Winter Graduation

Just a quick post to announce that it has happened!!! Yesterday we had our second set of trainees graduate from the full time training in Pretoria (FTTP). How wonderful!!! It's wonderful to see what the Lord has been doing in South Africa, and that He opened a training center to allow even more Lovers of the Lord to be trained. Two saints from South Africa graduated, one saint from Georgia and another from the UK.

Praise the Lord for what He is doing on the earth!

Below is some pictures I took during the graduation (please excuse the poor quality)

The trainees busy with their presentation 

A feast waiting for the guests

Desert

Saying Goodbye

Our group meeting last night was a bit different than usual in that we had to say goodbye to some of the saints that will be migrating. It was very special to fellowship with them and enjoy the Lord with them before they leave. I am however sad because I got built up with the sister that is leaving and now she is moving very far away. But it is also important to remember that God has a desire, He desires to have a corporate building that expresses Him. I am not denying that I am humanly sad because of the situation, but it is important to see the bigger picture, to put everything in perspective.

I am the kind of person that would avoid a certain situation to prevent being hurt but the Lord is showing that to be built up with others is crucial, we must be built up together in the Lords life and in His Spirit in order to be His body. We cannot be individualistic we must be built up with others to become the church, the house of God. Without the building up of the members there will be no building, how can a building be formed if the stones are not build together? It is not possible, it will only be a pile of rocks, and what use is a pile of rocks? In the same way the saints must be built up together. We must be built up.

It is so good to be built up with the saints, I definitely encourage everyone to ask the Lord to build you up with someone in your area. I used to be a bit scared of being built up with someone and then they move away or I get hurt or become vulnerable... I really like to be in my comfort zone. But the Lord is showing me that it is very good to be built up, even essential, and if that saint moves away then it is also good, because now the Lord has the opportunity to build me with other members. We can ask the Lord to make us more flexible and buildable in this way, and the Lord will be faithful to supply us more with Himself, because in reality He is the true flexible and buildable one, He can be built up with anyone, and the more He increases in us the more we will be able to be built up in His life and in His Spirit, and then His hearts desire can be satisfied.

I will leave you with some pictures from the time we had last night...

Singing some hymns together

Some sweet fellowship with the saints

The saints are the excellent!

Just gain Him

I have to admit that I was a little stressed about this year, I knew that this would be one of my most hectic years and what I was really scared about was fading out of the church life, that I would only focus on my studies and would have no time to spend with the saints and also with the Lord.

But the Lord is so sweet! He is the shepherding one! He keeps drawing me with everything that He is! The fact of the matter is that there will always be things to do that keep us busy and are unpleasant, but in the midst of all the things the world throws at us we can have sweet fellowship with the Lord. In busy times we can learn to experience the Lord in a very sweet way. Praise the Lord that the heavens rule!  We will always be in environments that contain all kinds of discouraging things, this is why we need to know that the heavens rule, these environments are used to perfect our faith so we can be useful to Him. The most important thing that has been pointed out to me concerning my response in a unpleasant and stressful environment is just to eat Him! How wonderful if we can gain more of Christ during these times, we just need to eat His words!

One of the ways to eat His words is by pray-reading, this is very easy and super enjoyable. All you have to do is take any scripture in the Word and pray over the words in that section or verse or even a part of the verse. The Word says that all scripture is God breathed (2 Tim 3:16), so by musing and praying over the words in the Bible we are taking in the very breath of God. How wonderful that we can take God in by praying in His words. This is such a supply especially if you do it in the mornings.

You can really take any verse, but rather than just taking my word for it feel free to try it out for yourself...any time of the day, by trying it out you yourself can experience how nourishing the Bible can be.