As I am writing this I’m sitting on a rooftop surrounded by volcano’s and looking at the beautiful lake in the city of Panajachel in Guatemala. I see the work of God’s hands everywhere. As I reflect on the few days we already spent in Guatemala, I ask myself what have I learned about God or what have I experienced. At first I thought to myself I haven’t experienced God or learned something about Him until He opened my eyes. Being the financial guy of the team I realized that we really don’t have money to buy a lot of food and we are just going to stand strong and hold on to God. Not one day have passed that we didn’t had any food or water to drink. Everyday God provided and He is still providing for us. Although the finances are tight we still have God in our lives and He is the real Bread of life.
It’s a warm and sunny Sunday morning as Bernard and Freddy embark on a journey where the living God became even truer in our lives. A journey which will be part of our lives forever. Before we went on our Luke 10 journey, God gave me a promise in 1 Kings 17:14 which says:” For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!”
It’s the 5th of April on a beautiful sunny day in South Africa as work Your way are preparing for Indie. What a privilege it is to serve the people in Indie and to work for Jesus Christ. As we were praying I prayed the following prayer:” God break our hearts for what breaks Yours for the people of Indie.” That prayer changed my life in so many ways. On the 1st of April it was the last time I saw my luggage before we were on our way to Indie. From that moment a journey of faith started and God changed my life. I was told that I will receive my luggage in Indie on the 7th of April. When we arrived in Indie my luggage
was still not available and it also wasn’t in Indie “YET”. The feeling I experienced after hearing the news that my luggage is still not in Indie was heartbreaking.
So I went into Indie with a few t-shirts and a few pieces of pants which my parents bought me when we were in South Africa for a few days after we went to Guatemala. We arrived at Immanuel orphanage in Delhi and already I saw a place with no life and as I looked around everything just seemed so dead. Being in a place like this with no luggage with me, I just wanted to give up. Then we met the little children and in an instant I lost my heart in Indie. Everywhere you just hear children calling me Sachin uncle (Legendary cricketer in Indie) and the just want to play. Here I am in a place that so desperately needs hope and here I sit negative about my luggage and then the orphanage provided me with a sleeping bag and a tent. Immediately God provided what I needed most. That night of the 8th of April I was lying in bed crying about circumstances and I asked God why is He doing this?
He then reminded me of what I prayed back in South Africa and then I realized that God was breaking my heart for what is breaking His for the people of Indie. My heart was crushed and God showed me that the orphans are experiencing this feeling every day. They also only have a few t-shirts and a few pieces of pants, some of them don’t have parents and some of them are just abandoned. So I experienced the feeling of only having a few things and to be content in these circumstances. Then I ask the question why do these things happen to these children and why can I have a life where I have everything, food, parents and even things I don’t need and they don’t? And Jesus just answers us all and says:”that is why I made you.” I made you to be the change, to be the hope for the orphan.
In some way God made me just like these children to experience their feelings and pain and God gave me this scripture while I was going through this tough time:” Though the Lord gave you adversity for food, and suffering for drink, he will still be with you to teach you. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. Your own ears will hear Him. Right behind you a voice will say, “This is the way you should go, whether to the right or to the left.” (Isaiah 30:20-21) God is always behind us telling us where to go whether it’s in hard times and even in the good times. I also realized that these children are in desperate for change in their lives; they need a revival to take place in their hearts. On the 16th of April one of our work Your way team mates Welman Bartleman went to town for some reason while we all were working on our project in Indie. I asked the wYw team where did he go and they said he went to email his mother because it’s her birthday. After 6 hours of him being gone I was thinking wow how long is this email? At 2 o’ clock that afternoon he arrived back at the orphanage and to my surprise he had my luggage with him which I lost 15 days ago. I was so overwhelmed I didn’t know what to do.
It felt like I found that lost treasure in my life and the feeling was so great. Immediately I was thinking of the children and I wanted them to receive God in this way, I want them to experience Him like never before. I want rivers to flow in their lives and I want the drought to be broken in their lives. Then I ask myself how can one bring change in their lives in a place where it seems dead and where it looks like there is no life, how do you change their lives in these circumstances? I can’t do it but only God can do it, but I want Him to use me. All I can do is to pray the Word of God unto their lives and to just wait upon the Lord to react and change their lives: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways," declares the LORD.
& nbsp;"Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts."
"Rain and snow come down from the sky. They do not go back again until they water the earth. They make it sprout and grow so that it produces seed for farmers and food for people to eat.
My word, which comes from my mouth, is like the rain and snow. It will not come back to me without results. It will accomplish whatever I want and achieve whatever I send it to do."
You will go out with joy and be led out in peace. The mountains and the hills will break into songs of joy in your presence, and all the trees will clap their hands.
Cypress trees will grow where thorn bushes grew. Myrtle trees will grow where briars grew. This will be a reminder of the LORD'S name and an everlasting sign that will never be destroyed. (Isaiah 55:8-13)
I pray that the Word of God will fall onto their lives like rain and that it may water their souls and God promises us that His Word will not turn back to Him empty and may Cypress trees grow where there are thorn bushes at this moment in their lives, and may they see God in their lives and may YOU who are reading this blog see that God is here, He is all around us and may you see that rain will fall on your soul and Cypress trees will grow and thorn bushes will be driven out of your life.
Your love is peace to the broken…
Faith for the widow…
Hope for the orphan…
Strength for the weak…
Hebrews 11:1
“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen;it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”
Kingdom of the world: “seeing is believing”
Kingdom of God:”Believing is seeing”
In the beginning of this year God gave me a promise in the book of Psalms which meant so much to me. Psalm 16:11 grabbed my heart and through out this year I have kept it in my heart and I saw how this promise was being fulfilled everyday. It is written that the promises of God is our armor and protection. When life gets difficult it is always amazing how you can go back and read the promises God gave you and immediately it will lighten up your face.
© Global Challenge. All rights reserved.
