Take ahold of that which we were taken ahold for...

My faithful friends...

Its been quite the last month and a half I must say.

Some splendidness...some tragicness...

Lets get the tragicness over with shall we? As my dad would say, "It could always be worse Charlene," so onwards and upwards then.

Celebrating my dear friend Pozie's graduation,

 

looking onwards and upwards into her beautiful future!

 

As I had requested prayer for a specific ill resident in my last blog, we actually have now experienced our first woman pass away at Scape Home in this case. Everything about this death was new for me. I have never seen the gruesome effects of HIV Aids first hand. Seeing the shriveled remains of human bodies due to starvation on world vision documentaries was the closest picture I had in my head previous to this situation. Myself and a collegue ended up taking the mother of our resident to identify her daughters body at the morgue, and it literally took this precious mama 30 minutes of examing to admit this really was her child. She had not seen her daughter for two and a half years and due to the effects of the illnesses it was only by a few scars that she finally admited this was indeed her long lost daughter.

Least to say, being in the room, experiencing all of this raw death and utter maternal agony has been in itself entirely beyond me to comprehend.

The part that tares at me most, is that, upon receiving the news of the death, I was sitting in a room of my dearest African friends, each of which have personally experienced many losses of loved ones in their own families since young due to HIV...and there I sat, with my very first encounter at the age of 28, bewildered at what worlds apart we live in on one planet.

This precious circle of people who have now become family, surrounded me, praying for my comfort and peace, honoring me with blessing and strength. It is this same resolute faith, whether facing life and death that I experienced on my first trip to this continent two years ago in Kenya, that absolutely boggled my mind and beckoned me to come back to this people. These men and women have weathered life and come out time and time again and in the strength of their God proclaiming, "It is well with their souls."

 The same response came from our resident's dear mama as we spent time just sitting together grieving. She honestly testified to the gratitude she had, that at least she was given the gift of being able to rest in peace knowing where her daughter physically, and now eternally rests.
Space for an apathetic Christian set of beliefs on this soil gets smaller and smaller the richer relationships grow around me. A faith far beyond sight is the daily diet of this nation and I continue to awaken in ways I never knew I was sleeping.  The whispers of the reality of another Kingdom come is getting louder and louder wrecking any satisfaction of mine to do 'business as usual'. There are far too many precious Sons and Daughters of God at stake here. There are far too many mothers holding dead children, fathers no where to be found, and families so desperate to survive they will sell one daughter to save the rest. Where is God in all of this the world rightfully asks? The response, in YOU AND I. Christ in Us.

The loudest buzzing african bee of I hope the 'not deadly kind' has been trapped inside my living room for the last 20 minutes as I've been trying to consentrate on this blog. Giving up I take a long look at this desparate little creature. She, yes I've decided she is a she, is hitting her head over and over and over again against the sunny window pane, unable to locate that just a few inches below, her window of freedom is open. BUT SHE DOES NOT KNOW THE WAY OUT...so she continues to flail and struggle as best she knows how to survive.

My dear friends, WE KNOW THE WAY OUT. His name is Jesus and he is crouched down on our eye level desperately waiting for us to listen and believe who we truely are, his beloved, without exceptions, and who we are capable of becoming. We are purposed for a greatness beyond measure, limitless with the very Spirit of the Living Immortal God burning alive inside.
YOU ARE EXTRAORDINARY, like Father, like daughter and son.
Let this dying world groan no more.

 Let us pray for a personal boldness to take Jesus at his word to set us free into our true and whole identities as his indelible own daily.

Let us pray then, as we live out of this place of unconditional grace, for a new shifting in our spirit to take ahold of that which Christ took ahold of us for, those gifts and callings we have been designed to do since before the world began, and open the windows of heaven to welcome home the freed children of God.

And indeed, whether in Manitoba Canada or the Westerncape of South Africa, Ive seen the Kingdom of God alive and well in you my friends over seas or on this side of the shore. So let us then continue to take our place, our greatest charge simply being, to love God and love our neighbor.


Let us be an army of the greatest lovers of Jesus who dance away all darkness through the power of Christ, setting free every soul into the dawn of the morning light.
OVERCOMING IS IN OUR DNA!

Fewphhh you and I need a moment of silence here and maybe a picture of my roomate on her first camping experiance...as long as she had chicken to snack on first thing in the morning she was set to go!

Ok so I was going to start with the ugly and go onto the great...but the great just couldnt hold back so it seems! Least to say, this death has impacted myself and my team in a powerful way, and we pray that as our God is so good at doing, He continues to bring more beauty out of our ashes.
Want one more quick story of the beauty Jesus can grow from utter pain? We just said goodbye to another resident from Thailand who told us as she was leaving, that after being trafficked she has been left feeling completely betrayed by her family, country and even Buddha himself through this hellish experience. But, after staying with us at the safehouse, due to the overwhelming and completly new love she recieved, she wants to go home and find the one Christan neighbor she knows and talk more about this Jesus we kept recgonizing as the reason as to why we are doing what we are doing at Scape Home. Cool huh?!

Well I think its time I head on over to our office and give my good morning greetings to my wonderful team and for you to continue on in whatever you have just set aside to hear my rather lengthy shpiel.

Through all of this pain, I could not have found a deeper contentment as I have without your prayers of protection and peace over my life. Thankyou for journeying with me once again as we keep learning together...but for the grace of God!

Jesus is worthy.

And I bid thee farewell...Scape team appreciation tea party style!

Merry Merry Christmas, I shall post some pics of my wee tree once I get her up in all her glory!

Charlene