Happiest Proudest Moments

Last night was probably one of the most amazing night’s I have had in a long time. I was definitely blessed beyond what was needed.

First, it being a Monday night, I headed over to baby sit as usual but instead, it was needed as the kid’s parents were there and the kids were super excited as they were about to get a new puppy! When the puppy got there – it just made me want one!!! Sooooo cute and adorable. Anyway had an incredible time, chilling out with the whole family and new puppy…

After that we headed home! Excitement building to see my favorite (Kelly) and his friend Jaco – as they have come back from the U.S!!!

I honestly haven’t been more excited in a long time to see two people – or Kelly in particular!!! I really am just blessed to have him in my life!!! We live on the 8th floor of out building so my sister went down to open for them and noticed the lifts weren’t working. She told them they were taking the stairs. As soon as they found out they’d be walking up a few floors, they started stretching – such clowns these two!!! But yeah. When they walked through that door, I almost cried at the sight of seeing Kelly!!! He had this amazing light around him and glow I haven’t seen before. I basically jumped into his arms and held tightly onto him for about 10minutes…all while he was just hugging back and saying ‘you better not cry now’… Happiest moment ever!!! Seriously!!! I haven’t felt that much joy through my body in ages! I got to meet the legendary Jaco, who has helped in shaping Kelly while he was in the U.S.

We sat for hours, laughing, talking, drinking Steri Stumpies, comparing tattoos, looking at pictures… It was just so awesome! He even spoke about wanting to study and just what he wants to do in life. It was great seeing how God had used this trip to grow him into such a great young man and restore broken relationships in his life. He’s just grown up so much and into such a responsible man with so many awesome goals and his heart has just become more beautiful.

God has just been so faithful in keeping Kelly safe and in growing him. It really was a blessing seeing him and being able to have witnessed the growth and change that has come… My favorite has made me extremely proud!!!

We love you lots Kelly!!! Xx

God’s Loving Fingerprints over Easter

So this year my Easter weekend was a little different than usual. It was my first Easter away from home and I was definitely aware of it. It had me thinking a lot about how I spend it and how all the people close to me spent it…and even though we were all in different places, I was updated by each one and it kinda felt like we were all still celebrating together. Kinda like all living under the same roof just in different rooms of the house.

But what was most beautiful about being apart and doing things so differently, is how extremely close God felt to me, and to each and every other person in their Easter celebrations. He was everywhere and He made it visible. So although I was doing things at my own pace and it was totally different – it ended up being a very special Easter weekend.

On Thursday  we chilled out and saw two great friends, Jaco and David and caught up a little with them. That evening, I was on my way to church, dressed all in pink, ready for communion that would take place at church, when a little crisis came up. Luckily my little sister was very graceful about it, and after the crisis was taken care of we headed to the Union Buildings, with our pink sterie stumpies. It was such a beautiful evening, with a lot of adventure and exploring and bonding. After that, a friend called me out for coffee at Just Cuban restaurant, and we had a very chilled evening chatting and being very mellow. We had a little heart to heart over coffee and some hubbly and when I got home round 12pm, I found my little sister in the kitchen making soup. So we had soup together before we called it a night. 

Friday was a chilled day and I was updated by a mate who was cycling in P.E over the Easter weekend. Just showing me how beautiful the routes are over there. 

As well as one of my friend’s who stayed in the same house as I, Pieter, got engaged to his lovely fiance Annine!!! So another wedding on the way

Saturday was pretty chilled apart from my sister’s cleaning. I also was worrying about a friend who had been working 3 weeks straight without any breaks, so I waited on him to hear where we were going to go chill out. But he surprised me with a phone call after 10pm, mentioning that I should get dressed up and stuff and he’d pick me up in 15mins or so. That turned out to be such a great evening, we chilled and danced all night with more really good mates and ended up sleeping over in Hartebeespoort with all of them. It turned out to be a very fun-filled evening and the next morning was even more special as it was Easter Sunday. 

