She Lifted Me - FMF

Another round of Five Minute Friday, this weeks Prompt - Lift! Go.


This week has been amazing, tied together with its ups and downs! Tuesday was the book launch celebration and for me, it was the Wonderful Presence of Yeshua touching peoples hearts and lives, that really mattered. It was also the amazing openness of hearts, love shared and stories told, words received and given, that blessed and warmed my heart. I am loving this journey, thank You Father for gracing me with this seed to steward, I am so in awe. The week was also not without challenge, still we believe for miracles, but settled within because we know that Father is our Source. HalleluYah!

This evening as my heart dipped in to sadness, a sadness that only Father understood, the phone rang and a dear friend called to say hi. She never calls, in fact months can go by without a sound, but we will always be there, always friends. She was at the book launch celebration, and on the phone she shared with me how God had touched her life. I knew in my heart (without hearing it from her) that she has been in a hard place and to hear how refreshed she was by the Holy Spirit and how directly Father had spoken to her at the celebration, it lifted my spirits. As much as she wanted to say "praise God and thank you friend," her words lifted me. I also received a picture from another friend who had to rush his wife to hospital this week, unexpectedly. Along with his message was a picture of his wife holding "Yehudit," he told me that she was admitted to hospital, put on some very heavy medicine but she kept on asking him to bring Yehudit down to keep him compant. I wept when I received the picture, this is exactly what I wanted for this book, this message. I am in awe, and together I am tied to these precious friends through our current challenges and griefs, tied by a simple truth, Yeshua's amazing Love in the gift of a story....

STOP!
Linking with FMF This Week

 

The Power of a Story

I love radio. Okay, I confess my love for it only began when my husband and I started our own broadcast about 3 months ago. I was scared stiff, I remember freezing. Mind going blank, nothing. Me thinking you can't mess up on radio then everyone will hear you! Me thinking these people know I'm blank, bummer. But none of it was true, it started out as a learning experience and has simply become something we enjoy. What is really special is that hubby and I do it together, we interact, converse, share, smile at each other during the broadcast (no one can hear that) or generally wink or thumbs up and share tears (sometimes people can hear that!) And what's even more special, is the power of God that we feel during that one hour broadcast. Sometimes Father's presence is so tangible that I do cry, and sometimes I feel His incredible love for the people listening. What's also nice is that we stream using software that allows people to send us prayer requests during the show, now that's sweet. In the world of faceless people that is the cyber world, we get to know peoples names and their stories by sharing our hearts with them on radio. Sometimes these same people email us and they usually start by saying "you don't know me..." Are you kidding, we know you, we know your kids (you sent us that prayer request), we know your struggles at present (you sent that too) and we even know what we think you look like (although we may be wrong on this account). We know you. But more importantly Yeshua our Messiah, He knows you. When people reach out for prayer, it's aways a blessing because to reach out for prayer is courageous. 

I know there are so many times when I reach out for prayer to the people I trust. Let's face it, we need it all of us and I don't forget the precious souls of people who have reached out to me for prayer, across copper cables and satelites, what a privilege. The amazing thing is that, Father is super smart because I've had to be on radio in our city a few times now that my book is out. Usually the DJ tells me "don't be nervous, you gonna be fine, most people don't like radio." I smile, "I'm not nervous, let's start already!" I love radio. The thing I have stared to love most about radio is the Love I feel when I am on it. The Love for the people straining to hear on the other side. The Love for the people who are hearing the message of God, the message HE has trusted me to steward faithfully. I feel God's Love when I am sharing on radio, it's in the air and I get lost in it, wow, isn't our Messiah so good. To bring something beautiful my way and to wander with me in, in love. Thank You Papa.

This passed weekend, I did a film shoot. An amazing blessing that was in my heart for a year and a half and now a reality. This year I have been asked why I want to share stories, why they matter to me and the best way I could answer this, was via a short conversation with you. I would love to share this 5 minute video with you and I pray you will hear the message and be empowered. If not, listen anyway because a South African accent is rare and it's pretty sweet, go on! Oh and, film? Mmmmm, I'm not so keen on...... 

