Garissa

One peaceful night

yet it awaits fate
some days before Easter

Students going their about

not knowing that

soon they would breath their last

Suddenly faced with a gun in their face

Terrorists shouting

"whom do you belong to?"

Are you with us or

with the man of Nazareth called Christ?

The terrorists may think they have won

They wiped out more Christ-followers

and the world is in tears and fears

thinking by shouting allah akhbar 

that they won, and we all now think 

that allah is great. 

Yet in the end Christ will show them

Who truely is greater than allah

Friends, family and loved ones

cried on hearing shots echoing down halls

Angels were singing when 

Christ-followers came Home

in this fateful way

and for the rests of us here on earth

longing to be Home

Yet asking Why

Why do they have to go that horrible way?

Why so rudely ripped away from their loved ones life's?

We can ask books full of questions 

and never have an answer

Simply Lord, we ask

Give your Comfort and Peace

Peace beyond all our understanding

to those who lost loved ones 

Ones that are now with You

May it be etched in our hearts

that they can take away 

all from us, even our earthly lifes, but....

they can never take away our Jesus our Saviour. 

We will be followers of the Nazarene

and follow You Home. 

Prayer points for July 2015 Outreach

Thanks for being willing to pray with me and for me and for the dear folks in Mozambique, and our outreach in July.



I have over the years come to love these dear women in Moz and I am thankful that I am Lord willing able to go back again to them this year.

Rev 5:9-10 ESV  And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,  (10)  and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth."

As Newsboys sing in He reigns
It's the song of the redeemed rising from the African plains ...... It's all God's children singing, Glory, glory, hallelujah, He reigns, He reigns. 

Yes some of these dear folk are not yet part of the great choir of the redeemed, and that's why we go there. And that's one thing you really need to pray for, for their eyes to open to see the need for the Saviour that we are telling them about. Then there are some that are part of the great choir of the redeemed, whom we go to encourage and equip, teach them and hug them. They also need that and they are so encouraged to see our familiar faces pop up again in their valley in the middle of nowhere. 

Here are some prayer requests, for the outreach but also for other outreaches taking place around this time in nearby villages. 

- There are plenty of people there who have heard of Jesus, and possibly even through Samaria Mission's trips there and the local believers there. But they want to add Jesus to their ancestor worship and whatever else they believe in. From 1 Tim 2:5-6 and John 14:6 (and many other verses) we know this will not work ever. Pray that they would understand it's Jesus only and will follow Him only. Pray that God would work in their hearts to follow Him and Him alone.  Pray that they would see that God is the only Way and follow Him, that He is the true Life and find their life in Him. 

- Pray for the believers there, that they would be strengthened and encouraged in their faith, that they will stand firm to the end and hold fast to the Truth of God's word. That they would be examples to those around them and share God's word with them. That they would grow in a deeper relationship with God and be rooted and grounded in His love for them. (Eph 3:16-21). 

- Pray for those we would meet, and share the Good News with, that God would prepare their hearts to receive His word, that they would receive it and their life's transformed. 

- For the health of the team members, unity among team members, pray that we would anew have a vision of reaching the lost to tell them about Christ. We are simply the messengers, God is the One doing the work, but we still need to go tell. Pray for us to follow God's nudgings and directions to where we should go and what we should share. For divine appointments. 

- For our preparations, for the trip in all ways: For the finances to go, from spiritual preparedness, preparing bible studies and for the preachers that would be preaching at the evening services, and going on hut-to hut and sharing testimonies and God's message with them. To be physically and mentally prepared too. 

For creative and true ways to use teaching aids (pictures etc) to make the message clearer. That we would spend quality and quantity time in our personal devotion time.

- Pray for the translators that they would not grow weary in their job of assisting us that don't know the language;  and that the rest of us would learn more and more of the language. That the message would be shared clearly through them. 

- and Pray for whatever the Holy Spirit lays on your heart to pray for. 

They have a beautiful song they sing, which one day will be true, and we will all sing together. 

