Martha

I'm a Martha
always running around and helping and serving
anxious and troubled about many things
But I find peace in becoming Mary
I find true peace by sitting at the feet
of the Prince of Peace
Martha's of the world,
listen to the call
of the Prince of Peace
"Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you
and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart
and you will find rest for your souls
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. "

Martha's of the world, become Mary's who sit by the feet of our Lord.
the work to be done can wait, the Lord cares about you. 

*Luke 10:38-42
*Matt 11:28-30
*Is 40:31

Outreach to Mashushu

Well, where do I start. One usually start at the beginning. It is just to define the beginning. Well as usual I was preparing myself, like many others, to go on outeach in Mozambique, to “my” village Panhame. Well then… plans had to be changed. Late in January the Limpopo river valley received basically their yearly rainfall in roughly about 4 days time. Remember the floods in January 2000. Yep, the same scenario replayed. (The border is still closed.) Ok , so a new plan had to be made. Samaria Mission identified a couple of villages in the Limpopo province for outreaches. We went to Mashushu. A small village situated in the mountains at the start of the Orrie Baragwanath pass. As you can imagine it is absolutely beautiful. It is just so sad that those who live there, don't see the beauty of it anymore. "Familiarity breeds contempt." And as a brother in the Lord who came with us on team, (who originally came from Zimbabwe) explained that those who are the poorest would usually be the ones who lived the highest up the mountain - so that had to walk furhter and further for water and firewood. In our point of view they would have the best views from up there but they don't see it anymore. In my lesson about creation they were almost laughing at me, when I said look around you and see, Who created these beautiful moutains and the stars in the nightskies. They were probably thinking what beautiful mountains is this paleface talking about?

Psalm 121: I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

A Sunset

 We came alongside the local church “Back to Jesus Baptist Church” with Pastor Lazarus Matlala and his wife, Rose. He is a graduate from Christ Seminary. The people in the area has heard a mixture of “gospels” from the ZCC to “give me your salary and then it will all go well with you and you will be wealthy”, and anything in between. Hence the name of the church – the area should turn back to Jesus. 

 

We went on house-house visitations in Mashushu and 3 other villages nearby. I went with Zachariah, Kate, Tracy, Mervyn, and two locals, Lydia a youngster and Noria a gogo. We were visiting in Mashushu. The first day, we visited about 6 homes, of which the last one was the local witchdoctor. The moment we sat down, Zachariah who sat next to me, said we are now at the witchdoctor’s house. I prepared myself to run if something happens or if we get chased away. None of those happened. We could talk to them for a good while. We can only trust God for the seed planted during this week.

The next day we went to several houses again. One of them was Mama Esther. On walking into her yard I said a quick quite prayer “Lord give me words to speak”. It was my turn to share. We all made turns to share and pray with Zachariah interpreting for us. We sat down.  She said that she is a born-again believer. Years ago she got burnt on her legs and it is still painful. Because of the pain in her legs she did not go to church anymore. (it is plus minus 1kms walk to the church from her house in a mountainous area.) I felt peace in my heart to be sharing encouraging words with her, and we prayed for her. We told her about our ministries and evening services that we had on in the afternoons and evenings but that we would understand if she would not come due to the pain in her legs. Well, she showed up the whole week at the ministries and evening services. It was a joy to see her at the ladies meetings, as her face lit up and she listened so attentively with a smile on her face to the teachings. 

On the other two days I went with other teams to the other villages. On Thursday I went with some of the Boksburg family. They went to a drop-in centre and gave Bibles to the ladies running the place as well as some beanies and blankets for the kids.  They then visited a home they visited the previous day. They promised her a bible and took it to her. She was so excited to receive one and read us Psalm 23 in Pedi (Sotho). The previous day they prayed for her, and for some terrible pains she had in her neck. She was overjoyed and excitedly told us that the pains in her neck is gone. We can only praise God and thank Him for taking the pains away! 

The lady with the Bible in her hands, and the orange & beige shawl on her head is the one we visited whose neck pains were healed. Praise God! 

On the Friday, a great deal of our team went to help the church set up things for a conference they had.

We had children’s; youth; and woman’s ministry. The men prepared for their teachings but no men showed up, so they had no men’s ministry. I was involved with the woman’s ministry. We had 9 ladies on our first day. We can pray that  the seed of what we taught them during these 4 days would grow. And that they would read their bibles, especially those whom we gave bibles to. The only lady, Monnya, hugged her bible when we gave it to her.

