April 2013 Zoe News

Blessed are the merciful; blessed are the pure in heart; blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are the meek; blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness; blessed are the peacemakers; blessed are the persecuted for My name sake.

Great is their reward

The Beatitudes simply put are described as an exclamation of the inner joy and peace that comes with being right with God. Together, they incorporate a set of Christian ideals that focus on love and humility rather than force and exaction. I believe they echo the highest ideals of the teachings of our Lord Jesus: teachings on mercy, spirituality, and compassion.

My eyes shed a few tears when I opened up an email recently. It was sent from our family in South Africa and it contained this picture that I posted above. To me, it portrays everything. I don’t need to say another word. Take another look.

How does it make you feel?

This is our Pastor Martin Siko from one of our village churches. It exemplifies everything. What kind of Pastor would sit with a bunch of ladies and patiently make 200 flannel blankets for destitute orphans? And, what a warm contented smile! In fact, Hlayi and Lorraine who were the leaders in our Linus Project report to me that the men who participated did a better job on their blankets then the ladies!

Now, I don’t say this to discredit anyone. But face it, we who are women are more inclined to serve—it is ingrained in our DNA. But!! Oh, what it does to my heart to see a man so humbly sit down and serve! To me, that man has preached a sermon without speaking a word! His actions speak virtue. He exudes the ultimate Beatitude.

In fact, this picture makes me feel close (as I can on this earth) to our Pastor Martin in heaven because that—was who he was.

Well, here we are. We are days away from another crusade and my heart is fluttering; my spirit soaring! Together we have once again fulfilled a worthy goal! Together, we alongside our family in South Africa have poured our resources and efforts together and created beautiful warm blankets for our orphans! Today, we have over 350 blankets!

Soon every orphan in Majakaneng and the few who are in the Flames churches will be wrapped in the warmth of our love!

You gave up time and you gave up resources to make this happen. Blessed are you! Blessed are you! Thank you. It would not have happened without a strong family effort!

GREAT IS YOUR REWARD!

I promise you, your reward will be great! As great as you can imagine! Not only will you carry those virtues of joy and peace that comes from knowing you are fulfilling God’s great commission; but, one day I see that just about the time you are to walk into heaven a precious small brown child will burst out of the gates, find you… tightly grab your hand and so proudly escort you in-maybe even show you his room J.

To me, what more could we ever–ever desire?

My original goal was 300 blankets; surely, I thought that would be enough!

However, as much as I would like to see the number of our orphans lowering (because a large number overwhelms me) —God keeps upping it! We are going to gather our group of now, 350 together in the tent of Elandstrand. We will have a venue of fun, games, music, worship, dancing and…..of course, Byron ‘our cheetah’ will come to visit-again. (I think he likes our kidsJ!) There of course, will be a big meal and every child will receive a warm blanket, a warm scarf and a handwritten card from all of you!

My heart can’t take much more anticipation!!! I so wish all of you could come and join with us! I know you are already here in a BIG way, but, oh how I would love for you to experience the explosion of joy in real-time. I would love to share those few special moments when that little one you have been eyeing all day….. looks your way with those precious brown eyes…. and decides for himself that you are safe enough to go on and give you his heart.

What a privilege. Surely, I feel so guilty to be so fortunate.

Building such relationships with these little ones who need so much would not be happening without you.

I cannot say thank you enough!

THANK YOU!

Please keep me in prayer as I once again have to walk by security and customs with this large load: (10) 50lb duffles!

Pray that nothing will be confiscated; pray that I will have help and not be questioned!

Please…

And…..

Thank you once again for living-out the Beatitudes of Jesus in the flesh!

I love you all so much!

Sister Sally

P.S.S.

My friends I tell you, I just see our Precious Pastor Martin so proudly taking Jesus aside on our big day so that he and Jesus can African dance with us, too!

Pastor Martin would surely be teaching Jesus one of his favorite songs …

“No matter what the people say, Jesus is number one!”

(That was his song, we will need to teach the orphans this!)