IN THE GARDEN
On January 2, my team and I were stamped into Lesotho. We were excitedly beginning a new month in in Africa and Lesotho was our first location. We went through the immigration process and it felt like a breeze! One of my teammates is from Germany and was nervous about getting stamped in, but she went through amazingly! We compared her amount of days with mine to see if it was the same and realized that we both had been stamped in for only 11 days in Lesotho. We soon found out that it was all of us, except for one person in our team of 8. We contacted our AIM base back in the US and continued on to our host location in Mokhotlong, Lesotho.
Mokhotlong was BEAUTIFUL! I was amazed and in love with it. The people were amazing as well. They welcomed us with open arms and a delicious meal the first night. We told them about our visa issue and they thought it would not be a problem, but an easy fix. So, we were excited about that and continued on with our week there. But a day or two later we found out that we would not be staying in Lesotho, but journeying on to South Africa. My heart was so sad upon hearing this news because I loved the people in Mokhotlong and desired to build a relationship with them. They were saddened too, but they are KINGDOM FOCUSED! Their first response was that this was God inspired and God ordained. They were excited to see what God had for us, and why we were there only 11 days.
My team and I desired to make the most of the time we had in Lesotho. We lived simply there, running water was not consistent for us. We had it for part of a day and the rest of the time we filled water jugs daily. We had bucket showers and hand washed our laundry. So far, we have done that for a month and a half. It is crazy how normal it feels to wash clothes by hand now. We did not have WIFI, but had to go down to an internet café to pay for an amount of time we wanted to be on it. I loved it. It was inconvenient for our standard back home, but it is refreshing to know we do not need it to survive every moment! It gives room and less distraction to spend time with the LORD and grow in Him, and to spend time with the community I am living in.
During the week, we went to a hospital every morning to lead a devotional and pray for people in the waiting room. One morning I was able to lead the devotional and that was the first time I led something like this in front of people! It was an awesome experience and freeing. One of the lies satan had over me for years is that I did not have a voice and that what I had to say made no sense or I did not have a clue about what I was talking about. BUT GOD is SO GOOD and kind and loving that earlier last year He showed me that I was free from that bondage, that it was a lie and that He gave me a voice for His Kingdom. That He will use me to speak to His children. So, on that morning it was a sweet victory, a sweet freedom to walk in and to come out on the other side. Once we embrace that we are free, that what the enemy wants us to believe that we are enslaved to does not actually have dominion over us, man we can DO ANYTHING THROUGH CHRIST WHO GIVES US THAT FREEDOM, WHO GIVES US THAT STRENGTH.
After the devotional many people came up to us and asked for us to pray for their illness or pain to be gone in Jesus name. I was in awe of the faith they had. Most of them went every day, waiting in the waiting room, hoping to be seen that day. But they took a step of faith and believed that if they asked for prayer that they would be healed. I wish that I could say that this is my first instinct when I am sick or a family member is, but I rely more on medicine than the possibility that if I believe, GOD is faithful to heal. He is a GOOD, GOOD Father and in His word, Jesus says that if we would are evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will your Father who is in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him! (Mathew 7:7-11) If we truly believe this and seek this, how faithful He is to His word to us! We saw people healed of their illnesses by their faith and taking that step to trust. I walked away inspired and desiring to grow in this area.
Also, during our time in Mokhotlong we went to a prison where we led worship and gave a word. It was a beautiful place to be and I loved seeing the men there worshiping God behind prison walls. Most of them stole livestock or something for their families. The pastor that we worked with that day believed that the whole town could be transformed by these men that were behind those prison walls. He goes faithfully every week to build relationship with them, guide them, and love on them. His vision is that when they leave the prison that they will transform their families. He is trying to start programs at the prison that will help the men when they leave get started off on the right foot.
The other project we helped with was weeding and planting in a garden! I enjoyed this; it was a beautiful few days in the garden. I think you can learn many things in a garden. Your mind can wander, and think about all kinds of things. My mind went to the love of the Father and creation. In the beginning, He created man in the garden to work it, keep it and enjoy it. In each of us, all over the world, there is a desire and for some, a necessity to work in a garden. If not work in one, to enjoy one. It is hard not to look at nature and not see the beauty of it. God created it for us!
