A year gone boom

Guys, seriously!!!  The year didn't just go by, it went BOOM with a BANG.  Like "wow".  Some of it felt long, some of it felt short, but after being in South Africa for a year, we marvel more than ever at the work of God and His ability to reach out, save and transform lives.   

This is no joke, we (you all included) serve a God who is alive, He reigns over all the earth, calling His creation back to Himself.  AH!  We are so stinking privileged to serve Him, and our family is so privileged, by His grace, to be in a ministry in South Africa where we see His hand moving daily. WOW.

Mike has been teaching Faith Discovery group every six weeks since February, and then every Wednesday he teaches a follow up class with these same students.  He almost always starts off the classes with an opportunity for them to share what God has been doing in their lives.  It never ceases to amaze me the stories he shares about how God changed the students lives during their time at Hope Africa.

• One student shares how God has changed their attitude to enable them to let go of their anger.   
• Another student shares how God has helped them forgive someone they never thought they could forgive.  
• Another student testifies to how God has healed their lungs from lifelong breathing problems.   
• Another testifies how God has given them a passion to know Jesus.   
• Another testifies how for the first time in their life they felt the presence of the Holy Spirit as they gave their life to him!

And that's just one week's worth of testimonies, this happens every Wednesday.  And that is entirely based on the work God has done, and we get to be a part of that.  

Mike says: 

"I now come to Faith Discovery Group weeks with huge expectations about what God is going to do.  I know that the students will have gone through severe trauma and struggles in their lifetimes.  Before every week starts, my co-teacher Mawande and I, spend a lot of time praying for what God wants to do.  I know that on Monday as Mawande and I share our testimonies, God will open the doors for our students to open up about their life stories." 

There are always 2 groups of about 15 students taking the class at a time.  We now know ahead of time that in each group:

• Many will share about not having enough food.
• 14 of the 15 of them will have no fathers in their lives.
• 7 or 8 of the 15 will have one or both parent(s) dead.
• 3 or 4 will have been rejected by not only their father, but also their mother and that they were raised by a grandma or aunt.   
• 1 will share about being raped, and as she shares, another 3 or 4 will start deeply weeping immediately as she says the word.

Mike says: 

"But we also know that God is the good Father.  And as we begin to teach about God, the good Father, who is forgiving, just and loving, we know that through the Holy Spirit there is freedom, there is healing, there is power to forgive others, there is the forgiveness of sin.  Through Jesus, we can be made right with God again, restored according to His plan from before creation even began!"

He continues: 

"This past week in Faith Discovery Group, God blew me away yet again!  And as I heard the students testimonies in our follow up from our last week of class, I think about their life stories they shared last Monday and I am so deeply humbled.  I am so humbled by their authenticity, by their openness, and by their hope in spite of despair all around them.  I am so humbled to see God working through our ministry. 

In particular I am humbled by being used by God last Friday, when I was able to go around and pray with 7 students.  When I came to the first student, I asked him what God had been teaching him last week.  He said, “I want to respond to Jesus’ call and follow Him.”  So I talked with him about counting the cost and making sure this is really what he wants, and as he affirmed it, I lead him in a simple prayer of repentance and turning to Jesus. 

I proceeded to talk to the next student and she tells me that she actually gave her life to Jesus for the first time while I was reading Isaiah 53, and as she did that she felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in her life. 

The next person asks me to pray for them as they are struggling to forgive the deep hurts from their abusive father. 

The next two students I talked to, also make first time commitments to Christ.  And then 2 more, asked for prayer for various struggles and hardships.

For those that know me personally, sometimes I think that driving Camaros or Arctic Cats, or playing hockey is fun.  But there is nothing like watching someone experience the joy of salvation, never mind four in one day!  This makes me so deeply humbled to be used by God is this way."

An odd time for tea

On April 15^th, I had the chance to join the women’s ministry ladies in Niverville, Manitoba (Canada) for a Spring tea event...  at 2:30 in the morning (my time)! I overcame my sleepy head, fixed my bed hair, slapped my cheeks a few times, and “voila”, I was ready to share with them about the topic:

Surrendering our lives to God- in missions and in everyday life

I first brushed my teeth, so you they wouldn’t have to smell my bad-middle-of-the-night-breath while I Skype with them.  I’m smart like that.

