For a while I was hunting for a small desk for my home.
You know, the "small, but functional" kind.
I have seen a number of possibilities here at second hand shops,
but I was not willing to pay the price they were asking.
Furniture in South Africa is expensive!
I continued to wait and trust that God would provide exactly what would meet my needs.
On one of my outings, I found the cutest desk.
It was small, with bookshelf beneath, and the top opens into a desk - PERFECT!
Huh! The price was far from perfect.
It was so tempting to purchase because I had never come across
something like that which would fit my needs perfectly.
Did I mention, it was perfect?
Well, being the thrifty spender that I am, I walked away from the desk.
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| my desk |
The very next week, there was a desk listed in the online second hand site.
It was almost identical to the one I had seen earlier.
The best thing is - it was half the cost of the first!
Praise the Lord, I phoned the man and it wasn't purchased yet.
Of course, I snatched it up!
Thank you , Lord for providing for our needs!
The man only lives a few streets from me,
so he volunteered to load it in his van and bring it over.
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| my desk (check back in a few weeks to see what I do to update it) |
I make it a point to share the Gospel with every one I meet,
so I planned talk to him when he brought the desk over.
In talking with this man,
I found that he was also a christian.
As an American in South Africa, I can never hide my accent,
so he was curious to why I was here.
I shared my testimony of salvation and
then in how God burdened me to come here to serve Him.
Then I shared with him what the Lord has been doing in our ministry.
He also has a burden for the "unlovely" people
and has been on a number of mission trips throughout Africa.
I told him how difficult it is to reach the whites here too.
As a white South African he agreed that in areas like Hillcrest,
it is very hard to reach the people because they feel they have no need for the Gospel.
He was very encouraging to me as an outsider,
to keep sharing the Gospel with whoever will listen.
At the end of our talk, he revealed that he was a buisnessman.
He told me how the UShaka Aquarium in Durban
gives his buisness free tickets for nights at the aquarium.
He gave me 5 tickets to take some of the children from our ministry to see the aquarium.
It was truly a blessing in disguise!
~~~
Below are pictures from the night that Robbin & I took
the 3 most faithful kids from church to the UShaka aquarium.
Enjoy!!! (we did!)
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| The kids loved this fish and called him the "grumpy fish" |
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| kids inside the aquarium with the fish |
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| This guy was my favorite. He looked like a puppet. He makes me smile just looking at him. |
During the evening, I shared with the kids
how I used to want to be an Oceanographer.
In my teen years, while other girls had pictures of cats and horses on their walls,
I had charts of the ocean, shell identification posters,
and aquariums with fish, crayfish, and frogs.
Then my pastor had a burden to start a Bible Institute
to train people to serve the Lord.
Between taking Bible Institute classes and serving at year-round camp,
the Lord showed me that ministry is much more meaningful.
I still love the ocean and if I could,
I would live by it and visit the aquarium as often as possible,
but my burden for the lost around me is a bigger need.
Hopefully, my testimony will be something that the children will think about.
Maybe, just maybe, He will change their heart's desire,
as they grow older, to being used of Him in ministry.