This mission trip to South Africa wasn’t my first mission experience, but it seemed like I needed to experience it as if it were my first.

The two weeks I was there with my team, I really had to get over the fact that I had “done missions”. The Lord humbled me and amazed me with the youth workers and teenagers he was using there.  He taught me that I still need him… that His love, grace, and sovereignty has to be not just enough, but more than enough in my life.  If I wasn’t at that place, something was wrong.  Then I experience His unbiased love and grace through the young youth leaders there and my team members.  I didn’t realize how much I needed them to see what God was doing in South Africa, in their lives, and in mine.  His love and grace was so evident because of their pure hearts.  God is just great.

Thank you Solomon, Danielle, Eddie, Judy, and Bryan.  I not only experienced the joy of “ubukumkani”, but also the present blessings of it through you all.

It was such a blessing to be at African Leadership Conference 2010 in Montreal.  It’s important as believers to fellowship with one another, especially people who have a heart for Africa and taking back Africa for Christ.

Sharing was key to the weekend -sharing the Word with each other and what it was speaking to us, sharing what was in our hearts, sharing our vision of the kingdom, sharing meals, sharing what the Lord was speaking in us and through us and hearing Pastor Ohm share with us what’s happening in South Africa.

It was also a great opportunity to pray together, in one accord with old friends and new friends. I was so blessed for having attended.

What a great Sunday Service of worship we had at GoodTree just a couple of weeks ago. Pastor Ohm and Tobi came to visit our church and share about what God is doing through African Leadership in South Africa. Pastor Ohm challenged us to understand that God’s Kingdom has already begun. God’s Kingdom is all around us because it began within our own life. God’s Kingdom has been planted into our souls and wants to break out from our hearts as an overflow to this world. God’s Kingdom wants to breakthrough! And that word “breakthrough” is the vision of our church this year: To challenge everyone to make themselves available to be used by God. We don’t need to be super “talented” or “gifted” or “smart” to be useful, but rather we need a heart that aches to experience God authentically by being an active part of His Kingdom. If we make ourselves available, God can, and will, do the impossible. I know many of us repeatedly say we “seek” God’s will for our life or we are waiting for “His call”, but let me challenge you by saying that we sit and wait on God way too much. When we wait for his call our posture is passive and yet we claim to be seeking His will. To “seek” is an action, a movement forward and that is what God desires. If we sit and wait for a “call” we may never get up and go. My challenge is to ask the Holy Spirit for courage to take a step of faith and make yourself available, rather than asking and waiting for direction.

God’s Kingdom and His will are always moving forward whether we are a part of it or not. Like a river God’s purpose never stops moving, does not wait for us to jump in, and constantly flows. We can choose to stand by the riverside and wait to see if we should jump in, or we can take the courage of the Holy Spirit and jump into God’s Kingdom River and see where God takes us. God wants you to be a part of His will and I guarantee you will experience God in such an amazing way your life will not be the same. Actually, let me change that, your life CAN’T be the same when you allow God to use you. Make yourself available, even if you aren’t sure, because the worst that could happen is that God will use you.

There is a worship song titled Came to My Rescue which has the line “I want to be where you are”. For the longest time I thought the lyrics meant where God was in heaven, but I now realize that this is not what the song is talking about. God is already here. I mean we all know that God is with us but when we cry out “I want to be where you are” we are often thinking of our time after here on earth. This type of mentality will have us waiting for the day we are in heaven and that only then we can truly bless and praise Him. In the meantime however, we end up sitting around and become passive not engaging in what God is doing in our midst. As Kingdom people we need to realize that God is already here with us, right NOW. He is moving amongst us and is waiting for you and me to take action. He attends to us in ways we don’t even know so when we desire to be where He is, we don’t need to look any further than our own life. God is in South Africa working through African Leadership, God is in Cambodia working through Samaritan’s Purse, God is in Toronto working with the poor, God is in our church working with those who are hurt. If our prayer and desire is really “I want to be where you are” than we need to go to the places where God is working as He requires us to be a part of His Kingdom experience.

For The Kingdom