A life signed away

A life signed away

Reflecting on the evening of 4 November as we kick started the Mission month for THoHR one is actually left more with questions than answers. You also realise how blessed we are as a new church to be afforded the opportunity in our infancy to be exposed to what Missions is from the Horses’ mouths.

Pastor Nkish opened the service/ session with scripture reading from Isaiah 18:1-7. What a powerful verse referring to our beautiful continent and the plans the Lord has for it.

As the young beautiful Flo took the stand, one couldn’t stop but agree “It can only be God who can turn the plans of this young beautiful woman around”. Her family could have benefitted so much from her education financially yet she chose to serve the family of the Most High God!

As she started her greatest concern was with her two sisters who are in her country of work and are both sick. Her request for prayers for them just indicated how close and how much it pains her when they are in pain. She may not be the one physically sick, but can feel their pain.

As we all listened like little children hearing about a strange story or an animal we have never seen or heard of before, it became very clear how little we all know about this sphere. With much interest and a lot of questions from the audience, she gracefully answered all our questions. Both serious and very light ones like how does dog meat taste like!!

What was striking is the humility of this beautiful woman. All the dangers she has endured and the successes is all for the Glory of God. Leaving a stable job for the unpaid one. How much faith is that? When most of us who are in paid jobs still fail to give or honor God with our substance because “it isn’t enough”. Missions is about faith and trusting God for your livelihood.

Flo tried to keep the balance between the hardships and the joy of being a missionary. We are talking about a woman who lost everything in the fire and could still look back and thank God that no life was lost. Over and above that, see God provide through a total stranger three dresses that fitted perfectly.

What has been in my mind since this session is the fact that by being a missionary, she actually signed her life away. Her family may never know her grave yet she is still pursuing her call. In response to the family not knowing where one may be buried, a colleague emphasised that “it isn’t important where the body is buried, but where the soul will rest”.

Judging from the questions, and the curiosity, one thing is for sure, the church has forgotten what its role is. The church has forgotten what sending is and are comfortable fishing from the same bowl. Her surprise that actually there were people who were so keen to hear about missions in South Africa echoed one thing, we indeed are sleeping and have no interest. May the Lord forgive us and our ignorance….

A very critical statement she said was “as we pursue the unreached, let us also pursue those unreached areas within us”. Those areas, hatred, unforgiveness, etc have the ability to disqualify us from the race.

 We are really grateful to God for the opportunity and look forward to the next four weeks to hear more!!!!