Acting to Change Unreasonable Things

More recently God has been speaking to me from the precious beatitudes, encouraging me through the words of Matthew 5 verse 9 which reads “blessed are the peace makers for they will all be called children of God.” (NIV) While reading this verse a month ago, I kept on seeing the word change maker in my mind instead of peace maker, so I prayerfully dug deep in to the words found here. I discovered that the Greek word here for peace maker, is a word that means to make or do something, it’s an action, expressed as something tangible and active. While the word for peace, goes back to the holistic Hebrew word “shalom,” which is deeper than just peace, it means wholeness, welfare, prosperity, harmony, complete, and the biblical idea of peace is not the absence of war, as we imagine it to be. In fact, you cannot be a peacemaker without stepping in to conflict at times.....

This is a Challenging and Inspiring Post I wrote over at Lisa van Engens Blog, this week! Click the link to read the rest of the article. 

Acting to Change Unreasonable Things 

The Girl in the Pink Dress

“Both my parents are dead,” she said with her smiling voice, “they died from AIDS.”

“Oh,” the man replied. “That must have been hard for you.”

“It’s okay. I don’t have AIDS.”

The man paused and I listened more intently, wondering where this conversation would go, wondering how the man, an older, experienced psychologist, would respond.

Her hair was shaved, her faded pink dress snug for her adolescent body. Her smile was big and her face held light but she was one of the numerous others just like her, an orphan because of AIDS....

These are the hard stories, the stories we have to tell because they are the truth, orphans, child-headed families and how to bring hope, I'm writing about it over at Off the Page. Join me!

The Girl in the Pink Dress 

Stepping back in to the World

Gates slam, voices scream, and somewhere someone bangs on a metal bar. She lies on the bed staring up at the ceiling, her fingers opening and closing. Her lips press in a heart-shaped pout, and she jerks at times. It could be shock at the deafening screams that make my ears ring, or part of her reaction to the drugs still in her system. Whatever the case, I want her to look up, because I have brought her new clothes. I wonder if she’ll notice or if she’s unmoved because of her innocence. Does despair hold her soul because she’s doing time for someone else’s drug crime? I touch her abdomen gently, and she responds with movement. She shows no hint of despair; that’s the emotion I project in picking her up. This innocent prisoner of nine months, a baby behind metal bars....

There are prisoners we never think of, babies, orphans, broken women serving a prison sentence for defending themselves, and as I began to think about this, I knew I had to find out the truth about their lives. So I vitied a home for female ex-offenders and it was such a blessing, come read about this over at 

Off the Page - Stepping Back in to the World 

 

Maternal Comes Straight From The Greatest Depths Of The Heart

I have learned that God’s heart may be fatherly, but it is also a heart of nurture, passion and compassion. He birthed the world from His mouth and we became His redeemed seed at our birth on the cross. He carries us on His chest and makes us to drink of His life. He always is and always will be hiding us in the shadow of His wings, just like mother birds do. He speaks to us about this brooding that He does, over our lives and He sacrificed so much so that we could be born from His blood.

Though I may not bear a birth of blood and see a new born life emerge, I have come to face the image in the mirror of myself, the one that is maternal. To be restored to Christ, means that I have had a heart transplant, resulting in the desire to nurture and nourish those I am called to serve. I am called to spiritually mother and when I first heard that call, it was unexpected. Yet, as spiritual mothers, we dry the tears of the very men and women looking to us to help them face a fatherless home or absent mom. We help those yearning to overcome abandonment and neglect, drug addiction, abuse and just plain weariness or the pain of a purposeless life. My spiritual mom, for example, was a woman who was penniless, but she shared her home with me when I was coming out of an abusive relationship and she helped me believe in God’s love again. She gave the speech at my wedding and she only added to my life in ways I am eternally grateful for, even though I still have my earthly parents...

This week I am blessed to be sharing my story about being a spiritual mom, over at Imperishable Beauty. I wrote this story 6 months ago, but perhaps someone out there needs to hear it today.... Come and Join me!

