Two families living in our valley were very interesting and probably eccentric.
But as it is with true eccentrics, they would be the last to realize that. The children of these families attended the same farm school where we were, four lovely girls of the one brother and four cousins, the sons of the other brother. At some stage our parents took us out of the farm school and sent us to the city, probably concerned about the level of our education. This was where I first noticed that when I told people about the ordinary life where we grew up, they gave one another a knowing look. As if I was exaggerating.
I will give it to you straight though, and you can judge for yourself. Our school came last in inter school sports until the Delports moved into the valley. Actually the dad was Van Dyk, and we just accepted this, why should we question why he was Van Dyk and they Delport?. One of the Delports could run so fast, that our school actually came second from last after Hennops River for the rest of the years that this Delport was in our school. And this felt as good as winning to us. Here I must add that nobody could ever teach him that he needn’t run back at the same speed from the finishing line. He actually did every race twice. And it helped when some kids were not too teachable because then Mr. Roos could hold some back in standard five (grade seven) until some got deep voices and even started beards. This way he could keep the numbers up so that the school wouldn’t be closed down. The Lombards here also did their bit to keep the school going. They always had a fresh kid to start in grade one and a few to be kept behind in grade seven. Now that I mention it, not two of them looked alike, something to do with fathers, I remember the grown ups said.
But back to the families with the four boys and the four girls .When years later I asked my brother about what happened to them, he told me what had happened to the second oldest of the four boys. He and his wife had gone through a very bad patch in their marriage. Before giving up an opting for divorce, they took a holiday to the Kruger Park to see if things could be mended. Driving through lion area, as he later said, she insisted on getting out of the car. What exactly happened was not clear, but he ended up alone at the camp that night, reporting to the officials. The rangers went out but couldn’t find a trace. The following morning she walked into the camp with a different version of what had happened. This led to a court case of attempted murder. The man managed his own case without an attorney. Addressing the judge he said in his own defense: “Your honour, if even the lions are not up to her…”
Now this is the point I want to make. The Bible says Satan is like a roaring lion, (1 Peter 5:8 & 9)
“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.
In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support and strengthen you, and He will place you on a firm foundation.”
We are all challenged constantly, as the Scripture says. And I’m convinced we would all like to arrive safely at camp after a lion encounter.
Every challenge gets us back to basics, and basics are simple. Last year’s team witnessed how the Christians in the free west are submitted but in the persecuted church they are surrendered. We were recently looking at Romans 10: 33 where Paul is going wild in praising God – you know, that experience where you cannot contain yourself, when you start to experience how awesome He is. The kind of encounter that causes you to send your parents word “Mo sollie Vestoon nie” (“ma won’t understand”) or to get so caught up in the adventure of Him that you even forget to call home. That experience you can’t explain and gets your parents worried: “…what sect has my child landed in…?” After losing yourself in praising God like this, He says through Paul (in Romans 12:1) that if you start getting it, beginning to grasp how awesome He is, then you will realize that it is safe to surrender to Him. This is where lions worry. This is lion whacking stuff.
By now you know that I am not good at preaching a five point sermon. And I am wary about taking things that are given by God directly, that can only be experienced because of the presence of God, and packing them into easy how -to recipes, like paint by numbers. (Perhaps it had to do with the above mentioned farm school I attended.) I am always careful that a person would try to imitate the true experience that would come from connecting with God and being in a vital union with Jesus Christ, and replace it with some product of man’s understanding. That we would settle for someone else’s pre-digested second hand version that we took notes of, instead of that awesome contact with Him. One might be criticized in certain quarters for having an ‘emotional’ spirituality. But how on earth will we love and be loved without emotion? There are processes with a living God that belong in the simplicity and intimacy of a relationship and not in the theory about it. After all the goodness of God is to be tasted, says the Psalmist…
And this brings me back to the power of surrender. Here were your parents, and others I had met. This past week end, you might recall, was Parent’s week end at Alabanza. ( Anna-Marie laughs very loudly when she talks about me inheriting the parents, but I know a bargain when I see one.) Here are the parents with their dream for their children, for the likes of you. From the braces for your teeth to your first bicycle to the extra math classes to carting you to sports… and every kind of sacrifice…They were dreaming about you. How you would make up for what they missed, would make them proud, would live what they dreamt. And you not always fitting into that dream.