Easter Sunday was very special, as usually I’m at the Sunrise Service back home with mates. It is usually round 5 or so a.m. at St. Mikes beach. This year I couldn’t be there but it was still pretty special, as usually afterwards, they do baptisms. This year, my best mates, little sisters were baptized. Daryl’s little sister, Bridget and then Stubbs’ little sister, Helen were baptised by Sim! Although I couldn’t be there, my best mates were there for it, and even though I wasn’t, I got to see the photo’s and I’m so happy for them. It reminded me of when my best mates got baptised and when I did. Really great and special moments. While that was happening, we were waking up in Harties and it was a very chilled morning with the wind blowing through the trees. We all woke up, one of my very special mates started a fire as we all sat and talked, watching him and eating Easter eggs. The guys then left to go buy some stuff for breakfast, while us ladies made turns going through the shower. When they got back, we were all sipping on Mc Donald’s machine coke, while playing pool and Eugene was making us all omelettes. We all sat having a chilled breakfast and talking about religions and Easter and a few other things. At about 1pm it was time to say our goodbyes and head back to Villeria and Hatfield, Pretoria. It was such a chilled drive, the trip took us an hour as we listened to music, got a little lost as we got to know Pretoria a little better and chatted. At about 3pm my little sister and I headed out to Mozambik, ending our day off with talking about Easter and a few other things, taking photos, eating amazing seafood and sipping on RnR’s in such a beautiful, chilled setting. Felt like a proper blom session and it had us longing to be home, reminding us of good times and mates. As the evening and my weekend ended, I got to see some photos of my friends at The Monument in Pretoria, where they had an Easter picnic, as well as Matt sending me a photo of the sunset at Sterkfontein Dam.  

A chilled Easter weekend, with so many special moments, all of them being wide and far apart, but in each setting it was just amazing to see Jesus there, and see the Fingerprint of Love that He leaves everywhere, in every beautiful situation. The Fingerprint of Love that He has left, as if dying on a cross for us just wasn’t enough.

For God so loved the world, that He gave us His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3v16

Brilliant Brothers

Last night I was privileged and reminded once again why I serve the God I do and why I’ve been a part of Intentional Living the past few years. I remember meeting the guys who had started the 1^st Intentional Living house in my 1^st year of varsity and that I have been involved in their projects since, only thing that changed is that this year, my 3^rd year of varsity, I had moved into the house myself.

Last night, we had had a communal supper made by Wihann whom I had met back in 2010 in the 1^st house. He had made us the dish he had been most commonly known for this year – bunny chow. What was great about this evening is that not only were there people from this year’s Intentional Living enjoying supper with us, we had our 2 German visitors as well as 3 members from the previous years.

These 3 are just legends, and listening to them last night truly stirred my heart and brought a few tears as they spoke…happy tears. Wihann and Hearns – they were there in the 1^st house and then Davie was part of the house last year, whom we supported as he went into the mission field this year.

These 3 men…just listening to their hearts and stories was really a gift from God last night. It was a blessing. At one stage it was just Jaco, Davie, Hearns and I at the table. Things got a little quieter and deeper as we spoke about missionaries and grace. I could literally feel God’s presence moving around us as we spoke.

Davie spoke about grace, making it so tangible and beautiful that if you hadn’t heard of it or someone who was blind or deaf and sitting there, they would have felt what he was talking about. It was just insane listening to him and how extremely humble he is. It was beautiful and during most of that conversation between the 4 of us, I sat with tears welled up in my eyes. He spoke about Bill Taylor, a great missionary and writer about cross-cultural ministry from the U.S. I once had the privilege of having supper with him and speaking to him and his daughter, I was truly humbled – something I would always remember. What really stuck out to me last night, was that Davie was saying – just like Bill once had said – that he doesn’t know if he can do this whole Christian thing and bring people God’s Word, because he isn’t perfect enough and can’t tell people to follow God and do things in which he himself is failing. That was such an incredibly humbling moment, one in which Hearns brought up ‘grace’ and that we have to remember we will never be perfect. We will always strive towards it and try be perfect, but that’s where grace comes in because without it – we will struggle.

