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photography i rma coetzee

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from my

heart...OUR FIRST FOUNDATION FOR 2005. My prayer is that you will receive a special touch from God while reading “Jasper” and that MY World will speak into your specific needs.

“From my heart” is more than an editor’s letter, it is a message. I asked God for His message and I keep hearing: “Be filled by My Holy Spirit! It is not enough for you only to be touched by My Spirit, be filled by My Spirit!”

There is a great difference between being “touched” by God’s Spirit and being “filled” by God’s Spirit. “Touch” is momentarily, “fill” is a surrender and giving over of oneself.

In Acts 2 we read how everyone present was “filled” with the Holy Spirit and they had power to preach God’s Word, and in Acts 13 how the believers were “filled” with the Holy Spirit and with joy. Looking at Stephen’s life (although being martyred unto death), he was “full” of the Holy Spirit, he gazed steadily upward into heaven and saw the glory of God. An intense desire welled up within me to be “full” of the Holy Spirit as Stephen was.

I realised to be “filled” by God’s Spirit in such measure, the temple of the Holy Spirit, your being, must be purified and holy. He showed me that all of us together form the temple of God. That the Spirit of God lives in His temple and that God will bring ruin upon anyone who ruins His temple (1 Corinthians 3:17).

I realised the seriousness of having to surrender my natural desires, my own will, my very life to God’s purpose because He is serious about “filling” His temple.

I believe, only once we have surrendered completely to God, will the Holy Spirit “fill” us. Then we will be ready to receive God’s manifesting power in our lives.

We are being prompted by the Holy Spirit to allow Him to “fill” us. He knows the promise of Joel 2:28, “Then after I have poured out my rains again, I will pour out My Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. In those days, I will pour out my Spirit even on servants, men and women alike.”

We have to surrender to God so that we are ready to receive His power, His gifts and the mind of Jesus Christ.

As the body of Christ in South Africa, we are the temple of God. Let us not bring ruin unto this temple, but let us only allow the Holy Spirit to operate in our lives. Let us relentlessly prepare ourselves to be used by God.

Be “filled” by the Holy Spirit!

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page sponsored by HMZ Archi tec ts / photography andrea badenhor s t

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It is inevitable that unexpected events will occur in our lives. That is what makes life real.

These events make us appreciate the good times so much more.

Sometimes our faith is challenged when we have to live through these events but when we place our

vulnerable hands in God’s Omnipresent Hand, He carries us through and gives us real life.

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It was an ordinary day, it happened early, everyone was in their eight or nine o’clock classes. People were start-ing to leave class and those arriving late had seen the first tower being hit on television in their rooms or in the student centre.

“Word spread like wildfire across campus. And everyone left their classes looking for television sets. I remember the room at the student centre where hundreds of people were staring at a big TV screen. When that first tower fell, people just went down on the floor. Many were crying but as the second tower was hit people just started to scream.

“About 40% if not more of the students had family or friends close to the Twin Towers. There were people living nearby. We had no idea what else was going to happen. There was so much fear, people were trying to contact relatives on their cell phones but to no avail, the networks were busy. People were just in shock. That’s how I remember it...”

What difference did it make, being a Christian? Janeen: “You can turn to prayer, it’s the first thing. It can bring comfort to people, the comfort of being in communi-cation with God.

“It helps to have an understanding of the end times, that things are going to come up against us. Yet knowing that Jesus is the end of it and that we’re going to have to suffer. I think it helps a lot to know and understand that.”

Ben: “You’re quite helpless but at the same time you resign yourself to what is going to happen. There is peace in it. People lost people, they lost relatives

and they lost friends. It’s not one of those things that if you’re a Christian you are exempt. Prayer did not keep the buildings up!

“I think that when you become afraid like that, as we all were, you know that you could face death really fast. When you believe there’s something after death and that you’ll go to heaven, it is much easier to face.”

Was there a role for you to play?

Janeen: “A student leader said: ‘Do the next thing’. What was the next thing? It was to care about the people you’re normally supposed to care about. We just did the next thing until it became normal again.

“Among the people who died were those I served at the coffee shop where I worked, before they went into the city. One guy was a fireman. He died fighting. A woman who came in had lost all her co-workers. She was the only survivor from her company. The grief of people who did survive was overwhelming.”

Ben: “You hear a lot of stories about what an important role the church played. People were streaming to churches. The churches were crowded for days on end and several churches held night services. Church doors were open all the time because people were searching and needing to talk. Church members were handing out food and water and blankets to volunteers who were searching for survivors. The churches did a great job. They did it for a long time and it was necessary.

“I don’t know how I would have handled it if I was not a believer. I think the peace we could offer to others was important

because we could not offer answers: the ‘why’ questions and the ‘what’ ques-tions. If you have peace in such times then others will respect you and it gives you that door of opportunity to share your faith. I think that is important when it comes to terror.”

What would you like the church to do?

Ben: “Evil is having its day. We should use these events to call people to repen-tance and call them into a relationship with Christ. It gives the church great grounds to speak.”

Janeen: “I saw a lot of bonding and humility. We realized our ways are not perfect, we’re not doing all things right, as a nation as well…anyway, I think repentance and humility could be an appropriate response.”

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S I E R R A L E O N E

SANDRA MYBURGH, a South African, worked on the 28th floor of the World Trade Centre. On the day of the attack news reached her relatives that she was in the building at the time of the attack. She was at a crèche right next to the site of the World Trade Centre.

People at the Christian Student’s Association’s office in Stellenbosch were praying for her, fearing that she might be trapped. Sandra was in the final term of her pregnancy. Knowing her situation, brought the raw emotion and the impli-cations of that day so much closer than on TV. The following day the good news

reached her family that she had survived, remarkably. A South African newspaper published a brief report on her survival. Sandra was quoted saying: “It is only by God’s grace that I got out of that alive.” Sandra and Phillip’s daughter, Michaela was born 16 days later, on September 27. Sandra’s experience changed her life. Sandra says a sermon in the Brooklyn

Tabernacle on 9/11 was both prophetic and profound. The sermon was titled: “Ten reasons why bad things that happen are good.” She says: “It’s about being humbled, broken. We are like grapes that must go through the wine press when we discover what is truly important.”

Philip and Sandra were recently in South Africa on their way to climb to the base camp of Mount Everest. They described the purpose of their expedition as a “prayer journey for people facing moun-tains in their lives”. This was part of a HIV awareness campaign in gratitude for their survival.

WHEN TRIBALISM FEEDS TERRORISM

Terror in Sierra Leone took the nature of indiscriminate violence inflicted on civilians by various factions in civil war. People were mutilated especially through

the severing of limbs with the purpose of causing panic and intimidation.

It was a reign of terror, involving torture and maimings of thousands of civilians. An estimated 50 000 people were killed in the civil war until 2002 when the UN installed its largest peacekeeping force in the country (17 000 troops).

For Moses Pewa of Sierra Leone the ordeal was not a once-off catastrophe like 9/11, but a ten year civil war that he lived through.

We met him in Stellenbosch whilst he was attending a Christian Leader-ship Program hosted by the African Leadership Institute for Community Transformation.

January 6, 1999 is a day Moses Pewa will never forget. On that day the rebel Revolutionary United Front made another unsuccessful attempt to over-throw the government.

“I was in the city of Freetown when the rebels reached the city. It was so terrifying. They invaded the city and killed so many. Between 5 000 and 10 000 people lost their lives in the city and in the provinces countless people died or were maimed. All kinds of atrocities were committed.

“I lost my wife when my daughter, the youngest of my children, was only two and a half months old. My wife fled in the wrong direction and was captured. She died in a labour camp. I have bullet scars. I was apprehended and I didn’t realize that I was wounded until some-body else saw the blood on my legs.”

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G E N O C I D E

Did the church rally round providing comfort during those times?

“There was no time for that. Our house was burnt to the ground.

“All the Christians in the nation were so deeply touched by what was going on that people prayed 24 hours a day for the war to end. They prayed and prayed and prayed.

“With the intervention of the international community and the UN, the different warring factions eventually came together and brokered the Lome Peace Agreement. After ten months in office, the junta was ousted and President Kabbah was reinstated. He decided to call all the warring factions together. This is part of the known history.

“Less known history is that whilst Major Johny Paul Koroma (Leader of The Armed Forces Revolutionary Council who had overthrown President Kabbah) was on death row, he became a born-again Christian. His wife testified in one of the biggest churches in Freetown and a group of people was set up to pray for Koroma.

“Koroma approached the president and asked for an opportunity to address the nation. He confessed his sin on national radio.

“He warned that the people were planning a revolt that could result in genocide. He encouraged everybody, irrespective of their belief, to join the Christians in the streets of the city at five o’clock in the evenings to pray. He said that everybody should shout the name of Jesus seven times. And that is exactly what happened in Freetown. Everybody came out, whether they were Christian or Muslim, and began shouting: ‘Jesus, Jesus’ seven times. Senior members of the group who had violated the peace agreement were arrested. Steps were established for bringing about a permanent cessation of hostilities.

“Then it was finally declared that the war was over. As a Christian I believe that we should call upon Him and remind Him of His promises and for the nation at least to repent of its sins. At the time of crisis so many of our people turned to the Lord. It seemed there was no other solution. These were very trying times but because of prayer, reconciliation was possible.”

Genocide is the physical elimination of a specific group on the grounds of culture, language and/or religion. In Rwanda genocide escalated to the deepest form of crime, crime against humanity.

Moses, Albert, Nelson &

their friend Dennis (four

survivors who testify).

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The current Rwandan government was nominated by the Tutsi tribe, which overthrew the old government dominated by the Hutu tribe. Before losing power, the Hutu rulers and their militia massa-cred over half a million people. The Hutus conduct a guerrilla war against the Tutsi government from bases in the Congo. Rwanda used the presence of the Hutu guerrillas to take part in the recent Congolese Wars.

Albert Mabasi, Rwanda

“One of the greatest of all atrocities known to man took place in Rwanda when about a million people died in 100 days.

“This occurred after the president’s plane crashed in 1994. Albert Mabasi could not return to Rwanda after his studies, so he stayed in Kenya when the genocide occurred.

“In 1992 and 1993 my parents died. I was very sad because I could have arranged for my mom to go for treatment in Kenya. But it was not possible to get documents because she belonged to the Tutsi tribe. When I returned to Rwanda, I thought I would find my family, but found that my younger brothers had been killed.

“Unfortunately the church didn’t play its part in Rwanda. Statistics showed that over 80% of the people in Rwanda are Christians. But even some Chris-tians participated in the genocide. People fled to the church buildings, thinking they would be safe. But the perpetrators found them in the churches and killed them. They even threw grenades into the churches. Many people perished in the churches of Rwanda. At that time people were

saying: ‘Maybe God is not in Rwanda’.

“I can’t generalize, I can’t say that all Christians participated, but some did.

“To have seen the war end was God’s grace. Unfortunately people are saying that what happened to the Tutsis can also happen to the Hutus. They may take revenge. We must pray against this.”

Are there Hutus and Tutsis worshipping in the same congregation?

“Yes, there are, I can give many examples.”

What is your calling, what is God asking of you specifically?

“After being strengthened, I must streng-then others. That is what we are doing. I praise God because I’m healed. I live in peace with my Hutu friends. We went to university together and we prayed together. The Holy Spirit touched some of us and we could confess to one another and asked one another for forgiveness.

“Our group is growing. There is a group of Christians playing a great role in reconciliation. And that is our job, to reconcile people with God and with their neighbours.”

Patrick Nyirishema

Patrick Nyirishema, who is from Rwanda, is studying computer engineering at the University of Pretoria.

Patrick told a similar story about Rwanda to that of Albert Mabasi, although they have never met.