We could have followed our own little program for the week end, but guess what… we gave it back to God. And then the Lord comes and allows Kobus’ dad Henk to play the song from the Belfast revival: “All of my ambitions, hopes and plans, I surrender it into Your hands…” And one by one they surrender. Including their hopes for you and the realization that in that surrender comes true joy and the peace…and the result is a week end they can’t explain. “…you won’t understand…”
In Roman’s 11 from verse 33 onwards, after Paul had praised God in a doxology like a madman, he says if you know what I know, you would surrender and let Him re-program that head of yours. So this past week end was re-programming. And not us fixing our heads, but us allowing the Holy Spirit to transform our minds. Deleting the programs of this world. Not only the obvious ones of youth, clubbing, drinking, rebellion and other messy stuff. Also the subtle respectable patterns of this world such as life style, image, selfish ambition, false values, people pleasing& hellip;”Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think…” Nothing wrong with working and earning a living ( see Acts 20:34), but all about priorities.
The Lord had planned the little week end long ago, of course. At one stage we were praying for parents that were not yet understanding what their children were doing, gallivanting all over the earth, and actually slightly disappointed in their children doing this missionary thing. And for that moment God saw to it that a friend of ours, Judy was here. And she confessed that her dream was that her son and daughter would be missionaries, and there they went and became successful at university and in business…we all laughed heartily at the irony. After that came a moment when parents prayed about how they missed you guys. And just for that moment Leah was here, a young missionary from the USA, crying because she misses her home and folks. The mothers scuttled to comfort her and lay hands on her, and in the process realized that you can also be lonely and longing, and are sacrificing, not only they…
At times during the parents’ week end it felt like seeing both sides of one direction glass, like the glass partitions they use in crime movies when they interrogate people. When you have contact with both the parents and their offspring, you begin to see a bit of both sides. You recognize the prisons of parent’s expectations, based on their own dreams that could not be realized, or perhaps the very high standards that a family has set for itself, or the parent dreaming about this child they doted on, or the guilt that a divorce caused and wanting to compensate for it. You reflect on having sacrificed for something the child wasn’t interested in; observe the pain of parents afraid to release, that could become the damage in future relationships where a dad didn’t want to release his little girl or where a husband is still mommy’s boy.
And on the other side one can see the younger version of you, where not long ago everything about your parent was embarrassing. Allowing your mother’s kiss when she dropped you at school was social suicide. Perhaps at the time you were reasoning that if your parents version of religion didn’t do it for you, the only way to go was to give up on God, the baby out with the bathwater kind of thing. And wrongly thinking that the only other option left was rebellion, trying to free yourself by choosing darkness.
On the parents side of the glass one can almost hear how they still can’t believe how you changed…and then the little thought that they expected you to change but perhaps not that radically.
Especially now, after the parent’s week end, I want to boast in the Lord in the face of the lion: Just like you discovered in the presence of God that rebellion and darkness didn’t do it, parents discovered that false responsibility, worry or control will not do it. But that surrendering to His love and having your mind changed by Him is lion scaring stuff. Bowing down to gain authority. Do you recall James 4:7? “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Watch those lions running!
Looking at your lives, the parents are getting used to the truth that you, in fact, belong to God and not to them, and they are beginning to see their own prayers answered. They are realizing that God is actually doing wonderful things in your lives because they are praying! And, back home, the Lord is doing wonderful things in your parents lives, and I bet its because you are praying.
Perhaps some of your parents were praying dressed in their Sunday best in a sanctuary with a tower - where there was a clock on the wall opposite the pulpit to remind Dominee that he must not preach longer than twenty minutes. ( not to encroach on the Sunday paper and chicken, two veggies and potatoes time, TV sports and an afternoon nap). Your parents might have knelt and prayed quietly in their bedroom. You might have only one parent praying. Praying from their hearts is what matters. And even though they might not have a grip on how you worship yet, are you not the result there of their prayers?
And your prayers, among mud huts, roaming goats and chickens in a remote country, where you worship with a guitar or raising your arms, are your parents not a result of that? Let us not stop this prayer thing. Until parents in the light of the Lord, discover the freedom to release their children to Him. And you, their children, find real freedom in the Holy Spirit that doesn’t destroy like rebellion…let us trust Him for Kids’ stubbornness transformed into tenacity (vasbyt) and parents worries into faith.
Paul says, if you’ve grasped how great He is, and surrendered to Him and had God cleaning up your head removing the viruses from the computer, as it were, then you will get it. But I suggest that you go and read Romans 11:33-35 and 12:1and 2 for yourself because I am paraphrasing here.
“Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Then you will sing with Robin Mark…Jesus, all for Jesus, all I am and have and ever hope to be…For its only in Your will that I am free…
Written by
Dini Esterhuizen
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