Grace Women

This October, we took our first trip to South Africa and spent time with ladies from two locations: Pretoria and Nellmapius. The two places are only about 20 minutes away from each other by car, but are worlds apart by physical appearance: Pretoria is a bustling city with modern malls and fast food restaurants, and Nellmapius is a rural township with government housing and dirt roads. We were delighted to discover that despite the difference in physical appearance, the ladies from these two locations had something in common: their hunger for the Word.  The theme for our time was "Proper Growth" and we spoke on the importance of seeking God’s will for our lives and also divorcing ourselves from preconceived notions of what our Christianity should look like. A challenge to higher Christian living as a woman was put forth, and the ladies drank every word in.

We met with groups in their respective locations throughout our time there, with a final joint session in Nellmapius. God met all of us there in very deep ways, and He ordained divine appointments for women of all age groups and backgrounds.
The ladies purposed to be around. One lady rushed to the sessions after her work, coming in her uniform. Another lady from out of town found a place to stay for the weekend so she could be around. A third lady came to the sessions in faith, driving in the evening to attend a study when she fears driving at night, and also attending a session on Sunday though her daughter was in the hospital. “I knew I needed it”, she told us. After one of the sessions, one woman said, "it was only when she heard the truth that she realized there were holes in her thinking." We sensed that long before we touched down in South Africa God had been at work deep in the hearts of these ladies.

On Saturday, we spoke with several teenagers, first asking them to introduce themselves and tell a little bit about themselves. Interestingly, God was not mentioned in any of their introductions, but instead, characteristics like sweet, kind, and intelligent. We began to speak about God’s plan for their lives, and challenged them to think beyond the “God speak” we can so easily hide behind. We watched the countenance of one teenager begin to glow as she received understanding from the Holy Spirit. Her testimony afterwards only confirmed what we witnessed in her face. Her concept of God had been very narrow and instead of fitting God into her life, she now knew God had a purpose for her life and she could find out what that is.

The session on Sunday quickly became a joint session because the ladies from Pretoria purposed to be there to hear more. It was a sight to behold all of the women sitting in rows under a tent, from all walks of life, united in their desire to hear what more God had to say to them. At the end of that session the ladies were invited to share something about what God had spoken to them that weekend. One lady mentioned that she had always thought life was about getting from 1 to 10, but that now she understands that she was focused on the wrong thing, because there is 11 to 100 that she just never knew existed. The teenager whose life was changed could not help but speak up again that the Holy Spirit had opened her understanding to truth. Another spoke of how the words shared had really challenged her Christianity. We left South Africa that day sensing very much the great potential of what God could do in this group of ladies. Please join us in believing God for great things.