Comfort in the uncomfortable

Hey Friends! Here’s another update on my life in SA! This past week has looked a little different than the majority of our time  here in Johannesburg has looked for my squad… And by a little I mean a lot! 

Until last week we have been living very comfortably at our ministry host’s base Impact Africa. We have had a great place to relax and hangout as a team after doing local ministry each day. Which is such a huge blessing especially after being out in the hot sun all day during community outreach or teaching highschool classes and dancing with the children from Impact kids primary schools. 
Side note: Impact Africa has a ministry branch called Impact Kids where they have started 5 incredible schools for children from 2 years old to 3rd grade in Johannesburg and a few surrounding communities giving them an opportunity for great education and also serving meals daily for over 500 students. 

 One of those schools is located in Kwaggafontein a community about two hours away from the Impact base, and me and my team had the opportunity to go and to minister to the community this past week. And here’s what it looked like…

We got to sleep on  the floor of the traditional little African huts with the thatched roof, alongside the cockroaches and ants. We had no Wifi or cell service. We cooked breakfast and dinner over hot plates on the church floor, as we really had no kitchen so no refrigerator either, (meaning pb&j came in clutch as an everyday meal:) But in spite of being stripped of basically all the physical comforts, this has been one of my favorite weeks of the whole trip.

We got to speak to over a 1,000 high school students and share our testimonies with them. Our topic of the week was dreams and we were able to perform a little skit at every school, and also teach in classrooms and assemblies encouraging them to follow the dream that God has put in their hearts and to invite them to put their full trust in Him and give their hearts to Jesus.

The people of Kwaggafontein welcomed us with open arms and listened to everything we had to say. They loved to hangout with us after class and we made a habit of having  dance parties with them, where they taught us a few of the traditional dances and even joined in on the church clap and other dances we did!

We  did some house to house community outreach and had great conversation as Kwaggafontein is a more cultural part of SA and most of them pray to their ancestors to talk to God instead of accepting that Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice and is the only true way to Eternal Life. We were able to have great conversations with most of them explaining the gospel and how the only way to have a personal relationship with God is accepting Jesus in your heart as Lord and Savior. 

We also volunteered for a day at a disability center and had such a sweet time getting to spend time with all of the special needs children and their teachers there. We were able to dance and sing with them and the joy on each face was such a beautiful testimony of the Fathers love for us. 

 This week has been filled with lots of moments of surrendering my wants to the Lord and just being still in His presence.

It’s been a time of drawing near to His heart and seeing that as long as I have Him I have everything I could ever need. Through all the physical discomfort came a sense of peace and awe. Just knowing that He doesn’t need us, that He could minister to these hearts on His own but instead He chose to use us! He included us in His plan of ministering to His children here in South Africa! 

And what an honor it has been to see Him speaking through us and to be able to live in community as a team. This team is powerful and I’m excited to see where God will lead us as we continue to serve in unity and continue drawing nearer to Jesus. And I will always be thankful for the privilege we had of ministering together to the people of Kwaggafontein.

My challenge to you today is will you trust Him when it starts getting uncomfortable? When that breakthrough you’ve been waiting on seems like it’s never going to happen? When that job you’ve always wanted seems like it is no where in your future? When your friends and your family begin to doubt or turn against you? 

Will you trust that God had a plan in all of it and will you take comfort in His goodness? 

Will you turn to your Heavenly Father and trust Him to supply your every need? Or will you continue on your own strength determined that your plan for your life is better than His? 

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.Are you not much more valuable than they?Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life.  -Mathew 6:26-27 

Wait on the Lord and may He fill you with His peace today. 

-Anna