Hakkuna Matata

one of my favorite memories from africa I havent told many people about, but ill tell you…

the last day we were serving at ukukanye life care center, we were holding free HIV/AIDS testing for the community to raise awareness about the disease, to educate people on how to protect themselves from it and to open another door to share the gospel with people in the intezuma township.  About half way through the day, the line of patients started to die down and a group of us went back out into the community to recruit more people to be tested.  On the way back from the excursion, i noticed a group of small girls outside of ukukanya about two houses down.  Usually I would have just gone about my business and kept right on walking into the missions ablaze building, but when you’ve been in africa for 5 weeks you become more sensitive to God’s voice and His spirit moving inside you.  Upon seeing these girls it was like my heart was a magnet to go up and be with them.  The rest of my group didnt even notice me slip away.  I approached them with all the confidence of the Lord in me, not timid to say hello or of being exposed in the community in the slightest.  None of them spoke english but they smiled and giggled at my poor Zulu.  I dont really know what overcame me in the moments to follow, but instead of being awkward because of the communication barrier, I felt the greatest sense of freedom in not having to express jesus to them verbally.  I took their hands and we danced, I looked into their eyes and hugged them and spun them around till we were dizzy.  We played ring around the rosy and they smiled and the sky was this piercing  blue.  I could sense the little girls were as comfortable as I was, they didn’t hesitate for a second, something about the power of the moment was so captivating.  I took and rock and drew pictures in the sand.  A person, a heart, clouds, a rainbow, the cross, a bible, a smiley face.  The little girls were eating it up! It was such a cool experience because I didnt know what was going on, and neither did they! For a brief moment in time our lives intertwined and we experienced jesus together.  Of all the incredible moments in Africa, this one sticks out to me the most as my body being a total vessel for the Lord.  I really and truly felt Him overtake my thoughts and actions and I just watched as He used me to love on these girls and share the gospel with them.  I know this sounds crazy, but I mean it is!! I feel like the whole pattern of these girls’ lives were altered in that instant.  Not that they immediately became believers, but that our encounter was so unplanned.  God brought us together to experience Him and that was enough.  I felt pure bliss in that moment and really havent stopped thinking about it since.  As quickly as I walked up to the girls, I had to leave again and return to our work at the hospice.  Walking away, I saw them all sqautting over the dust pictures pointing and curious. 

Lord, I don’t know any of these young girls, I don’t know their names, their interests, their lives at all.  But, I do know what it is to be a little girl and a child of God.  Their hearts are yearning for attention, for love, for someone to tell them they are beautiful.  Their souls are longing for prayer.  God, your mysterious and divine will brought the 6 of us together.  May your presence continue to manifest itself in their lives and may you satisfy the desires of their souls with good and beautiful things from your hands.  May they experience fruit in this life from the mercy and grace that you have lavished upon us, and may you continually pursue their hearts and offer them a chance to know you personally.  Lord, protect them from the physical pains of living in a township and the emotional pains of growing up as a female.  Guide their paths so that they encounter other believers and provide them with a Christian community to encourage them like it has encouraged me.  Make it part of your plan to have them saved in the name of your Son and if it’s in your divine will I hope we can all dance again together in heaven one day :)  I love you Lord, youre so legit! Thanks for this opportunity to pray.  Amen.

June 24th, 2011 10:51AM

sorry for the delay of updating this thing friends! that last week in durban was slamm packed with projects and last minute sight seeing! (also I ran out of rand for the internet haha)

BUT after a 36 hour traveling excursion I am now home safe and sound :)  cant believe this trip just happened to me, but i think its safe to say I’m not the same person I was when I left here.  Part of my heart is still over in south africa and im already hoping to go back some day!

I said from the very beginning that if I was going to go on this trip at all, it was going to be God who would take me.  He provided me with the support, friends, funds, and means to go to durban.  He showed me what He’s been doing in the hearts of the people over there.  He asked me to help Him relay his message of good news & hope.  He showed me what it means to love selflessly and how the gospel is truly the only substantial provision we have in this life.  He revealed Himself to me in a hundred instances everyday and He taught me more about the significance of scripture and the power of prayer.  He held my hand as we walked through some of the most intense spiritual warfare I’ve ever known.  He romanced me almost daily with the beauty of His creation.  He stole my heart and broke it for the country of South Africa and He has called me to life my eyes above the materialistic lifestyle I see everyday in front of me.  He reminded me too that home is not America and home is not any country actually, but that home is heaven and until I get there I will do everything I can to die to myself and worship the Lord God who is all-powerful, all-merciful, all-loving, and all-knowing.  Under His sovereignty I have been called to come to know Him more intimately than ever before and I will do everything I can to live my life in response to the blessings He has so graciously lavished upon me. 

Father, the way you love me is overwhelming.  Thank you for the most incredible experience and please sharpen my memory so that I never forget all the powerful messages you taught me in Africa.  Help me to continue to live my life only for you and empower me to clearly and boldly share your gospel with all those around me here in America.  Now that I am home, keep my eyes peeled and my heart attuned to your spirit so that I can continue to follow your directions for my life thru the next two years of school and beyond.  I’m yours forever Lord, wherever you need me, whenever you need me.  Make your will for my life known and challenge me to trust you with it.  I love you and can’t even begin to thank you enough for the personal time you’ve spent investing in my life these past few months.  Help me to understand that you care just as much for me everyday of my life and that when I seek you, there I will find you!  You are glorious and perfect God! May you reign over this season and bless all those who are reading this prayer silently.  We love you so much!! xoxo, Melissa

June 22nd, 2011 12:09PM

our team just got in a three car pile up car accident coming home from the townships. Everyone is okay, I’m just really shaken up! Please please PLEASE whatever you are doing right now, say a quick prayer for us all to be calmed and safe and encouraged by the blessing that we are all okay.