Hearns also spoke about his heart, for those of you who don’t know – he’s finishing his articles now, in law. So as we all know, lawyers can be quite the sharks but when you hear Hearns speak and his dream….He’s not a shark at all….If you wanted to you could call him a shark – but a vegetarian which totally defeats the shark look he has going. Anyway, he will be working with Afgri next year which has been something he has been wanting to do for a while, as he wants to travel up into Africa. He wants to help them develop self-sustaining communities. They buy land and develop that community, giving them the equipment to farm and teach them how – using South African farmers, helping them build schools, churches etc and then the community gets to buy them out. He does all the lawyer-paperwork stuff but most importantly he makes sure what is happening is fair and that NO ONE will be exploited in the process. He really has such an amazing heart for people and God’s Kingdom, using what he has learnt for serving God. He has this great dream of farmers sitting around the fire with these communities, all of them sharing stories of their day and jokes and about what still has to be done tomorrow. His dream is to see all these different people come together, just sharing life. He told us a story of some of the guys from Afgri in Centurion. A whole lot of the farmers, guys with the same kind of heart, just arrived in the Congo and Uganda to help the communities there. They left here 2 months ago, it has taken them that long, because these guys drove in the tractors with all the farming equipment needed all the way to the Congo and Uganda to meet these communities and go help them out. I mean. Isn’t that what we should be like? Isn’t that what mission is? Isn’t that the Kingdom of God right there?

One more thing we spoke about that Hearns mentioned. Missionaries: the best missionaries in the world, are the ones we haven’t seen or heard of, the ones that are making a difference without even mentioning they are missionaries. The ones, who don’t even have to mention the word God or Jesus Christ in any of their sentences, ever. Those are the best kind of missionaries. Davie also told us about it as he was just in Malawi. He  said something we all agreed to – that people don’t want to hear about God and Jesus or anything like that. Christians are usually the most hypocritical. They don’t want to hear the stories anymore, they have heard it all. They want to see the stories come to life, they want to see through our actions. Our actions say a lot more about us than our words. Our actions are more influential than words. So we need to stop telling stories and start living what we believe. When we are so in love with God and focused on serving Him, His name and words won’t be necessary – only our actions will be. Our lives and actions will be what tell His story.

I wish I could better capture the moments shared last night and make it more tangible… but what I do wish, is that you all could get a chance to meet these wonderful men of God. Last night, was a cross-cultural conversation but not for one moment did any colour matter. We all felt like one family, one body of Christ. I just want to glorify God for these men and the work He has done through and in them as well as what He is still to do in and through them. They are amazing men, with such hearts for God who only inspire me to be more like them and to seek God more in my life and I am truly blessed to say I am friends with them and can call them my brothers.

Intimidated… But Smiling Anyway

After more than a year of remaining single, I went on my first date yesterday…. It sounds pretty great and it was. It wasn’t something I had seen coming at all. We have been chatting for about 3 weeks now and the first phone call I got from him was before we had started talking and to me it was very out of the blue. Since the first phone call, we have chatted a lot or pretty much around the same time every evening. Lots of the conversations were deep and something I’d keep confidential but a lot were also full of jokes and laughter. We seem to be very comfortable in our friendship that has grown these past few weeks, a friendship that came from a place not expected by me or him. We seem to have a lot in common but we also do challenge each other’s opinions and views in life which is pretty cool.

