The last week of ministry was just as powerful as the first week. We witnessed to more people, lead more people to Christ, prayed for and saw more healings, and built relationships with so many new people. We had been doing ministry in a community called “Diepsloot” and this week we moved to a community called “Plot 89.” Plot 89 is a much smaller community than Diepsloot, but we quickly discovered that many people in Plot 89 needed to hear the good news. After the first morning of ministry, we had met many people who were “Old Testament Christians.” They weren’t Jewish, but they loved mostly by the Old Testament and had little understand of grace. They believe that Jesus saves us, but we still have to abide by the laws of the Old Testament and do good works to get to heaven. These people are not to be confused with Calvinist denominations, who believe in predestination. It was very challenging to reach the people and explain to them the concept of grace. They were mostly convinced that if you believe in mercy and grace, you would never make it heaven. They’re were many challenging conversations that happened in the span of the last week, but many were still lead through the Holy Spirit to an understanding of the concepts of mercy and grace, even if they weren’t entirely sure if that’s what they wanted to believe.
On the first day in Plot 89, ministry was not going as well as my small group wanted it to be going. And by small group, I mean small. It was just my leader (Katie) and I with someone to translate. On the afternoon of the first day there, Katie felt the Holy Spirit leading her and I to do a prayer walk throughout the community. So after lunch, Katie, Amanda, and I went on a prayer walk, laying a blanket of prayer over all of those living in the community. We walked up and down almost every street of the community, eventually finding shade under a tree. Across the road was a small house that was in the line of sight for each of us. As we continued to pray that afternoon, we found ourselves often transfixed on that house. We were praying for the community, but our eyes were glued to that one house right across the street. About 45 minutes after sitting in the shade and praying for God’s presence to be known in the community, a woman was dropped off right next to us, under the tree. Her name was Hazel. She introduced herself and asked us what we were doing there. We told her that we were with Impact Africa and were just praying for the community and that their eyes would be opened to the ever present God. She invited us to continue to talk to her and continue praying in her home. Hazel lived in the house that we had all been staring at since we sat down in the shade. Hazel was watching her grandchild at the time while the little one’s mom was at work. We went into her house and continued to pray with her. She went to school and earned a degree in biblical theology. She was truly a woman of God and it was evident in the way she carried herself. She was completely dependent on the Lord for all of her needs and knew that her life was in His hands. It was clear that she was a woman of strong faith. She taught me and showed me what it looks like to have a healthy balance between being independent and also being dependent on the Lord. We spent some really good time with Hazel before leaving her house. She prayed for us and we prayed for her. We taught her a little bit, but she honestly did most of teaching. It was an eye opening interaction and lead me to begin questioning my own dependence on the Lord. Below is a picture of Amanda, Katie, and I with Hazel and her grandson.
Later in the week, I had the chance to apply what I learned from Hazel. On Thursday when we were walking through plot 89, there was one home that stood alone on the other side of the road. My group felt the Holy Spirit leading us to that home. There we met a 19 year old man named Rinae. Conversation with Rinae was difficult because we he spoke very little English and our translater didn’t know Rinae’s language super well. When we asked him if he knew about Jesus, he said yes. Through further questions and conversations we realized that he did not know Christ and did not have a relationship with Him. I wanted to speak with him and share about Jesus, but I was still scared. Eventually, when it became time to share the gospel with him, the translated looked at me and asked me to share with him. I was terrified. I knew I couldn’t do it on my own and that I would need to depend on the Lord. I quickly prayed that He would give me the words to speak to Rinae. I began to share the gospel with him and he had many questions. He wanted to know things like how the trinity works, what happens when we die, how do you make difficult changes in life, what does prayer look like, and why bad things happen. They were all deep questions that through the Lord, I was able to not only answer his questions, but clearly explain to him what Christianity is. After reading through the book of Jonah and diving deep into the meaning of the gospel, Rinae wanted to ask Christ into his life and purse a relationship with the Lord. I got to lead him in prayer to accept Jesus into his heart and live a life according to the gospel. It was very moving and in that moment I realized how important it was to be dependent on the Lord. In a stage of life where I have been so focused on being independent, my eyes were opened to the fact that I need to give up my independence and learn to depend on the Lord. Without my encounter with Hazel and then my encounter with Rinae, I probably would’ve continued to cling to my pride and independence, even when I knew I needed the Lord. Here is a picture of Rinae and I reading the book of Jonah.
