Bruce, our missionary to Ukraine, is visiting with us. Bruce has been here on a 5 week tour to the US so that he can speak to churches about how God is working and moving in Ukraine. Our church has been going to work with him in the country for the past 3 years and it's neat to be able to host him in our home instead of him hosting us in his! Bruce will be at our Church on Sunday so please join us if you're interested in hearing more!
Today I want to continue in my journaling of South Africa. Picking up where I left off yesterday...
As we left Simon's shack, we continued down the dusty path to the next divine appointment. After the experience we had just had with Simon, our hearts were full of joy and anticipation. The nerves we felt about going into this squatter's camp were starting to settle. Now we were just full of expectation. Acts, our interpreter, led the way into the small patch of dirt that would be Eunis and Maggie's yard. Eunis and Maggie are two elderly ladies. They are sisters but live in separate shacks. Eunis was there visiting her today and God was already there warming up both of their hearts!
A large painted flower adorns the open door as Acts greets them both as "mama." I can't describe how he says it, but when it says it there is a sense of honoring and respect in his voice, but a sweetness and a comfortableness as though he were a child speaking to his own mom. It was wonderful to "hear" this type of connection between two strangers.
This shack is far different than Simon's. As we sit inside, I notice that it's a simple one room shack with very little furniture. The basics are there - a bed, a pot or two and a few shelves. Eunis sits on a small stool near the door and the rest of team surround her to the right. Maggie lies on the bed kind of behind us. The room is very dark with the only light source coming from the open doorway. As I look around I notice just how dark it really is. The tin isn't light colored on the inside like it is on the outside and this just adds to the sad feeling that lingers. Eunis' eyes are full of sweetness however and we listen with heavy hearts to hear her describe her "suffering" sickness. We learn that the shack doesn't have electricity, only the light from the outside. At night they can't burn candles because they have a tendency to catch the shack on fire (explaining the black walls).
Eunis speaks English and told us that she was from the Eastern Cape area. She was very easy to talk to and we found much in common with this kind woman. We talked about the importance of relationships and we talked about the common love that she and Maggie had with Wendy when it came to art/painting. One of them had painted that beautiful flower on the door of the shack so once again it was interesting to see how God had used something from the life of one our team, Wendy's love for art, to open up doors and bridge culture gaps. I said earlier in the week that we started in each opportunity to exchange life and here again we began a life exchange.
After much discussion on art and family, Eunis finally asked, "Why are you here?" Her frankness in asking the question took me by surprise. We had always been asking for God to show us open doors to walk through to share the gospel and this door flung wide open. We used our discussion on relationships to discuss the one relationship that is most important to our team and that brought us here...and that is the relationship with have as a believer and follower of Jesus Christ.
Eunis listened carefully as we went through the entire gospel presentation. As we neared the end, Maggie overheard the word Jesus. Keep in mind Maggie doesn't know English so she wasn't understanding our conversation. Acts wasn't really translating because we were sharing with just Eunis at this point. What's funny is that when we were almost ready to pray, Maggie understood the most important word of our conversation...JESUS! Maggie piped up from what I assumed to be a semi-conscious nap and let Acts know, "If you're talking about Jesus and God then I want to know what you're saying, don't leave me out of this conversation as it's too important."
I stopped cold in my tracks and my words stopped. I'm sure my mouth fell open and this woman's desire to hear the Word! I felt like Phillip must have felt running across the eunich. We decided to all go outside so that she could see the cube as I presented it. 20 minutes both women prayed with Acts to make Jesus the Lord of their lives. Tears of conviction flowed as they prayed. Derrina stood up to hug Maggie and Maggie held on for an eternity. We were all crying as we watched this connection take place and out of a thankful heart that the Lord had once again added to His Kingdom!
After we finished, we had to return to the car to leave for the day. Acts said, "I've never seen such high favor on a team before. It's as if everywhere we go, the Lord has prepared hearts and the Holy Spirit is moving in high ways. I didn't know what to do when I saw the people praying crying and the people praying for them crying too!" It was an awesome way to end the day!
Look around you right now or think about the people in the cubicles beside of you...who are you leaving out of your conversations about the Lord and His saving grace...who is saying, "Hey Ron, don't' forget me."
Have a blessed weekend! More on Monday!
Ron
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