Then the funniest thing came to my mind...  I’ve never spoken to a group before without them knowing for sure whether or not I was wearing pants.  Turns out I was (for the record), my PJ pants :)

As I prayed the week before about what I should share with these wonderful ladies, God really challenged me to just be open and vulnerable, something I don’t do very easily, especially not in front of a big group, on Skype, at 2 in the morning...  But this is the topic of SURRENDERING right?  So I didn’t really have a choice.

So often we do what we THINK people expect of us instead of what God has planned for us. 

 

I told myself that the ladies would really like to hear what God is doing in our ministry here and I wanted to make it all exciting and have all of them sign up to do mission, ...  Mostly because it would be fun to have them all come to South Africa!!!  But God is teaching me to surrender to Him and share about what He wants me to share, my story of continual surrendering.

(Mike would say that as a French Canadian, this should come pretty natural...  This man I tell you!)

Anyway...  Here we go!!!

When we first got to Africa I felt a certain pressure, real or not, to find the ministry God had called me here to do.  Surely God wouldn’t have called me here to do the same thing I was doing in Niverville.  So I was totally open to whatever it might be, even though I knew my primary role would be at home with my kids.  

In the midst of that, I was really struggling with a fresh loss of identity as a person from having left my friends, family, church, moms group, community, ... I found myself having this need to reinvent myself, to plug in somewhere, to have a sense of belonging, a something that defines me.  

And add to that, I was feeling trapped.  When we first moved here there was this feeling of being trapped, by the security gates, the dangers, having to learn to drive in a different place (I get lost all the time), on the different side of the road, with the shifter also being on the left...  It was so overwhelming, almost paralyzing at times.  I really had to dig deep into God’s strength.

Oh no, I am on the wrong (right) side again...

I had to surrender my family’s safety.

One of the first things that God asked me to surrender to Him was control over my safety and the safety of my family.  This isn't a popular thing in a culture that teaches us: SAFETY first.  Actually, it's totally wrong.  God should always be first.  And it's much harder to do when you don't feel safe EVER.  But when there is nothing you can do to change a situation, then just give it up: onto Him.  

At first I had to fights fear really hard to be able to leave the house without Mike and had a hard time sleeping deeply at night too.  Living in constant fear was draining, and still is sometimes.  But I realized that no harm that could be done to me, or my family, would have any impact on my Eternal destiny.  I was secure in Christ, no matter what happened to us.  

Ok, one thing down right?  (sorta)  Now the longer we were here in Africa, the more anxious I got to find that special calling, that special ministry God had planned for me.  And then it didn’t come...

I had to surrender expectations

I wasn’t too impressed, having come all this way to be doing LESS Spiritual work (in my mind) than in Canada.  I was embarrassed, wondering what would people back home think, especially our supporters.

 

I had to surrender what I thought other people’s expectations were

Real or not, I had to let it go.  And stop caring, because this thing was between me and God.   If He called me all the way to South Africa to be a mom, so be it.  It was a GOOD plan, because it was God’s plan.  

The minute I realized that, people started finding ministries for me, and places I could plug in...  It was so strange, because I was now totally at peace with where God had me and I could with peace in my mind say: NO thank you.

The following week, a man of God came to me with a word God had given Him for me.  I wasn’t shocked that it was in regards to this situation.  God was saying “stop looking for other ministries”.  YIKES.  It’s exciting when others confirm something so important.  And that was confirmed again a few weeks later when an elder here was praying for me, saying I had to stop trying to find new creative ways to minister to people, and “just be”.

No, I don’t have a title for what I do here.  And that bothers me sometimes.  I bake for people.  I help out where I can.  I befriend people who dig in my garbage.  I visit the staff at Hope Africa.  I school my children.  I also take them out on many, many adventures.  I pray.  I write our blog.  I am where God wants me, completely surrendered and happy (most days).

And if I really wanted a title for what I do, I'd choose from this list:

Adventure-seeker-facilitator

Pom-pom educator

Life-cycle instructor

Art teacher

Recycled-craft-maker

Good-food-host

Anyway, I wanted to give you guys this message of surrendering expectations in case you didn’t get to attend the tea party, not because I think I’m so awesome and you’ve got to listen to what I say, but because I think this is one of those truth that applies to mission and everyday life.  We all put these expectations on ourselves and think others have these expectations when it really doesn’t matter at the end of the day.  Because every day I need to ask myself: “What is God’s plan for me?”   

So what is God’s plan for YOU?

He is powerful to save!

