On mission

From 9 to 15 April, the LIV4Change team went on mission to Mpumalanga. We partnered with African Enterprise’s evangelistic youth team, Foxfire. Over the course of the week we divided ourselves between 4 different ministry spaces.

1. School ministry with Foxfire, using dance and drama to share the Good News

2. Door-to-door evangelism in Casteel with the community church Salvation Church

3. Street evangelism in partnership with Ebenezer Christian Centre

4. Door-to-door evangelism at Worshippers Church in Bushbuckridge

Post-mission reflection is deep and weighty, and since the day we returned to LIV, I have found myself unpacking all that I had seen and experienced God do in the homes and hearts of Mpumalanga. The truth is, if I was listening hard enough on our 8-hour bus ride to Mpumalanga, I’d have heard Jesus say to me: This is going to change everything. Now I am left with no words, but only a dream to stretch those 7 days into a lifetime.

But what I really want to share with you is how God answered 2 very specific prayers I had the day we left for the mission – one for a refilling, and the other for a broken heart.

I remember the day before we left, I was walking along a dusty road back to the Barracks, when I realized just how empty and drained I felt. I had no energy. I was flat. I felt like I was forcing joy, and that I didn’t have capacity to love others well, let alone go on this mission. So, on that little dusty road I prayed a silent prayer, asking God to recharge me and to make my cup full again. That leads into my second prayer. If I am completely honest, I was not eager to leave LIV and go to Mpumalanga at first. I figured it was because I lacked energy and capacity. But the Spirit nudged me to pray that God would break my heart for mission – that I’d share in Christ’s compassion for His lost sheep, and possess a genuine hunger to see people come to Christ.

Within the space of that week, He answered both prayers. (Even as I write this update, I smile in awe!).

Our days were full and busy, and we had little time to rest. By bedtime we were exhausted! Yet, every morning I woke feeling miraculously refreshed and re-energized. I was amazed at how much energy, focus and time I had for the mission and for others! His grace was my sustenance, and His joy was my strength. That is the only way I can make sense of what changed inside of me. And I am still living in this refilling now. I returned to LIV with a brimming cup and bigger capacity. Thank you, Jesus!

He also broke my heart…

On the last day of our mission, I found myself sobbing in a little shack on the side of the road, not wanting to leave. In the truest sense, I had fallen in love with this place and the people. This little shack was Salvation Church (the locals call it “Sugar Shack”) run by a 77-year-old woman. I served here for 5 days, and found a significant part of my identity and calling.

4 tin walls held up by wooden poles.

6 benches on a concrete floor.

Draped blue and purple fabric with dotted sunbeams.

And faces of souls I have come to call family.

Pastor ZD, Mum Joyce, Mum Lulu, Mum Thebula, Chantel, Mfundo, Ben, Esther…

—this is Salvation Church.

A small sanctuary on the side of the road in Casteel,

and a simple home to bold believers.

A blessed temple where “bayethe” is bellowed out,

and a R20 donation is lifted in loud songs of the richest gratitude.

Where cooked corn, harvested beans and ripe avocados

are gifted as “thank you’s”,

and cross-cultural conversations are shared over

milky tea and cheese and polony sandwiches.

Where hearts burn for the salvation of next-door neighbours,

and the art of humble hospitality is mastered.

Where we are invited inside,

and called sisters and daughters…

—this is our Sugar Shack.

I must share, though, that there was a very distinct moment when the LORD broke my heart. Our second night of the mission (which was also the night before I first visited Sugar Shack), our host at Mihandzu Guesthouse encouraged the group: “Jesus is delayed because of His Body. So, thank you for the work you are doing. I want my Jesus to return.” Her words moved me. I sensed the Spirit stir within, and I knew right there and then that it clicked! I, too, want my Jesus to return! This is why I go out and share Jesus with strangers and family alike, because it is my Father’s heart that no one perishes but that all come to know Him! He pierced my heart with His compassion.

This is the reality of living on mission (which I have come to learn is not restricted to merely a week away in a foreign place. We live everyday as witnesses on mission. The harvest is all around us. There is a need for God in every privileged or impoverished space!).

In a documentary about the underground church in Iran, Sheep Among Wolves II, there is a thought-provoking comment made by an American missionary who returned home from a dangerous mission in Iran only to want to go back again! This was her reason why: “There is a Satanic lullaby lulling Christians to sleep [in the West].” It seems that a life of comfort and convenience, of safety and privilege, lulls our sense of urgency for Christ’s return. As I write this I think of the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25).

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or hour” (25:13)

I miss Mpumalanga, and I miss the Sugar Shack. But I see Mpumalanga and the Sugar Shack in life around me right now – in the community surrounding LIV, in the searching hearts of the kids on the Village, in the everyday lives of my family and close friends…There is a God-need in every place I enter and every person I encounter. We are on mission every day.