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C I V I L W A R I N L I B E R I A

“When the genocide began, the churches were seen as safe places to go to. In fact they became traps. As so many people came to the churches they were easier to kill because they were all in one place.

“I was in Uganda. That is why I am alive today. Immediately when the war ended I returned to Rwanda. Churches were still literally spattered with blood. I didn’t go to church then. I don’t even know if I really believed in God anymore.

“And then God brought me to South Africa. I started going to church again. People invited me and I started a slow journey and finally I became born again and here I am today.

“At the time of the war in Rwanda Christi-anity was not alive. People were just being religious.

“They don’t know about Jesus, they don’t know what it really mean. It is more like a ritual. How could a Christian witness the killings and how could a minister tell his congregation that God has given them up to be killed?

“There were those speaking in meetings who were planning to kill people, drawing up lists of people to be killed. They were luring people into churches and then calling people to come and butcher them.

There was an absence of people who would stand up for their faith.”

What are your hopes for Rwanda?

“For the entire church, I hope there will be a time to stand up and repent and admit: ‘We failed the people of Rwanda, we failed ourselves, we failed our neigh-bours, we faile.’

“Yet things have started to change in Rwanda. Young people, old people, senior military officers are being born-again and confessing. I’ve seen times when our president quotes from the Bible, this has never happened before.”

How do you feel about going back to such a place?

“I feel I really need to go back, it’s kind of strange, but I believe it was not an accident that I was born Rwandese. Now that I have been born-again, there is work to be done in Rwanda. And I can’t wait for people to come from other countries to support us. I feel I should step out from the front line and start working there.”

Do you have relatives left?

“I lost most, but still I have some.”

Albert has since married and has one daughter. They are due to return to Rwanda.

A civil war between the contending military forces led to the election of Charles Taylor as president in July of 1997. Taylor continued to battle insurgents who opposed his rule, reportedly traded the weapons for diamonds and aided the rebel

war against the Sierra Leone Government, conducting brutal sweeps through civilian areas. In 2003, Taylor was indicted for war crimes and accepted an offer for asylum in Nigeria.

Nelson Boegbah, a senior pastor of a group of churches in Liberia, went through a 19-year war. He saw people being captured by rebels. They were not allowed to put on their shoes before being marched off to camps where some starved to death. He started working with displaced people.

“We had a team that carried relief aid into dangerous areas. We took the Gospel with us; ministered to the people and lived with them.”

Nelson lost his mother, who was very dear to him, his father who was active in the church, as well as other loved ones and members of the church.

“God spoke to me to call the church to repent because of the blood on their hands and to turn away from their sin as . the Scripture says in 2 Chron 7:14.‘If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.’

“When God says ‘do your part,’ I always do my part. I was not afraid even if there was danger. If God gives me a message I will not rest until I have delivered it. So I would preach about it and there was no fear even though people were killed for the sake of preaching.

“When I go back to Liberia I’m going to call all the political leaders together.

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We must not only see the dying but also the resurrection of Liberia. We are in darkness. We must reconcile. We must follow the example of South Africa, South Africa is a light.”

AFTER READING THE ACCOUNTS OF THE ABOVE WITNESSES, WE ASK HOW SHOULD THE BODY OF CHRIST RESPOND IN THE FACE OF TERROR?

The emotional effects of huge terror attacks are felt by people everywhere. Anyone can find themselves at risk. In a media-dominated age the lethal product, fear, travels fast and wide.

God’s grace will carry us through. Many are survivors, but not all who survive overcome. Victory comes through a deliberate attitude and decision to tap the grace, the mercy, the help and the truth from God through Christ.

Through an intimate relationship with God we can be in a continuous state of preparedness. This comes through ‘abiding’ in Him. Even if we don’t know the outcome, we know Someone who does.

Crises bring a shift of values: From the outward identity that I wear like a uniform, be that my career, lifestyle or status, to inner values centred on spiritual life, character faith and compassion.

Personal choices that are made in a flash, will count for eternity. In facing a disaster of this nature we cannot rely on an organized body to save us.

We are the church. There is no ‘they’ that owe us a life or are obliged to live up to our expectations. The perspective should rather be: ‘what do we do?’ than ‘what do they do?’ and in final analysis I have to consider; ‘what do I do?’. From our interviews, we learn the importance of unity in the church and of carrying one another’s burdens. When we talk about the Church of the Lord in this context, we do not refer to a specific church or denomination, but the entire body of redeemed followers of Christ. The church is more than an institution or an organized structure. It is God’s army on earth involved in a spiritual battle that is not against flesh and blood (Eph 6:12).

This means moving beyond petty differences of denominations and ethnic or national boundaries. We have heard from these witnesses how the power of prayer changes nations. Our task is to continue praying for our Government, our political leaders and other nations.

WHAT ABOUT SOUTH AFRICA?

While we are told by the security experts that South Africa has no terrorism threat whatsoever, we know that circumstances can change in our world.

As children of God we should, therefore, hold on to our faith and the knowledge that God is All Present, All Powerful and All Knowing and that everything works out for the best to those who love Him.

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-trememake-over

...when God performs the surgery

In Revelation 12:11, God’s Word teaches us that we will overcome by the Blood of the Lamb In Revelation 12:11, God’s Word teaches us that we will overcome by the Blood of the Lamb

and the word of our testimony. MY World met three inspiring young people who were in situationsand the word of our testimony. MY World met three inspiring young people who were in situations

that, to them, became “eternal life”- threatening. They recognise that they overcame by the Bloodthat, to them, became “eternal life”- threatening. They recognise that they overcame by the Blood

of Jesus and now they testify.of Jesus and now they testify.

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In Revelation 12:11, God’s Word teaches us that we will overcome by the Blood of the Lamb

and the word of our testimony. MY World met three inspiring young people who were in situations

that, to them, became “eternal life”- threatening. They recognise that they overcame by the Blood

of Jesus and now they testify.

When we allow the Holy Spirit to become our heart surgeon He will give us an X-treme makeover. We will receive a new heart and a new life. We will become living testimonies to people around us that God answers prayers and that with Him all things are possible.

Waldo’s Story

WALDO NAGEL SPENT 4 YEARS of his life being in a gay relationship until one day God started with spiritual surgery and performed an extreme makeover.

“When I look back it is very difficult to tell people how I got into it. I didn’t make a decision that I wanted to be gay.”

Waldo says that as a child he had a ‘perfect’ life, he came from a close-knit family who loved him. He was an achiever and became deputy headboy, participated internationally as a hurdles athlete and had a very close relationship with the Lord. He was never molested, had strong morals and nothing bad ever happened to him in his life.

At school he knew there was something different about him. He felt attracted to other boys. But he did not give it too much thought. In his first year at university he struggled with an injury, visited a gym and met the person with whom he would spend the next four years in a very dedicated relationship.

“I think I was at a vulnerable stage in my life when we met. I had no desire to have a relationship in my life. But he had a very attractive personality, led a gay lifestyle and was obviously interested in me as a partner. We entered into a relationship and I absolutely idolised him.”

His partner died an accidental death and

Waldo suddenly found himself alone and with many questions in his life.

“ I just could not believe that he was dead. It was the most traumatic time in my life and I took my questions to the Lord. I think this was the first time I actually intensely started talking to the Lord.

“During this time I never doubted the existence of the Lord or my relationship with Him. I would admit that I always had a two to three percent reservation about my choice I had made. I knew that according to God’s Word it was exactly what He wanted for my life. But I justified it with the feeling that God had made me different and that He would understand why I was living the way I did.”

During the past year Waldo had learnt a very valuable lesson - he couldn’t trust his feelings!

“Your feelings aren’t necessarily the truth, because in a day’s time you can feel many different ways. Because we are in a natural realm and God and the evil one in a super-natural realm, it is possible for Satan to stir up our feelings and to plant thoughts in other people to attack us. You feel something and it could be a total lie and it has nothing to do with what God had planned for your life!”

Today Waldo can see that something drastic, like the death of a person that he deeply cared for, could bring him to this point in his life. He severed his ties with his old lifestyle. A very painful wound had been healed and he is looking forward to a life with a wife and children. He admits that his healing wasn’t instant. It was a process of spending much time with the Lord and with a sympa-thetic counsellor.

“I have given thought to the question why God doesn’t want us to be gay and the first thing that comes to mind is that you can’t be that way because you feel that way. I was there, at that point. It was all about my feelings.”

Waldo wrestled with God on the subject of How? and Why? and testifies that God gave him revelation. “God does not give one a set of rules on what not to do. What I understand today is that God equals Life. That to me is a big revelation. Anything that does not lead to life is not from God. A gay relationship does not lead to life; it ends in nothing because there can be no children and the cycle of life is broken.

“What people miss is that everyone is looking for something big, something that is alive and something that can be established in his or her life. We often stand in a hole between this and that. You have this ‘issue’ in your life and you don’t understand it and then I believe God disciplines you a little. It is to your own advantage and you are brought to your senses. Everything happens according to creation.

God made the natural laws. He conceived science and biology and that is the way it is. He cannot change His natural laws for every person.

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“God wants me to think and become like Him. We see problems, big and small. To God our problems are all the same. He expects us to handle problems the way He does.

“I got confused about the substance of being gay. I still thought of myself as a ‘good’ person even though I was using drugs and living that lifestyle.” Waldo remained a believer and felt God’s protection right through this time. “I believe God is only good.”

One day in desperation Waldo went to pray in the chapel at his church. “I walked in and I saw a few women. And I begged the Lord that they would not ask me to come and pray with them. I did not want to share my story with them. But, the one lady told me that God gave her a vision of me. She saw me in a passage with many doors, she warned me not to open any of them and to continue right to the end because the prize I was going to receive was enormous.

“I started reading a book by Joyce Meyer (a US pastor) and it answered all my questions. When I opened the Bible my eye would fall on a verse with an answer or a promise. God promised that He would keep my enemies away from me and that He would restore me.

“I went to see a counsellor and she explained to me that I consisted of a spirit, soul and body and that my spirit must overrule my body. Because we live in a fallen world we are able to sin in our bodies and we buy into Satan’s lie - if it feels good, do it.”

“When God changes your spirit and you live close to Him, it is easy to see when things are wrong. I have become sensitive to things and it could even sound stupid, but when I drive down a street I would detect an uneasiness in my spirit even before I see a sign with www.siener.co.za.”

He doesn’t deny that it was a process that would change his life. He took each step with the Lord and then one day was WOW! A woman stood next to him in a shop one day, he smelt her gentle perfume, he found her very women. This was not something he had tried to do by himself, but a gift he received.

“When we pray to God and ask something according to His will, there is the promise that we will receive what we asked for. It is God’s biggest desire that we are healed. So many things that happened during the past year testify that when you make a choice for God, He cares for you, that He is loyal, that He is faithful, that He is who He says He is.

“I know why such a lifestyle is so much more prevalent with men than with women. It is because man has been created in God’s image and Satan wants to pervert this and steal from God. Satan will use anything where you have the potential to sin.”

Because Waldo was a good athlete, gym and exercise was a natural choice. “I wanted to look good and my body became an obsession. God does not appreciate this self-love. This was one of the biggest reasons

why I became gay. I saw an image of what I wanted to be. I fell in love with that image. then you see that in someone else. It begins as a good thing and becomes idolatry. Today I can exercise without the obsession, I am free to enjoy it.”

Waldo’s advice to people who struggle with the same problem is:

“Don’t keep quiet. If you are a believer you should firstly talk to God. You are no surprise to God because He knows you. Admit your problem and take a decision: This is not what you want for your life that is why it worries you.”

The way parents handle the situation is very important. The child must be able to see God in them and through them he will see the truth in the situation.

Waldo’s parents never rejected him and loved him right through this period in his life. “My parents are believers and they prayed for me and supported me even though it was difficult for them to understand.”

