Its been a while! Jeeez it feels like every blog now always starts like that lol. But yet since November where we last left off ( if you have been keeping up with the blogs)...........
I wrote to you sharing how it has been travelling back and forth from Zim to SA to Zim to SA and also its was our reporting season and budgets were due. It was busy busy busy! Its always the last little stretch of the year which i find the longest lol dont we all sometimes hey! So as you can expect i was pretty shattered and very much in need of some chill time and Christmas was coming yay! So this year i decided to not come home(to the UK) and instead spend some time here just being and really to be honest putting my feet up! But let me tell you i missed my family and friends terribly it was my first Christmas away from home. I did however get an incredible opportunity to spend my holiday with one my close friends Prudence! ( hey you made on the blog ...inside jjoke haha) . Prudence and her family who live in Zim took me in and we had the best time! In many ways they are much like my family and that was really beautiful . So thank you to my family in a different world for being such a blessing and making me feel at home. Many times i have thought how do i thank this beautiful people but God knows and will reward them for me :). So that was Christmas and then came the new year!
On my way back from Zim i got a chance to see my Brother David in Kenya as my flight had a super long lay over in Nairobi! Yaay. And can i just say major congratulations to this young man for finding us a gorgeous sister for us to call family in the near future( although you already are Charlene!) so if you haven't figured out they ARE ENGAGED!!!!! YAAAAY. very exciting times ahead as our family gets bigger. After all that excitement it was time to head back to SA and get back to the swing of things which i was very excited for and really praying God was is the new year going to be like for me? where do you want me? What must i be part of? Being a new year there are always lots of changes lots of moving pieces and as exciting as that is that can also be daunting. So part of the big change for me will be to hopefully move more longer term to Zim for the year . We are busy applying for visas so please pray for that. Our work in Zim and Moz is growing and a priority for us as Hands is to send more people to live on the ground to be able to support that. So very exciting as some of us are sent to be part of that growth!
So in that at the beginning of the year i always ask God what is my scripture for the year. What is the promise that i as Grace must hold on to this year. And to be honest for the first time in a very long time at the beginning of the year i was blank , i just didn't feel i was getting anything. And i asked the Lord what is going on what am i missing, but i kept pressing and telling myself Lord i will not let this January come and go and yet i have not heard you. And then in that time i happen to be listening to Bethel worship services and in that the Pastor preaching stopped the worship and read a scripture Isaiah 41.10 (NASB)
'Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.'
And right there as i was sat on my bed on my lunch time my spirit jumped up and i knew that was the scripture for me! I was so relieved and so encouraged and knew it was exactly what God was saying to me. Because as i entered the year though excited about what lay ahead somehow i had let myself run with incorrect thoughts that made me very anxious. My thoughts were wondering wildly. Knowing what we had planned to achieve as a team by the end of the year i started asking Lord are you sure its me who needs to go, you know part of the year this person will be here the other people will be there? will we manage?, Zim is also very expensive will my finances which already are at a dip get me through? will the transition work well for me? all of this questions which in all honesty do have some logic to but it did not have spiritual logic in it. What do i mean by that, of course we are called to be wise but also we are called to trust. we are called to a life where in every question we ask where is Gods hand? and that was my mistake i had taken matters in my on hand in my head i may not have walked it out but it was there alive and well. And i remember very vividly on a Monday morning so special for us at Hands where we just worshiped together as a community and in that the holy spirit was so strong and so present. And as i sang out Gods promises in those songs will all my mind and heart i was met with Gods very real presence that challenged my anxiety which was rooted in focusing on what was around me than focusing on him . That morning he called me to total submission to let go of my 'said plans' and to completely and utterly depend on him! He shared with me that like when i was a child and my mother set out my clothes and ironed my clothes for church . God himself will set out all i need for the time ahead. My Job was to 'wake and just wear what he had set out for me ' It was encouraging to know that God has equipped us for every good work (Hebrews 13:21) and also he has good plans for us to give us a hope and a future ( Jeremiah 29.11) . So the more i dwelt on Gods truth and God command to not ' anxiously look about ' God gave my spirit a unique peace resting in the fact that Gods righteous hands has continued to strengthen me when i need it and help me in time of need.
And with this i am assured of the future and all that is in store and now praying continually God help me to be continually totally and utterly submitted to you and your will. I am now filled with so much Joy! so much confidence and excitement to be in Zim for the next little while! Honestly if visas came today i would be on that flight tomorrow! Not because all the details are worked out but because now God is showing me how to find joy in it all , how to see life with him can be truly exciting. I read a scripture the other day that really sums up my hearts desire right now psalms 16:11
"You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever."
I really am saying God let my heart at every step know that you will lead me to the path of life and that there is nothing out there more pleasurable than all your presence offers.!
May this be your prayer too!
Love you all and thank God for you.
Until next time.....
Grace xxxx
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