Celebrating The Awesomeness Of Life

 

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Cape Town... I think God was showing off a little bit. As the afternoon drew on I was like, "I would rather go and watch the sunset than go to gym" I messaged Dave and told him this, he was like  "I agree.. and we cycled on Monday so it's okay to miss gym" David then planned a whole picnic/sun downers for us to go and enjoy while watching the sunset.

After picking me up from the bus stop we went and picked up the stuff from home, made a stop at the shop and then headed to Camps Bay beach to watch one of the best sunsets ever.... again I think God was showing off a little. We had sparkling grape juice, strawberries and other yummy snacks while we chatted away and watched the sun set before heading off to Dunes for a super yummy supper. It was really, really nice to just spend some time with Noo, watching the world go by and enjoying each others company.

 

Last night was definitely a top 5 evening in my life!

xKx

Limpopo

David and I may be going to Limpopo.. for three years... eeeeek!

Over the last little while God has been saying to us, "It's time to step into your calling" I was like, okay God, but what does that look like? But as usual God like to be vague until the opportune moment when He'll choose to download it all. What Dave and I do know when it comes to our calling is that we are both called to full time mission work, we're just waiting for God to be like, "BOOM! This is where I want you to go".

An opportunity has presented itself for us to go to Limpopo for a three year mission trip. JAM, (Jabulani Africa Ministries) has a base in Mavhusa, Limpopo where they need a couple to go and stay there and provide support to the two leaders currently running it. They have various outreaches with the people in the village, the children, orphanages and they also run camps. When David heard about this he told me about it, we started praying and we feel like God is saying yes. We met with Git and Miggie, the couple who run JAM and they shared their heart for JAM and for Mavhusa. As they said things Dave and I were like, "Yes!" to everything... and the more we pray the more we feel like this is a yes.

Before we resign from our jobs, sell all our stuff and go, we're going to do a recon mission in January to visit the village and seek Gods will for us. We're also going to join a team going up on a mission trip and do some stuff with them.

I'm excited for the new... and scared... but I know this is Gods will and he is faithful and he will walk this journey with me.

xKx

Beautifully Made

For the last couple of weeks my self-esteem took a bit of knock.. I started to believe that I had put on a TON of weight and was the size of a house. This is glaringly obvious that this is not the case - but I believed that it was. Something in me kind of broke yesterday and I realised that I am probably not as fat as I imagine that I am.

This morning while I was sitting in the bus I let my mind wonder and I started thinking about Psalm 139:14 "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful"

As I let my mind mull over this verse, I thought about how easy it is to believe the lie that is fed to us via the media that super skinny is what is beautiful. It's also scary how little it takes for this to take root in our head. I don't even remember what started my downward spiral of negative thoughts that crushed my self-esteem... I think I need to be more vigilant in future and identify the lie and then stand on the truth in psalm 139 - I am wonderfully made. God doesn't make mistakes - he made us perfectly.

xKx



Where's your line at?

On Saturday we went to a conference and heard a really awesome and challenging talk. The main thing that I got from it was "where is your line? in other words, what do you stand on NO matter what?"

Often as Christians we can get a bit flaky and forget everything they believe about God when things get tough. Such as when God is silent or things are a little bit tough and you feel like God has left you. This is when we hit panic stations, fall apart, we feel like we're in a puddle of mud and think/ sometimes believe that God has left us. This is wrong.. in the bible, Gods word promises that He will NEVER leave us or forsake us, "Deuteronomy 3:16" This is something we should stand on when the paw-paw hits the fan.

Where's my line at?

After some thought I starring thinking about what it is that I stand on when God seems distant. It's things like, He will never leave me, he will work the good in all situations, he goes before me, he faithful, he is trustworthy... I know all of this because the bible tells me this. There are tons of verses and stories of where this is illustrated. Not only do I know this from the bible, but also from personal experience. I have experienced Gods faithfulness, trust etc. These are the things I choose to stand on because I know God, I have a relationship with him where I look back and go - yes.. you are all these things and not all the things we feel.

Consolation  and Desolation

This brings me to the second thing that I grasped on Saturday at the conference. The speaker was saying how we go through consolation, when we hear from God all the time and when things are great, God feels close and all that other "cushy" and "nice" feelings we get. The speaker explained that this is a gift from God, especially for new Christians as they begin to experience God.

We also experience desolation, which is when we don't feel God. I put feel in bold, because we may feel like God is far away, but actually He's not. He's right there, like his word says. This is when we need to stand on what we believe. The speaker explained this stage as a gift because "God trusts us enough to let us do it alone with out all the cushy feelings, massive billboards and all that".

I understand this to be a process, the consolation phase will always be different as you grow with God and your relationship gets more intimate. You may not get billboards - but you will feel close and know Gods voice,  you will have times when you will go through desolation but you will always move back to consolation with God. That's just how God is.

I think it's important to have a line you stand on - what you believe so that you can't be shaken when temptation comes your way, you're having a bad day or when God just feels distant.

xKx

feeling blessed

This morning when I went outside I saw some "wit oogies" flying and hopping from branch to branch in the trees in front of our house. I stood a but mesmerized this morning as I watched - it was rather fascinating, but the best thing EVER was when I went back inside and looked out the window and saw a robin collecting sticks to build a nest.

I have NEVER EVER seen a robin before. It was a real privilege to stand and watch it collect sticks before it flew away to where it's building it's nest.  I also feel "kinda" blessed that I get to see things like this.

xKx

Waiting.... waiting.....WAITING....wAiTiNg...

Waiting is something that we can't really avoid. We like to think we can avoid it with online shopping, online banking, online everything really. We send other people do the things we need to do that require waiting... I think we'll do anything that to avoid waiting, but sometimes you just can't escape waiting.

I spend a lot of time waiting in general. I wait for the bus every day, which isn't too bad since I generally have a pretty view in Camps Bay so it makes it bearable. Waiting for the bus isn't really looooooong boring waiting, since it's never long than 20 minutes. The long boring waiting happens when you have to wait for an airplane, go to the bank - you know those times when you actually have to go in the bank with an inquiry. Then there's the kind of waiting when you go to home affairs or any other government building. I think they take the cake in making you wait.

When you get to Home Affairs you queue outside the office for a bit until you get a number, then you go into a massive room to wait for hours on end with a number. Then after hours and hours you get into the office to wait to pay, then you go and wait for photos and the application process. It's a given fact that you can not come here to apply for anything or collect anything WITHOUT hours of waiting.

Even though we try to avoid waiting for something like the plague, it still manages to find us and force us to wait because everything can't be done online.... even though we wish we could. 

xKx