Darfuri brothers and sisters, we hear your cries and the loss of your thousands. We see the soil sweating with blood, we smell the lives of hopeless, displaced masses left behind. Why me? She asks, "why I am alive just to die another day?" My brothers and sisters your lives are not far from our hearts, our emotions ripped open and apart, we cry for you, we weep for you, my brothers and sisters we hear you.
As much as the Media has said South Africa has failed you, my family we have not forgotten about you! The people of the streets are bitter over this evil corruption, we are sorry for all that you now face. Our government has failed to do all that is right, your president flew out of here in the daylight, while our president and his cabinet failed to act. They let him go, a man whose hands are filled with half a million lives, a man whose conscience never picks at his chest, never convicts him, his evil mind is always at rest.
His plane flew out of here and as it left the ground, we wept. Wept for the lives of our Darfuri family whose voices went unheard and whose cries for salvation and redemption went unheeded.
But my Darfuri family, you are not far from our prayers, may God give you peace as you struggle to live and find peace. May God save you my family and may the neglect of the wicked who rule, may they be weighed in the scales and receive their due...
Right now as we sit here there is a Genocide happening in Sudan. A government - funded military killing of innocent men, women and children. Here are some statistics.
The UN estimates that between 200,000-300,000 people have died in Darfur since the start of the current conflict in 2004.
Some 4.7 million people are currently directly affected by the
conflict, out of a total population of around 6.2 million. In 2008
alone, 310,000 people have been displaced, or newly displaced – bringing
the current total of displacement to 2.7 million.
Half of those affected by the conflict are children; of these, nearly
700,000 (the under-five population) have grown up knowing nothing but
the conflict.
Sudan is listed as Number 6 on the world watch list of Persecuted Believers in the world.
Meriam Ibrahim was imprisoned in Sudan for converting to Christianity, happily enough she was finally released after international outcry. Yet, there are so many people dieing in this African country. Let us pray for them, for faith and for comfort, for protection for the young girls and women who are brutalised and assaulted. Let us pray for God's mercy and intervention. This weekend the South African government was suppose to arrest the Sudanese president as he was on our soil, yet they failed to act - even after a court hearing! We are horrified!
Last week my parents announced that they were considering adopting another sausage dog. I say another because they already have two! This info was quite startling to me because while I grew up in a pet - loving home, my father was quite adamant that they were not getting another dog. But when my fathers friend phoned and told him the sob story about Sherie, the seven year old sausage dog, something in his heart changed. Sherie was living in a home where the newer younger puppy Boxer, was biting her and so they felt Sherie had to go. For me this is always quite sad because Sherie is already seven years old and people tend to adopy young dogs while dogs in the latter years of their lives, do struggle to find a home. Anyhow, my parents went to see Sherie, a real meet and greet. The man who homed Sherie was pretty smart in all accounts because he placed Sherie in my fathers arms as he walked in the door and instantly they bonded. Sherie went home with my parents....
After an hour of settling in and meeting the other dogs, my dad put Sherie on the bed. My mom tells me that Sherie froze for over half an hour. She was unused to the soft velvety blanket beneath her paws, she was used to sleeping outside for seven years! She was an outdoor dog and in all honesty my parents house is a pet pooch palace. Their dogs sleep in the bed, eat chicken and rice with himalayan rock salt. They have their own chairs in the lounge and often get a nice snug fire going when they are cold. After Sherie's initial shock at this fantastic new sleeping spot, my dad tucked her in under the blanket next to the pillow and guess what, Sherie has found her sleeping place for life. After intitially stealing the other dogs' food, Sherie now knows she is getting her own plate and will have the same amount of food too. she no longer has to steal because she is afraid she wont get, now she knows the people who feed her have opened their home and their hearts to her, and she is safe and treated as an equal.
What my parents have done for Sherie (who is sleeping above!) really spoke to my own heart this week. It spoke to my heart and told me again how beautiful it is to live in the home of our King. In His house there is such love and such blessing, such favour and love. It is a completely different place and like Sherie, we ourselves have had to get used to the beauty and comfort of our Papa's palace. It also showed me how He never gives up on us, no matter how long we have lived away from Him or no matter how far someone has fallen, ther eis always place in His house. It makes me think of Romans 8, For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Tonight I am celebrating the Father's Love for me and the fact that I can lay my head down to sleep in a cosy bed filled with Love and that He gives me my daily bread in all ways. Tonight, I bow my head and say thank You Papa that You never gave up on me and thank You Papa for Sherie's life and may she be so blessed in her new heavenly home...
Sharing over at The Weekend brew
and Dance with Jesus
Sunday Stillness
FMF - Five Minutes of Writing, GO!
I loved Kate's prompt this week - yey! And I loved her writing about South Africa. Yup, I'm South African, very deeply so. My moms family were French Hugenoets escaping religious persecution in europe so they arrived here in the 17th century and settled down. Here they stayed! My dads family are a mixture of Spanish Jews, also who settled here in the 19th century and they got some British blood mixed up in here. I am deeply South African!
My husband is too and his family generations span just as long, I am African! This is where our heart beats. It is true, this country is deeply religious but Cape Town is a city of revival. Many people have testified ot this reality. When you fly in to Cape Town, you feel it and I am so glad that my feet live here and my heart lives here.
