Don’t you just love it when words jump out of a page and breathe life into your very being and make you want scream at the top of your lungs …THERE is MORE TO LIFE PEOPLE! Welcome to life outside the box, “sticking it to the man” and “doing what Jesus would do”...
…drum roll please…
LUKE 10 journey 2011
You show that you are a letter from Christ, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the LIVING God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts...(2 Cor 3:3)
Never have I realized the magnitude of this Scripture as much as on this journey! When the spirit of the Lord awakens the scripture and inscribes it into your heart to such an extent that it moves you into action… the truth really does set you free! Our heart is the life source of our body and pumps blood into every area, bringing life and sustenance to every part of our being… so I do think its significant that Paul says that the word is written on our hearts! As the Holy Spirit etches it into your heart it enters your blood and gets pumped into every part… that is it! The truth moves us into action because it is a part of who we are! WE LIVE IT! And as we do that we describe in part…Our amazing DAD…
We received word from the Lord that we were to go to Vietnam and with bright eyes and bushy tails (or heavy backpacks) we headed out and were taken on a rollercoaster ride by our Dad, where we were once again blown away by His Father heart, His passion for people and His creativity (amongst very many other things). The first leg entailed an epic journey from Thailand to Singapore with no money…here we saw God’s provision through random people giving us food, paying for bus tickets and hitchhiking of courseJ as we shared our stories we saw people respond to the truth and through this God started igniting a new passion for sharing His word.
these are a few pics taken with Nel's phone on the journey from Thailand to Singapore...We started in style (all four of us with our bags in a tuk tuk).
After an incredible journey from Thailand to Singapore without were lead to Singapore airport believing that God was going to provide a flight to Vietnam from there… well let’s just say that God’s ways are not oursJ and we soon discovered that He had other plans for us... whilst focusing on the destination and the country that God had called us to we had lost focus of the whole point: God’s heart...to seek and save the lost, and so we were humbled to have God challenge us that maybe our destination had distracted us from the whole point. It’s funny how focused we can become on ministry and what it should look like, that we box God and we end up walking in religiosity(too many rules and regulations) instead of freedom. We realized that it may be God’s plan that we stay in Singapore...daunting prospect since we were in one of the most wealthy countries in the world that is known for its laws and rules...and within a week we needed to be in Cambodia (across the ocean) and we had no money. God just kept telling us that we needed to trust, that as we sought His kingdom(invested in people) and He would provide.
So we surrendered our will and continued to walk in His... this entailed us staying in the airport for three days. It is truly incredible what you can do in an airport…especially Singapore airport! (seriously if you ever have the opportunity to stop over do it!). we slept on the floor, showered in the toilet, played ninja, played guitar, met and chatted to very many interesting people (many of which needed to be surgically removed from their I phones) and ministered to people there...some tourists, some locals and some staff. One man in particular captured our heart, his name was frank and he had actually been living in the airport for the past few months. Every morning and evening he would share whatever food he had with us and we spent time just getting to know him (even cutting his toe nailsJ). It was truly incredible to experience God’s heart for people, to share His good news and the words that He gave. Earlier in the week we received a word from the Lord that we would meet a “lady at the well “and so began to pray into that. True as bob the next day we were blessed with food by her. She worked at the airport and ended up inviting us to stay with her for the remaining few days. This was incredible! For the next three days we were able to minister to her, her mom and her dad we poured as much truth into that house as God lead us to and helped her with babysitting, cleaning and cooking... In this I once again realized God’s relational heart...it was beautiful!
Just to back track a little…a few days earlier we felt that we needed to step out in faith and take our passports to the Vietnamese embassy to try and get our visas, this resulted in us being stranded in Singapore without our passports for about 4 days, as we had no money to actually pay. All this while we managed to have our passports kept by the Vietnamese embassy until we could pay the equivalent of 6000 rand (which we obviously did not have). On the Friday morning we went to the embassy in faith and began talking to the staff there. God had told us to walk in boldness and trust that He was working for us... whilst chatting to the staff a man approached us who happened to recognize our South African accents and asked whether we needed help. To cut long story short they ended up paying for our visas…craziness!
That evening (the last night) we were lead by the Lord to go to a specific place, He gave us the name but we had no idea where it was or what we would do there. so we went in faith prepared to do anything...Elaine had prayed and asked God (without our knowledge) that if he was going to provide that she would find money on the street. Now bear in mind if you litter you get prison time and every dime is worth a lot! So the likelihood of this was slim in itself:). so we get on a bus end up walking in this foreign city wondering what God was wanting us to do... as we turn one of the corners there is a $2 note lying on the floor, as we bend down to pick it up we notice that on this corner is a humungous Baptist church...we laugh and go in. We chatted to the pastor and he prayed for us, we sat down on the street and I began to play the guitar to worship and continue to seek God’s face (yes in public). The pastor walked up to us and handed us $1000 which is the equivalent of about R9000 rand...this was enough for all of our tickets and Cambodian visas. Also a little extra for our next journey... and so we arrived in Cambodia in style… FLYING! Still laugh when I think about it really.
Yellow team ended in style...finally crossing the departure gate into the promise land...FLYING to Cambodia after an epic week of adventure!
Loss for words! it was crazy and ended up being a life changing moment...I felt like a naughty child receiving the best gift in the world...in that moment God crushed me with His love and right there I realized that when God provides it is not necessarily because He is faithful (that never changes and is never dependant on us- thank goodness) but is always because He is gracious! That is it! Jesus is God’s grace and it crushes us! It truly destroys us (for good of course)! Because we realize who we are in perspective of who God is. That is true humility!
I sometimes wonder why it is that you have to be stranded in a city on the other side of the world with no money and no way to get to your next destination in order for Faith to become real. But when the word of God meets obedience (even if the servant is totally lame and awkward) God’s kingdom comes to earth. No matter where you are! So whether you are sitting behind a desk or a hiking the mountains of Peru, obedience is the issue! All you are called to do is walk in faith… because as a friend of mine once said: faith is the key that unlocks our ability to walk in God’s promises, and when we do that we please Him!
The difference between knowing and believing is a step!