Kingdom Comes in the Mountain Kingdom

Greetings from Lesotho Africa! 

I want to share with you a blog written by a Junior at Holland Christian named Hannah Brashears. This past week she and the team have worked with orphaned children at Beautiful Gate Care Center, had a pizza party with teen mom’s, hung out with homeless street children after church as well as countless other activities which has exposed them to the heart of the Father.  Be blessed as you hear from the soul of a young lady “ruined” by the Father’s Kingdom breaking into her heart.

My absolute favorite part about today was our chapel. Beautiful Gate has a chapel for the house mothers, other staff, and older children on Wednesdays instead of afternoon Playgroup. Our team decided that we wanted to lead a chapel for everyone at Beautiful Gate. To shake some nerves, some prayers were said and we did a run through of our two songs, Oceans and Days of Elijah, before everyone came into The River chapel, which is in the center of the campus. All nerves were washed away when the kids and staff came in, and looked so excited to see what we had prepared for them. We started with Oceans, which went quite beautifully, and relates to Mr. Verkaik and Mr. Spykstra’s new ministry, which is coincidentally called Oceans Ministries.

The lyric from the song, which states, “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders” stuck out to me more than ever while singing this song. It took so much trust to put my faith into God about this trip to apply, and then again to actually come here. With God, no boarder is too far and too hard to cross, because he is with me every step of the way.

We then transitioned into Days of Elijah. We chose the song because it is upbeat, has motions… Seeing everyone join in with us, let their guards down, and just be silly while praising the Lord was really heartwarming, and I think that it especially helped Claire be able to let her guard down as well when she spoke. Her message was about faith after loss, and honestly I couldn’t give a description that would give it justice. After the school year where we have had experienced so many tragic deaths, leaving to come here was a little hard for many, but coming to a community that can relate in so many ways, and really appreciate her message meant the world.

One of the volunteers, Loreto, was so moved by her message because it related so much to him, and he actually felt God’s spirit so much in that moment that he too went up on to the front to share. So many times people feel alone in loss and hard times, so it is so important to not only know that others can relate to you, but also that God never leaves you, and he will forever be faithful. This is so evident in my life, not only after this past school year, but also through the passing of my mother as a child, and that made Claire’s message so special.

My favorite part of the chapel immediately followed, when the house mothers sang for us. The room lit up with joy, and everyone broke out into laughter and dance. They too did a song with motions, and helped us dance right along with them. Before leaving, Pastor Tim closed us with prayer, and had everyone put their arms onto the people next to them. We became one just as we are all God’s children. Before leaving to go into our service assignments once again, so many of the house mothers hugged us all, and it made so many people’s days that they loved our chapel as much as they did.

Sala Hantle!

Hannah