So, South Africa ministry is already over. Time flew by this month as we worked with the underpriviledged kids of Plettenberg Bay and shared the love of Christ with them. Its been by far my favorite month and I am extremely sad to leave this place, these people, and the kids we have built such a good relationship with. Here are some more photos from ministry this month:
We had about 50 kids show up every day to hang out with us during the month. These kids are God's kids. They have so much love in them and desire for so much more of God's love to be shown to them. Although there were so many kids and only a few of us, I had the opportunity to build a lot of one on one relationships with the kids there. Our scheduled ministry was soccer and netball, but because of different things, we ended up doing relay races, and a little bit of soccer with them this month.
I went in to this month expecting to be playing sports and exercising a lot, but God again changed those plans and told me to lose my expectations. God had me hang out with the little ones a lot more than I expected and to let the bigger kids play soccer with others. I spent most of my time this month sitting next to the little ones and just letting them crawl all over me. Not at all what I thought i was going to be doing coming in to this month, but God taught me so much about His gentleness and love by just being with those kids, and giving them the love they were searching for. Kuka stole my heart, as well as many others.
I also got to do a little bit of rough housing with the boys. I dont think they get too much time with their fathers because of the work they have to do to support the family, but with a little bit of wrestling, they immediately knew who you were and would hang all over you afterwards. God showing love through wrestling? I think so…
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Along with showing the kids here the love of Christ and sharing with them daily who Christ is and what He can do in our lives, God has been speaking to me. Literally. Its something that I wrote on my goals for 2011 list, and once again, it came down to the wire, but God really showed me what it looks like to hear His voice.
A lot of times when someone says they want to hear God's voice, we often make this in to something that is way more complicated than what is intended. A lot of people think that God doesnt speak to us anymore and that we are relay solely on His word for Him to speak to us. And while God does speak to us through Scriptures, He gave the Spirit to us to speak to us. Even today.
When we think about hearing God's voice, I think we expect a very audible voice that is deep and loud and we couldnt miss it if we tried. But a lot of times, I dont think thats how it happens.
First off, in hearing God's voice, we need to remember as fallen man, nothing good comes from us. Nothing. So, when we are going through life and we get a prompting to do something that is "good" or shows love, that IS God speaking to you. All good comes from God and when our actions follow what the Spirit would have us do, the only way we could have done that is through hearing God's voice. This is so important to remember.
Also, I have found it so helpful to acknowledge every time something like this happens in our life. When we acknowledge when we give a word of encouragement or we act in love, we must thank God for speaking to us in those moments. Its important to thank the Spirit for something we cannot do by ourselves.
And I cant give a special formula for hearing Gods voice, but I practiced seeing the Spirit speak to me through my actions, and then thanking Him because they couldnt come from me. And when I did this, I found that God began speaking in my mind more audibly and noticeably. God is still speaking, we just need to know what it looks like to hear Him.
