We arrived safely in South Africa almost a week ago. A ride met us at the airport to take us to the hostel we’d be staying at for a few days. Beyond that, we didn’t have a plan. i trusted we’d be given the information we needed to move forward when we needed it. But at that moment, i really wanted, as anyone leading a group of 52 people would, to have a plan of where we’re going, and how we’re getting there.
Instead, the time at the hostel led us into a situation of finding our own ride to a town called Nelspruit, and then eventually into Mozambique where we’d spend the month doing ministry. Within a few days, we were able to arrange transportation and get to Nelspruit to a Guest House for missionaries, the Betor House, where we’re currently resting.
When we got here, we weren’t sure what ministries we’d be partnering with. We weren’t sure how long we’d be staying at this guest house, and we weren’t sure how to make the next move. And usually we have a plan months in advance, it was a hard position for Jen, Tonya and I to begin leading a squad in.
Last month, in Malaysia, a girl named Getzie wrote me a note. It was a Post It that had written on it…”Dave, Exodus 33:14 Love, Getzie.” Getzie was the daughter of our contact, a man named Peter who blessed our team so much. That passage, if you haven’t already looked it up says, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” It’s Moses being told by the Lord that his job as a leader was to find delight at the feet of his God, and that God would fight for him. God would lead him where he should lead. God would provide the next step for the Israelites and Moses didn’t need to carry the weight of the responsibility placed on his shoulders – that instead, YHWH’s burden is easy and his yoke is light – if that’s the only yoke we’re carrying.
So, without a plan, without a way of really making a plan, we rested at this house. Our first morning here, a woman named Lynne (a safari guide by trade) came over to help us, and I’ve given her the nickname “redemption.” She came into our confusion and mess and made phone calls and organized the future ministries for our squad. God brought the perfect woman into our lives at the perfect time to lead us exactly where he needed us to go.
The problem, at that point, was in how to get to the locations with these missionaries. The only bus we could find would cost some of our team $350 of a monthly $500 budget to get to the places they needed to be. Surely God would provide us a better solution…a cheaper bus. Surely Lynne had a friend with a bus who would volunteer to give us a ride, right? We prayed that something like that would happen…
Jessica came and prayed over Jen, Tonya and I. She prayed that we would take time to rest, and gave us practical ways to lead the squad to a deeper level spiritually. She prophesied over the squad and gave us very clear and specific words for our team…areas of struggle, areas where we need to grow, areas of strength we need to defend, and then some encouraging words. God still speaks. I hadn’t listened for him to speak much before this race, but when I do now, He speaks clearly, quickly, and profoundly…
She made it very clear to us that God had led us here to rest. God had turned a hard situation where we felt like we were doing everything we could to clean up the mess we had been placed in, a mess that was not of our own doing, and we couldn’t understand why He had left us in it…as He hoped we’d see the blessing he was giving us through it.
And our squad does, after all this silliness, recognize that sometimes missions trips are about waiting. God’s desire is that we bless His heart…not that we stay busy. God needed the 52 of us to bond in ways that we wouldn’t have if we had split into ministries. God needed us to heal relationships and our own hearts before we went to introduce others to His heart. So we’ve waited. There is no new bus. We will pay the $350…but we’re piling our transportation costs and living like the church of Acts 2, where everyone shares what they have in common…including financial burdens.
Oh, one last thing that happened in the middle of the day the Lord brought the two women into my life…he had Di come up to me. At about 9:45pm, in the middle of worship, she came up to me and asked me to baptize her. In a bathtub in the biggest bathroom of the guest house, we crammed 52 sets of eyes to watch her show her devotion to our Lord through the sacrament of baptism. And God taught me it’s okay to stand in awe of Him, and wait for him to lead my next step in his timing…
