the kingdom in the sky !

Hello everyone! Long time no blog! October was one of the most incredible months of my life and I experienced the Lord this month in ways that I have never imagined. I started off the month of October getting baptized in the Holy Spirit and ended the month jumping off the tallest bungee jump bridge in the entire world (more on that later). So, the Lord has been busy this month! But the majority of this month was spent in the Malealea Valley of Lesotho, completely disconnected from the outside world, which was exactly what my team and I needed. That place truly restored my soul and showed me a glimpse into what the garden of Eden may have looked like– raw, unfiltered beauty. This beauty was everywhere you turn in that place in breathtaking mountainscapes, rivers, caves, and gardens during the day or hundreds of stars and a big bright moon at night.

There are 15 villages in the valley, and we would spend our mornings hiking anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours into these villages to meet the people and hear stories of the men traveling to South Africa risking their lives in the mines for their families and of the women and children dreaming of a better life, but finding some love just where they were at. We would give whatever nuggets of encouragement and scripture the Lord would put on our hearts and sometimes even share the gospel story with people, then we would pray over each individual for whatever it is they need. 

On the last day of ministry, we walked up to this house, and outside was an old woman slowly making her way to the long drop about 20 yards from her house. This walk took her about 20 minutes each way. Once she came back, she welcomed us into her home with her daughter, Agnes, and her granddaughter, Princess. 

Beautiful beautiful people. The grandmother had just recently lost her husband a week or two ago and was very down when we first walked in. She also told us that she had horrible arthritis that was especially bad in her knees. They were believers, so we encouraged them and shared some Bible verses with them.

In their house they had a sign that said:

“Ha tsela ea bophelo e le thata e bile e le bolma Jehova e tla ba lere la ka. Amen.”

It means “When life’s challenges are difficult, the Lord is always with me.” It reminded me of Psalm 29:11 “The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace.” These women were so filled with strength and peace and did not take their eyes off the Lord through their struggles.

After talking for a little while, the Holy Spirit led Ruth to massage the old woman’s feet and legs. As she began to press and massage, the grandmother shrieked in pain but was so incredibly strong. She was holding my hand and squeezing so tightly, so we began to sing Holy Spirit, You Are Welcome Here, and the Holy Spirit flooded that place. She started to move her legs back and forth freely and I could feel the Lord beginning to heal her legs. When we prayed over the family before leaving, she stood up out of her chair for the prayer and there was so much more strength in her. She truly believed that the Lord was going to heal her and wanted so badly for strength so that she could get to church and get to pick up her medicine every other month without being in pain every step. Simultaneously, the Lord showed me his power and his simple nature in that moment. I realized that no words that we could say and nothing we could bring could save these women or make the pain less painful. Only God could bring them out of this and only by the Lord’s power would this woman be able to be healed. The woman’s entire nature changed since the moment we had gone in. When we walked out of her house, she had a smile plastered on her face and a new light in her eyes. Even if her arthritis had not completely been healed that day, something beautiful happened inside her. 

So yesterday, when we went to jump off the bridge, the Lord asked me to give up all control to Him, especially over the next season of my life, and leave it on that bridge. As I jumped, even though in my mind I wanted to let go of control, my body was trying so hard to do anything it could to control the way I fell or the way the bungee would pull me back up because of my fear of falling or being yanked back up. But no matter how tight my neck was or how much I clenched my toes, the only thing that could hold me up and save me was that bungee cord. I realized that that’s truly what giving up control looks like: leaving everything up on the bridge and diving into a valley that I couldn’t even see the bottom of when on the bridge. The most beautiful thing was that moment when I realized that the Lord was holding me and gave me this incredible mountainscape and waves on the beach in the distance to look at. With that view came a radical surge of peace. The hardest part really was jumping, but once the jump was done, as long as you hold onto a confident trust that the Lord is holding you, swinging under the bridge is so incredibly rewarding.

Sometimes that simple faith that if we jump, God is going to catch us is all we really need. That grandmother truly taught me how to have a simple, yet true faith that the Lord will carry us through. She believed, with no doubt in her mind, that the Lord would heal her heart and heal her legs. I learned from her faith and was able to better trust God when I jumped. And the Lord was so faithful in both circumstances! He began to heal her legs and also did not let me fall to my death off that bridge! He always fulfills His promises so we can rest in knowing that we are in the hands of the Father who will not leave us as we are. Even if it may not happen at the time we want it or in the way we want it, the Lord wants to offer healing and salvation, and redemption in our lives if we just simply put our faith in Him. 

Thank you all for all of the love and support thus far! One month left! Please pray for the people of the Malealea Valley and for Africa 4 Jesus– that they would continue to seek and find the Lord and see the beauty and peace the Lord has surrounded them with. And please pray for my team here in Jeffrey’s Bay– that we do not limit what the Lord has in store for this place and that He continues to equip us with strength and truth as we go about this next month. God is so incredibly faithful and is doing incredible things in and through my team and me, so I cannot wait to see what He has in store for this next month!