We have nine days left on this continent. Nine. I can barely comprehend what that entails. This week is PVT and then we have a two-to three day leadership debrief and then we will be flying to Thailand. Every time I sit down and think about our next country my heartbeat picks up. South Africa has been a lot- a lot of change, intensity, memories, & spiritual warfare and I cannot wait to go to Asia! I feel like every night I dream about the markets, the culture, and the new ministry opportunities. All that being said, nine days isn’t that much time to try and process all that God has been doing here in my heart and my reality. I feel like God dropped an atomic bomb on my preconceived gift sets, my “religious attitude”, my pride, my team, and my future. I feel like everything that I used to know about my present and future has shifted, sharpened, or just generally disintegrated.
The first month that we were here in South Africa I started doing evangelism with Impact Africa. Everyday we went out and did door to door evangelism in the slum communities that surround Johannesburg. Over the course of our time here we have seen dozens of supernatural healings, hundreds of salvations, and prophetic words come to fruition. I have learned a lot about what it means to not be selfish with knowledge, to study the Bible and other spiritual development books with not only my own growth in mind but my communities. I have seen the impact that a kind word can have on a person, how much a hug or a piggy back ride truly means to a small child. I know what its like to stand in front of hundreds of students day after day and give testimony to what God has done through the Word and through the skits that our team performs. I’ve watched my team grow in intimacy with each other and God through our months here. We have all stepped out in more boldness and vulnerability than ever before. I now know what its like to hold sobbing mothers whose husbands abuse them. I know what it feels like to pray with mothers who are pregnant with aids or HIV. I understand more of God’s heart and how he breaks for these communities and his people than ever before. There has been so much to learn and comprehend in my tangible world that it’s hard to even articulate what God has been doing in my spirit since we arrived here.
When I arrived in South Africa I was coasting on a spiritual high of new revelation. God spoke to me about my future while in Costa Rica, giving me a more clear understanding of what ministry I need to pursue. While in Costa Rica I learned through prayer, study, and worship that God is ultimately leading me to Turkey and Albania for missions. I don’t have a timetable for that but I trust God’s timing completely. It could be in two years, four, or twenty. When I arrived in South Africa I was learning a lot about my spiritual armor; what it looked like for me, how to use it, and how the eternal ramifications of that protection effects me. My first few weeks of praying on my spiritual armor every day was a necessary and intentional act. Evangelism was difficult and the Sangomas, witch doctors, were a consistent pressure on our ministry. Praying on my spiritual armor cleared my mind of distraction, filled me with peace, and protected my heart with scriptural truth during difficult ministry moments. As time passed God began to develop my heart even more. He claimed me as His daughter during our sweet times of prayer, led me into solitude and silence consistently to rest in him, and restored my understanding of my purity. The Lord taught me every day what it meant to learn from him like a child and be quiet in his presence so I could hear him speak. I was able to walk intimately with him and understand more of what complete dependence on Christ looked like as we rarely had wifi to talk to our families and were constrained to our compound every day because of our dangerous location. Overall, God guided me, grew me, and protected me in South Africa. He walked with our team through grieving our teammate Katie returning home and he showed us how to become more unified. Katie will always be apart of Salt & Light, we love her intensely and that will never change. Our team has just had to learn what it means to battle on behalf of a teammate through distance with prayer. Katie’s decision took incredible strength and God is completely in her journey of transformation at home. South Africa has been a blessing in more ways than I could ever communicate but as I and my team prepare for our cultural and ministerial change please keep us in your prayers and in your thoughts.
God, thank you for the experiences you gave me in South Africa. Thank you for the lessons you taught me through scriptures in the books of Jeremiah, Isaiah, and the New Testament. Lord, be with my team as we enter our time in Thailand. You gave me the word “freedom” for our season in Thailand and I ask that you would develop that word in every possible way through ministry, prayer and our personal lives. Help my team to be unified and driven in the last three months and show us how to love deeper than ever before. Amen.
