Last day – He has my hand!

19th of May 

So my last day with the team I was nervous about to leave the comfort of my Australian family (team) and my Zambian team (hands at work people who are So amazing and loving) and fly to Johannesburg all by myself and travel 4 hours to get to where hands at work is based. I was excited, nervous, and sad to be leaving everyone, but also at peace, I was ready to take this next step of faith. As part of our daily team devotion we had an opportunity to pray for another team member and had an amazing woman who I had gotten to know really well, as she prayed for my trip and for me, she said, “I pray Bec places both of her hands into yours and that you just lead her today and in the future.” And I almost laughed because this was a thing I had heard quite a few times before I left Australia and it proved to me that I didn’t have to be afraid because God was with me. 

Before I left Australia God gave me 2 images to help me to trust him, when I was decided to quit full time work, someone spoke words they said were from God and part of it said, “I’ve got your back.” Which made me think of the trust exercise; when you fall backwards and trust someone will catch you, God had my back. Also going into battle a lot of the armour is protecting the front but not so much the back (Ephesians 6) but God is protecting me from behind :D

The second image I was give was, when someone prayed for my preparations for Africa they said, Lord I pray you hold Bec’s hand, lead her and hold like am I holding her now.” And as she said this she grabbed hold of my right hand and squeezed it.” 

Then 3 days before I left my close friend described that she felt like God was trying to tell me to trust in him, to let him lead me by holding his hand. I had also had this revelation of considering Jesus as my husband in months leading up to this; which I know sounds weird. But as I was praying to God about wanting to love him above everything and everyone else, and  also praying about the thoughts of having to leave friends and family for 6 months and also wanted to know whether God actually calls us beautiful anywhere in the bible. And all of these things were answered with 2 verses

Psalm 45:10-11

Listen to me, O royal daughter; take to heart what I say.

Forget your people and family far away.

For your royal husband delights in your beauty;

Honour him, for he is your Lord.

WOW, so when my friend explained that I should let him lead me by the hand, she explained it was a bit like a husband guiding his wife or a king guiding a trusted and loved friend. And  so for the my team member to pray about putting my hands into Gods the day I was leaving the team was just God reminding me that he is always with me and sometime he needs to repeat himself until we get it or in case we need reminding.

And it makes me think of the trust activity when you are in pairs and one person is blind folded and the other has to hold their hand and lead them around obstacles – TRUST

And so we had to leave before the camp ended so we got the kids together and we sung some songs and then the most amazing thing happened!! Pastor Shane explain that I was staying in Africa for 6 months and that I needed to leave to catch a plane to South Africa and he asked the children to pray for me so picture this I crouch/sit in the middle of 40 kids and they all pray for me and the 2 little ones that I have a soft spot for are right in front of me and all of them were praying and God was at work, it was one of those moment that is like a glimpse of heaven, it brought a tear to the eye. And the I thought the praying for was over and then one of the teachers said the teachers would love to pray for me too and so they surrounded me and prayed. I feel so blessed to have been part of the Australian team, to meet the hands at work team in Zambia and to meet have such precious moments with some amazing children and teachers who are amazing example of teachers and are amazing heroes in their communities.

But my story doesn’t end there, that’s just a part of this amazing journey God has got me on. :D

Psalm 37: 23-24

The LORD directs the steps of the godly

He delights in every detail of their lives.

Though they stumble, they will never fall,

For the LORD holds them by the hand.