Maternal from the Heart 

 

Returning to what was Left Behind

I held the gold key with its thick maroon tassel between my hands. It was my twenty-first birthday and the key was a gift my parents purchased in Spain. A memento from the old city of Grenada, once home to hundreds of Jews until an edict was signed into law by the Catholic kings. The edict demanded that all practicing Jews leave the Spanish territories within four months. Along with the key was a tiny piece of paper retelling the history of a fateful night, March 31, 1492. Mourning Jews left Spain with the keys from their homes in Grenada in their pockets and passed them down from generation to generation in hopes their descendants would one day return to what had been left behind.

The key I held in my hand was a replica, but it was a thoughtful gift. As a child, I longed to visit the Middle East. I had an atlas I read over and over again. It was just a collection of maps, but it represented passage to a land I knew nothing about, a Jewish land of silent deserts and walls that saw generations come and ago. My parents knew this and my pull toward everything Jewish, including the Jewish rabbi named Jesus, whom I already followed like a disciple and had since the age of seventeen. That was how I understood him, as a Jewish rabbi with copper skin, dark hair, a thick beard, and dark eyes.

My heritage was not an interest of mine until I held that key in my hands. A week after my twenty-first birthday, I questioned my paternal grandfather on our heritage. White South Africans typically carry the ancestral blood of Germans, Dutch, French, Portuguese, Italians, and British people, to name but a few. Because our lineages are intricate and hard to trace, I assumed my grandparents did not know our family lineage. But my grandfather emerged with a Hebrew book and a secret his family had kept hidden not only from his grandchildren but also from his children. “We are Jewish..........

I'm sharing my Story over at Off the Page, Join me!

Returning to what was Left Behind 

 

The Door of Return - Writing Elsewhere

The humid air licked at my fringe as I waited beneath the bell tower on the grass of a wine farm in Cape Town, my beloved home town. The air played with the rope that hung from the brass bell and as I looked up, I noticed a plaque to the left of where I stood. It was just a normal day out for me, acting like a tourist in my own city. Yet this bell unnerved me, as I stood waiting for my husband on the lawn. Curiosity gripped me and I walked over to the plaque. It held the words slavery on it and bled with the slave stories of the Cape. Small drawings were etched in to the brass depicting what life had been like for the slaves who lived on this farm. 

 That night I prayed in tears for the broken lives left behind in slavery and for those that still live as modern day slaves through human trafficking and abuse. I heard His words fill the air, I am the Door, I am the Return. These words were truth and though they referred to the beauty of Grace’s redemption I knew they meant something more. A week later someone we knew via social media, invited my husband and I to preach the word of God with her on a mission trip to Ghana.......

The rest of my story evokes deep emotion in me, come and join me over at the 

She is Project, to Read my Story 

 

When my husband folds the undies

I grabbed my art equipment and headed for the door. My hubby stood over the sink, washing dishes. I kissed him, and silently paused just to watch him soaking the soiled plates. The moment was sacred. He was doing the dishes so that I could live a dream and he was happy to do it. So many times, I have walked out the door, on way to a radio interview, or a woman’s meeting and hubby has taken care of the floors or dishes.

 Where I am stronger, I boldly lead. Where he is stronger, he helps, he aids and he settles the fires that can burn out of control especially in ministry. We help one another and boldly place the Messiah as the head of our home. Our testimony and our scars have borne witness to the equality that we have been given as children of God. We never hesitate to love and serve one another, even in our imperfections, of which we have plenty.......

 I'm writing over at Jessica Galan's this week, about the marriage and equality, join me! When my Husband

My Unexpected Journey to Fight Gendercide

In China, a basin of water sits on the table, warm water waiting for another Chinese soul. After the mother gives birth, a baby boy is washed clean in this basin and tears of joy stream down his proud parent’s cheeks. However, it is a regular practice to hold down a baby girl’s tiny form under the basin’s water, her breath swallowed whole by this baptism of death. Her life discarded and unwanted, all because she was born female. This routine killing of baby girls in China is called gendercide, and thirty-four million girls have been killed in the last thirty years....