In the garden of Eden, the ground was not hard, nor did it have thorns or thistles (Genesis 3:17). It was pleasurable to abide in. The garden that we worked in, had a ton of thorns and we did not have gloves to protect our hands so it was a process, but a beautiful one! We were experiencing the effect of sin entering our world in that garden. AH, there is so much of God in a garden. I love flowers, (if you do not know)and nature captures my heart in so many levels so when I can see God and his beauty in it, it just amazes me and melts my heart. He created the garden for us to abide in, work in, and take pleasure in, but He also created it for us to abide and walk with Him, to commune with Him daily. Sin entered this world and created a divide in that beautiful garden. It made it were we could not enjoy the beauty of Eden, to walk with our Father, fully confident of who we are in Him. Adam and Eve walked with God naked and unashamed because in that garden there was no doubt, they were fully His and He theirs. Eden is the garden of our hearts being in perfect harmony with God. So sin entered into our hearts and it created a ton of thorny weeds that inhibit us from fully enjoying that intimate walk with God. BUT GOD rich in His love for us, gave us the Holy Spirit who is the gardener of our hearts. He desires for us to walk in harmony with the Lord. To have relationship with our Father, as it was intended from the beginning.
So, as I was weeding the garden the first day, the soil was easy to loosen the weeds and it took patience to find the root so that the thorns would not prick you. I see the Holy Spirit working with us patiently, guiding us to find the root of things that inhibit our relationship. The second time we weeded, the ground was harder. With that the roots where harder to pull and the thorns were able to prick us more. But with patience, they were pulled and we were allowed to planted some small seedlings that will grow into plants that produce fruit. The is the same that the Holy Spirit does in us, with us. He helps remove the big stuff, the obvious things, but then He goes to a place in our hearts that is a little harder to weed. Part of us wants to hold onto it because it may be familiar, comfortable and we think we would not know how to be without it. It may be areas that we didn’t even realize had such a tight hold on us. One area for me that He has been showing me this month is pleasing man versus pleasing God. These past few years I thought I had grown out of this and comfortable in who I am in Him, but He showed me an area that I still struggled with this thought! It was a little tough to pull, but when it was pulled, He planted a little seedling there, and it is growing in my identity in Him, my desire to please and serve Him. He is producing a fruit! When the Holy Spirit digs up a root, He does not leave that ground barren in our hearts, but He replaces it with a fruit of the Spirit, a sweet, smelling fruit of our LORD. And as we allow Him to prune our hearts, it opens a path in our hearts to commune with Our Heavenly Father, to walk in a garden with Him again. AND OH, HOW HE LOVES THE GARDEN OF YOUR HEART! He delights in it, the beautiful mess that it is, and He is excited when you want to garden with Him.
All of that from a little bit of weeding! Our time in Lesotho was short, but sweet and our hosts gave us a farewell cookout and it was delicious. We set off on the 12th of January, a Sunday morning, and made our way to a place called Heidelberg, South Africa. It is near Cape Town! We arrived excited to see what God has in store for us here and were exciting to pour out, but instead we had been poured into, blessed beyond measure, and refreshed. Hospitality here is kingdom focused and loving. So many lessons to learn. So far, we have cleaned the school here, and have been given lessons to listen to, from the Bible College here. The students started on Monday and we have been invited to listen to the guest speakers. Later this week we will be helping with some preschools, and then we will be off to a debrief with our Squad and we will be getting new teams. I have loved being with my team, but I am excited to see what God has in store for this next Season.
Photos of Lesotho: Lesotho
I am still in the fundraising game! I have 1,500 go until I am fully funded. I am believing and trusting God with His timing on when it will come in. He has led me here to where I am and He will bring it in His time. I am also praying that my house will sell soon. He is faithful and I know that this is something that He will bring to a close soon; He has given me this course to run and will provide every need along the way!
I also have a very dear prayer request for my followers. Last spring, my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer. We hoped that after she went through treatments that it would be all gone, and in July she would have been on a road to recovery, but there were more spots that came up in her PET scan so she has been going through the process of seeing if it is cancerous or not. The most recent was a lung biopsy and as they were doing it her lung collapsed causing her to stay a few days in the hospital and through they found a bacterial blood infection. It was a blessing in disguise that the lung collapsed so they could catch the blood infection. She has been through a lot this past year and this year is starting off rough for her. I would love to ask you to join in praying for her physical healing to be fully restored, but also for her to continue to fill the presence of the Lord during this time. She is dearly loved and it is hard being away from her during this time, but I know she is in God’s hand and that she is His dearly loved daughter. And pray for my mom and her siblings as they walk with her through this time! I Love you Grandma!!
