Love in Action Journey

A little while ago I wrote a post about  when the unthinkable happens , and all we can see or feel is the brokenness in our lives. It's in those moments that we are faced with the daily choice of whether to stay focussed on the pain ... or to recognise that we also have the choice to find beauty even in the midst of our pain. My journey these last 5 years has consistently taught me that there is One who stands closest to the brokenhearted and that He is more than willing to infuse me with strength and joy no matter how volatile the storm feels within, and that searching into His eyes calms the fiercest of storms.   At this point please allow me to give you a sneak peak into my humanity. Before you read the above and think even for a moment that I've mastered that art of choosing best all the time, let me assure you that I have by no means got it all together! Ask my family ... they will humour you with many stories of the work-in-process that I am. Take for instance...

Hello 2016 ... and hello JOY. Every year I seek a word that I can be mindful of growing and practicing in my life. This year I am being more mindful to CHOOSE JOY. I say "choose", because joy is so much more than just a feeling that randomly comes and goes. I believe it is a powerful choice that we can choose to embrace and welcome even in tough moments and situations.  Just yesterday my husband taught in church around the verse from Hebrews 12:1-2 which shares "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him , He endured the cross, scorning it's shame, and sat sown at the right hand of the throne of God." These 2 verses can be such an encouragement to us. Every day we are running the race of life. God in ...

Mommy, if you are reading this (and I know you are) I am writing this while munching red big korn bites :0) Just thought I would let you know that, coz I know it would make you smile ;0) Okay, that was a total side note, but random as per my random personality - hee hee. (Besides - anything to make my mama smile). :0) Now on to today's post. Lately, I hear from or talk to many people who themselves are negotiating grief. It always touches my heart deeply to hear from others who have or are experiencing the journey of loss. It has become a big part of my journey to share my heart about our life with and since Zac's "graduation" and it means so much to me when others share their stories with me too. We learn and draw strength from one another, even if our stories are different. This is also a big reason why I continue to choose to journal through the range of different emotions I tackle in this healing process. A big part of grief is the fact that it is so foreign ...

This week marked 5 months since we last cuddled our sweet boy. It kind of hit home hard this week. We just miss him so much. What touches my heart so deeply is how the Lord always knows the condition of our hearts and goes before us. On Zac's 5 month anniversary I arrived at the bible study group that I run in floods of tears. It was just one of those days where the tears came no matter what. The girls didn't know that it was the 5 month anniversary, yet the Lord used them to cheer me up in such a precious way. They had organized the most beautiful bouquet of flowers to surprise me with that day. Their love was such a soothing balm to my hurting heart and the fact that the Lord knew how I would feel on this anniversary and prompted them to buy me flowers was like a tender kiss from Jesus straight to my tender heart.  Since then a feel like I have turned another corner. Yesterday, Brett, the girls and I flew to Joburg to be with my family for the weekend. My precious niece is...

I walked outside to tend to my beautiful rose garden and look at this beautiful outpouring of love from my Heavenly Father. 12 beautiful white roses all off one main stem. I love this rose bush. It's my "Antique Silk" rosebush and it reminds me of the purity of my sweet little boy. In the first few weeks of grieving  I was so heart-broken at the thought of being robbed of spending a lifetime on this earth with my little love. Then, in His gentle grace God slowly began to show me some of Zac's amazing treasures, one of the biggest being that he has been privileged that he will never have to taste the repercussions of sin in his life. He was born into a room filled with love and met by the person of Love Himself who sustained him long enough to fill his heart with our love, and more so, to allow our hearts to soak up all of his sweetness before it was time to live in his Heavenly home. He has and always will know the purity of a life unstained by sin or regret. Wha...

