We know His voice

After meeting with Git and Miggie from JAM last week, David and I were filled with questions and ideas. Git brainstormed some ideas with us which left David and I going - "Ok, God what now?"

I totally got an answer from God on Monday during my quiet time. I was reading John chapter 10 and verse 3 stuck out to me.  " The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognise his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out"

After a day of thinking about this, I was like "Ok, God what are you saying here?" and then it dawned on me...

We know God's voice and we know what He's said...

We know what God has said when it comes to mission work for David and I. We don't know what it looks like, but God has told us it will be when we're married, (tick) and it will be together. David and I are a team and He's sending us out as a team.

At the end on Monday, I was like this can not be negotiable when we step into full time ministry. The only person who can change this is God. We need to listen to Gods voice and then follow Him on the journey He's got us on.

So I guess the next step is wait and hear from God where He wants to follow Him in this journey.

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

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