First Week at Witz

Hello! A lot of time has passed, but I promise the Good News still stands and is moving in the country of South Africa. Since I last posted we had our first full week of laboring on the campus of Witwatersrand (or better known as Witz).  In the first couple of days, Alyssa and I met many women who are full of energy and life. I kind of love the people here. Here are some names to be praying for, even if you can’t pronounce their names remember  God knows each of his creation: Keletso, Sonette, Natasha, Simy, Tinswalo, Chiara, Nolo, Tula, Mafunase, Kundai, Zee, Zeikle, and the women we still haven’t met at Sunny Side. I am blown away by the favor God has given us in simply loving these women and getting to know them as we get to know the culture as well.

In my personal walk with Christ, I have seen the extremes my heart goes to when I am outside my comfort zone which happens when you are in a new and unfamiliar country. The deep issue is pride, or me contending for the supremacy of God. Sounds ridiculous I know, but it is the truth of pride in my life. I think I deserve praise/recognition, that I am “right” in the situation, or pride surfaces by me taking the role of the victim. God has humbled my heart in showing me that true humility comes only from God and was manifested when Christ died for us and became the ransom for many. (Mark 10:45) John Calvin wrote, “God cannot bear with seeing his glory appropriated by the creature in even the smallest degree, so intolerable to him is the sacrilegious arrogance of those who, by praising themselves, obscure his glory as far as they can.” ….WOW…. I hate a lot of things, but I hate nothing to the degree that God hates pride. By reading C.J. Mahaney’s, Humility, I am excited for the transformation of pride in the lives of those who are in Christ.  As we know of two of Jesus’ disciples, James and John request to be exalted to the left and to the right of Jesus in his glory (because they are just so amazing, such great disciples..right?) It was their selfish ambition that caused them to desire this, but after Jesus died and was a ransom for many (even them) James in Acts 12:1-2 died for his faith, the first disciple to be martyred.  John got it too and was apparently the last of all the apostles to die, but suffered persecution and was banished to the island of Patmos. John wrote in 1 John 3:16 “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”  They are both not the same person they were before understanding the price paid for them, the ransom given for me as I am in Christ.

As you can see, my mind is turning and my heart is being penetrated more and more by the Good News.  This week’s scripture memory verse is Mark 2:17, In hearing this Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Thank God he didn’t come for those who have it all together, but us who see that we are sick with this illness of sin that has completely separated us from God and apart from Christ, nothing can heal us. “For this is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” -1 John 4:10