My husband and I have travelled to other countries and we always get the same response when we say we are South African, but you not black! Haha, yup we have 5 million white people here and loads more Indians, and other nationalities. That is why we are called the rainbow nation! But we are also a land afflicted by crime and corruption, a very real problem and something we pray about daily.
Last year when my husband and I went on a mission trip to Ghana, I realised how powerful it was to stand up and minister to my sisters about restoration from slavery and true restoration in Yeshua. I realised that the message that beats in my heart of restoration carries so much weight because I come from a beautiful land, the Southern most tip of Africa where two oceans, one hot, one cold; here they meet and collide. They kiss and then divide and yet here they begin and here they end, just like all our terrible pasts but glorious futures. With tears in my eyes - I am in love with this land and my heritage and God be praised that He made me right here, right now....
Stop! (WOW I cant believe I wrote all this is five minutes, I was writing it with tears!)
Linking with Kate M
Most people reading my blog, don't know that my husband and I are in full - time ministry. When I first started this blog I needed a safe space away from the crowds to gather my thoughts and honour my own feelings. However, lately I have been struggling with this. My season has changed and I am still the same but I can't separate myself from how I serve and where I serve in the body. So I still need this space to love and share but I also need to share what's on my heart... Recently Father has been showing me greater depth and insight in to my mandate, my position in His army and it has changed a lot within me.
This week Yeshua/Jesus gave me a very specific message for the women in the body. Women who are struggling with the idea of serving in the body. Women who are hearing that voice of God calling them deeper and so I did my first audio - visual for our ministry. I am usually the writer on our website and the speaker in real life, but here I am both and I am so excited about it! I want to share this video, with the message here on this blog because it's for His entire body and that encompasses all the special women of God.
I pray you will take the time and let it minister to your heart!
Five Minute Friday Post - Go!
Tonight I had this fire burning inside of me, place there by Yeshua's fiery Love. I had to write and commit to paper the message He was giving me and as I wrote and penned all about the women in the earliest congregations I felt so in awe. I love writing about these women, and calling other women forth. My husband and I have believed in biblical equality from the very beginning. That's the very essence of what we stand for, and it's a gift. A true gift. Seeing one another as equally called, equally gifted and equally able is a gift and it's truly a blessing to co - rule, co - labour and co - manage our marriage and our creation. This has always been our conviction and as we sail these seas of life, its helped us in so many ways. Seeing others as equals is part of the restoration of God. In South Africa we have such a history of inequality and now from these ashes we rise up and speak of equality. Equality across borders, equality because its part of the bride. She is arrayed in different colours and nationalities, comprised of us all. How beautiful is the gift of equality across our divides. Thank You God for this gift of beautiful equality!
Linking up with Kate
Joining the conversation at Velvet Ashes .It's been a hard week, yeah so we all get them. But add it to the expectant hope of breakthrough and the very hard few months before, it kind of gets tough. Ministry or mission work is not something to just jump in to, it's a deep commitment. Sometimes its a commitment not only to help people you dont know or to give hope to the hurting or broken, but its a commitment to sometimes not having money, to not having it all together and to sometimes, falling apart.
This afternoon I was sharing my present feelings with my hubby, about some discoveries I am making on my present journey into trying to hold on to my sanity and trying to not to grow hopeless. I must laugh as he told me, imagine how hopeless Paul felt when he was under house arrest for 2 years. Imagine how he felt when he longed to visit a particular congregation to encourage them and then he died before he could get there!
I have no idea how that was suppose to be encouraging, haha but that's also why my hubby is not a counsellor but he does try his best. His answer did not discourage me at all, in fact it was rather funny. But in it all I realised how sometimes its a human reality to think that no one can understand what you are facing or understand how you are feeling. In essence they cannot and sometimes in the silence of loneliness with those feelings, it can feel like God doesnt understand either. But He does and there is some comfort in that.
Having been called out of active service and not doing active missionary work (last year we were in Ghana! and we were teaching, preaching!) we can only rely on God's will to lead us in this very strange wilderness. Where everything is stretched, faith, life, finances, friendships and hope. In the isolation it is easy to lose sanity - and it's okay. It's tough, yes, I said it but that doesnt mean I'm giving up. It just means that it is and its okay to say so.
So to all my precious family out there who are finding themselves in a similar place, may God give us all the grace and strength to find the meaning in this season and may we not lose the burning fire within to still change the world for the good!
There is beauty everywhere sings my heart! Beauty in You oh King of my Heart.
I am enraptured by beauty, the ducks dancing as they bathe, the guinea fowl comfused as they sit on the roof and wonder how to climb that rickety fence. And to think how I often miss it when I busy trying to meet the deadlines and goals that sometimes cloud my vision. How I can miss they beauty that You paint for me everyday, just for me. This is where I am alive, when I am staring at Your beauty. When I am hearing that music and sensing that song deep down inside. Thank You for the Freedom, for leading me from that busyness. It's not destined for me, but You are and right here with You is where I long to be. Dance with You, caught up with You, You are so beautiful Yeshua. I rest with You, my vision changed I was caught up in the world of things not destined for me. Here is where I am with You, peaceful at rest with You. Thank You for finding me and leading me from the busyness not made for me....
I love photos, so I am sharing some of the beautiful things of my life today...
What are the beautiful things you can see today?
Sharing with Coffee with Winter