Waldo has become a living testimony that God changes lives. He knows that God will use him as a voice that will speak into many lives.

On his way to our interview someone phoned him and asked him “Waldo tell me, are you gay?” “No, I’m not!”

An honest answer from someone who had received an X-treme makeover from the Lord.

Waldo was delivered from his old life. He received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, peace and wisdom and is growing in obedi-ence daily.

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Mariaan’s Story

MARIAAN DE BRUYN IS A LOVELY young woman who is working as an administrator. She visits schools to testify about her new life and what God has done for and with her in the limited period of a year.

Her life started ordinarily. Father, mother, siblings and her. Her parents got divorced and her father was fatally wounded in a shooting accident.

A family member started molesting and then rewarding her when she was five and this continued until she was thirteen. She had a nervous breakdown, life became hard and her mother turned to alcohol. Mariaan wanted to protect the younger members of her family from what was happening around them.

She doesn’t really know what landed her into prostitution, but at school she enjoyed the attention she received from boys, she dressed to attract and confused love as having intimate relationships.

“I totally disappeared into that world. John 10:10 says ‘The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy.’ It started with molestation, led to prostitution and then on to drugs.

“Many people believe that it starts with friends. But for me it didn’t. I went out and looked for it. I saw people using drugs on TV and it looked so cool. I wanted to be like them and when I found that life, I embraced it totally, even using a golden straw just like I’d seen on TV. “Prostitution looked like a stunning life on the screen and I chose it. To me it was about power, drugs gave me confidence. I felt in control. I could say yes or no and at the end of the day, I had the money and that gave me power. But it was a total lie.”

Living as a prostitute could no longer support Mariaan’s expensive drug habit and she became a dealer. Again it would become a power trip for her, she was in control. People begged her on their knees to help them. She enjoyed having them at her mercy. But her own drug habit caught up with her. She couldn’t eat or sleep and lost her self-respect. When it all became too much for her, she overdosed and that landed her in rehabilitation. She ran away from the rehab.

Living quite securely in a dangerous environment just added to her perception that she was in control. She miraculously survived her own and other peoples’ attempts to end her life.

“My mother never gave up hope. I would disappear for a year but my mom would send a message: ‘Tell Mariaan I love her. Tell her my door is always open, she is welcome to come home.’ She always enquired to find out where I was. She would send my brother and sister to look for me. She always reassured me that she loved me.”

Mariaan would go home to try and wean herself off drugs. Her mom turned to alcohol and Mariaan could not take it any longer. She warned her mother that if she ever touched another drink, she would never see her again. Her mother took her threat seriously and stopped drinking altogether. She started going to church and had a personal encoun-ter with the Lord. Her life totally changed. “My mother started praying for me in fact she prayed for all of us.”

“In the end I lived in one of those Nigerian ‘crack houses’, people visit for drugs and prostitution. My mom would come and visit. God gave my mother the strength to visit me in such a place and she only brought love. When she asked me if she could pray for me, I would say ‘yes’, just to make her happy.

“You could see that it broke her heart and that she wanted to cry, but she kept it in. She would even bring cake and tell all the junkies she loved them, didn’t judge them, and that Jesus loved them. They thought it was a big joke. But she kept coming. She always phoned me. She would never judge me and would often ask me if I didn’t want to leave.”

One-day Mariaan’s mom and brother arrived. They found her in a very bad state. Her drug dependency had brought her to the stage where her ‘kind’ Nigerian would give her rocks as a wake-up call and heroine as a bedtime drug. She was emaciated and totally yellow.

“Somehow through this whole period in my life, I would always have a little Gideon Bible. I would lose one and find another. Even being totally bombed out, I would read this Bible. I wouldn’t remember anything or be able to tell anybody what I read, but I kept on reading.

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Only then could she allow the Lord to work with her.

“Of course the first step was forgiveness. I had to forgive myself, the family member who molested me and my mother. It was not just a case of speaking forgiveness, but I had to really forgive from the heart. And then the Lord gave me a test. When the family member came to visit me, I could forgive him and prayed for him. Today I love him and have empathy for him. I can sit next to him and I don’t even remember what happened.

“Forgiveness is the core. That is why Jesus Christ came. Matthew 1:21 says that He will save His people from their sins. That was the whole purpose of Jesus’ coming. I got rid of self-pity and all the excuses I used. That was how I could break with my past. This is what the Lord did for me during the past year.”

Mariaan said she couldn’t socialise. She couldn’t speak without swearing. The Lord took away her need to be in control.

“My mother, who is a wonderful child of God, couldn’t believe it. I think God gave me a gift to rest in Him. When I came back from Shekinah, I did not have any worries about the future. I got a job with little money and God knew it wasn’t time for me to earn much more. He taught me to earn money, how to use my money, to be proud of what I do, to dress properly, how to talk to people, not to be offensive and to stand back and listen.

“Until now God has given me everything I needed at the right time. Yesterday I received a car. I no longer have any needs. My only desire is to be close to God to experience Him in me and to do His will. My verse is Romans 12:2. ‘Do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renew-

Mariaan’s story cont inued.. .

“It was late October 2003 when my mom came to see me. She had been working with a social worker and was determined to take me with her that day. But before she could say anything to convince me, I said: ‘Mom I’m ready’. I feared leaving that place. She packed my belongings and went to the Nigerian to tell him she was going to take me with her. He apologised about my condi-tion and said he wasn’t responsible for it. My mom told him she didn’t blame him, that it was my own choice. She settled my debt with him and we left.”

Mariaan was taken to a doctor immedi-ately. He gave her an injection and told her mom her liver was in such a state that she would not have made it to Christmas.

She was taken to Shekinah, a Christian Centre in Natal. “My brother told me the sister was waiting for us on arrival. Every-thing just went so smoothly.” Mariaan started coming off drugs. “I don’t want to say it was out of boredom that I started reading the Bible, but I had a lot of time on my hands. We had quiet time each morning and the people working there started talking about the Lord and their relation-ships with the Lord. They treated me with such love that I started doing some introspection.

“The Lord slowly started working with me slowly. I read a book titled ‘Make me cry’ and I broke down. It was my story. It is about a girl on the street who met the Lord. I could identify with everything she did. I get goose bumps when I think about it. I never cried, nothing could make me cry, because to me crying meant weakness, but I broke down completely and cried for hours and no one could stop me.”

ing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is God’s will, His good, pleasing and perfect will.”

“God has changed my thoughts and He is still changing my way of thinking. It is only a year and a year is so little. I am looking forward to what lies ahead. I am looking forward to see the Lord one day.

Waking up in the morning is WOW! I wake up talking to the Lord. I wake up singing. It’s amazing. I am totally dependant upon Jesus. I can’t face life without Jesus.

“Every time I came out of ‘rehab’ I would keep on craving drugs, but now I don’t think about it. If it comes into my mind I just turn my thoughts towards Jesus. I am actually amused when these thoughts come to me. I think about Jeremiah 29:11 ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

Mariaan is getting to know her mother and her family again and she relishes life.

“God used that part of my life stolen by Satan, to save me and my family. He uses me as an instrument to witness to other people and to give them hope, children as well as parents.”

When Mariaan visits schools to testify about what God has done for her, girls often want to know why God allows molestation? It is a difficult question and one that she is praying about. “I believe it can happen, it happened to me. I was not under a prayer cover. We must start praying for prostitutes, for victims of molestation and for the people who molest. They are also victims.”

“We need to pray, not to judge. This is a big lesson I have learnt.”

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Victor’s Story

VICTOR MATUMBA IS A CHILD AND YOUTH CARE WORKER at BOSASA Dyambu Youth Centre for trial-awaiting juveniles on the West Rand.

Dyambu is the Shangaan word for when the sun rises and brings new hope. Victor was incarcerated at this centre when he came into conflict with the law. Yet here he received more than hope. He met the Lord Jesus and he received a new life, freedom and an honest future.

His story has a sad beginning and a great ending. One we all like to hear.

Victor is a man with a great smile although he remembers himself as a sad young man. “I had so many questions, but nowadays I’m always happy. Each and every day starts with a new challenge and I look forward to it. The past is over.”

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spend much of his life in prison and he found little interest in anything.

But hearing about Jesus got him thinking about Jesus. The One who died and was able to forgive him for all those bad things that he had done. He came to the conclusion that a person like Jesus didn’t exist. “I thought they were lying. But one night when I was alone I thought about this Person who could wipe out my past.” Victor had more and more questions for the visitors.

“I consented to give it a try. That is all I was willing to do, give it a try.

Let me give my heart to God and let me pray with them.” The thought ‘to be free indeed’ got Victor’s attention, because he didn’t believe that there was any freedom in this world. The thought of belonging to a family, and that in Jesus he would find a home and family, comforted the lonely teenager.

In Court he found himself denying everything that he was accused of. But his conscience would not let him go. “I started to think. Wow! Now I was saved and talking about God and still doing the opposite of what the Bible was saying. This was very difficult for me. Here I had to make a very tough decision. I was facing 30 years in prison and I had to weigh the consequences. If I lied I could possibly get away with it and if I spoke the truth I could spend my life in jail. I thought of what the Bible said that wherever I go with God that I would be happy.”

Victor had spent such a long time being sad and without hope. All he could think of was to be truly happy.

“I couldn’t worry about what would happen next. I decided to tell the truth. The next time we went to court I told all my friends of my decision, that I had received Jesus as my Saviour and that I was going to take the stand and tell the truth.” His co-accused and friends were horrified.

Victor’s story cont inued.. .

Victor grew up in Alexandra Township, north east of Johannesburg. When Victor finished school there was no money for studies and no opportunity for work. He spent his time on the streets of Alex.

“It was a bad place, some people called it Gomorrah. There where many gangsters. Gangsters who focussed on hatred.”

As Victor saw them every day, his admiration for them grew. They had smart cars and cool clothes. To him they looked on top of the world. “In the townships these guys become your role models because you don’t really have a good foundation and they look so successful.”

The streets brought him his first job. The gangsters liked young people and he was recruited by the BTK’s, Born To Kill. Before long he had a new and ruthless career as an armed robber. “It wasn’t only armed robbery, it also involved kidnapping because you can’t leave evidence behind.” It was their robbery of a tollgate in Limpopo that brought an end to this dangerous and lucrative career. The robbery was planned and successfully executed. But after a few months they were rounded up and arrested in Jo’burg, one by one.

Victor spent the first few months in “Sun City” (Johannesburg Prison). During his trial he was placed in Dyambu Centre for the next two years. Robbery court cases take particu-larly long. Nearly three years passed before Victor’s case came to sentencing.

When he arrived at Dyambu he was still a youth, seventeen going on eighteen.

At the centre he would see people come and go. Some would be talking about Jesus. Victor had no interest in such talk. To him it was a forgone fact that he was going to

They feared that he would sell them out and threatened to kill him if he was going to be that stupid. As members of the BTK these threats were certainly not just talk. He was frightened, but his mind was made up, he just turned to God and said: “If I die, I die for You, because when I live, I live for You.”

“I told the magistrate that I was keen to testify. Time was running out. I had spent nearly two years in prison. I took the stand and I spoke to the Lord and said: ‘God I have nothing to say’. I always sang this song: ‘Be with me each and every hour.’ Then, I said to myself: If God is with me each and every hour, why must I be afraid? If I go to prison, then I must go and face the music.”

Victor confessed. “I was straightforward and told what I did. Then the magistrate asked me what the others did and I told him that they were there to answer for themselves. I cannot speak on their behalf, I can only say what I did and I am prepared to face the consequences. He said to me: ‘Victor, you know you are facing a life sentence because of what you have done.’ I said it doesn’t matter! Deep down I knew that I was free, I did not want to live with guilt for the rest of my life.”

The case was taken under review and postponed for another six months. Victor admitted that he was disappointed and had a sinking feeling. So much time had passed.

