This month my team and I are living with “Ma and Pa” in their home in Elsiesrivier, South Africa just outside of Cape Town. Ma and Pa have been an incredible example of people who embrace community, give generously and live dependently on God. Their house has a revolving door that is beautiful and also stretching to my more introverted nature! There are family, friends and children constantly in and around the house. People drop in to visit at all times during the day and some even stay the night. The children in the neighborhood will come here to get a meal when they do not have one at home. On Fridays Ma and Pa prepare a HUGE pot of soup and at 3pm people from the community line up for a bowl. The amazing thing is that Ma and Pa do not have a lot of money themselves. Every week they depend on God to provide the funds for Friday’s food distribution…sometimes not sure where the money will come from up to the day before it needs to be prepared. And God always provides.
Ma and Pa are respected in this community and they are substitute parents and mentors to many of the children. I also have had some opportunities to play a mentoring role with a few of the teenage girls which has been a privilege and one of my favorite parts of the ministry here. I get to encourage them in different ways depending on whether they are struggling with behavior at home, safety in the community, or needing to know that they have a heavenly father that loves them when their earthly father is not present.
We also embrace community by going to Ma and Pa’s neighbors’ homes to pray for them as they have need. We have prayed over three neighbors so far. Two of the women are married to husbands who are not believers and one woman just lost her mother to cancer. In addition to prayer we have read scripture and sang over the women. Being in prayer so constantly around Ma and Pa’s house and around the neighborhood has been sweet this month. It is especially sweet to pray for other’s needs when you have needs of your own. It is refreshing and rejuvenating for me to pour into someone else when it is so easy to be caught up in myself. I’m learning that the best “medicine” for when I’m struggling personally is to find a way to serve or pour into someone else…it brings perspective, humility and greater love for others.
So the challenge is…how can you step outside of yourself and pour into someone else today? It will bless you as well :0)
Love and thanks to you all!