The Power of a Story - By Me!

 

Happy Women's Day South Africa!

I couldn't imagine a world where the 9th of August didn't exist as National Women's Day. Sure, it's only South Africa with its rich history of female shakers who celebrate today as Women's Day, but it's a day where we should pause and reflect on what we are giving to the generations to come. Many women went before us so that we may have what we have today, and I wonder, what will the generations of women who come after us ave as a result of what we sow today. What we sow is special, what we give by the Grace of Yeshua (Jesus) is something that will last. 

Meeting Sophia De Bruyn one of the leaders of the iconic women's march of 1956, was a blessing of significance to my life. I am blessed to share her story over at Essays of Africa, this Women's day! Enjoy!

Join me over at Essays to read my words and Sophia's:

 
At the Heart of Women's Day 

A Story of Birth, S-Cape Home

Over the next few weeks, I will be featuring stories from amazing individuals who are doing wonderful things for others. Their stories are stories of mudslides, hope, birth, witnessing a need and responding to it and their stories are part of what it means to be human. Some of these individuals have started organisations or they work in or with organisations who are setting the captives free! As a writer, I want to be the change I want to see and as much as I sometimes want to go and be that difference, I know I can be that difference right here.... by sharing the passionate stories of others. Today's guest is Miryam from S-Cape Home, a safe house for victims and survivors of human trafficking in South Africa. 

Miryam’s Story, Birthing

 Spring…

I am from Switzerland and I just love my country. I grew up in Switzerland, went to school in Switzerland and I thought that Switzerland would be my home for life, but as I started to grow in my walk with God, He started to give me an “out of the box” perspective on things. It started one afternoon. I was out walking in the mountains and marvelling at the beautiful lakes, the fields and the Alps in the distance. I was worshipping God for His creation when all of a sudden I had a deep sense that I was not going to stay in Switzerland. I was called outside of Switzerland and inside I felt sad but in those moments God told me that I would always have Switzerland. It would always be my home and I would always be able to go back home, God reassured me that He would never take that away from me and I decided whatever the cost, I would trust Him. As a young girl growing up I feared believing in Christ because I had this idea that God would make me a missionary in Africa and I did not want to go to Africa. The enemy does not know what God has in store for our lives but he recognises things in us, something about our calling and he causes us to fear the very things that God has in store for us. After that day in the field, I can’t recall all the details of my life and how they unfolded but I eventually signed up for D.T.S (discipleship training) and went on a mission trip to South Africa. It was in South Africa (the Africa I had feared) where God showed me that He had put all the gifts inside of me to be a missionary and these gifts are specific.

So I returned to Switzerland and was working two jobs and getting paid for them, when God opened another door for me to return to South Africa. I must add that, another place I did not want to visit as a missionary was India. I just did not want to go to India but God took me there for a few months and in India I met my husband and now India is a part of my heritage! Eventually though I left my two jobs and I returned to South Africa, I got married to my husband and we settled in Cape Town. Our hearts desire was to have children but it didn’t happen straight away even though I felt that we should continue to trust God for a child because God had promised me that I would get married and have children.
At the same time when I was challenging God on His promise, He laid on my heart the vision for a human trafficking safe house. At one point the vision was so big, I had sleepless nights.

I could see the complexities of running a safe house and I thought, how can I do this, the vision God is giving me is so big it is not going to be possible to have a family and run a safe house! Again, God told me to trust Him, so I trusted Him for the safe house and for a child. 

Summer…….