After six months the case was re-opened and Victor was seventh on the list of the seven accused. They all received different sentences and when the magistrate spoke to him he said: “Victor you are free to go!” Victor could not believe it.

“When I walked out of that court, the regional court at Westgate (court 14), I was like a ghost. I remember they stamped and signed my papers. I went outside. Nobody was waiting for me. I did not know Johannes-burg any longer.

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I just had to sit down for a few minutes to get hold of myself. I walked out free, not even with a suspended sentence. Then I saw a man with a cell phone. I asked him if I could make a phone call.

I did not have any money on me. I managed to phone a young pastor, Jan du Toit of Northcliff Union, who came to visit us at Dyambu. I told him I was out and didn’t know what to do.”

Pastor du Toit fetched Victor, told him not to worry about anything and organised a place for him to stay. “I just couldn’t believe what had happened, I was not used to anything like this happening in my life. I knew it was something extraordinary.” Victor was taken to Father Chris, a Catholic priest who ran Ifafi Community Centre near Hartebeespoortdam. He worked and prayed with youth.

“I asked myself how I went from ‘prison to church’? Father Chris and I became good friends. He had plans for my future. I was sent to Bible College where I received a diploma after two years.”

On the day he finished writing his exams, the Dyambu Centre called him and offered him a job.

“One must be careful what you pray for. I can remember praying that I would really like to work with young people. It was my vision and my mission. I wanted to share my experience with them. I never thought that my prayer could be answered in this way.”

Victor has earned a lot of respect amongst the youngsters who he works with. “They understand that I was like them once. Most of the youngsters in Dyambu have lost hope. I just encourage them that there is life after this experience. Most of them have seen so many negative things in life. If we can change them we can change the future of this country.”

Victor encourages youth offenders to turn from their ways and to persevere. “People label you as a robber and they keep on calling you that. Even though you have changed. When you pass that stage nothing can stop you. You just know that you have made a decision and you stick to it. I always tell young people that the decisions you make as a teenager are likely to be the decisions that you will live by. It could be a life of regret or a life of joy.”

Victor has wedding plans and admits that out of all of his family members he is closest to his mom, Lucy Matumba. “When I was arrested I called her and asked her to pray for me and she said: ‘Victor, I pray for you every night’.”

He has completed a trial awaiting juvenile to Child and Youth Care Worker.

Surgery performed by God – an X-treme makeover, New Life!

More and more we see women rising up and living boldly for Jesus in their respective callings. I recently met with Joyce Meyer on her visit to South Africa and I also spoke to Elza Meyer, Reverend at the Moreleta Park Dutch Reformed Church in Pretoria.

I spoke to them about following their passion as “teachers” of God’s Word.

Both these God-fearing women have the same characteristic, they submit to their husbands who in turn, in phenomenal ways support their wives in their callings.

JOYCE MEYER

Her television broadcast can be seen throughout nearly two-thirds of the world. Her best-selling books can be found in thousands of bookstores worldwide. And her straight-forward practical teachings have Christians of all denominations taking notice…

This is Joyce Meyer and I had the privi-lege of meeting her.

In many of her messages, it’s not uncom-mon to hear Joyce encouraging others that, “Jesus can heal you everywhere you hurt!” Her deep conviction comes from first-hand experience. Now recognized as one of the most well-known and well-respected ministers of our time, Joyce Meyer had humble and painful beginnings.

Often, while you’re laughing with Joyce, you suddenly realize she has confronted

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you with an inescapable picture of your own weaknesses and needs. Then, with understanding and love, she presents tried and true Bible answers to help you “move up higher” on your spiritual journey.

As a child, Joyce suffered years of sexual, verbal, and emotional abuse from several men, but primarily her father. Anxious to get away from the situation, Joyce moved out at the age of eighteen and admits to marrying the first man who showed any interest in her. She says that most of the time he didn’t work, and he would oftentimes leave for weeks without explanation. He drank constantly, had relationships with other women and he eventually even got into trouble with the law.

At age twenty-two, Joyce gave birth to her eldest son David, and shortly after left her husband because of his continuing behavior. Hurt and disappointed, Joyce prayed for someone who would be good to her. “I prayed that God would give me someone who really loved me,” Joyce says, “and someone who would bring me to church.”

Not long after, Joyce met Dave Meyer, who had not only been praying for a wife, but in particular, a woman that needed help. After only five dates, Dave proposed to Joyce, and on January 7, 1967, they were married.

Joyce claims, “God used the peace, joy, and stability in his life to create a deep desire within me to want what he had. Through many tears and trying times, God began to walk me through the process of emotional healing.” Several years later, Joyce had another experience that would change her life forever.

“God’s grace met me in February of 1976 when He filled me with His Spirit. As a result, I began to study the Word more diligently. One day not long after that, I was making my bed when the voice of the Lord came unto me saying, ‘You’re going to go all over the place and teach My Word, and you’re going to have a large teaching tape ministry.’”

Dave says, “From humble beginnings, a typewriter in our garage came the Joyce Meyer Ministries”.

This year, over 375,000 people will see and hear Joyce in person at one of her sixteen conferences held in various metropolitan areas of the United States. This includes her annual International St. Louis Women’s Convention which over 13,000 women from around the world attend for a weekend of spiritual renewal. Joyce’s conferences include several sessions that each begin with a time of praise and worship and are followed by her teaching. Throughout the conference, Joyce pours out her heart as she presents what God has given her for the people.

Amidst all of the ministry work, Joyce Meyer still manages to be a full-time wife, a fun-loving mother to four grown children and their spouses and a doting grandmother to eight lively grandchildren. Her husband, Dave, the

business administrator for Joyce Meyer Minis-tries, is frequently mentioned in Joyce’s personal and hilarious teachings, and everyone who knows much about the ministry realizes the two are a team. Joyce says, “The moment I come down from the pulpit, I am Joyce Meyer, Dave Meyer’s wife.”

Dave says, “God has given Joyce the ministry of teaching, and He has given me a talent and minis-try for financial administration. I can’t do what God has called her to do, and she can’t do what He’s called me to do. We are a team. We need each other.”

Joyce Meyer quickly acknowledges that only God could bring her from where she was to where she is now—and she says the abuse she suffered has only helped her to minister to more people in a greater way than ever imagined. “What the devil meant for my harm, God used for my good. Because of everything I went through, I can effectively minister to emotionally wounded people and help them find their freedom through Christ. I know that if God did it for me, He’ll do it for others, too.” After more than twenty-six years in ministry, Dave and Joyce Meyer only seem to be gain-ing momentum.

They have an unquenchable desire to help people know God and experience His goodness that only seems to grow with time. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, they are showing the world that they really can enjoy every single day of their life.

Joyce recently visited South Africa and I met with her at apress conference held at the Michelangelo Hotel, Sandton.

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ELZA MEYER

Her eyes shine with compassion. Her tone of voice is soft, but her boldness is uncompromising for Jesus. This is Elza Meyer, one of South Africa’s first women in ministry.

Elza accepted Jesus at the age of 15. Always curious about salvation and how she would be able to go to heaven she fondly recalls one Sunday when a young man preached in Lindley in the Free State.

He explained how to accept Jesus. She did and it radically changed her life. That Monday morning while attending school, she prayed continuously: “Lord, please fill me with Your Spirit.” At about 11 o’clock in the Afrikaans class she was filled with the Holy Spirit. She recalls an overwhelming touch of God. She started walking in faith. She started telling all the children about Jesus and how they could be saved. A small revival broke out in their school and many children gave their hearts to the Lord.

Elza’s deepest heart’s desire was to become a Reverend in the Dutch Reformed Church. Although she was accepted at the University of Pretoria to study theology, she was a woman and therefore they could not legitimately admit her.

So she had to follow her second passion, to become a teacher.

After completing her studies she married and began teaching. Although she loved the children and found fulfillment in seeing them become excellent students the longing in her heart never ceased.

She would study Hebrew at night to

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enable her to read the Bible in its original language.

She recalls how her husband said to her: “Elza, this is not right. God spoke to me in my heart. You teach during the day, study at night and you are a very devoted mother to our children. You can’t die with a dream in your heart. You must become a Reverend.”

Elza did not discuss this with anybody. She secretly asked God that if He was calling her, He should confirm it through somebody else.

Well, that was in April 1991. In August of the same year the principal, at the school where she was teaching, called her to a meeting one morning.

“I can’t take it Elza, every time I pray for you God prompts me to tell you that He is calling you. Tell me, where is He calling you to?”

Elza just wept and answered, “He is calling me to become a Reverend.” Yet Elza still needed more confirmation, as she had to think of her children and her marriage. She asked God to speak to her grandmother who played a phenom-enal role in her life. Although her grandmother always used to say: “My child, a woman’s role is in the home,” Elza knew that if her grandmother confirmed it, she would go!

When she discussed it with her grandmother, her answer to Elza was, “At last.” She started studying in 1992. She worked exceptionally hard and completed her studies in 5 years.

“I started as Reverend in the church in Kempton Park. There I experienced a tangible move of God. When it was Pentecost, we would preach about the Book of Acts and the people would be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Concerning women in ministry, Elza says that if God calls you, you should answer, whether you are a male or female. It is the same calling!

“When you read the New Testament you will see that Priscilla was teaching with Aquilla and you will see that Phoebe and many others were allowed to speak. Paul was talking about them teaching other people or serving other people as part of the congregation.” She however warns women in ministry not to try and become like men. There is a definite role for men and for women. In the beginning God said that He made male and female. They would be His image. In that unity, the role of man and woman are portrayed. So when men and women work together in ministry, irrespective of their roles, they should stand in unity and respect each other’s God-given roles.

Elza believes that God wants to be restored as the King of South Africa. It might look like a daunting task, but she compares it to an ant heap she once saw in a vision. “There were many ants running through the little corridors and passageways. So too, God is going to use everybody who chooses to be

obedient to Him and who are prepared to take His principles to their various occupations, teachers, lawyers, doctors etc. These God-fearing men and women will rise up. “God is preparing His bride for revival. The bride may be in the church but not all who are in the church are the bride. The bride is the one who knows the bridegroom intimately and is in love with Him.

“In the same way, I believe God wants us as a nation to fall in love with Him.”

Her passion is igniting and she is adament to finish strongly.

Elza currently serves at the Dutch Reformed Church Moreleta Park, one of the most proactive and fastest growing churches in South Africa.

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page sponsored by t ro jan foods / photography andrea badenhor s t

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Fruit, fruit, fruitThe way we respond to situations and how we treat people can be seen as the fruit that we bear.

We are encouraged to allow the Holy Spirit to control us so that we will bear good fruit, fruit that will last.

As a nation we are geographically made up of 9 provinces and spiritually there are 9 fruit of the Spirit.

We are a spiritual basket of good fruit… that is ripe for the picking. Look at our pickings… taste and

see that the Lord is good.

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Eastern Capespir i tual f ru i t

l o v e

Freestatespir i tual f ru i t

j o y

Gautengspir i tual f ru i t

p e a c e

Kwa-Zulu Natalspir i tual f ru i t

p a t i e n c e

Limpopospir i tual f ru i t

k i n d n e s s

Mpumalangaspir i tual f ru i t

g o o d n e s s

Northen Capespir i tual f ru i t

f a i t h f u l n e s s

North Westspir i tual f ru i t

g e n t l e n e s s

Western Capespir i tual f ru i t

s e l f - c o n t r o l

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THIS WAS A CONVERSATION I HAD with an employment agent soon after graduation. The world was my oyster. I had the ideal job, in the ideal environment, earning a good salary (I was earning more than my parents) and I was engaged to the most wonderful woman. After nine years of marriage we realized the awful truth: that if we took our last five years of financial progress into the next five years we would NOT be in a good position. This was the beginning of my search for answers, my search for financial peace.

