This last week, I learnt that The Lord provides in abundance and delights in blessing His children. Us Global Challengers had the opportunity to practically apply all that we have learnt during training by going on a 5-day Luke 10 journey from Wednesday to Sunday. Simply put, we followed in the footsteps of the 72 disciples that were sent out by Jesus as "lambs amongst the wolves" in Luke chapter 10. Each small team prayed and waited upon The Lord for direction as to where He wanted them to go.
My small team, known as the Green Team, consists of Charlotte, Jaco, Kasia and I. We prayed and waited on The Lord on Wednesday morning, while several other small teams left to their various God-appointed destinations. We got slightly discouraged as we saw other teams pack up their tents, since we had not received any place names yet. Charlotte told us that she had received the name "Patensie" earlier and we prayed for confirmation. I then received Jeremiah 42:10, which says "Stay here in this land".
After praising The Lord for His faithfulness and praying for the journey ahead, we departed from the Jeffrey's Bay caravan park at approximately 13:07. We had amazing favour when it came to lifts - on this journey, we never had to wait longer than 20 minutes before a car stopped to pick us up. God provides!
A good-hearted woman took us all the way to Humansdorp, with us sharing about our journey and her sharing about her family. Upon dropping us off, we prayed for her and she blessed us with money for lunch at Wimpy! Here's the difficult part about Luke 10: you cannot tell anyone about what you're doing unless they ask, and you cannot ask anyone for food or accommodation unless they offer. In addition, you may not take money or extra clothes with you.
However, Maxine prayed and said that we could take the following:
• Water bottle
• Toothbrush
• Toothpaste
• Rain jacket
• Bible
Without luxury items, we learnt to fully rely on God for everything. We did not mention a single word about our lack of finances and this woman just blessed us! God is good! So we hitch-hiked further to Hankey and then finally to Patensie, with The Lord providing transport every time.
Upon arrival, we realized one thing: Patensie is really REALLY small. With no idea where to go, we walked down the main street to the Engen garage. We shared with the women working there, telling them about the first 3 hours of Luke 10. On this journey, I personally enjoyed witnessing the utter surprise on people's faces as you tell them that you hitch-hiked from Jeffrey's Bay and that you had no idea where you were sleeping that night. I admit, it sounds ludicrous: receiving a Word of Knowledge and then traveling with the bare minimum, relying on God for everything while sharing the Gospel with whoever God shows you. It is ludicrous, but life-changing!
We then walked to the Spar and sat on the steps outside for almost 3 hours, waiting for God to reveal our Man of Peace. A Man of Peace is someone who is open, hungry and sharing. While waiting, we would talk to and pray with whoever stopped outside the store. A few farmers looked like potential Men of Peace, but not one asked about where we were staying.
Finally, at 18:30, a white Camry pulls up and a man asks, "Are you guys looking for a lift?" This man's name is Oom Igmar. He provided us with accommodation by booking us in to the 4-star Retadi Guesthouse for free that night. The lady who manages it, Anmagreth, is actually a friend of one of the Distant World team members. She played a huge role in our journey, I am so grateful that we crossed paths with her!
The Green Team experienced an incredible irony that evening: here we were, in this lavishly decorated, exquisite guesthouse without a crumb of food. We made peace with the fact that we would be going on an involuntary fast that evening. However, we serve a faithful God and He would not let His children go hungry. Oom Igmar blessed us with enough food to feed a small village and we went to bed with full stomachs and grateful hearts.
The Thursday morning, we made a delicious farmhouse breakfast (which, funny enough, we ate in a farmhouse) and off we went to share the Gospel. We spoke to several members of the community, but none of them seemed to be open or searching. We comforted the townspeople, since a prominent resident had recently died in a car accident. We also invested some time with the school children of Laerskool Gamtoosvallei, where Jaco organized a ministry opportunity for us for the next morning.
The Green Team was feeling demotivated and lethargic, since we had not eaten lunch and we were tired from walking. We then visited Angie and Rochelle at the Engen once again, surprising them when they heard of the Lord's provision. They then blessed us with a bottle of Coke, which we greatly appreciated. Thereafter, we returned to the guesthouse, where we ate the last of Oom Igmar's food.
