God Is Moving

Originally posted on 3/13/09

God is moving here in Jeffreys. He always has been but this week I was able to see it even more clearly. We've had opportunity after opportunity to speak truth. From talking about ancestral worship during house visits to talking about forgiveness and grace at Ithemba, truth is being heard and challenging many.
God is stirring up things in our class at Ithemba, I can just feel it. We were able to speak boldly during our bible time and talk about the hard things that happen here in the culture. We talked about rape and murder on Monday and the kids openly said that it can't be forgiven. That opened doors to really just talk with them and share our passions. We shared our stories and examples where God has forgiven us when we didn't deserve it and we shared about examples where we had to forgive when they didn't deserve it. The kids were sitting there listening more than I think they have ever before. We were able to share parts of our lives with them which was really important and God totally used it. On Tuesday, many of our kids were in a fight on the street against other students from another school. It was disappointing and discouraging but it truly was another opportunity to speak on the issue of forgiveness. We talked about the fight and why and asked them what they thought about forgiveness. They all agreed that it was important and that in the situation they weren't being forgiving. I was praying for guidance because I had no idea where to go from there but Nomsa began speaking and the spirit was leading that conversation. We told them that we are at Ithemba because we love them and we want to share the hope that we have with them. We told them that we want to play and have fun with them, that we want to teach them, but our purpose is to speak truth and tell them about God. We then went on to explain accountability. I gave the example of giving them 10 rand and be held accountable means I need a cash slip for how they spent the 10 rand. They understood so I went on to explain that is what God does. We hear truth and we hear the Word and we are then held accountable. He gives us opportunity to live it out and holds us accountable to our reaction. We told them how much we love talking about the Bible and answering their questions but unless they began living it out, we don't need to keep talking about it. It's important to talk about it but unless there are actions that follow, the talking has no value. I think it struck the kids pretty hard. It was an intense two days but you can see that they were all listening and thinking about it and I'm excited to see how God uses those times and conversations.

Next week has potential to be another intense week with the kids. We are going to do the Beat the Drum program with our class starting on Monday. We have only talked about AIDS briefly with them and they had some good questions. We will start with the movie on Monday and then talk about values on Tuesday and split up the boys and girls on Wednesday and talk more deeply on issues and then Thursday talk about questions and commitments. It's going to be a great week and I think God is going to do big things with this program. I just ask that you'll be daily praying about the words spoken to them and the images they will see. Pray that their eyes will be opened to the seriousness of these issues and that most importantly their heart will be affected. Thank you so much for your continual support, God is using you!