Please join me over at Off the Page to read about how God called me to the fight against gendercide. This topic is so close to my heart and I really want to share it with you!

My Gendercide Journey

Let Logic or Faith Lead?

 My chest is tight, my palms are sweaty, I can barely hold back my tears. I’m an emotional mess. I’m undone in this place of prayer. I struggle to find the words I need—but I know He knows. Nine months ago, I was given a vision by God to create, steward, and lead. This unraveled into an opportunity to recreate the stories of 13 extraordinary women in a photo essay that would finally culminate in an exhibition in an art gallery in Cape Town, South Africa. God provided faithfully every step—until the provision dried up and I entered the desert.....

I'm writing over at YMI this week about a journey of faith, please join me to read the rest of my story! Let Faith Lead - YMI Today 

 

She Leads Africa Interview

It was a beautiful, profound privilege to be interviewed for She Leads Africa. The questions I was asked brought out the profound passion I understand to be the calling of a writer and the honesty of standing up for gender equality as a religious leader. God really speaks to me when I am asked questions, because those questions take me to the core of honesty and I learn through them. I hope you can glean something from this interview. "Forget Perfection, and embrace what you have to Give.

Read all about what I define as a Storyteller, what do I think makes a good storyteller, and a whole lot more over at She Leads - Interview

You Turn because it's Me, Father

Father. What a special gift to know that we are Loved by Father. Yet, not everyone starts off knowing a father's love and when the wounds of fatherlessness are present, it takes the journey of Perfect Love to heal it. Father, the journey, the reality, the depth and the messages, it's all part of what I have and continue to write. This week I am over by Altarwork, sharing my poem entitled Father. I pray it blesses and speaks to you and maybe you want to send it on to someone who needs to know Father's gate is always open for them to come home!

Altarwork - Father Poem 

Stumbling Beautiful

I'm over at Grace Notes today, writing about how I stumbled in to Beautiful, on a trip some years back, to Venice! This piece is really about finding beauty in the strangest, most unexpected places and how that beauty can touch your heart and leave you refreshed!

Join me over here - Stumbling Upon Beautiful in Venice

Arrivederci!

The Freeing Miracle of Grace - Writing Elsewhere

Shalom Friends

I am so blessed to be part of Anna and Debbies 31 Days of Miracles Series, I would love for you to read my story and be encouraged! We never what God is doing sometimes, but He is always up to something Good!

I knew this man I loved had a tragic past but the stories he would tell me made no sense in my mind, he was a new man, a new creature in our Beloved Saviour. I did not see the stories as part of our lives, I did not even see them as part of Yosef’s life, I only saw God and that was all I needed to know. But in August 2008, the past caught up with us in a very big way.

We were on holiday up the coast when the phone rang. It was a call from a parole officer with a warrant for Yosef’s arrest. Years before, Yosef had been tried for a charge of house breaking and was sentenced to community service but he had run away from his community service conviction and hiked down to Cape Town. In 2004 he had stood before a magistrate and had all his outstanding charges dropped against him, but what he didn’t know was that the community service charge had not been picked up at the time. He would have to be tried again and this time the law was dead against him. He had run away and was now facing a 6-year jail sentence without the offer of parole. The officers had travelled down to Cape Town from up North and his arrest was to made immediately. Our world spun out of control. Yosef was handcuffed, put in to the back of a police van, held in various police cells while they travelled up North and all the while I stayed behind, crying and praying.....

 

Read the Rest of the story Over Here:

Miracle of Grace @Anna's 

Sharing over at Holley's Coffee
And Testimony Tuesday

It's a Girl! Now What?

The Nest is growing over at the family residence! And this week I'm reflecting on my brothers reaction to finding out he is having a girl soon! Enjoy!