Precious friends and family ... we are starting to see the miracles unfold! We just KNOW that we are living in the miracle :0) Yesterday we had a scan with the specialist who discovered and diagnosed all of Zac's heart defects in August. It's been about 6 weeks since the day we heard the horrible news. As you may remember, the defects she discovered that day in "that" heart were so complex ... not only one defect, but multiple! There was the issue of only 1 chamber; only seeing one major valve from the heart to the lungs where there must be 2 and then the complication of not being able to clearly see the arch of the aorta. What she saw of it, as well as  several other specialists, it looked too narrow and underdeveloped from what we could understand. When we came back from that first scan and spoke with our friend and paediatrician ... this was one of his biggest concerns. The aortic arch is so important in the functioning of the heart!  So before we went for the...

Today was the big drive to Cape Town. As I woke up and switched my phone on, my phone started beeping with message after message. This continued throughout the whole drive and even now as I get ready to go to bed ... an absolute outpouring of love and encouragement. Brett and I have never experienced so much love and support from the body of Christ like we are right now in our lives! People around the world, many we know and even more that we have never had the privilege of meeting are carrying us in prayer and standing with us in faith as we await in faith the miracle of Zac's birth. To all of you who have written to us, phoned us, messaged us and walked alongside of us ... thank you! Through your love we see Jesus so clearly. He has raised up a mighty army to walk with us and celebrate with us as we get ready to receive our miracle boy.  We have seen God go before us every step of this faith walk. Today was just another example of that. Where fear would have loved to have crep...

Yesterday we went for the Doppler Scan that I mentioned in my last post . As I woke up the morning of the scan I was greeted by this beautiful message from a friend: xxx Protection, Love, Peace, Faithfulness, Understanding, Believe. xxx "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see." Hebrews 11:1.  Little did I know how much I would have to hold onto this beautiful Jesus Promise.  At the scan we noticed that our little boy is a little underweight, but I have peace about this. The lovely Dr. scanning was so encouraging as we went from limb to limb and organ to organ just checking out our precious boy from top to toe ;0) As she scanned his heart, I heard the Almighty's quiet assurance that "Zac's heart is protected with My Peace" . At the end of the scan the Dr. told us that she had some big concerns. She noticed that our sweet boy has a heart defect, but she does not have the qualifica...

Some people read the Bible as an act of duty to God. I don't believe that is the entire freedom that God has in His heart for us as to the "why" we should read the Bible. He has shown us that we can never deserve the love He has for us. It is given unconditionally. I must admit that I was one of those people for a long time, until I started to read how many times God reminds us that it was His grace that saved us when we were still locked up in our sins, bad habits, guilt and shame. Yes ... in the book of Ephesians we read that we were saved by grace, through faith - that simple heart believing that Jesus is who He has always said that He is ... that we love Him only because He first loved us. I start my post this way, because these days I look at the Bible as my conversations with Jesus. In John 1:1 Jesus tells us that He IS the Word of God. It has changed the whole dynamic of my Bible reading time. When I pick it up I know He is sitting right here with me tal...

Yesterday our "Power Hour" girls Bible Study group was talking around Philippians 4. There are so many amazing and encouraging promises in this little chapter for all of us to draw from. Promises about how to walk free of anxiety and in peace and contentment, no matter what we feel or whatever our circumstances might look like. Promises that teach us how to receive the gifts that God has stored up for us. There are so many uplifting promises. I encourage you to give it a read today. I was sharing with the girls around verse 19 which says "And my God will liberally supply (fill to the full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Doesn't it just blow you away when you read God's certainty. He says that He WILL (not might or maybe) not only supply ... but He will LIBERALLY supply (which means fill to the full) EVERY need that you have according to the riches found in Jesus Christ. My heart was so filled with courage and hope when I...

If you ever wonder if God really listens to your prayers ... then this post is for you. It's an encouragement that He  DOES listen and He DOES answer. If you are anything like me, relationships are important! When I got married, I moved to a beautiful coastal city called Port Elizabeth. The only downside - it's far away from my family. 5 years ago God called my precious mom to the US where she serves in an amazing church who have embraced, celebrated and made room for her incredible musical gifts. My sister and I miss her so much. One of the things that I love about God is that He loves relationships too :) Each year that my mom has been away, God has made amazing ways for my sis and I to go and visit her. This year ... well, lets just say in our eyes, we didn't know how on earth it could possibly happen. Here's the thing with God ... He loves it when we ask Him for what seems to be "impossible" to us. So guess what ... Niqui (my beautiful sister) and I asked...