I searched for answers and over the next few years I came to learn many valuable truths about one’s finances. Many of these were either contrary to popular thought or so profoundly simple that I wondered how I had missed them before. A particularly significant understanding was from Galatians 6:12. It warns that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities, and rulers of darkness. The key word for me was “wrestle”. I had a picture of a Roman Greek wrestling where the whole idea was to incapacitate your opponent. It was not a fight to the death but rather a long struggle where one would render the opposition immobile. I understood that one very effective way Satan incapaci-tates and immobilizes Christians is through their finances.

When experiencing pressure and problems in this area, many Christians are completely nullified and prevented from fulfilling their Godly purpose and calling. They continue to run on the finan-cial treadmill of life, but without any progress. I have had brothers in Christ describe their situation as “appearing each month to almost be coming right” only to miss the mark each time. Does this have a familiar ring to it?

“I have another job position” said the employment agent. “They are looking for a young, newly qualified Chartered Accountant, with a view to grooming him for management.”

“What are the perks?” I enquired.

“Company car, 13th Cheque, Provident fund, Medical aid. The salary package is exactly what you wanted.”

“What about Gym and Squash membership?” I asked.

“Is there a bit of travel included? Is there scope to improve my IT knowledge? Oh, and what about location? It must be in Sandton. I don’t want to work in an industrial area.”

p h o t o g r a p h y : a n d r e a b a d e n h o r s t w o r d s : m i l e s s i n c l a i r

YourFamily BudgetPutting God in charge

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I was astounded to find that God’s word contains more than 2 300 verses on finances and posses-sions. Luke 16:11 taught me that if I did not handle worldly wealth faithfully, I would not be entrusted with the true (spiritual) riches. Wow, if I was going to experience my Godly purpose and calling I would have to take a fresh look at how I handled my money! This was the key I had been missing to unlock the true spiritual riches I had desired that God would give. Never before had I realized what God was expecting in terms of being a faithful steward.

I learned that more important than how much I earn, was what I did with it. I learned that my traditional financial knowledge and education was severely deficient, containing many half-truths and that it would not ensure that I was ever going to be financially free.

There was another reason for taking my money matters seriously. Matthew 6:24 shows that finances and possessions compete with Christ for Lordship of our lives. Realising that I could not serve two masters, that I had to make a choice to either serve God or serve money, was a difficult thing to do. One of the sobering things I learned was the following phrase: “You can learn more about a person’s character by looking at his cheque book than by listening to him talk”. We spend money on the things that are important to us. So figuring out which master I was serving was not difficult to do.

The third reason I believe why learning how to handle money correctly is so important is simply because so much of life involves the use of money. It is one of the few things that have a huge potential for harm yet we are required to deal with it on a daily basis.

In the following issues of MY World we will cover very important financial topics. We will focus on God’s role in our finances. How everything we have is a gift we receive out of His Hands. This is probably one of the areas that most Christians have it wrong. We confuse God’s part with our own role and we end up expecting Him to do things we should be doing and more crucially, we try to do things He is responsible for.

Once we understand God’s role in our finances, understanding our role is easier yet still important. It is in this context that I will discuss tithing into God’s work. We shall spend some time looking at debt and how to get out of it. This is one of our biggest and most challenging issues. The good news is, if you are serious, you can get out of debt and stay that way. Each article will also contain some practical aspect of finances, which will help you to rectify your financial position and outlook.

Well, we hope you look forward to the Sapphire issue. Together, through practical excercises, we will, tackle the issue of how to put God in charge of your finances.

A Money Savings Idea

If you are struggling to balance your budget (and even if you’re not) go and get new quotes on your insurance policies. Any life policy that is a few years old could be obtained at a better rate and thus give you same cover for less premium. A couple of years ago my wife and I discovered we could get the same cover, with the same insurance company at almost half our existing premium. Always consult a professional and understand the implications of your actions. Do not abdicate your responsibility to take control of your finances.

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Coetzee was ranked the best player in South Africa at age 15 in the Under 16- and U18-competitions.

Bruce Davidson who managed Coetzee as a teenage tennis star, remembers him as unbeaten in South Africa for nearly seven years, from his U-12 rank to the first year as an U-18 player. He says fondly: “He was a cute pintsized champion with an Afro-hairstyle. Always a very honest, friendly, Godly person who avoided controversy with opponents and umpires.”

Later Russell Seymour, his former coach, made it his mission to create a fighter out of the champion, whom he considered to be “too nice”.

Coetzee grew up as part of a devout Catholic family of 8 children in the Namaqualand-town of O’ Kiep. He was the youngest of the six boys and two daughters.

His mother encouraged him: “to make God his constant companion”. These were important words for a teenager who left O’ Kiep at the age of 11 to seek a tennis life in Johannesburg.

The accident at Nuwerust curbed his physical progress, but not his spirit or faith. “I have always held on to the truth of the Bible verse that states: ‘I have no fear. What could a mere mortal do to me?’ ’’

His faith in Jesus has been his strongest ally during the time of recouping. In 2004 Haggard and Coetzee started slowly. They were out of the Australian Open in the second round. Thereafter they excelled, reaching the finals of Scottsdale and Memphis and the semi-finals of San Jose and New Zealand.

Coetzee is back at the BASE LINE. Nothing will daunt him again. Haggard and Coetzee reached 15th in the world in August 2004. Coetzee recently spent weeks with the former World Doubles champion Piet Norval at his Academy of Tennis Learning at Spier Estate near Stellenbosch. He was just improving his strength- and fitness-levels before playing at Washington, Long Island, Delray Beach and the US Open.

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A GOOD WOMAN is hard to find, and worth far more than diamonds.

Her husband trusts her without reserve, and never has reason to regret it.

Never spiteful, she treats him generously all her life long.

She shops around for the best yarns and cottons, and enjoys knitting and sewing.

She’s like a trading ship that sails to faraway places and brings back exotic surprises. She’s up before dawn, prepar-ing breakfast for her family and organis-ing her day.

She looks over a field and buys it. Then, with the money she puts aside, she plants a garden.

First thing in the morning, she dresses

for work, rolls up her sleeves, eager to get started.

She senses the worth of her work, is in no hurry to call it quits for the day. She’s skilled in the crafts of home and hearth, diligent in homemaking.

She’s quick to assist anyone in need. Reaches out to help the poor.

She doesn’t worry about her family when it snows; their winter clothes are all mended and ready to wear.

She makes her own clothing and dresses in colourful linen and silk.

Her husband is greatly respected when he deliberates with the city fathers.

She designs gowns and sells them, brings the sweaters she knits to the dress shops.

Her clothes are well made and elegant, and she always faces tomorrow with a smile.

When she speaks she has something worthwhile to say, and she always says it kindly.

She keeps an eye on everyone in her household, and keeps them all busy and productive.

Her children respect and bless her; her husband joins in with words of praise: “Many women have done wonderful things, but you’ve outclassed them all!”

Charm can mislead and beauty fades. The woman to be admired and praised is the woman who lives in the Fear-of-God.

Give her everything she deserves!Festoon her life with praises!

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that sinks her slightly below the level of the surrounding sands. Using her hind flippers she painstakingly excavates a nest hole, as deep as a man's arm, but with a chamber at the bottom. Tears of briny jelly exuded from her eyes, keeping them safe from sand.

Covering her nest hole with a hind-flipper she begins to drop her eggs in rushes of three. A hundred soft, billiard-ball sized eggs drop soundlessly into the nest hole, filling the egg chamber.

The Leatherback stops once more, her breath coming in rasping gasps.

Above her the moon had moved across the night sky, the Southern Cross and Orion are closer to the horizon. Her egg-laying done, she

begins to scoop sand into the hole with her hind flippers, stamping it down firmly with her "knees".

She then begins to scoop great quantities of sand with her power-ful front flippers and spreads it with sideways flicks of her back flippers. She churns up the whole area and thoroughly disguises the location of the nest.

Turning her massive bulk towards the surf she begins the laborious haul back to the sea, sending myriads of ghost crabs scuttling aside, her massive two-metre wide track looking as though a bulldozer has trundled down the beach. As she reaches the welcome sea the waves lift her, bathing the sand from her ponder-ous body, changing her into a weightless creature of grace and speed in the water.

Silently the massive black shape disappears into the dark sea, leaving behind her 100 tiny new lives that continue to grow, sheltered beneath a deep layer of warm sand.

Seventy-four days later a different event takes place on that deserted Zululand beach. Deep beneath the surface of the beach, the 100 hatchlings have grown into perfect miniatures of their parents. Armed with an egg tooth on the tips of each tiny snout, the little turtles cut their way through the leathery shell and as one begin to claw at the roof of the sandy chamber tram-pling the shells beneath them.

As they brought down more sand, it too is trampled beneath them and the entire chamber moves up through the warm sand like a lift, carrying with it 100 struggling little sea-turtles. As they near the sun-heated surface the temperature rises and the struggling stops, only to resume some hours later, when, with the onset of night the temperature of the sand begins to drop.

In glittering starlight a small patch of the smooth, unmarked surface of the beach suddenly sags and the sand begins to boil as tiny sea-turtle after tiny sea-turtle scrabble their way to the surface and claw their way to the sea. Each little one just over 10cm long. Soon the sand is alive with dozens of fluttering tiny black shapes. Several fall victim to large ghost crabs.

As the others approach the sea the rushing surf sweeps them, they begin to swim, with difficulty at first, but then with greater confidence. They stroke their way steadily far out to sea to be swept southwards in the powerful Agulhas Current, rich in floating organisms on which the little sea-turtles thrive. Enter-ing the great south Indian Ocean gyre they are carried past the Cape, down towards Antarctica, before sweeping back towards the Equator.

Only one in a thousand survive to maturity. It takes a Leath-erback approximately fifteen to twenty years to return to the beaches of Zululand. She will drag herself up beyond the level of the highest of high tides to complete this ancient way of nesting.

About 300 Leatherback turtles nest each season on the beaches of Maputaland, this number rising slowly over the past 40 years since the start of the KZN Wildlife sea-turtle monitoring programme. They estimate that 98% of each nest hatches successfully.

Jeff describes the birth of the Leatherbacks in November as being ‘near and dear to his heart,’saying: “…it is nothing short of a miracle.”

Thank you KZN Wildlife for taking care of HIS World.

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THE DISPERSAL of seeds for flora and fauna is about survival of the species. In the world of plants almost every plant has its own unique way of seed dispersal.

Obvious to most of us is the dispersal by wind and by birds but there are other fascinating and ingenious methods or surviv-ing and spreading “new life”.

Did you know that a coconut is designed to drift on the ocean currents?

There are a number of plants that make use of the ocean currents to spread their seeds. On a beach you often find these seeds washed up by the waves. Some of these seeds on the beaches of Kwa-Zulu Natal or the Eastern Cape may have travelled from as far as tropical Africa, perhaps Kenya or Zanzibar.

In order to float in the ocean and survive they have to be buoyant. They must have a long life span as they may be at sea for a long period of time. Their special hairy coating is to protect them from the salty water, as the salt would kill the embryo if it was absorbed or somehow got inside the seed.

Drift seeds come from trees and vines, which grow along rivers leading into the sea. The seeds are dropped into the rivers transporting them out into the ocean.

Seeds bring new

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Many are eventually washed up on the beach where they are unlikely to grow or survive, while only a few will get washed upstream into rivers with the high tide and get deposited on the river banks when the tide goes out.

Only a few seeds will have completed their journey successfully and may grow to become drift seed-producing adults.

Next time you pick up a “Seabean” or some other drift seed give some thought as to how far it may have travelled, and look at how well it has been constructed to withstand the rigours of its ocean voyage.