A big part of my testimony lies here. I was an epileptic for ten years and was on epileptic medication. I did not grow up with epilepsy, it came later through bad spiritual things that I did. I had prayer for deliverance and I was delivered from these spiritual bondages but God told me that I needed to keep taking my medication and that He would heal me in the right time. So I continued taking the medicine. One morning I woke up and suddenly something said to me read the leaflet in the medication, I had never read the leaflet before but when I did it said “not suitable for pregnant women.” Immediately I heard God say “Stop now!” I was like “what do you mean?” but I stopped because God told me to and a few days later I found out that I was pregnant. When I visited my gynaecologist I told him that I am no longer taking the medication, he told me that we could see how I progress without it and that I could possibly start it again once my child was born. But throughout my pregnancy God kept on telling that that He was healing me. He also told me that I was going to have a son and that I needed to name him Raphael, which means God has healed and today I am totally healed! Hallelujah.

Right before I fell pregnant, we began praying for a building for human trafficking victims and survivors and while we were praying one day I received a prophetic word that I would be a mother in the natural and in this ministry. God kept on telling me that the birth of the ministry for this safe house would take place in the natural and in the spiritual, at the same time. So throughout my pregnancy I was on a journey to have my son, as well as to birth forth the safe house ministry as well. My husband and I had waited so many years to have children but the truth is that my natural pregnancy and birth was ordained by God to coincide with the birth of the safe house. That was the plan! Before this we had tried in vain to have children and we had tried in vain to get a house for the safe house but nothing worked. Then God led me to a specific area and to a specific house, I knew immediately in my heart that it had to be in that place and in that house. So I arranged with the owner of the house, who travelled and lived overseas, to meet with me so I could sign a lease agreement for the safe house. Our meeting was set up and we were due to meet early in the morning but at midnight just a few hours before our meeting, I went into labour. But I waited through my contractions until 8am because I knew I had to sign those papers on that day. It was dramatic! I contacted the owner and asked him to come earlier, but he got lost. I was literally in the car, so far in labour already, when he pulled up and I signed the papers then and there on the bonnet of the car and then we drove off and I gave birth to my son. It was amazing how God gave me the opportunity to witness 2 births on the exact same day. I had a sense that it would be around the same time but not on the same day. 

Autumn quickly moved to winter

The lease was signed and the first safe house location was born. I worked with various other organisations like Justice Acts and up until this point all the funding for human trafficking went to prevention. With the birth of the safe house, the funding then moved to victim assistance, which is where my heart is invested. At one point we were so full we had 5 residents in the house and we needed more space. Then suddenly, the ministry that owned the building put it up for sale but we continued to trust God even when a witchdoctor moved in downstairs and set up his office. We heard him chanting but we continued to meet in prayer and fasting. Sadly, we did not reach the target to buy the building and it got sold. It was really a hard time, we had nowhere to go and 3 residents still left with nowhere for them to go. It was July 2012, everything went and we had to say goodbye to our offices and to the building. It was a real storm time for me, I had so many questions, everything was going so well and then suddenly it was all gone. 

Spring Came Again…..

But eventually I could hear God speaking to me again about restoration and changing direction. When I looked at it I suddenly realised that we had just been meeting an immediate need but God wanted us to refocus and change our direction.

It was time to organise ourselves and get ourselves established as a registered non profit organisation. Once we did that, through a serious of events that took place we were given a house by the city council and the safe house started up again! We began working with the police as well and today we have a separate office facility away from the safe house and our dream is to have a bigger place where we can house more people who need our help. We imagine a wonderful big place where we can have many residents and where we can offer them vocational training, workshops and other courses. The ideal would be to have three separate facilities for the safehouse, an office and a training centre. We trust God for this reality and believe that nothing is impossible when we believe!

Recent Statistics on Human Trafficking in Africa

·        Half of the children who are trafficked each year come from Africa
·        Most trafficked victims are girls between the ages of 5 – 15 years
·        Studies show that South Africa is one of the main countries for human trafficking
·        Before July 2013 there existed no legislation in South Africa, to protect victims of human trafficking
·        There are up to 10,000 child prostitutes in Johannesburg.
·        Up to 1,000 girls are trafficked to South Africa from Mozambique each year.
·        The Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and Limpopo are the main “recruitment” areas for victims of human trafficking.