In my last post I shared some of Memory's story. Wow!!! God is working mighty miracles for her and her children and a few more families alongside her. Around about 2 weeks ago God led my precious big sister, Velanique (how beautiful is that name!!! I can never figure out why people call her Niqui for short.) to a Zimbabwian woman in need. She was sitting at the traffic lights begging for any bit of money. Her hope - to get enough money to feed her 2 little children and somehow save up enough to get back to the country that she left illigally in the hope of finding her husband and the father of her children. After all she dared and sacrificed to get here to S.A., after months of searching she discovered that her husband had abandoned them to start another family! As I shared, she has been living in dire circumstances in a building without any water and electricity trying to look after her children. She cannot work legally in this country which is why her only resort has been to beg ...

Last week my sister met a lady called Memory. She drove past her in heavy traffic on the way to fetch her daughter from school. Memory is just one of the many women begging on the side of our roads here in South Africa. Memory stood out to my sister, because like her, she has a little baby girl. As my sister drove past her, her heart was drawn to her. After fetching her oldest daughter from school, she past the same traffic lights and there mommy and baby still sat. She could not stop the car but decided to drive back that same way again after taking her daughter to ballet. As it happened, she caught her just in time to hear her story. Memory comes from Zimbabwe. She risked all that she had to come over here with her 4 year old son and 1 year old daughter to try and find her husband who had come over earlier to find work in South Africa. After searching for him  she eventually discovered that her husband has deserted her and their children for another woman. She is stuck here in S...

Just the other day, a dear new friend of mine sent me the following testimony. It spoke so much to my heart that I asked her if I could share it with you. Here is Seantele's amazing encounter ... "I read your post from the other day about love and living as Jesus did...putting ourselves in the path of others...etc. I had to share an amazing experience that happened a couple of weeks ago. Over the last year or so, I have really been taking a look at my life and how I am or am not impacting others and showing love. I think often of that song..."If we are the body….why aren't his hands healing...." So, I'm out running errands and had to wait to go back and pick up my dog from the groomer because it's too far from home to not just stay in that area. I go into a Starbucks and decide to stay a while and prepare some things I had to mail. I had a little Bible because I needed to reference a couple of scriptures I was including with something I was mail...

Last post I shared my heart about "getting our hands dirty" when it comes to being a witness for Christ. Well today, as a family we jumped in boots and all as they say :) Here in Port Elizabeth, our city hosts the annual "Iron Man" event. It's an extreme sporting event run world wide for tri-athletes. Talk about a race of endurance!!! It requires a 3.8 km swim in the ocean followed by a 180 km cycle and ends off with a 42 km run. Can you even wrap your brain around that?! Quite a few of our friends in our church family are Iron man athletes who competed again today. This year our church family decided to get pro active and host a prayer event just prior to the event for any athletes needing prayer and encouragement and on race day (today) we set up a "cheering station" in one of the deadest parts of the race to encourage the athletes on. We pitched up as families with posters with words of encouragement from the Bible, Christian music blaring, glow in ...

I am marvelling at the hugeness of our awesome God and just how real He is in our every-day lives. If we are honest, there are times when we question just how real or personal God really is. Lately, I am seeing His desire for intimacy (up-close-and-personal) wherever I turn.  A few weeks ago, while I was in a rush to get to church, I was trying to put on a special necklace from a friend and in my crazy rush, the cross dropped off the chain and I couldn't find it. I looked around and just could not see it anywhere. I raced out the door determined to find it on my return. Well ... after a full evening at church, when I got home, I forgot all about my cross. The next day, our precious domestic cleaner (Cynthia - oh how I love her!!!) was on duty and she vacuumed nice and thoroughly and only at the very end of the day I remembered the cross that had dropped on the floor! With a sinking feeling I knew what had happened ... the little cross had been vacuumed and the dirty water thrown do...