Our December sermon series... 'The Crib, The Cross & The Crown' Excited about this one! We're so over-saturated with 'Christmas' images and concepts - that forgetting the real and not so glitzy Truth of Jesus' story is subtly the norm. The three Sundays will deal with Jesus' coming to earth to live and dwell within our dusty lands (CRIB), suffering and sacrificing His life as a free gift for us (CROSS) and the final victory that came to life in His resurrection (CROWN).
When His story becomes ours... May you have a blessed Christmas and may the story become ever more real to you!
It's been a while since my last post, so I'm breaking the silence with a recent freelance design job I did... A fun wedding invite!
I enjoyed doing this one so much! Mienke & Jaco are two very good friends of mine, I'd like to claim that I had a hand in introducing them to one another;) It's been special to see their friendship quickly evolve from friends, to lovers, to being engaged... and soon to be married! Lucky for me, both Mienke and Jaco were happy to let me do my own illustrations and allowed pretty much free-range of what I thought would suit them. The end result is a simple elegant envelope invite, with heart illustrations inspired by this fun and in love couple.
More of these please! (engagements of good friends and illustration jobs;)
I've been journalling about my faith walk with God and in this image and scripture discovered a phrase that helps me wait on God in 'faith', an abstract action I often struggle to understand?
God's eye is upon His people; and their eye is upon Him. Faith is where our eyes meet.
I've been listening to Wholehearted on repeat for the few past days, it's one of those songs where the words ring deeper after every listen... I love the relentless surrender that's declared in every line: an unashamed declaration of dependence. It's amazing to observe the new urgency and raw desire for God from within the younger generation of believers as well as the broader church family - to be wholehearted, devoted worshipers of God with ALL of our lives. To pour out our lives for Him.
'Wholehearted' is the debut album by Every Nation Church Somerset West in South Africa. Wholehearted is more than music – it is a movement of worshippers from the local church who desire to live the songs they sing and encourage the church to live their lives out loud. True worship honours God, is all about God and is marked by the lives we live to advance God’s kingdom.
Their launch will be tomorrow night in Cape Town, at the His People Centre, N1 City at 19h00...and it's for FREE! I can't be there, but if you can - don't think just go! It's going to be amazing!
Lastly, the 'Wholehearted' music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMMKIf7M9xk&feature=player_embedded Please make a point of watching it! The heart behind their music is enhanced by this beautifully made music video. The visuals tell the story of our world's need for Christ's love. Why we need to worship God with our whole life/hearts, and give our everything to Him - because the world needs it!
May the songs, creativity and hearts of many more artists in our nation continue to fill our hearts, minds and spirits with SELFLESS WORSHIP!
Writing is my way of making sense of life and seeing the significance of all life takes me though. Writing confronts me with my deepest inner thoughts and physical reality; revealing truth and the significance there of. Blogging forms another part of making sense of it all. I keep a blog because I have experiences, moments or just random thoughts that seem necessary to share. Sometimes to stay true to a thought is to not just leave it lying on the pages of my journal, but to share it.
It’s taken me 3 weeks to write something about my experiences in the Philippines, because I’ve needed the 3 weeks to really process and allow the significance of the whole trip to sink in. The more I allow the reflections of the Every Nation Conference to sink in the more they change me. I know it’s a cliché phrase to use, yet in this case I want to use it, and I don’t mean it lightly either… what I experienced at the conference, has changed the way I view life.
Simple, yet as complex as that.
What I loved about the conference, was that most of it was compromised of testimonies and feedback from our churches around the world. As always it’s the stories of ordinary people who are allowing God to take hold of their lives and bring eternal change where ever they tread, that change us. Most of the speakers who shared with us, were ordinary people, who understood their brokenness, their dirt, their sin, their dependency on God, and through their meeting with a Living God have gone on to transform people's lives, cities and nations through being used by God.
There were numerous stories that shook me, opened my eyes, challenged me, inspired me, broke my reality and changed the way I view life. On the second day of the conference, the first session we had was focused predominantly on the churches being the hands and feet of Jesus. We heard testimonies from persecuted churches in Asia where people were planting and starting churches by serving in their communities. One of the stories came from a man named Jesupandam (his name means Jesus’s feet) He shared how he dramatically came to salvation. He grew up in very harsh circumstances, he was born as an ‘untouchable’, his mother died when he was young, got involved in gangs, and became an extreme communist, and then one day as he was dying on the street after not having eaten for two weeks, ONE man walked passed and cared enough to take him, a nobody, to hospital. This man also happened to believe in Jesus and as Jesupandam got better, he shared the Gospel with Jesupadam. The result now, is that there are 100 upon 100’s of churches that are being planted in India led by his serving, passion, laying down of his life and calling to preach the Gospel in India. Revival in India is happening not through our ‘traditional’ idea of church, but rather creche’s, school’s and hospitals are started in communities of need and the natural outflow is a gathering of believers and conversion of people, ultimately forming churches. Listening and experiencing Jesupandam’s expressions and sheer joy in the abundance of life he holds because of the Gospel, I was cut in the deepest part of my heart. Another testimony was that of Efren Penaflorida a Filipino who was named CNN 'Hero of the Year' for his involvement with education in the slums of the Philippines. He too grew up in impossible circumstances, met Christ, and faithfully obeyed Christ in starting a school from a trolley. Which has led to extreme transformation in the community where he works.