All in all, the week felt too short. For those who want to know, weatherwise, we had all kinds of weather in the week we were there. The days were mostly hot,  but as soon as the sun disappareared behind the mountain it was cold again. The nights were cold (but thankfully not freezing). On thursday it was quite overcast and cold and friday we had rain! The stars are breathtakingly beautiful and clear. Lots of fellowship times were had by the fireside which was next to the shower (because it's the donkey's fire that makes hot water for the great showers.) We had several donkeys (the animal kind) walking around and whose noise was echoing in the mountains.

This is the view from the church door. The cross some of the guys on team put up for the church, as there was no sign to mark it as a church.

God makes His dwelling among us

Leviticus 26:11-12 “I will set my tabernacle among you……  v12 I will walk among you and be your God and you shall be my people.“

This was written for the Israelites while they were on their tour of the wilderness. Revelation also speaks about God dwelling among us. The word I’m picking on here now is tabernacle. It means God is pitching his tent among us. He lives next to us, walk among us. There is just something you learn about this, when you live with 30something other people for a week…. In tents. You get to know them on a more personal way. You know what their pyjamas look like, and those who are picky about the food they eat and those who wake up early and those who struggle to get up early. You will wake up grumpy because your brother’s snoring kept you awake. The list can go on and on and on.  God knows even the things about us that those who live close to us don’t know or don’t pick up.  He knows what makes us sad, happy, what we sacrifice and what we could do and blah blah blah. He knows everything. We should continue to pursue to get to know God more personally too. And allow Him to push our personal limits. To go beyond what we say I can do, I’m willing to do, our comfort zones, and do what He asks us to do. Do not only hear what He says to us, but do it. 

Home; In sweet memory of Jill Hixon

As I got ready to leave for work

A message came through

that made me stop and think again

So suddenly it happened

A dear friend went home

We are not of this world

This life here is but a moment

Our home is eternity

Yet we live as if this is it

We are so busy with things

That has no value

Lord, thank you for the reminder

That this life is but a moment

And for the comfort that she is

Dancing with You on the streets of Gold

Our home is not in this world

In Sweet memory of Jill Hixon,

my dear friend, dance with joy on the streets of gold with your Lord Jesus. 

(picture credit: Caitlin Holt)

Talitha cumi

Here I stand
so unclean and full of sin
my head hung with shame
There is a required sacrifice
to make me clean
to forgive my sins
to
to allow me to enter the Holy of holies
Yet I realize that anything I can offer
fall so short
of the set standard

I hear a voice calling my name
Talitha cumi
Come my child, come with Me
with tears streaming down my face
I dare ask, "But Lord....."
How
How can I enter Your holy place
in this filthy state I'm in?"

He then opened my eyes
and helped me to see
that the One who is calling me
is the Lamb sacrificed in my place
and gave me a clean, white pure robe of fine linen

Tears of joy stream down my face
as I accept this wonderful Gift of Grace
The Greatest Gift this world will ever know or receive


Have you answered to His calling your name
Talitha cumi, come I stand at the door and knock
Come my child, come with Me
Come and life





 Go and watch this  music video and worship God for His Great Gift

Friends

God gave each of us a great blessing

that have more value than anything money can buy

a friend to walk the road with us
some accompany us a short while
and others for a lifetime

to share with us
the goodness of the Lord

to encourage us in His work
and also to show us our sins and wrong decisions

to help us on the right path again

to wipe tears from our face

and to rejoice with us when good news abound

A sweet friend refreshes the soul

Lord, Thank you for blessing me

with sweet, godly, courageous friends

Help me to be the same friend to them as well

Thank you for Your friendship

- The greatest Friendship this world will ever know

Bzzzzt - World Malaria Day

Bzzzt bzzzt bzzzt

I'm the local mozzie leader of around here

we've been here for years and years

and have death is what plenty fear

some have believed that it was the tree

that caused the death or serious illness of 

their loved ones

if only they knew that it was the tree's residents

bzzzt bzzzt bzzzt

fast forward some years on

and the humans realized it was us

and not the tree green with fever,

they dosed themselves with muti

that left them feel queasy

but still there are others

not able to afford food let alone muti

bzzzt bzzzt bzzzt

others who live here with us

in quite beautiful parts of Africa with me

who can't even afford clothes or food

we don't distinguish who to bite

poor or rich, well fed or malnourished

pink, red, black, purple, yellow or white skin

all human blood to us taste the same

and bite we will, and sick you get

bzzzt bzzzt bzzzt

World Malaria Day is 25 April 

http://blog.compassion.com/a-creative-writing-assignment-for-world-malaria-day-2013/

http://www.compassion.com/malaria-intervention.htm?referer=96738