Update on S - Cape House 

S - Cape Home has seen so many beautiful developments over the passed few months. A new section has been built on to the original house, to accomdate more people. The women living at the safe house are growing their own veggies, interacting with art therapy, job skills and are growing personally. A big pharmaceutical company is sponsoring the safe house for a year with toiletries, medical supplies etc. I am truly blessed to know Miryam and to have witnessed the journey of this safe house,  that is a haven for the broken. To know more or help, visit their website: S - Cape, Restoration from Exploitation

Intentional, Happiness

After bumping in to The Happiness Dare book, I was skeptical, but I took the Happiness assessment and to my surprise, it told me that I'm a Thinker. I was unsure of this result, I sat back in my chair and said no ways I don't know, I gotta think about this. It took me 3 seconds before I realised what I had said and I burst out laughing, yip I beheld the truth, thinker one. Having exposed myself to some of the material about this Happiness Dare, Abba Father really started speaking in to my heart about a number of things regarding my personal journey with Him and the aspect of real happiness.

I opened my heart to His Grace and intentionally let down the walls that were blocking the experiene of Grace birthed happiness, flow in to my soul. Yeshua even showed me how my reality of being a deep contemplative thinker, can effect my prayer life positively and it has. We are not all the same. I emailed this Happiness assessment to my parents, my in laws, my closest friend and my husband, I wanted to know their happiness style so I could know how to relate to them and how they experience happiness. By knowing their hearts, so much makes sense to me and I am better able to love them in a way they understand. At the same time bits of my world has changed and is still changing by the power of God's Spirit. 

I am seeing His messages all over. I am taking time to receive in the moments I am alive in. I am seeing beauty around me, in people and their hearts. I am reading messages on walls (like the one below that I saw today) and I am intentionally practicing spiritual disciplines leading to happiness. It's holy to be happy, finally I get it and I missed it for so long. 

My first happiness style is  the thinker, but my very close second is Experiencer. I love experiencing moments. Its amusing to know that my husband is a Doer and in the test it said how thinkers and doers have a hard time getting along. For many years we bumped heads because I wanted to go out and live in the contemplative moments that would become beautiful memories. But he would want to rush through sight seeing, experiences and miss the beautiful things because he wanted to be in the office working. We have since managed to work though this and meet half way and we have learned to know each other better. I have a lot more insight in to his style of happiness (even when he's a workaholic) and we help one another, it's pretty cool.

This week has been amazing. My eyes are standing on stalks at what I'm taking in and what my heart and spirit are experiencing. In many ways there's an awakening taking place in me and it's Holy, God - breathed. This afternoon my parents took us for lunch over at a very posh restaurant, it was so much fun, filled with laughter and ice cream. In a side room leading off the veranda, there was a birthday party happening. A family gathered. A big cake wheeled in and two candles sat on the top of the cake, the candles read 95. 

For real, I wondered, is this birthday person really 95? To me, that's pretty old. But lo and behold, a cute old man stood up and kissed everyone after speeches. In his blue pull over he hugged everyone, made sure they were all doing okay and almost seemed to be serving hearts at his own birthday. I was watching him so intently, the way he looked so healthy, the way he beamed at 95. My parents eventually suggested I go wish him a happy birthday, but it seemed pretty rude to push open the doors to a private party and interrupt. So I watched from a distance, this family and their 95 year old father, grandfather and great - grandfather. I wondered if they knew how blessed they were to see 95 years of some's life, is a gift from God. In truth, I have never met a 95 year old and I was in awe, like I was seeing father Abraham or something! I guess that's also the message of happiness, we need to open our eyes to appreciate the beauty and the rareness of what we have right in the midst of us. Just like those great - grandkids who have to choose to appreciate what they have, we need to open out eyes and experience what is good in the midst of us. And it doesn't have to be perfect and we don't have to wait until the perfect moment, we just have to let our Father open our hearts to the tender Grace that is everywhere and in this, we are happy with a Holy, Heavenly Happiness. 