He drove a few hours from a place quite a while a way from Pretoria, and only confirmed to see me on Monday, the Sunday evening at like 11pm. He had told me a week before that he was coming to Pretoria, but nothing was set in stone – or at least not in my books anyway. On Sunday evening, I went to bed with butterflies and not sure what to wear (I sound like such a girl), and I had asked two friend’s opinions. But not knowing if it is JUST lunch or a date makes it even more stressful and confusing. I don’t like be uncertain about things – it stresses me out.

Monday morning, I had a conversation with Elicia, and she helped me figure out what to do and chatted to me for hours, calming me down but also going wild of excitement. We both ended up coming to the conclusion of a sundress and then how my hair and everything else would be. I could dress up, but try remaining casual enough for lunch. Driving to lunch to meet him, my nerves were finished and I felt like vomiting. Before hand, my whole house of friends were making jokes and clarifying the fact that this could indeed be a date, no matter how much I was trying to convince myself it wasn’t  It is just too intimidating to think of it that way. Luckily, when I hoped into his car and had greeted him and everything, I immediately felt at ease – thank goodness.

We went to lunch at Wimpy – people would say that is cheap, but honestly, I was super stoked – I’m a Wimpy fan! Haha, makes me feel like I’m back at home at the coast. He insisted on paying for lunch – very gentlemen like of him. But lunch was so much fun!!! We talked about a few deep things but also made a lot of jokes and had fun laughing. I even got him to blush, which was fun to watch. After lunch we went to another mall, the only one he knows in Pretoria and has heard of. We went to go watch a movie, which again, he insisted on paying for. Afterwards, we were still full of jokes but got more serious when he dropped me off at home, at like 6pm. Anyway, overall it was great!

But, afterwards, after being asked millions of questions when I got into the house by everyone, I was left a little confused, unsure and intimidated. Confused, because he didn’t once say he likes me but he did say he’ll see me again sometime (he does live far away and leaves on Wednesday again). Also confused and unsure, because he did many things (that I didn’t completely cover in this post) that made it seem and feel like a date but because he didn’t verbally state anything and only did with his actions… And intimidated – by him and this whole situation, intimidated by uncertainty and the fact that only time can tell, intimidated by my own feelings.

Last night I gave it up in prayer again, as I did yesterday morning before this ‘date’. As I don’t know what to do with this and because I don’t know what he thinks, I’ve had to leave it all in God’s hands. I have no other choice. But this morning when I woke up, a friend sent me such an amazing piece of God’s Word without evening knowing anything about what is going on in my life right now.

2 Chronicles 32v7&8:

Be strong and courageous.

Don’t be frightened or terrified by the king of Assyria or the crowd with him.

Someone greater is on our side.

The king of Assyria has human power on his side, but the Lord our God is on our side to help us and fight our battles.

What a great piece to read and promise to hold onto.  Sometimes situations can look so intimidating but we must not be confused by what we see with our eyes. We need to remember God is with us and will help us. That makes ALL the difference.

It is so true, because where I see uncertainty; God sees the bigger picture and He has everything in His hands. EJ, even said to me last night (when I was feeling doubtful that it had gone well), that “maybe it went better than you thought, because with how you had dressed up and how you were glowing and radiating joy and of God’s love, there’s no way that you didn’t knock him off his feet.”

So trust and have confidence in yourself and God, no matter how intimidating the situation may look. Get different perspectives if you can, and if they all stand in agreement, then maybe the situation isn’t half as bad or intimidating as you first might have thought. But remember to always go back to God and trust in His Spirit and how it moves within you.

So date or no date, I really enjoyed the company and will enjoy what happens next… No matter how uncertain the future looks and when ‘time will tell’….Because God has it all in His hands, I will choose to look towards the future and smile at it anyway….

Love…

I got back from campus just now and Tammy – one of my amazing housemates had arrived back from her weekend at home. I joined her & Jaco (he also lives in our house) for tea and some yummy baked goodies Tam-Tam had brought back. We just chilled and talked and relaxed together, such an incredible moment after our long week last week. Just reminded me of God’s amazing love and how He blesses us with moments such as these.