The next morning, we had one Ouma rusk each. This made me rely on The Lord for my energy and strength. And we needed as much energy as we could get, since we were joining the primary school children for assembly as well as their periods until first break. The headmistress of the school gave us the opportunity to sing Afrikaans children's worship songs with them. A lady called Martha then came to speak to them. We later shared with her about the journey we were on and what God has done already. We also met Anmagreth at the school - she was very concerned about our food situation and said she would go buy is food for lunch. what a blessing!
While praying outside on the grass at the school, thanking God for His goodness, Marta walks up to us and blesses us with R200! God certainly challenged us with accepting blessing and hospitality from others - we struggled to accept things from others when we haven't physically laboured or done anything for them in return for their blessing. Just as we were thanking Him for Anmagreth, He drops another blessing into our laps. What a glorious God we serve!
Thereafter, we went to sit outside the FoodZone and ministered to a woman called Rosalien. She invited us to her prayer meeting the next morning in the "woongebied", or informal settlement. At the guesthouse, we got home to a wonderful lunch purchased by Anmagreth. She visited us at around 14:30, where we then prayed for her and just spent some time sharing with her. She invited us to supper at her parent's house that evening. We then walked to the Spar and bought a cake, which we shared with Angie and Rochelle. Angie invited us to her church in the community on Sunday morning. It blessed me so much to see her so spiritually hungry. She was our other Woman of Peace and she honestly blessed us with her prayers and encouragement.
That evening, we spent time sharing with Anmagreth's parents about the wonderful adventure God has taken us on. They blessed us with the most scrumptious food, including coffee and dessert. I personally found it hard accepting this amazing blessing without having done anything to deserve it. However, Luke 10 does say we must accept what is given to us, so we received it all with grateful hearts. Anmagreth and her parents then became our Family of Peace, encouraging us in prayer and also inviting us to their Dutch-Reformed church that Sunday. Anmagreth then told us that we could stay at the guesthouse until we left.
It is honestly a God-appointment that we should be there - she told us that an hour before Oom Igmar called her, the couple who had booked the guesthouse cancelled their booking. In addition, since our arrival in this town, they had not received a single phone enquiry about the guesthouse. This was God's way of spoiling us as His children, lavishing his amazing Love on us!
The Saturday morning we spent at Rosalien's house, praying for members of the community and learning about their way of life. I overcame one of my personal fears: I have never been inside and informal settlement, and the kind-hearted resident of the Ramaphosa Village made me feel so welcome that all my insecurities disappeared. Anmagreth's boss wanted to bless us and purchased a refrigerator full of food for us. We had so much extra food that we literally had no idea what to do with it! We could then bless others with the food that we did not eat. Blessing in abundance!
Another Global Challenge small team consisting of Annemi, Tiaan and Robynne had also come to Patensie. They then asked us to help them finish painting a wall at the preschool. Their Family of Peace blessed us with export-quality watermelon and delicious prickly pears before we started painting. The two small teams got along famously, sharing testimonies and laughing together as we painted various pictures on the wall. We then got blessed with the opportunity to watch the sunset from the Shumba Manor just outside Patensie. The residents of Shumba Manor then also took some of us on a safari, allowing us to see a very rare black impala, as well as an albino blesbok.
Driving on the back of the safari bakkie, watching the orange sun sinking behind the mountains, I could not help but thank God for blessing us so much this week. That sunset was like a gift out of the hand of God - I just experienced His love for me in a very real way. As the sun's rays wrapped around me, I imagined them to be the Everlasting Arms of the Father. It was awe-inspiring!
The Sunday morning we woke up early and made another amazing farmhouse breakfast. Then off to NG Kerk Gamtoosvallei, as well as Maranatha Church with Angie. We experienced the two ends of the spectrum when it came to church - NG, which was very conservative, and Maranatha, which was more radical.
To say the least, it was a great blessing to arrive at UCSA on Sunday afternoon for Celebration, which is the more balanced manner of having church. It felt so good to see everyone again - I just realized how much I had missed all the other Challengers. We had a fantastic time sharing testimonies from the various journeys. God really is a God of provision, which is where this blog's title comes from: it means "The Lord will provide". My trust in The Lord increased exponentially over Luke 10, and I came to realize that the Holy Spirit is a real person. Receiving a Word of Knowledge is an indescribable feeling, which gives me immense excitement for the year ahead!