Sharing with my Sister Lisha Give me Grace

W.H.O? The Lady on the Mountain in Trousers

W.H.O? is a new journey that expresses my love for writing about the women we know and don’t know. It stands for Women History Offers, and this is the first installment! Enjoy!

I could not stand history class. It was always a boring lecture, told by a passionless “sir” who read from a textbook. That was my experience at primary school, oddly enough all my history lessons were taught by men and we were always taught about wars and killings. Where was the good stuff I wondered, where were the lives that fell outside the lines of war and defeat, blood and hatred? No wonder everyone hated history class, because it was boring and the themes were all the same. I rolled my eyes and prayed for it to end. At the same time, I excelled in history, how did that happen? History intrigued me, fed something in me that would only fully form once I had found salvation.

History took on a different face however, when I went to university. Much of my English classes were historical in nature, most of the poets we read were dead and a lot of the books we read were written by people who were also dead. But their stories were not ones of war and hate, but of life and yearning. One of my English teachers was eccentric to the core but her stories were wild and exciting. Her words introduced me to a very different scene involving a woman who once climbed a mountain in the eighteenth century amidst wild and untamed terrain, dressed in her husband’s pants.

It was 1797, and characteristic of her adventurous nature, Lady Anne Barnard suggested a climb up Table Mountain. She donned her husband’s pants and became the first white woman to climb up the very difficult ascent to the top of this great wonder of the world. She climbed up the mountain with her husband, a friend, a few slaves and naval officers. It may seem insignificant to us that someone should climb Table Mountain, as most of us have already done it but it was a very different feat two hundred years ago. Lady Anne Barnard defied the odds when she put on a pair of pants, something women did not wear. She was close to fifty and was British, a woman exploring the South African terrain but perhaps not used to it yet. Still she had this way of description, writing about everything she saw and when she could she painted it. “..to behold a considerable Town more invisible than the smallest miniature which could be painted of one, to feel the pure air rising one up, it gave me a sort of unembodied feeling such as I conceive the Soul to have which mounts a beatified spirit leaving its atom of clay behind.”  (Lady Anne’s Cape Journals)

What astounds me about Lady Ann Barnard was that she was unwittingly egalitarian in her approach to life. She loved animals, admired people and did not see anyone as being different or strange. Her and her husband also had a way of life together, that showed an equality of love. Once they reached the top of Table Mountain, she expressed her thoughts on the happy journey but ended it all by saying that it was topped by this beautiful comfort and contentment of life that was only there because her and her husband were together. Lady Ann Barnard holds something of iconic status in the minds of Cape historians and some lay people, but what captured me about her, was her bravery, wit and her wonderful art works. Her paintings that forged a photograph of a country I call my own. Thank you Lady Ann for who you were and for leaving behind something of beautiful value and treasure that we today can look on and learn from…..

Next in this series is a Forgotten Holocaust Heroine, read her story over here: Forgotten Heroine

FMF - Tears of Want

Time to Join Five Minute Friday, Go!

Want. We understood the word. Need. We cried out in our need. Burden. Two months of bills piling up, a burden. In the arms of God, there we laid our heads and wept in our want, in our need. And still there rose a greater want, in the warmth of tears, this insatiable desire for the Unending Living God. 

All my wanting, eclipsed my need, for the God I met in the shadows of not knowing. Peace surpassed the want, Love took shape in my heart. My heart hopeful, my sleep restful. Everything perfect, even though outwardly to this world of flesh and eyesight, there was no solution in sight. A job offer offered. I turned inward to where Yeshua dwells, He shook His head, this is not what I want for you He said. I closed my eyes, turned it down and with it disappeared all the money signs we so needed.

Want, worldly things mean nothing. I want my Lover, the Lover of my Soul, His promise for this temporary storm to pass, even in a minute. And it was so, in a minute every bill covered, we saw hands open wide, hearts of love poured out for us. We rejoice, sated. His Love secure, His promises so sure. My tears still warm from love and want, the want for more of Him....

Stop!

Linking with Kate M