When my brother and his wife announced their unexpected pregnancy, my family was shocked. My brother and his now wife have been together for fourteen years, got engaged in January, and married in June. A whole two months later, the couple announced that they were expecting a baby. Timing is a strange thing in their world, and given that they are both almost forty years old, we were rightly shocked. But after the shock wore off, excitement settled in. I immediately felt a strong protectiveness over this new life. I began to think about the sex of the baby and how that might affect the baby's life and experiences.

 

A month later, I received a phone call from my parents, brother, and sister-in-law, all screaming into the telephone, "it's a girl!"

I was convinced that a boy was on the way, and my brother was too. We were both wrong, but I immediately felt awe at the announcement. My brother on the other hand, was somewhat disappointed. He was expecting a boy. 

His fears and doubts about raising a girl became apparent after the announcement. The thought of bringing up a girl was very scary to him....

I'm writing over at my favourite place today, the CBE Scroll! This post is really special and personal to me, so come along and read the rest with me....

It's a Girl, Now What! 

Sharing over at The Grove 

The Child Bride Epidemic!

 

Ukuthwalwa. The stories will break your heart. It's happening every day in rural South Africa. Girls as young as fourteen are being forced to marry men double their age. In some cases, men as old as fifty-five take these virgin girls as their brides. These daughters are abducted and forced to marry a stranger, and then they are raped. Their new "husbands" will not take "no" for an answer. The "brides" are merely legal slaves under this custom.

 This is the reality in some rural South African communities, but all over the world, the epidemic of child brides is growing, fed by the traditions and customs of patriarchy. 

Child brides, there are over 700 million women alive today who were married as children and forced to live a life of "slavery." I am writing about this issue over at CBE this week, please join me and share the article!

Here's the link: The Child Bride Epidemic

Hope and Help for Abused Men - Writing Elsewhere!

 Domestic violence is a major social cruelty within South Africa, while we annually discuss and rally support for the 16 Days of Activism against Gender – Based violence, many forget that domestic violence is a daily, ongoing struggle. As a researcher, I spent years interviewing, questioning, turning over statistics and policies in order to understand the extent and impact of domestic violence. My research opened up painful cruelties in terms of what women suffer at the hands of the men who claim to love them and yet another face of domestic violence suddenly began to form before my eyes.
While domestic violence has always focussed on advocating women’s rights in terms of abuse, our society has in recent years, seen a rapid increase in domestic violence against men. Worldwide statistics indicate that as many as one in three victims of abuse, are in fact males and the stigma attached to this reality prevents many men from speaking out.

We need to help our brothers, provide a safe environment for them to share their pain and we need to realise, husband abuse is on the rise....

Please join me for the rest of the article, over here Abused Men

China Ends its One - Child Policy

Last year I took on a writing position to bring more amazing content to a local online Magazine here where we live! I am really enjoying bringing more content to this platform. Today, they published a short article I wrote on China and its One Child Policy. This is an issue so close to my heart and I just want to tell everyone about it! Please give the article a read! 

China and its One Child Policy

Guest Post - Why the End of China's One Child Policy Matters to Me

Hi Everyone!

I am writing over at Christian for Biblical Equality again, this week. I have written a heartfelt article on why The End of China's One Child Policy, Matters to Me. Please go and take a read!

Here's the intro and the link! Have a fab Day!

My husband and I were sitting in a restaurant waiting for our food. A young couple sat down at the table just in front of us.

“So,” my husband began, “I know you told me not to tell you about all the news stories I’ve read today, but I read something interesting you need to know about.”

“Uh–huh.”

“China has ended its one-child policy.”

The waiter arrived and placed our food on the table, but I could barely see my meal. I was dumbstruck by the news my husband had shared. I thought back to the years of prayers on the issue of gendercide in China. I recalled the group of women who gathered on International Women’s Day last year to discuss the plight of Chinese women and girls.

Thirty-seven million girls have been lost.....

 

To Read the Rest click the Link!

 

 China's One Child Policy