The Lord brought our whole team to a place of needing more of Him guiding us and not so much a preplanned agenda. Having contacts and ministries set up before we arrive has been awesome and a good steward of time and resources, as we’ve been able to jump right in at about every place we’ve been so far. However, our team feels like the Lord is calling us to step out in trusting Him in a new way- taking a risk of not having things all planned out so that the Holy Spirit can guide us each step of the way. So, please be praying for us over these next 6 weeks in Africa as we spend more time listening than planning, praying than maybe doing.
I was super excited about this new and fresh path, confident in my heart it was from the Lord! As I started praying and seeking the Lord, however, I found the stress and frustrations surprisingly winning out over the peace in my heart – stressed to have some sort of plan or direction (“Lord, at least give us a country or direction of N,S,E or W!”), and frustrated that I wasn’t hearing more clearly!
We’d had the opportunity presented to our team of going down to Cape Town with Tom and Cindy Sipling to spend time really in prayer and quiet before the Lord, waiting for him to direct us. Tom had come up to training for just 3 days and a few of had really connected with him and had great conversations about what the Lord is doing in our lives right now. He and his wife were in youth ministry in the states for about 30 years when they felt the Lord calling them to sell everything they had and move to S.Africa, which they obeyed and have been here now for a few months. They, like us, are learning it’s not about your title, what you’ve accomplished and done for the Lord, your identity in the Christian realm, worldly securities…it’s all about obedience, loving the next person, and loving Jesus. As a team we came together and prayed, and all 6 felt like this was a step we were to take. We left the following morning with a free ride all the way to Jeffery’s Bay!
Along that ride, things didn’t happen exactly as we’d planned…which I have a feeling will be a lot of this next 6 wks (yes, and of life). Anyway, our vehicle broke down a total of 3 times with 3 different problems…but each time the Lord protected us and the problems were fixed. This all opened up the opportunity for us to unexpectedly stay at Alabanza (located in the capitol of Pretoria) for 3 days- a Christian place of refuge for missionaries, a place where all there live in community (sharing everything), and a place for equipping and debriefing groups that come in (where we spent time when we first arrived in Africa). We found out later that they’d been praying we’d have more time to spend relaxing there and fellowshipping with them. It was a sweet time- we stayed in a cabin and got to just hang out with the community of believers there.
Albert (S. African AIM staff) had us leave at 2 AM on the 19th to head south- craziness! S. African’s like road trips in the middle of the night! We stayed in Jeffery’s Bay for a day and got to hang out with Anna Marie- amazing women of God who the Lord had given the vision of The World Race to…people told her she was crazy and it would never work, but here we are today and it was obviously of the Lord!! One of the most amazing parts of this year is getting to meet AWESOME men and women of God around the world!! She really poured life and truth in to our team, the Lord also used her to shock us with how He orchestrates everything! I’m gonna leave you in some suspense- more of this to come as things unfold!!! 🙂
Team ZEO rented cars for the breathtakingly gorgeous drive to Cape Town (Gordon’s Bay) to stay with Tom and Cindy. They welcomed us in to their homes with open arms last night, and here we are today- to pray, listen, sit at His feet, ask what He is doing, and love the next person He brings across our path. This is an exciting and challenging journey to be on…and I am so thrilled to get to share it with you as the Lord continues to unfold truths about Himself, as well as where He is moving and has our team be a part of it.
WHOEVER SAID THE CHRISTIAN LIFE WAS BORING HAD NEVER REALLY TASTED WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT!!!
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Mozambique sunset |
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