There is another special group of plants called Mistletoes and Birdlimes. Their seeds are covered in a sticky glue-like substance that has two main functions. The first is to prevent the bird from simply spitting out seeds after eating a fruit. The seeds stick to the bird’s beak forcing the bird to wipe them off on a branch.

The second function is to allow the seed to stick tightly to the branch where the bird has wiped it off. Mistletoes and Birdlimes cannot grow with their roots in soil like ordinary plants. They develop their roots into the stems and branches of other plants from which they extract their water and minerals. Although they are semi-parasitic on the host plant they do not result in the death of their host as many people believe. They can however cause the host to become weak if there are too many on one tree.

They are a pleasure in your garden as they attract both nectar feeding and insect-feeding birds.

Another uniquely Southern African plant is the Devils Claw.

Devils Claw has beautiful pink and yellow trumpet-shaped flowers with a seed capsule which is adorned with many sharp-hooked thorns on the ends of long stalks. These thorny capsules lie on the ground. As an animal strolls past, the seed attaches itself to the animal’s foot and “hitches a ride”.

The more the animal tries to get rid of the “attachment” the more entangled the hooks become.

Large animals like Buffalo or Gemsbok may travel tremendous distances for days, perhaps weeks on end before managing to scratch, kick or scuff the capsule loose. Inside the capsule the small black seeds will become dislodged and dropped out along the way. At least a few of these seeds are sure to fall on fertile ground. There they grow and ensure the survival and dispersal of the species.

The Vygies seed has a remarkable adaptation to desert life. It’s seed capsule opens in response to water. These seed capsules often look dry and dead but within the first few drops of rain, the capsules open and the raindrops splash the seeds onto the sand. There they either germinate or are washed into small streams some distance from the mother plant before being deposited.

The seeds of these plants are also long-lived and can survive for many years without losing the ability to spring to life after the first drops of water.

Does this not remind you of how only God’s Living Waters of Life can bring New Life to our often desert lived souls?

As the Psalmist says in Psalm 104: “When you send your Spirit, new life is born to replenish all the living of the earth.”

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THE FEAR OF THE COUNTERFEIT can often spoil the blessing of the real product. Not to mention the fear or apprehension of the unknown and the less rational. Add to that the warnings we grew up with. For a long time the warning against ‘false prophets’ was the only mention of the prophetic that I heard while growing up. “If it does exist, it’s bad news” was the general take on the subject.

Then there were the Old Testament prophets warning a nation bent on selfdestruction, disobedience and worshipping false gods, of impending catastrophe and of course the inevitable fulfillment of such, for not adhering.

What a surprise then, when my life was saved through His very gift, this gift that definitely still exists. The one that Paul singles out as the only one to be tested – probably as a result of the power in claiming “God says:” yet also deemed the most important gift.

I was at cross roads, already making the destructive decision by postponing the right decision. This was at a family gathering, a funeral, to be precise. Confronted by the reality of mortality, the conviction of considering a long term relationship that God did not condone, became deeper. Of course the funeral provided the opportunity to cry, although on close inspection everybody would have known I wasn’t that close to the deceased aunt. I was, however, more drawn to another aunt, a living one. She had had a recent and very deep (and to everybody on the outside), mysterious

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encounter with God. Since this occurred, everyone noticed that she declined the occasional social drink and disappeared when the conversation moved into gossip. For the normal churchgoing family members, her strange and new conduct was a threat.

They did not understand what had happened to her and were not ready to ask. She was forever clearing dishes and washing up and I found myself strangely drawn to her, wanting to spend time with her. To top it all, I was warned by the family not to get involved in her ‘strange religion’.

This aunt had actually started attending a new fellowship. This fellowship, I later discovered, was moving strongly in the gifts of the Holy Spirit during years of spiritual drought in many other churches. Of course, in those years, being outside the main stream was perceived as ‘dangerous’. And attending their meetings was almost a social suicide, with friends and family avoiding her.

I ended up, that same afternoon of the funeral, taking my aunt to visit members of this fellowship. “Broer Petie” invited us into the living room. I found myself crying even more ‘about my dead aunt’. Then all of a sudden Broer Petie, this complete stranger (apparently paying little attention to me) spoke to me (as if thinking aloud). He mentioned the relationship I had to stay out of, even to the detail of mentioning the name of the man.

LEADING TO REPENTANCE…

That was it, of course. Not only was it possible to make a clean break with the help of God, I also experienced His grace, love, comfort and joy. The tears continued, for a different reason, this time. Such tears I have seen when God reveals Himself through the beautiful gift of prophesy, when people realize: “He is alive, He is here, He cares for me…’

INSIGHT INTO THE FUTURE…

Another example that stands out was when I had the privilege of serving for two years with an evangelist whom God used mightily in the area of healing, faith and prophesy.

During a time of prayer at this ministry, I asked for special prayer. I had to lead devotions during the opening period in the assembly at a local high school. Eric, a man who had worked in a nearby mine and had been boarded for health reasons, was also serving in this ministry. I remember this man’s zeal,

humility and deep reverence for God. Yet, he was definitely not a learned man and had, to my knowledge, never attended any formal training in theology.

That day Eric was marching up and down in the prayer room, while praying aloud for assembly. All of a sudden he said: “Lord, we thank you that there will be revival in six weeks time from now.”

I was astonished. I gathered from the way he thanked God, that he had actually heard God saying that. And if God had said it, it would follow that one could simply announce it at the school.

As I stood on the stage during early morning assembly, I brought a short testimony and explained God’s Good News about His great kindness towards sinners. And then I announced: “The Lord said to one of us during prayer that there will be revival in this school six weeks from now.”

When I had said this, I suddenly heard another line in my mind: “…and the least expected learner, the greatest rebel will lead this revival.” The words were out before I really knew it, but the experience was so real that I just knew it was from God.

Two women I knew taught at that school - a university friend of mine as well as a lady in our church. They filled us in on what happened six weeks later: A learner (who had previously clashed with the police) had stolen his father’s car and caused an accident while under the influence of alcohol. A friend of his died in the accident. Experiencing the deepest remorse, this young man had an encounter with God.

His encounter with Christ and the forgiveness he had experienced, just spilled over when he returned to school. His testimony was so powerful that practically the entire school responded. Some students who were familiar with worship songs taught the others. At one stage my two teacher friends told us that it was impossible to continue with classes. They related how the headmaster tried to make announcements over the intercom, but to no avail. Classroom upon classroom were just singing the praises of God.

IT IS NOT FORETELLING THE FUTURE

The Gift of Prophesy is not primarily about foretelling the future. As David Watson puts it, “It is a forth-telling not primarily a foretelling. It is a word from the Lord brought through a member of the body of Christ, inspired by the Holy

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Spirit, to build up the rest of the body” (1Cor.14:3 -5).

It is helpful to remember that the Bible itself does not fit future events into clearly defined sequences. Instead, wherever major future events are described, often there is a clear focus on the meaning of its teaching for the present time.

God’s use of prophesy to warn His Church is an expression of His desire in wanting us to adhere and in doing so, avert misfortune or disaster. It can be accurate as well as momentarily painful. The pain of purging precedes a process of restoration, in itself an expression of His love.

“ARE THERE STILL REAL PROPHETS?”

A person asked this question to a fellow passenger on a train. The man said “yes” and invited the stranger to his church. He wanted to introduce the man to a senior minister, mightily used by God in the gift of prophesy. The stranger and his wife turned up to experience this ‘real prophet’. The man who invited them heard, to his dismay that the senior minister wouldn’t make it and had given instructions that he should pray for them.

Thrown in at the deep end, he started praying for everything he could think of but still no trace of anything prophetic. Eventually, desperate and embarrassed, he turned to the wall and pleaded with God.

The next moment he clearly received knowledge that the wife had secretly decided to leave her husband and she tried to cash his salary cheque, but the bank refused.

I can’t recall the exact outcome of this prophetic revelation, but I remember the impression this testimony left when a

friend, Bettie de Beer, conveyed it to me.

The people that experienced this have already gone to be with the Lord. They were of the scarce and brave ones who carried the torch in the times when many theologians believed that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit were made redundant by the revelation found in the Scriptures.

Some scholars would, even in modern times, refer to a person who is operating in the gift of prophesy in a consistent pattern as a “prophet”, as opposed to the case in which the gift occurs occasionally.

DREAMS AND VISIONS

Messages from God in the form of visions and dreams can reach us without other voices, circumstances or our intellect interfering. As in the case of all the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit, God, who calls and equips us, will lead us to be responsible and mature in applying His gifts.

Years ago two of my colleagues working as journalists at a secular magazine, were praying together in Johannesburg. One of them had a vision. Although the picture was clear, they couldn’t interpret it. Then one of them knew that I would bring them the interpretation and prayed that God would bring me to Johannesburg (I was living in Cape Town at the time). I received an invitation from another source to come to Johannesburg. I greeted my Cape Town colleagues, and contacted my friends in Johannesburg. I asked them if we could pray together. They were so excited because they hadn’t shared a word about the vision yet. When we prayed, the Lord showed me the exact picture and gave me the interpretation. We were in such awe that we prostrated ourselves in the presence of God. He gave

us the names of people that would be mightily used by God.

Prophecy gives perspective and insight, guidance and reveals priorities.

Even if it seems that a certain prophetic message is giving us insight, it is advisable to build in a set of checks and balances before we make decisions. A practical way to do this is to ask trustworthy people to pray with us and see if they come up with a confirmation of the message. “Plans go wrong for lack of advice, many counselors bring success” (Prov. 15:22).

RECOGNIZING FALSE PROPHETS

Both Old and New Testament warn against false prophets. These are individuals who claim to communicate God’s message, but who are not authorized by Him. Old Testament and New Testament also agree on the characteristics of a false prophet and how such can be recognized. It may be hard to judge from appearances, but close examination reveals unmistakable signs in words and lifestyle that are not in harmony with God’s Word. A person whose life, personality and ministry reflect the characteristics of the false prophet of Jeremiah’s day will be recognized and rejected by those who live by God’s Word.

DOCTRINAL SIGNS

A doctrinal sign of warning is where false prophets introduce messages that are against God’s Word. These are destructive heresies which encourage people to do evil instead of turning them away from their sin. We find such an example in the case of the prophets of Baal in Samaria. “They are making up everything they say. They do not speak for the Lord! They keep saying to these rebels who despise my word, ‘Don’t worry! The Lord says you will have peace!’

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And to those who stubbornly follow their own evil desires, they say, ‘No harm will come your way!” (Jer. 23:16b -17)

These kind of false prophesies are not only found in the Old Testament. People in modern times can also be lead astray especially regarding relationships. If the fleshy desire is very strong, it is tempting to ‘hear’ a convenient message that would make their situation an exception.

PERSONALITY SIGNS

The Lord says we will know His true followers by their fruit:

“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are really wolves that will tear you apart. You can detect them by the way they act, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit. A healthy tree produces good fruit, and an unhealthy tree produces bad fruit.”(Matthew 7:15-17)

Jude urges the believers to defend the truth of the Good News saying:

“God gave this unchanging truth once for all time to His holy people. I say this because some godless people have wormed their way in among you, saying that God’s forgiveness allows us to live immoral lives.” (Jude 3b-4)

Personality signs such as arrogance, the tendency to despise authority, to follow corrupt desires of sinful nature and to love profit, should signal danger.

Jesus is especially hard on those who follow their own evil and lustful desires and who despise authority: “These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at the glorious ones without so much as trembling.”(2 Pet 2:10) “When these people join you in fellowship meals, celebrating the love of the Lord, they are like dangerous reefs that can shipwreck you. They are shameless in the way they care only about themselves. They are like clouds

blowing over dry land without giving rain, promising much but producing nothing.” (Jude 12)

Other interesting personality traits by which we can distinguish false prophets are clearly listed in Jude 16:“These people are grumblers and complainers, doing whatever evil they feel like. They are loudmouthed braggarts, and they flatter others to get favours in return.”

