, ever done..." I heard this song in 2008 while with Grace Mokete. It was shortly after this that we went to Venda for the very first time and both of us fell in love. On the way back from Venda one night Grace and I began to sing "Falling in love with Venda, Falling in love with Venda..." The people of Venda are so hungry for God. They know how to pray and they know how to worship. It's as if you hear God more clearly while you are in Venda. Such an atmosphere and a manifestation of God's presence should happen way more often every where that we go.

That was in 2008 and the same thing is still happening now. We just went to Venda Jan.7-Jan.9th and I am telling you I have now fallen more in love with Venda. I love the people and the culture there. On Saturday we taught the youth about sharing their faith and then we walked through the village and door to door to give the opportunity to do just that. As we went to the houses we would greet the people and they would go and get chairs and we would sit and spend time talking with them. They are such sweet spirited people. I can't wait until I have the opportunity to go back again!

Recap of this weekend: On Friday we went to a village and distributed 34 food parcels to families who have HIV/AIDS. These ladies were so excited! On friday I wore my traditional Venda skirt and as we pulled up to these ladies and I stepped out of the car, they all began ululating (shouting and clapping). It was so funny. People really appreciate it when you try to adapt to a part of their culture.

Saturday was quit adventurous! It had been raining the whole of Friday so the mountain was very muddy. Pastor Jeremiah said our vehicle probably would not make it and advised us to walk. So we hiked up the mountain in our tekkies (tennis shoes) and skirts. We were slipping and sliding everywhere it was so funny! After 30 minutes we made it up the mountain to the church where we started the first service. After the first service Sarah spoke to the youth about evangelizing, and then they went out and practiced this first hand.

Sunday was even more adventurous then Saturday! Why you ask? Well, it began raining around 9a that morning and at 10:15a we were ready to go up the mountain. Pastor Jeremiah insisted that we drive up the moutain and knew for sure that we would make it. Well... about that... we made it a little bit but then we came to our first hill (which was straight up), we made it part way up and then that was it. We couldn't make it so we had to back down, then we thought we could pull into someone's house and turn around. Once we pulled in we couldn't get back out, we were stuck. Grace and I even got out in our dresses in a last attempt to push the Fortune out, but we were not successful. So hiking up the mountain in the rain it was. Oh yes! Our nice dresses with our cute muddy tennis shoes. Bahahaha! The whole time Sarah, Grace, and I are praying that the rain will stop so we can get out later and the more we prayed, the harder it poured. At one point during the service, I looked out the window and just started laughing. I really thought we were staying the night in the village. After about 4 hours the service ended and the sun began to shine. We were so thankful. So we hiked back down the mountain praying that we would be able to get out. Sarah jumped in the Fortuner, as Grace, Pastor Jeremiah, Enoch, Rodney, and I pushed the front of Sarah's car and after a little effort she managed to get out and we made it home.

This weekend was a great weekend, because of the mud it gave us the opportunity to spend more quality time with the Venda people as we hiked up and down the mountain together. So I end this with singing "Falling in love with Venda, Falling in love with Venda, Falling in love with Venda, is the best thing I've ever ever done!"