Lord, you are our greatest protector, help me understand that about you and wash your comfort and peace over me and our team.  Amen.

June 13th, 2011 6:30PM

informal SETTLEMENT (tee!)

…this isnt actually where we’ve been helping out but it gives you an idea of the townships we have been working in & the way people live here.

June 12th, 2011 4:47PM

welst, experienced my first ever african beach market today and discovered i have ZERO selfcontrol. yikesss

Last week in africa starts tomorrow guys! praying hard for opportunites for our group to leave lasting impacts in the city of Durban and in S. Africa as a whole.  Monday and Tuesday we will be at Sandile’s Isaiah House in the Valley of 1000 hills again and Wednesday will be our last day at the Ukukanye Life Care Center.  Church tonight and reflection time should be really interesting since last week was just incredibly challenging for everyone in that the culture here is very difficult to adjust to.  It’s an easy thing to serve, but its hard to serve by south african standards and throw our american ideas of progress and efficiency and productivity out the door!  Initiative was key and communication was a stuggle, but God is still good and all powerful and I’m thankful He even considered using me to do His work here!  He’s the jam & He’s so in control that He doesn’t NEED me to do any of this, but in serving Him, He has taught me more about Him and strengthened our realtionship more than I could have ever imagined!  I’m so thankful for this opportunity and really encouraged that being here this summer is part of some bigger plan of his :) 

love you guys a lot! looking forward to great convos when I get back!

SHOUT OUT TO KRISTY HENDERSON who reads this all da time :) & KRISTEN HEETLAND who just wrote on my fb wall :) LOVE YOU BOTHHH CHICASS!

June 12th, 2011 4:45PM

the world cup stadium down the road from our guest house… hopefully we’ll get to ride the trolley to the top tonight!! :)

June 10th, 2011 9:49AM

leap of faith… the wild cliff i jumped off of about 2 weeks ago :)

June 10th, 2011 9:48AM

He has conquered this world. 

Romans 5:1-5

June 10th, 2011 9:43AM

cant believe this trip is coming to a close so quickly! sorry for not posting in a while! ran out of $$ and time to get to the internet cafe until just now!

ya’ll i dont know how im going to be able to leave this place!! we’ve been in the townships and aids hospice all this week and its mind blowing to be surrounded by so much emptiness. What a contrast it is to the jam-packed daily lives we all have back home.  Neither are righteous ways to live tho, and while it may be more comfortable and desireable to have so many material possesions in the States, we are in our own kind of darkness.  This has been one of the main realizations I’ve made being here this summer and I really hope I never forget to pray and revisit this side of the world later in life. 

Supporters: THANKS SO MUCH for all of your contributions to God’s cause here in S. Africa! Not only are you making a huge difference in the lives of the people we are coming into contact with, but you are literally extended His kingdom in more ways than one!  Yesterday 2 guys getting tested for HIV came to know the Lord!  Kelsey and I read and prayed for two patients in the hospice who may very well be on their deathbeds.  We have over 100 orphans in the Intezuma Township area who are coming to Ukukanye camp next month and will get to hear the gospel of hope! There are two little abandoned boys (History and Spey) at the Life Care Center who have been loved and held and spoiled by every girl on our project this week!  You all are praying for this place back home!  We are doing everything we can as a team to leave a lasting impact here in the city.  We may never have enough money, time, resources, man power to raise the “standard of living” here to the “american” standard, but thats not whats important anyway.  If their towns were suddenly transformed into what ours look like back home they would still STRUGGLE! perhaps even more so!  Its cool realize that the only eternal impact we can make is offering the hope of the Lord. 

In the midst of so much disease, rape, crime, poverty, etc. you may think itd be hard to see Jesus in all of this, but if you have seen the sunset over the hundreds of miles of township last night! you would never doubt in God again! He’s here! and actually He’s even more apparent here than back home!! People may not have direct access to the internet, or church, but God is captivating them in His beauty and in His promise of Hope in the life after this one! He’s awesome and perfect and knows exactly what He’s doing.  Be looking for ways you can win a victory over the evils of this world in your daily lives back home, its our destiny to proclaim His name and in doing that we become full.

Also just on a side note, thanks for your support of my life and my personal walk with the Lord.  I just finished my first ever journal on Wednesday (started it 2 years ago!) and I’ve grown closer to Him in the past 5 weeks than EVER before in my life! This experience is one I will carry with me forever and I’m so so grateful for this opportunity and promise to have it transform my life back home too.

ya’ll are great for reading all this! Hope to post again soon! pix to come after we visit the mountains tomorrow :) love, love, love, melissa

PS tee and I may have played the worst nerts game of all time last week… oh waitttt actually, i think blake and scott beat us to it :) hope you find george doug!

June 10, 2011 9:39AM

Psalm 19

June 1st, 2011 4:49PM