The great danger of a very positive and flattering false prophesy became very recently when a man told me his story. Somebody had “prophesied” that he would be the nations next...(mentioning a very great evangelists name). This man, just another ordinary witness of Christ, experienced his young life as a Christian as a see-saw of hope and despair. He lived under unbelievable pressure of people that heard that “word” and now waited for it to be fulfilled. And the inevitable confusion and deep disappointment of not seeing this fulfilled.

We should always keep in mind that any message can actually have one of three sources, namely God, man himself and Satan and it is vitally important to establish the source before we act on a message.

Because of the potential power a person wields when supposedly speaking on behalf of God, it is advisable for young ministers to be nurtured in applying this gift by experienced spiritual fathers.

The gift can already be functional without us being able to fully comprehend the depth thereof. If the mundane example can be pardoned, one can compare it with receiving a complicated cell phone as a gift; one can start using it without fully understanding all of its functions and abilities, yet it would work better under supervision.

THE DANGER OF DIVISION

Jesus puts such a high premise on the unity of his flock that it stands to reason that the enemy would attack in this area. In Jude 19 we are warned clearly to guard against the message of those who create divisions among His followers.

“Now they are here, and they are the ones who are creating

EVERY CHRISTIAN’S DESIRE should be to become more and more like Jesus Christ! Putting the flesh under by denying it from its natural desires will cause us to be more “in tune” hearing the voice of the Lord clearly. “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3). Fasting, with the right motive, does not twist the arm of God, but it changes us into His likeness. God never changes: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and for ever.” We, on the other hand, must allow the Holy Spirit to change us: “ …. into his likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit…”(2 Corinthians 3:18).

Never fast to impress God. You are sanctify-ing yourself when you fast. Fasting must never be a hypocritical exercise but it must always have a spiritual goal in mind! Fasting breaks the power of sin.

LET US SANCTIFY A FAST

Throughout the Bible it is clear that God can supernaturally intervene in a nation when Christians seek the face of God.

fasting brings renewal victory

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Think of the account of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20:1-30 where he conquered without fighting.

“And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord God, and made my confes-sion…,” (Daniel 9:3,4)

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The threshing floors will again be piled high with

grain, and the presses will overflow with wine and

olive oil. Joel 2:28

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GOD DESIRES A FASTING LIFESTYLE

Fasting is the most powerful, but also the most neglected of all Christian disciplines. It should become a valuable and important facet of every Christian’s life. Every believer who is tuned into God’s voice will be called by The Holy Spirit for a special time of prayer and fasting.

Fasting was not demanded of the disciples of Jesus. But Jesus spoke of a day when there would be a place for fasting.

According to the Bible, fasting can be done corporately (in a group) or individually (personally). Examples of corporate and individual fasts are found in: Joel 2:15-16; Ezra 8:21-23; Nehemiah 9: 1-3, Luke 2:36-37, Acts 9:9, Daniel 9:3, 2 Samuel 12:15-16, 22-23.

Throughout the Bible fasting has been part of God’s children’s lifestyle. This act of self-denial is always closely related to prayer and reading of the Word. According to Dr. Bill Bright the power of fasting as it relates to prayer is the spiritual atomic bomb the Lord has given us to destroy the strongholds of evil and usher in a great revival and spiritual harvest around the world.

Enter into fasting with positive faith. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that comes to God must believe that He is a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). If you determine to seek God diligently by fasting, you have a scriptural right to expect that God will reward you. In Matthew 6:18 Jesus gives this promise to the believer who fasts with right motives,

“Thy Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly.”

TYPES OF FASTING

A fast may either be absolute or partial. The Bible mentions three different types of fasting:

The Normal Fast: During this fast the person abstains from food but not water. The duration can be the time that the individual or group feels led to set. Jesus fasted for 40 days (Matthew 4:2).

The Partial Fast: In this fast one does not abstain completely from eating. Daniel 10:3 says that he had eaten no rich food or meat and had drunk no wine. During this fast one usually only eats fruit and vegetables and drinks water.

The Absolute Fast: During this fast a person refrains from both food and water. To do this fast one must be clearly led by the Holy Spirit. An example of this fast is Paul in Acts 9:9 and Esther. (Note this fast can be dangerous physically and should not last longer than 3 days.)

WHY WE SHOULD FAST

Through fasting and prayer, the Holy Spirit can transform your life. God said, “When you seek Me with all your heart, I will be found by you.”(Jeremiah 29:13,14). When people are willing to set aside legitimate appetites of the body to concentrate on reading the Word of God and praying they are showing that they are seeking God

with all their hearts. Here are a few reasons why we should fast:

Jesus fasted and left us an example:(Matthew 4:2; 9:15; Luke 9:23; John 6:23).

In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches us the four foundations of Christian faith namely giving, prayer, faith and fasting.

Paul fasted often and taught others to do the same (2 Corinthians 6:5, 11:27).

Fasting with sincerity and the fear of the Lord, enables us to become conductors of His spiritual power and blessing (Isaiah 58:6).

A lifestyle of fasting intensifies the power of prayer and obtains what prayer alone cannot. Fasting will help us master the ‘old man’ bringing the ‘flesh’ under control and enhance and empower our ‘spiritual man’ (1 Corinthians 7:5, 9:27, Colossians 3:5).

REWARDS OF FASTING

Read Isaiah 58:6-14. We read about the fast that God desires. This fast goes beyond our own personal growth to acts of kindness, charity, justice and generosity. Genuine faith that is focused outward in ministry and service is rewarded:

“If you do these things, your salvation will come like the dawn. Yes, your healing will come quickly. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. Then, when you call, the Lord will answer.” There is power in fasting! History has been shaped through prayer and fasting. Many revivals, which brought victory and deliver-ance to nations, have been ushered in by fasting and prayer. Jesus Himself fasted setting the example for us, yet He leaves the choice completely up to us.

What are you going to do about it?

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FACING THE OPPOSITION

As you go on in this life of the Spirit, you will find that the Devil will begin to get restless and will cause a dispute in the church; it was so with Stephen. Any number of people may be found in the church who are very proper in a worldly sense – always correctly dressed, the elite of the city, welcoming everything into the church but the power of God. Let us read what God says about them:

Then there arose some from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia), disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke. (Acts 6:9-10)

The Freedmen, or Libertines, could not stand the truth of God. With these oppo-nents, Stephen found himself in the same predicament as the blind man whom Jesus healed. As soon as the blind man’s eyes were opened, the Pharisees threw him out of the synagogue (John 9:1-38). They did not want anybody in the synagogue who had his eyes open. As soon as you receive spiritual eyesight, out you go! These Freedmen, Cyrenians, and Alexandrians rose up full of wrath in the very place where they should have been full of the power of God, full of love divine, and full of reverence for the Holy Spirit.

They rose up against Stephen, this man “full of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:3).

Beloved, if there is anything in your life that in any way resists the power of the Holy Spirit and the entrance of His Word into your heart and life, drop on your knees and cry aloud for mercy. When the Spirit of God is waiting at your heart’s door, do not resist Him; instead, open your heart to the touch of God. Resistance is good if it is applied to fighting evil. For instance, there is a resisting to the point of “blood-shed, striving against sin” (Heb 12:4), but resisting the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51) will drive you into sin.

MIGHTY FOR GOD

Stephen spoke with remarkable wisdom, and things began to happen. You will find that there is always a moving when the Holy Spirit has control. Brought under conviction by the message of Stephen, his opponents resisted, they lied, they did anything and everything to stifle that conviction. Not only did they lie, but they got others to lie against Stephen, who would have laid down his life for any one of them. Stephen was used by God to heal the sick, perform miracles, and yet they brought false accusations against him (Acts 6:13-15). What effect did these false charges have on Stephen? “And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.”

Something had happened in the life of this man. Chosen for menial service, he became mighty for God. How was it accomplished in him? It was because his aim was high. Stephen was faithful in little, and God brought him to full fruition. Under the inspiration of divine power by which he spoke, the council could not help but listen to his holy, prophetic words. Beginning with Abraham and Moses, Stephen continued unfolding the truth. What a marvellous exhortation! Take your Bible and read it. Listen in as the angels listened in. As light upon light, truth upon truth, revelation upon revelation, found its

R E C O G N I T I O N

Laughing at the impossiblle was a way of life for Smith Wigglesworth. He trusted wholeheartedly in the words of Jesus, “Only believe”. In this book, “The Power of Faith” we sense his complete trust and unwavering faith in God.

MY World features and excerpt of his book monthly and recognises Whitaker House as publisher.

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way into their hearts, they gazed at him in astonishment. Their hearts perhaps became warm at times, and they may have said, “Truly, this man is sent by God” – but then he hurled the truth at them: You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. (Acts 7:51-53)

Then what happened? These men were moved; they were “cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth” (v.54).

There are two occasions in the Scriptures where people were “cut to the heart.” After Peter had delivered that inspired sermon on the Day of Pentecost, the people were “cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37-41) with conviction, and there were added to the church 3,000 souls. Here is Stephen, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and the men of this council who were being “cut to the heart” rose up as one man to slay him.

As you read Acts 7, beginning with verse fifty-five, what a picture you have before you. As I close my eyes, I have a vision of this scene in every detail: the howling mob with their vengeful, murderous spirits, ready to devour this holy man, and he “being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God.” What did he see there? From his place of helplessness, he looked up and said: “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” (v.56).

Is that the position that Jesus left earth to take? No. He went to sit at the right hand of the Father (Heb. 12:2); but in support of the first martyr, on behalf of the man with that burning flame of Holy Spirit power, God’s son stood up in honorary testimony of him who, called to serve tables, was faithful onto death.

But is that all? No, I am so glad that is not all. As the stones came flying at Stephen, pounding his body, crushing his bones, striking his temple, mangling his beautiful face, what happened? How did this scene end? With a sublime, upward look, this man, chosen for an ordinary task but filled with the Holy Spirit, was so moved upon by God that he finished his earthly work in a blaze of glory, magnifying God with his last breath. Looking up onto the face of the Master, he said, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin. And when he had said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:60).

Friends, it is worth everything to gain the Holy Spirit. What a divine ending to the life and testimony of a man who was chosen to serve tables.

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Becoming a Christian was some-thing I’d never even thought of.In fact it was the last thing I would have done, as I grew up hating Chris-tians. I was raised in a Hindu home and all I knew was that you always had to give of yourself, to sacrifice and to make offerings – rituals were part of our everyday routine. Until one day. I really needed help and I called out: “Allah, Krishna, Buddah, Jesus, if there is anyone there, please help me!”

Guess who answered? - Jesus. The Way, the Truth and the Life.

Today my life is filled with His love, His peace and His joy!

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MASSIVE BOULDERS, THE SIZE OF BUILDINGS, lie strewn over the hills. These are the Xhuao in the ancient Nama language. In a valley a few date palms, blue gums and pepper trees are the only signs left of what used to be an oasis in the semi desert of the North Western Namaqual-and. The nomads called this place kXammagas, the drinking place of the cattle.

Over the years, as more people started settling here, the water table dwindled. Nowadays bore holes provide the water. When talking about the watering hole, people would probably think you are referring to the local pub, called the ‘Wegbreek Kroeg’. (Although English is a foreign language here, ironically the word ‘pub’ is borrowed in this case. They pronounce it ‘pap’ of course.)

The Gospel was first brought to this isolated community by a young German called J. H. Schmelen. Nowadays it is known as Kommagas. It was here where a local lady had a new encounter with Christ. She decided to reach out to her neigbour and the two started praying together regularly. A third lady joined them and soon a fourth, God adding daily to their group.

A young friend of mine who worked with a Christian youth organization for a number of years, returned to Kommagas, her hometown. She joined the prayer team and invited us to visit them to minister to their community.