The question that drummed in my heart over and over after seeing and hearing the stories was, "What am I doing? I have so much, so many resources, so many opportunities, what is my excuse, what do I have to show for this?" Jesus served, and from serving and being with people He brought change. It’s true I am His hands and feet, now, here on earth, but am I living it? Am I living in the fullness of what God intended when He said you will follow me and do more than what even I have while here on earth?
I was confronted with questions, that needed answering, but I had no idea how to find the answers? After the session with Jesupandam & Efren we had a 3 hour break before the next evening session of worship and more testimonies. Miemie and I were both deeply challenged and a little vulnerable, so we found a quiet Starbucks on the waterfont and sat journalling and reflecting on the words and images we’d just seen. I remember very distinctly feeling overwhelmed and silent in the smallness of my worries and world view in comparison to the new world of the persecuted believers God was introducing me too. Yet even more clearly, in all my confusion, I felt the call that God’s been washing over my soul for so many years, clear and stronger than I have in a long time. Almost as if, when we’re most vulnerable, and feel the weakest, it’s then that the calling God has placed on your life, the dreams He has buried become more illuminated. I won’t go into detail of what I Know God is asking me to follow, but in that moment of insignificance I clearly heard God’s promise a life that counts eternally and fighting for more than I could ever imagine – to be true.
As Miemie and I walked back towards the conference hall I could feel God asking me to stay close to Him and be quiet. Be quiet and just watch, was all I could hear. So when we got to our seats, I sat at the back of our SA group, and while the worship of 1000’s of believers continued, I was silent. And I watched...I saw. I saw the depth of what God wanted me to understand: when you are the least Nicole, I am the most, when there is non of you left, then you will walk in the fullness of what I have called. Let go of yourself. Let go of what you think you need to do and die. Die? How God. How do I die? I’d merely asked the question, when my eye’s were drawn to a group of students to the left of me. I had interacted with a few of them and knew that they were from Laos. One of the most persecuted countries in Asia. The group of about 15 of them are mostly between the ages of 18 and 25 years, since revival in our Every Nation church in Laos has happened on the university campus. The students were worshiping God, but not a subdued and ‘ritual’ as we know it. They were worshiping God, with all of the life they had in them. Observing they’re thrown out bodies, they’re out stretched hands, their faces of streaming tears, their cries to God – I was humbled and brought to tears at the confrontation of my self-focussed western faith. Here was a group of students most of them who had never had the opportunity to freely worship, singing and conversing with God in a way I had never seen, or even experienced myself.
I realised then, that the way in which I measure life – my priorities - they steal from the true joy’s of life. We allow our priorities to be shaped by the societies we live in, more than what they should. I realised in the next session how 'poor' our western mindset of 'life' really is. We place priority on so many things that eternally have no weight! Our Gospel has become milky, watered down - because our priorities are wrong.
Watching the Laos students fully embrace the precious gift of conversing with and praising God, and realising how easily we overlook worship, or even just the freedom to converse with God as something that we 'do' as Christians, I began to comprehend what the persecuted churches meant when they thanked us for praying for them but convinced us that we needed prayer more than them. We’ve never fully understood the cost. They know the fullness of life which lives in Christ because they are dependent on it every day! They start their walk with Christ at a point of choosing to die, literally. Some of us never even reach the point of answering whether we're willing to die for Christ or not? I could feel God revealing to me how I've made this thing I call ‘faith’ self focused, inward facing and how I was 'sick' becasue if it, I'm only expereicing half of what God wants me too because of my self-focussed life.
That worship session led us into a prayer for the nations of the world. There people on stage praying for the lost people in their nation in their own language. I couldn’t contain the tears, I didn’t understand most of the prayers, but my spirit did. My spirit understood well, and the emotions that stirred within my spirit were what I believe for the first time tears and repentance that began to comprehend a new perspective ofwhat it’s all for. It was as if my spirit was crying and expressing it’s relief that finally it could live for more than the small issues I had made my faith applicable too. This is why we need to feel, why our hearts need to be broken, why God allows us to hurt and feel the pain, why we need to see the huge scale of despair around us even to the point of it being too much, overwhelming us – God needs us to be awoken. We need to awake our soul to Him, to the real reason we exist. He needs us to see. He wants us to seek TRUTH. Because it’s only then in our brokenness that we really understand what He did for us.
