God closed the door

Yesterday we heard that we were not going to Mavuhsa full time like we were planning on.

You can read more about the beginning of the adventure here: http://alittlebitofcrazi.blogspot.com/2015/01/we-went-on-little-bit-of-adventure.html

The past month has been a whorl wind f\of emotions as David and I have tried to figure out if this was where God wanted us. We prayed about it and we really did feel like God has said yes, but then after meeting with Git and Miggie and discussing this with them I walked away confused about the whole thing. I decided then that the door was closed and that we were not going to go, even though we thought we had a yes and that Git and Miggie and the rest of the Jam board were going to pray about it and were then going to get back to us after 15 February.

Over the past month I've had quite a lot of time to think about going to Mavuhsa full time and to ask God about it and here from Him all over again. During this time of working through all the emotions and expectations God slowly started to close the door until one day randomly I was like, "I don't want to go anymore" It was really random, nothing set it off I just had a clear feeling that I didn't want to go. I also had complete peace about not going. It was super random - but I think this was God working in my heart before we received the email from Git yesterday.

The email confirmed what I had been feeling - God had closed the door firmly for us when it came to Mavuhsa. Git explained that they want to send an ex-JAM staff member up to Mavuhsa because they know the vision of JAM and the key stakeholders, as well as the history there instead of a new couple who has never worked with JAM before. I totally understand their point of view and even though the door has been closed firmly on this opportunity, we certainly learnt a lot.

...And the really exciting thing about this is that David and I get to go on another adventure with God as he shows us the next place we can go to.

xKx

We went on a little bit of an adventure

David and I kicked the year off with a short mission trip to Mavhusa in Limpopo and an even shorter trip to Kruger before hitting the ground running as we headed back to work on the 12th. We flew from Cape Town to Joburg on the 1st of January where we met up with a group of American students from Cornerstone who were joining us.


On the 2nd of January we made a stop at the Apartheid Museum, which was very educational. I learnt a lot about the history of Apartheid and a few other things I never knew... but all in all I doubt I'll go there again. 
  

 

 

At about midday we started the looooooong 5 hour drive to Mavhusa for our 6 day stay at the JAM, (Jabulani Africa Ministries) base there. 

 

David and I decided to join the Cornerstone team going up because we've praying about where God wants to send us for full time mission work. This kind of came up in conversation with Git at about the right time and we were like, "let's go and see", (this is explained in more detail in my Limpopo post last year). During our stay there we helped the Cornerstone team build their garden they wanted to start... this was crazy hard work as the ground was super hard but so rewarding when we finally reached the chance to plant the seeds.  We met some of the people who live in the village and spent quite a bit of time with the kids. One of my highlights of the whole trip was when I was speaking to Queenie, she's a lady who runs the feeding program for the kids, an old peoples group and a whole lot of other ministries in the village. She was sharing her ideas on starting a homework program and I was like yes... God has totally laid the same thing on my heart. It was really cool to just see how when God gives you a vision He includes all the right people for it and then in random ways He co-ordinates a meeting and boom you meet and hit it off.

The Three Stages Of The Garden

 

  Spending Time With The Kids

During the whole trip I felt kind of neutral about the experience, there was no hyper emotional "yes I want to pack my bags, give up everything and come here" and there was no, "hell no".  There was just a quiet... "Ok, I could totally do this if God called me here" In a way I'm glad there was no super emotional reaction because it's helped me to hear from God with regards to His heart for Mavhusa and to open my eyes to His vision - which is super epic in my opinion.

After 6 super hot days where comfort zones were stretched like using a long drop, rashes, sleeping with frogs, being touched all the time, language barriers getting crossed and being dirty all the time but a super rad time was had filled with a lot of laughs and fun it was time to say good-bye and head up to Kruger for the last two days.

We stayed at the Pretoriuskop rest camp in Kruger. Kruger is absolutely beautiful and I fee super blessed that David and I were able to be go there and to see wild animals in their natural environment. I've been to elephant parks and those elephants, though wild have been tamed in some ways where you can feed them. The animals in Kruger are 100% wild. We saw lions, rhino, elephants, impala, kudu, wildebeest, buffalo and zebra, but the highlight for me was seeing a heard of elephants with babies!

xKx