Newsletter July 31st
A Song in the Heart
This week when I woke up one morning things didn’t look so bright
and I had a burden on my heart and some real problems to face and I thought of
sharing the burden with others as soon as they would waken but instead the Lord
impressed my heart that they had burdens of their own. Why not help bear and
lighten their burdens instead of burdening them with mine and just them that
old song came to my mind so forcibly that I began to sing it aloud.
You remember this song. “There is sunshine in my soul today. More
glorious and bright and shines on any living way for Jesus is my Light. There’s
music in my heart today, a carol to my King and Jesus listening can hear the
song I cannot sing. There’s sunshine in my soul today.” Most of the words from
the old song came back to me and soon as the others had heard they were all
singing. Then my own burden seemed much lighter and I can assure you, the day
for all of us was brighter and some of the problems which seemed insurmountable
were half solved.
Did you ever try singing one of the old Gospel songs of victory
the first thing in the morning before the old Devil has a chance to show his
teeth or blow his hot breath on you? Oh, it isn’t easy but it does work. Try it
sometime especially when you don’t feel like singing. But I confess that it’s
hard to sing the old Gospel songs with joy and satisfaction unless there is a
song in your own heart. Psalm 77:60 says: “He will give songs in the
night, songs in the heart,”
A Prayer in Time
Some time ago Sara prayed with a certain lady she met in the
petrol station where we usually go for outreach/fundraising. A few days later,
we received this email:
Dear Sara,
Good day. This is a
message of gratitude for sparing your time to pray with me on Thursday the 26
April at Middleburg filling station. I actually was thinking of committing
suicide and meeting you was just an answer from God. Having gone through a
rough patch in my life and trying to be best mother and wife has come with a
price for me. I am truly grateful and trust that God strengthens you as you
continue to be a blessing even to those you don’t know. Bless your heart.
M.
Freedom Within, our Prison Ministry
A big thank you to all of you that are contributing to this
ministry in the Maximum Security Prison here in Barberton, through your sponsorship of “Freedom Within” booklets, and
sincere prayers and wonderful words of encouragement to press us to go and deliver
these books personally to the prisoners.
This time we had a box full of 150 booklets. The men were already
assembled at the main hall when I arrived and after a few songs of praise I was
asked to address them. Jesus had put on my heart to tell them some stories of
my missionary life, one of them happened in our missionary centre in Brazil,
when we woke up one morning with 3 armed robbers in the house. They got us all
together in the living room (we were about 12 adults) and we naturally just
started telling them about Jesus. After some compelling testimonies and some of
us begging them to accept Jesus, two of them were completely won over and right
then and there wanted to accept the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, just feeling
awkward that they had guns in their hands and they were doing a robbery, and
the only reason they didn’t leave immediately was because the third one convinced
them to stay, put things in the van and go. We told them we needed the van for
our missionary work and they arranged to leave the van somewhere a few days
later, sure enough the van was there 3 days later and we got it back.
The
men loved the story, laughed a lot and applauded since they could relate so
well… ah! At the end of the service, we all took a picture together and then
they made a line and I gave a booklet to each one, shaking their hands and
trying to say something personal to each one (there were about 50 men, the rest
of the books will be distributed next Sunday). One of them, a few minutes later
came to me and told me that he had already read the booklet given to him in my
first visit and he just loved it, then he gave it to another prisoner that
asked for it. Now he wanted one for himself to re-read and study it. He said: “The prison that we create within ourselves
with un-forgiveness, guilt and remorse is so big that this Maximum Security
Prison is nothing by comparison.” I could see that a few of them were
really free, forgiven and shining with the light of Jesus, he was one of them.
All the others were sincerely reaching out to the Light. It was a touching
experience again for me.
A Day with the Poor
On Mandela’s day (July 18) we made a
nice stew in a big pot and went to give to the poor. First we went to the
crèche and served about twenty five children from families of very low income
that we help weekly and then we went to a field nearby where families waited
with containers in hand for their food. Besides the soup they also received a
bag a groceries.
It was a special day for us, not because
it was Mandela’s Day but because we started our day thinking about others and
we had lots of fun preparing that stew. We truly felt happy and were rewarded
with happiness just by sharing our time and God’s love with others.
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