And as if to seal the blessing off He sent us rain at that moment. Just to let us know He’s there. So, I went into our 2nd lounge where you can really hear the rain come down and smell the clean air. I put on some music and this beautiful song started playing. By Misty Edwards – it’s about what love is. So here are the beautiful lyrics.

Arms Wide Open

“What does love look like?” is the question I’ve been pondering
“What does love look like?”
“What does love look like?” is the question I’ve been asking of YouI once believed that love was romance, just a chance
I even thought that love was for the lucky and the beautiful
I once believed that love was a momentary bliss
But love is more than this
All You ever wanted was my attention
All You ever wanted was love from me
All You ever wanted was my affections, to sit here at Your feetThen I sat down, a little frustrated and confused
If all of life comes down to love
Then love has to be more than sentiment
More than selfishness and selfish gainAnd then I saw Him there, hanging on a tree, looking at me
I saw Him there, hanging on a tree, looking at me
He was looking at me, looking at Him, staring through me
I could not escape those beautiful eyes
And I began to weep and weepHe had arms wide open, a heart exposed
Arms wide open; He was bleeding, bleedingLove’s definition, love’s definition was looking at me
Looking at Him, hanging on a tree
I began to weep and weep and weep and weep

This is how I know what love is, this is how I know what love is

And as I sat there weeping, crying
Those beautiful eyes, full of desire and love

He said to me, “You shall love Me, You shall love Me
You shall love Me, You shall love Me”

With arms wide open, a heart exposed
With arms wide open, bleeding, sometimes bleeding

If anybody’s looking for love in all the wrong places
If you’ve been searching for love, come to Me, come to Me
Take up your cross, deny yourself
Forget your father’s house and run, run with Me
You were made for abandonment, wholeheartedness
You were made for someone greater, someone bigger, so follow Me
And You’ll come alive when you learn to die

…..A magical moment….

Catching up

Well last I posted was before our Easter holidays, so it has been a while. Lots has happened….

It has been a chaotic time with lots happening emotionally and spiritually.

In this time I had learnt from a new found friend that I am worthy and have been given the gift of tongues but I need to ask to receive it and believe I have it. So my curiosity with that has grown.

In the holidays I also got to spend time with my best guy friend – Daryl on his last day of being 20. We both ended up driving up and down the whole South Coast on a birthday treasure hunt. I had to keep him busy somehow to keep him out the house and away from his surprise birthday bash that evening. Plus, it was a great excuse to spend a day with him and catch up!

When I got back from my holiday, we went to watch the varsity cup final and ended up celebrating Tuk’s victory for the first time since 1986!!! Was a super, stressful game!
I also had a great time getting closer to some of my housemates. But as that had happened in this last week unfortunately, there has been hectic spiritual attacks on those relationships too and it has been one hell of a frustrating week – one week in that sense, I wouldn’t want back anytime soon.

I did have a great week in some aspects though – going to church at 3rd Place for the first time, going out for drinks at Picasso’s with awesome friends (Jean, Jaco & Shikara), playing pool and stealing flowers way after midnight at the Union Buildings and being chased away, great chats with mates while just driving around the city or having coffee – just sharing love and God and so many other things.

Although it has been a frustrating time with rape victims and other social injustices too as well as spiritually in our house it has also been great and a learning curve and I am so thankful for it….

Valentine’s spoil

I’m not big on Valentine’s day and this year we didn’t really feel it after Victor’s accident. Yet the guys in our house went out and got us a teddy bear (called Jeremy) and roses for each girl in the house. They even wrote us a letter addressed “to the Beautiful Ladies of St. David house”.

So ladies out there, even your guy mates can often surprise you with something special, it doesnt have to be roses…but sometimes their actions may surprise you and it can often say more than words and a lot about their character. Thanks to EJ, Jaco & Piet for the Valentines spoil. It put a big smile on our faces

This slideshow requires JavaScript.