Wow oh Wow, God is good!  God is so faithful, His desire is that none should perish but that all come to repentance and faith in Jesus!  This was so apparent as we taught FDG (Faith Discovery Group) for the second time in early March.   

Just like in the 1^st class, the Holy Spirit was powerfully at work right from the first day, opening the hearts of our students (26 of them) to the gospel.  My heart breaks as the students share about being abandoned or rejected by their parents, experiencing the trauma of violent crime, and trying to recover from the deep hurt of rape.

I (Mike) would like to share a couple brief testimonies from our group:

"At first I didn’t believe in God.  I had this anger that lived within me, and I asked myself that if God is as good as he is said to be, than why did he take both my parents? I always blamed God for everything that is going on in my life.  I am now a changed person.  I have found the heart to try and to let go and forgive.  I now believe in God, for he is a loving, caring, and forgiving God.  I can now proudly say that I believe in God.  It’s all thanks to faith discovery group."

"Firstly when I was here at the faith discovery group I was not myself because I have a sin [and do] not forgive myself for what happened to my brother and I blame God for what happened to my brother.  When I’m watching TV or movies and I see a story, I feel the pain and I will start to cry because I know how my brother die and I see him when he was stabbed.  But now I started to forgive myself and I also pray God that he must forgive me for blaming him for what [is] happening to myself.  My life has been change because of the session of the faith discovery group and like to thank Mike and Mawande for helping me and give me an advice to me that God is here for me."

God’s hand moved powerfully among this group, and on at the end of the class, 9 out of the 26 students gave their lives to the Lord for the first time.  

We are very excited to now be in the follow-up process with them to help them begin growing their new lives in Christ.  Please continue to pray for them in these early stages that their faith would be strong and they would daily draw near to God.

The prodigal son comes home

I’ve got a pretty sweet story to share with you guys!!  Are you ready for this???  (say it louder I can't hear you).

So after Mike was done teaching his first Faith Discovery Group class (you can read all about in the  last blog), himself and Mawande (fellow staff) started following up with our students once day/week for 5 weeks.  They have since changed the structure, but I wanted to share one of the stories that came out of the follow up group, because it’s just too awesome.

On the day follow-up time was planned for, Mike and Mawande got held up in a meeting, and by the time they went outside to find the students, they had already left.  Feeling somewhat discouraged, they sat down in the courtyard and started to pray for the students, and discussed ways they could continue to develop the follow-up process.  There were 2 students in particular that they felt were on the verge of making first time commitments to Christ, and they had just been talking about them that morning to our staff asking our staff to also be praying for them.

After about an hour, Mike and Mawande went back into the office to continue with the day’s work.  Maybe two minutes after they got into the office, reception calls them to tell them that some people are there to see them.  So they went outside and those exact 2 students were waiting to see them!

One of them starts to say:

“yeah we thought we would come say hi to you guys since we missed you an hour ago.”

Then the other speaks up and says,

“tell them the real reason we came back.”

 The first student then says,

“we came back because we want to have the class, we want to talk more about how to follow Jesus.”

Mike writes:

"So, Mawande and I proceeded to sit down with them and talk about how to be born-again. We then spent lots of time in prayer with them, and one of the two students gave his life to Jesus! What an incredible privilege to watch someone move from darkness to light, to see their burdens removed from their shoulders as they come in repentance to Jesus!!!

The other student was not quite ready to take that step, but allowed us to continue to dialogue and pray with him.  This is the same student who in my previous blog update shared how he would trade his wife and kids for money, as life was all about money for him.  So even though he was not ready to take that step of giving his life to Jesus yet, God had been making serious progress working in his life.”

But this isn’t all folks...  Keep reading!!!  (I know this story is a bit long, but it gets even better!!!)

Two weeks later, in the morning this second student drops by.  He shares with Mike and Mawande that after the classes he went through a really hard time, and started to consider suicide.  There in that place, he heard God calling out to him to surrender his life, and like the prodigal son, come home.  And so he did!  Since then in the last 2 weeks he has literally been going to church every day, he is alive with new life in Christ!  It is stunning to watch as the Holy Spirit has taken this student from a place where all he wanted in life was money, to now all he wants in life is Jesus.  

On Tuesday, he was back at Hope Africa again inquiring about how to sign up for our month long discipleship course called EPIC (Equipping People in Christ).

Please continue to pray for him in his new walk with Christ, that he would grow into full maturity in Christ, that he would be good soil that the message of the kingdom would flourish and produce a harvest 30, 60, even 100 times that which was sown in his life!