Lord may You open our eye’s to Truth. Pure Truth. And may it overwhelm us so that we will die to our 'idea' of life and live a FULL life in You alone.
Thank you for a bigger body of believers than just ourselves, our city or our nation. This faith was meant for the world - not just for oursleves.
Matthew 28:19 summarised "GO" reach out to people around you, open your eyes to brokeness and you will understand.
Meet Katrin. My very first friend. We sat observing while our mom's chattered away, we drew, played and climbed tree's together, we went to german Kindergarten together, we started private art classes together, we studied Visual Communication at Stellenbosch university together for 4 years - and still she remains a big part of my life.
She is currently doing her masters degree in Fine Arts Illustration at Stellenbosch University and freelance's in between. I know without a shadow of a doubt that we'll be seeing her beautifully captured, cleverly placed, detailed and delicately lined illustrations on many 'a wall and book in the future!
I didn't journal much while on holiday in Boracay, Philippines. It was good to rest from writing for a while too, and just observe. But when I did journal the entries were thoughts from a place of spontaneous reflection and rest.
I treasure these pages and reflections because back in reality - craziness of work, people, appointments and the day to day rush - glancing over these thoughts remind me of the rest and perspective I find in God. He was with me on the island, in the water, in the plane back, in my work and now every minute of the day. Palm trees and blue waters are carried within me :)
We started our new sermon series on Sunday entitled "Ke Nako (it is time) - feel it, they need to hear." We're using the hype and energy from the Soccer World Cup to inspire people with the same enthusiasm and vision in discipling Africa.
Once again doing the media for the sermon series was a Link media group effort! Beryl Kruger illustrated and animated our 'ke nako mannetjie' and Elmien Fourie created our Ke Nako intro clip (Unfort the file is a too big to load onto the blog). Podcasts from the sermon series on our website www.enpta.co.za. will be available as the series continues, so have a look out.
Once again I feel so blessed to be apart of what God is doing in our city and what we believe will flow into Africa. May this sermon series not be merely good ideas, inspiring media, emotive dreaming and heart felt messages... but may the convictions and Truth that rings true flow into action. And may we go and disciple Africa as a team of believers, teachers, engineers, artists, doctors, businessmen, architects etc. To His Glory.
Our next sermon series topic for the next month at Every Nation Pretoria is 'God of this City'. We're going to address how God calls us to be apart of the city. Bringing God's Kingdom into Pretoria, through serving, giving, taking part and going.
Here's some of the imagery we're going to use, designed by our Link Team. (they're all volunteers from the church) Jaco Dreyer took the most amazing shots of the city at sunset and night which we've used as our base. Ben Kunz designed the illustrated logo. Annalien Venter designed the roadsigns which are going up outside the church as advertisements. I had the lucky privilege of bringing it all together. Here's the result...
I'm so grateful for our Link media team, they're all volunteers but give so much of their time and input! Plus we get to pour our talents and creative gifting's into God's Kingdom. That is a privilege!!!
Once every three years our Every Nation international family of churches gather for the World Conference. This year 2010, marks the largest conference yet, and it's going to be hosted in Manila, Philipines. They are expecting more than 18 000 people at the conference, from all over the world!
I'll be leaving in 4 days with 35 of our Pretoria Every Nation members and will be staying for just over 2 and half weeks. The conference is always an amazing experience; feedback from across the world in what God is doing in the church body, dances, media and worship expressing cultures from around the world! I have a passion for multi-culturalism, so the thought of being in one space with such a large presentation of the world blows my mind!
Have a look at these media clips to get a better idea of what the conference is about:
What I'm most excited for is the 5 day internship I'll be doing with the Manila Media team after the conference. I'll be helping in post-production as well as getting a better idea of how they run things there. They provide media and serve hundreds of churches in the Philippines, as well as cater internationally for book and ministry resources. My objective for the week is to see logistically and structurally what a media team serving so many entities looks like? As well as meet and build relationships with the tam, as we liaise frequently over email but have never had enough time to really share vision and idea's. As the Every Nation Pretoria Link media team, we dream of growing to a point where we can provide for and serve churches in Africa with media resources. As well as using media specifically in community transformation and mission research. So the objective is to combine what we see in Manila with our vision for Africa and see what new ideas and visions develop? I'm particularily excited about learning from the Manila church since they're also a 3rd world country like ours, and thus we share similar logistical struggles and challenges. Miemie and Elmien, both volunteers for Link will be doing the internship with me.
Then after the week internship, it's time for 5 days of backpacking! No clear plans yet, besides that I want to find my way to the coast and Philippino islands as soon as possible, and take it from there.
I'll make a point of doing some blogging as I go:)