Our hostess’ family was Ramsden. When I asked her father where his ancestor, bearing this name, came from, he said: “Overseas.”

The conversation led to the subject of the English language. Their inherent kindness, open hearts and hospitality are only matched by their fear of people from “overseas” who speak English.

Our dear hosts realized that we were not too “super spiritual” to appreciate a Namaqualand story or two. They told stories about prayer for rain, probably high on the priority list in these parts.

The “oom” was fervently praying: “Please, Lord, open the sluices of heaven…” when another “oom” got up and with great reverence prayed: “Lord, I cancel that man’s prayer. I worked at the Hendrik Verwoerd Dam for twenty eight years. Does that man know what it means to run from an opened sluice?”

The prayer group shared about their fear of a storm, especially lightning and thunder. Mirrors needed to be covered to prevent reflection of the lightning, blankets hung over windows and paper stuffed into the keyholes to keep the lightning out. Everybody would be under the bed, or under the desk if they are at work. When praying for rain, they would be careful not to pray for a storm. They would feel safe with the fog coming from the coast causing a gentle drizzle.

On a chilly Satuday afternoon our hosts scheduled two open air services. We stood in the wind and dust, the sun setting and the chill from the coast towards Kleinzee blowing right through our fleece jackets. I avoided eye contact with my team mates during the preparation because their eyes might mirror my question: “Where is the crowd?”

Then children started coming, scores of them. I was reminded of Jesus’ response to children that I had read in the Gospel of Luke just before the service. He embraced them and blessed them. We then started doing the same, praying for the children, embracing them one by one. Slowly the crowd started growing. Several people received Christ as Saviour. And I remember a lady shyly calling out to us afterwards from behind a rickety fence. “Please,” she said, “I need to stop drinking.” We prayed with her.

A prayer march until the early hours of the night covered the entire community. And the following afternoon our hostess and the prayer team marched us to the ‘Wegbreek’ pub. The idea was to sing and pray at the entrance. Standing in the sun singing “If, if you believe, all things are possible…”. The very words we sung helped us not to consider the peculiar picture this was, a bunch of missionaries singing choruses on a very vacant lot to an audience of drunks on the ‘stoep’ of a pub.

One by one the drunks started joining in. The old familiar tunes struck a cord in the intoxicated memory of a childhood that had been different. When we made an ‘altar call’ several joined us and followed on foot to the church for the next sermon.

Early the following morning there was a knock at the front door then there was another knock at the back door. People came asking for prayer. Many among them were the ones we met at the pub. They wanted to make right with God. For hours and days they kept coming in a constant stream.

Namaqualand can be transformed almost overnight. The seeds can lie dormant for years, waiting for the rain. Then the flowers appear, almost overnight, in their breathtak-ing beauty.

We witnessed the miracle. The Seed carried from afar by the likes of Schmelen and many faithful servants of God through the years was responding, sensing the coming Rain. Kommagas has a fountain again, a drinking place for a thirsty flock.

b y d i n i e s t e r h u i z e n

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I HAVE WORKED with young people

for the past few years: I have noticed a

disturbing trend! Their problems are becoming

more and more serious and those with problems are

getting younger and younger. In the past you would

only occasionally hear of a 20-year old who would

have had an abortion or a 25-year old who would

commit suicide. But these days it i

s the 13-year olds

who tell horrific stories of their “parties” when mom

and dad are away for the weekend! “We are just experi-

menting,” many would say but they obtain emotional

scars that would haunt them for the

rest of their lives.

If you are unaware of the current

commonplace occurrences in the lives

of teenagers: May this we a wake-up

call. We must be conscious of their

lives. These may be extreme examples

but not as extreme as you may think.

There are vast numbers of godly young

people but the growing statistics are

screaming in our faces.

What is the answer then to this possible

crisis? The ideal would be to prevent all evil

and brokenness, but we are already too far

behind. My desire would be to give every

young person the chance to know what sex,

drugs and rock-‘n-roll is all about so that they

will make wise choices! Prevention is always

better than cure.

But for those who

we cannot reach

(even those in our

church pews on

S u n d a y s ) o u r

“church phar-

macy” will have

to stock up on

some cures that

would help when prevention failed. How do we stock up?

This generation of young people are looking for a real, true and liveable

Christianity –

one that is not a hard, condemning, full-of-rules religion –

but one that is like Jesus, the Christ!

Where we do not tell them

that it is too late, that God is done with them, that they

are paying for their sins and that they must

suffer the consequences.

I remem-

ber how God spoke

to me one day many years

ago when I was struggling through

extreme brokenness. I read in 1 John 2:2:

“And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and

not for ours only but also for the whole world.”

It means that Jesus is the atoning sacrifice (the

complete and full payment) for the sins and

brokenness of every Christian and also for

every sin committed every day by every

person. If I stru

ggle to believe that God can

forgive and heal me – His very own child – then

how will I ever have boldness to

tell the people

of this world that there was a cross and a death

and a resurrection and that God can completely

and utterly forgive and restore? So let us stock

up on this: In Psalm 23:5 God gives us two of the

most powerful words in the Bible:“…He

restores.” What is God like? “He restores.”

Can God forgive all my sin? “He restores.”

I feel dirty and used. “He restores.” I have an

addiction and I need help. “He restores.”

I am bitter and broken. “He restores.”

I am only thirteen but I am a mother. “He

restores.” I am eleven and regret my physi-

cal past. “He restores.”

Give me any of your issues and I will

share with you what I have learnt on

my knees with tears in my eyes: He

restores! So is there hope for those

whose lives have been shattered

before they even started? Oh yes,

there is!

God is in the restoring business and

He will use your pain and restora-

tion to minister to those who are

longing for Him but don’t know

His Name.

I leave you with this message:

One day a nail was driven

through the feet of Him

who loves us. He is the

restorer of young lives.

He brings New Life!

ives

Johan Steyn was going to be our youth co-ordinator.

He has now moved on to new exciting grounds at his

own congregation. Johan, thank you for spending

the last three months with the MY World team.

We wish you well!

joha

n

75

Reaching Generation Y

“A problem well – defined is h

alf solved.”

That is why it’s important to be like the men

described in 1 Chronicles 12:32. God’s Word says that

these men of the tribe of Issa

char “understood the times

and knew what Israel should do.”

We need to understand the times, th

e cultural atmosphere

in which we live. Only t

hen can we truly know what we’re

dealing with – and how to respond effectively.

When Esther's w

ords were reported to Mordecai, he sent

back this answer: "Do not th

ink that because you are in the

king's house you alone of all the Jews will e

scape. For if you

remain silent at th

is time, relief and deliverance for th

e Jews

will arise

from another place, but you and your fa

ther's family

will perish

. And who knows that you have come to royal positio

n

for such a tim

e as this?"

We who care about this generation

need to understand them if w

e hope

to shape their futures or even relate

to them at all.

The following defines this generation:

• Loneliness is their heart condition.

• Relationships matter most to them.

• Music is their la

nguage.

• Self-worth is th

eir struggle

.

• Anesthetic is more important than cure.

• They know no boundaries.

• They want authority.

• Their now matters more than the future.

If you don’t identify your vision, others

will plan and direct your life for you!

Know your direction…or someone else

will set your destination!

The world does not interest them.

Commitment is too risk

y. Physical

relationships are expected …

and confusing.

TheseTeenagers are

post-Christian.

What does the Lord require of us?

Impart our very lives.

We must live the example and not talk the example.

Present the truth relationally

We must demonstra

te that Christ is both evidentially credible

and relationally relevant. This is

a new defense that shows the

faith to be both credible and relevant. Hit and run evangelis-

tic strategies are of litt

le value in an age of interaction.

Humbly stand for Truth

We must always remember Paul’s admonition: “Always be

prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give

the reason for the hope that you have. But do with gentleness

and respect.” (1 Peter 3:15) Aggressively live in love.

Few actually realise how incompatible love is with the new

tolerance. Tolerance sim

ply avoids offending someone; we

must help young people to live in love, which actively seeks

to promote the good of another person. Tolerance says:

“You must approve of what I do.” Love responds: “I must

do something harder: I will te

ll you the truth, because I am

convinced ‘the truth will set you free’”

What you can expect in the forthcoming editions of Y-Talk:

• Some parenting guidelines for parents of teenagers in

particular.

• A comprehensive listing of resources that is

available to all of those who are working with youth

in the local church and the broader community.

• Upcoming events on the youth ministry

from

around the country.

• A look at various youth ministries within

local churches that are effectively reaching

out to the next generation.

• A closer look at the various youth issues list

ed in this article and what we as

the church can and should be doing.

• Special emphasis w

ill be placed on helping young people to reach their

peers for Christ.

If you have any questions or for youth events

in your area, please email us at

youth@myworld.za.com or

edgar@sonlife.org.za

Welcome Edgar.

Edgar Ramsami has

been working with youth for

the past few years. H

e facilitates

training sessions for youth.

edgar

HOPE WE CAN HELP!

76

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88

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8690books dvd’s cd’s books dvd’s cd’s books dvd’s cd’s books dvd’s cd’s books dvd’s cd’s books dvd’s cd’s

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cd’s book

THIS MONTH WE FEATURE THE DVD’S OF Matthew, Acts and The Gospel of John. They are all well known books from the New Testament and have been read by millions of people around the world.

Thanks to Visual Bible International, a global Christian-based media company, these books have been bought to life and can be enjoyed in the comfort of your home on a series of DVDs.

These powerful and entertaining films follow the Biblical narrative

word for word. Matthew and Acts were both adapted for the vscreen, word for word, based on The New International Version translation, while The Gospel of John, the latest release, was based on the American Bible Society’s Good News Bible.

MATTHEWMatthew is a two-disc DVD set, with a total running time of 265 minutes. Directed by well-known South-African director Regardt van Den Bergh and starring acclaimed actors such as Emmy award-winning Richard Kiley as Matthew and then newcomer Bruce Marchiano as Jesus.

This multimillion-dollar production of the Gospel according to Matthew has bought the story of Jesus and his disciples, to life more vividly than ever. With the use of a talented cast and historically accurate costuming, Matthew provides spiritual entertainment for the whole family.The parables of Jesus are vividly displayed as He shares with his followers.

ACTSJoin Luke on this 193-minute journey, as this single DVD reveals the truth found in the book of Acts.

This DVD offers special features such as the opportunity to view the biographies of key personalities of Acts, as well as a search facility to find scenes by events or chapter.

As you journey with the physician Luke and as he tells of the adver-sities and triumphs that herald the beginning of the Christian church, be reminded of the love our Lord Jesus Christ has for us.

Witness the evangelical spirit of Peter (James Brolin) and John (Andre’ Jacobs) as they spread the word of God throughout Jerusa-lem and to all nations.

THE GOSPEL OF JOHNVisual Bible’s latest release, The Gospel of John meticulously depicts the era of Jesus during a turbulent time.

Shot on location in Spain and Toronto, this $20 million project, had a cast of 75 Actors, 2000 extras and a host of well-known profes-sionals. The end result, an accurate account of the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Starring Henry Ian Cusick as Jesus and narrated by Christopher Plummer, this 180- minute film will touch the hearts of all, as the story of Jesus unfolds according to the Gospel of John.

A definite must for your DVD library!

91

We can only imagine the beauty of the Heavenly City Jerusalem. What we see and where we live right now is temporal.

Heaven is an eternal reality and so is hell. In Heaven we will not need hope because everything is perfect. In hell there is no hope. Today we can still live in the hope of one day meeting our Lord Jesus.

He was crucified for our sins but He overcame death. All you need to do is to ask Jesus into your heart as your Saviour. He forgives us our sins and gives us New Life.

He has gone to prepare a place for you in Heaven.

Jesus said: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.

To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.