Siku ri wandza Hosi Yesu U ta vuya (One day Our Lord Jesus will come back)

Hina cina cina Hita cina cina na Yesu (we will dance with Jesus)

Hina Hita yimbelela Hi Yimbelal na Yesu (we will sing with Jesus) 

What a great day that would be when we all, of all tribes, languages, nations and people groups would sing and dance together with our Saviour. What a day to look forward to. 

Beer lahai roi

Beer lahai roi

The God who sees.... me

You are the amazing God
who stretch the stars out
like a curtain on a rod
yet you know my biggest fear and doubt

The earth but a pinprick small
in the majestic universe
and we but dots on the earth
yet You taught the swallows to play swiftly
in the summer sunset sky
and know when one of them fall from on high

You hold the stars steady
and touch our beating hearts
You knew about my needs
before I knew about them
and provide abundantly in time
By your great grace

In the midst of wilderness
You saw Hagar, crying over a mess
she was part of, but didn't create
You send an angel
to point to the well
She named the place
Beer lahai roi
For you are Elohim chai
The living God, the God who sees... her

And now millenia down the line
You see us, me, your children
Crying in our various wildernesses over messes
In Your grace, You point us to the well
Your well of living water
and bid us, come, drink
and you will never thirst again.
..........................................


Riana Odendaal
January 2015

Scandalous Graceful Messiah

Scandalous Graceful Messiah

Throughout the centuries
promises were prophesied
about a Saviour, Messiah

He will redeem His people 
our sins forgiven, washed clean

A sinless perfect Saviour
we imagine his family
to be sinless and perfect too
How scandalous and shocking to find then
the social outcast, pagans, gentiles, 
tainted sinners, prostitutes and murderers. 
How did God allow these people
to be in the royal family line?

And yet these chosen sinners
did not in any way
taint the perfect sinless Saviour

It only points to more of His grace
and how now centuries later
He is still in the business of
adding to His family line
the social outcasts, pagans, gentiles,
and all kinds of tainted sinners
In His family line we are all
washed clean and pure

How scandalous, we think, 
as only perfect people go to heaven
(in our tainted mindset)
Reality being there is only ONE perfect person
and He died to cleanse us, and make us into His perfection. 

Grace



Riana Odendaal
December 2014

Our one deep desire Psalm 27:4

Psalm 27:4. One thing I have asked of the Lord, that I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. 


Questions, questions all around.
always seeking, wanting desiring
One. More. Thing.
But what is it that you
deep down
deeply, truely, really really desire?

May our deepest heart's desires be
the same as David's
One thing I asked of the Lord
that I will seek after, pursue mightily
to dwelling in His house
all the days of our lives
forever and ever
to gaze upon his infinite wondrous beauty
and to inquire in His temple -
He is the temple (Rev21:22)

are we content with Him, just Him?



Riana Odendaal
December 2014

Faith

Faith....

It's a gift of grace
and it's all you need for life

It will take you with all your sin and shame
to the Father's grace-filled throne
Faith will  give you new life, new ways, new perspective

and yet

Faith will take you
through trials and perils abound
passing through the valley of the shadow of death
Danger may abound
care and love may not be around
but by faith you will be
where God in His grace needs you to be

Carefully manicured feet
will become cracked, dry and tired
as they walk so many miles to the middle of nowhere
sunburnt you will be, as you sit in the sun
sharing your faith
and silently deep inside cry,
Cry out the Saviour
for one more soul, so lost
to understand, to receive the gift of grace
the faith, the faith that will lead them home

Faith may sound so neat and tidy
a word so meek and tame
and yet it's a wild journey
to places unknown
except to Thy Great Author of Life

Faith has brought you
out of the slimy pit of sin
to the river of grace
took you safely passed death valley
and led you to peace
It has brought you thus far
and will carry you home
the Home that is not on this earth.


Riana Odendaal - December 2014.

Our half painted pictures

A picture we paint

A thousand time over
in a million different ways
yet it's not complete

A poem we wrote
using the best words available
describing you magnificent You are
Yet it falls so tremendously short

a song we sing
the chords strung
and words sung
with all our heart
yet it comes nowhere near

All our best attempts
can never fully describe
how truely great You are

With the same hands
You flung stars into the sky
Hold our beating hearts
and held a nail to the cross for our sins
Only by You are we here
and only in You is true Hope found