A Vocab Lesson

Good
morning from Africa!

I
need you to get out your Bible and read Luke 11: 5-10…no, seriously, at this
moment. I’m going to try to explain the vocabulary lesson I received from the
Lord earlier this week.

Buckle
up. It could change you.

          Luke 11 is discussing a man who is
disturbed in the night by another man who is asking for bread to serve a friend
who arrived at his house. Jesus says, “I tell you, though he will not get up
and give him anything because he is his
friend, yet because of his impudence
he will rise and give him whatever he needs.”

Impudence?
What the heck is that? Luckily my Bible had a footnote—it’s a synonym for
persistent. So, the man helped the
other out, not out of friendship, but because of his persistent and impudent
cry the man got what he asked for.

Another
cool thing about the man who disturbed the other man’s rest was that he was not
asking anything for himself. He wanted the bread to serve another. Interesting,
eh?

Jesus
then goes on to famously say ask and you will receive, seek and you will find,
knock and the door will be opened. Yet,Jesus
doesn’t state how many times you have to ask, how long you have
to seek or how loudly you have to knock. It takes impudence, persistence. That is something I do not practice. I ask
once, seek for a month and only think
about knocking and complain about my standings.

          This puts a whole new spin on things
for me. If I truly pleaded with God for something—for myself or others—why wouldn’t
I be impudent in prayer about it? Yes, God is big enough to hear once and act,
but where do I learn to trust in that? Where would I learn to wait and be
content in every situation.

So…impudence
is the word/task of the day.

It
may take a 1,000 times of asking, 12 years of searching and a long reign of
knocks…but we are not promised any answers. We are promised a Father who
listens and a God who works in ways we may never see, and certainly will never
understand. Keep asking. Continue searching. Knock louder than ever before.

          Are
you an impudent prayer?

I’m
not. But I’m learning to be.

There
are some things in the last leg of our journey that need impudent and persistent
prayer from you.  We would be honored to
be lifted up by you.

-WE
have 5 more days of ministry. 5 more days. Pray that the Lord directs us to
people who don’t know His name.

-There
are 5 or 6 of us who teach at a school during the week. We have about 14
students learning English. They are brilliant and amazing individuals. Pray
that they would feel and experience God even when we leave. They don’t have to
remember us or our lessons—but if they can continue to feel the Spirit cover
them in their dark situations, that’ll be a miracle.

-There
is a woman at the Hope House (which serves the same purpose as a Hopsice
facility) whose name is Bonsiswe. Her English name is Joyce. Her mother’s name
is Astinah and is plain and simply losing her mind a little more each day.
Joyce stays with her all day, everyday. Astinah asks for impossible things and
imaginary people all day. Joyce needs rest; Spiritually and physically. She
told me her favorite verse the other day: Habakkuk 3:17-19. Read and be amazed
by this woman’s faith. I know…wow.

-We
have a long journey back to the States ahead of us. Please pray for safety. But
not only that, pray we can encourage each other with the time we have left. We
are not only a team…we are family. Soon we will lose our physical closeness,
but we will never lose the Christ we saw in each other.

The
comments from my last blog brought me to tears. You all are so wonderful. I can’t
explain the way you lift me up. Thank you for impudently praying for my team
and I. Continue to pray for a nation overrun by disease. But, be encouraged, there
is enough love here to share with the whole globe.

To
be home soon—

Hannah,
Hannie, Thandeka