wholehearted devotion

Every Wednesday morning our team crams into our tiny prayer shack in Masi for our weekly prayer gathering. We long for heaven to invade earth, for the glorious Kingdom of Light to flood Masi, driving out the darkness and pain. We cry out for chains to be broken, lives to be healed and hearts released to rejoice in their Father! As we gathered to pray this week, there was a stirring in my heart to pray for people who will WHOLEHEARTEDLY seek God and give him their hearts. God is faithful. ALL the time. Even when we are so unfaithful. Even when we don't choose him and we run after other lovers. God is faithful. My heart was crying out that all of his people, myself included, would no longer have divided hearts, but that with wholehearted pursuit we would seek the One who loves us always.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13

CRAZY WEEK! Update on life here from the past week and half:

• Beach day on Saturday with 30 friends from Masi! it was a wonderful success. So much laughter and joy. New friendships formed and people getting connected to community. Perfect weather. We couldn't have asked for a better time! See pics below! :)
• God is answering our prayers! We have had a handful of men within All Nations step up to partner with us to see our older boys mentored! These guys need role models. This is truly a fatherless generation...but God is raising up a new generation of faithful, loving, pure men!
• I am continuing to get connected to more VC families, kids and women. Building friendship, heart connections, insight into needs. I am getting more and more excited about the possibilities!
• Busy week in the All Nations office! One of the areas that I am serving All Nations (on the admin/logistical side of things) is I am heading up the team that puts on our monthly celebrations (a time when we gather everyone in the All Nations family/network). It is quite a big job! This Sunday is our first of the year...so I have been running around getting things ready!
• I have spent a large portion of my week trying to get my car registered (ahhh!). It has been QUITE the process! I have been feeling frustrated that I have to spend time doing this...but today while my car was in the shop getting a required tune-up, I was carless all day. There were a million things I needed to do and I was just stuck waiting on other people to give me rides. I suddenly realized how thankful I am for my car!!! I AM SO BLESSED TO HAVE IT!!!
• This Friday, several people on our VC team have the wonderful opportunity to attend a workshop where we will be trained in how to facilitate groups to mentor girls in living a pure lifestyle! So excited! :)

beach day with friends from Masi! look at all those kids soaking up the fun!

the minute the kids hit the beach, they took off running for the water! Even thought the water was FREEZING they were fearlessly swimming and splashing in it all afternoon!

'

Lunch time at the beach :) We brought sandwiches and fruit for a picnic on the beach!

so fun to be able to connect with new friends!

a brother and sister having fun together!

thanks for reading! :) happy weekend!

with love,

whit

the eyes of LOVE.

He says to me,

look into the eyes of love.

Into the eyes of the One who has loved me before my birth. Who knows me better than anyone else, who calls me Beautiful One even when I am deep in the muck and mire of this broken world. The One who calls me forth into his love, into his grace, into his family and into the glorious destiny that he has dreamed over my life. He is the One who lifts me up and crowns my head with his love and goodness, who calls me into royalty and true riches, who fills my life with his glory and his presence. And in him I find contentment and peace. He invites me over and over, saying "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me." (song of songs 2:10)

'Come look into my eyes of love.

Be made whole in my love.'

With this invitation I walk into the township community, Masiphumele. With this invitation I spend time the women in Masi, whose lives are filled with brokenness, pain, fear and loneliness. With this invitation I call them to leave the ashes of their lives and receive beauty. I call them to receive the love of the Father who will never leave them or forsake them. To drink in the affection of the One who is the lover of their souls.

God is pursuing his people. He is crying out for his sons and daughters to come and be made whole in his love. Here is one such story:

I met Gloria last year during CPx. I had come to spend some time with a family I had recently met and she was simply there visiting for the afternoon. She was a beautiful, young, tiny framed girl. She was very pregnant and had her 3 year old daughter with her. In the short time I spent with her, my heart was filled with deep love and compassion for this young woman. That next day she was on my heart and mind, so I spent time praying for her. The Lord began speaking to me about how he longed for her to know that he would never leave her or forsake her as her father did. That he had come for her. I prayed for her and thought about her often, but I never saw her again because she had moved across Masi to live with her boyfriend. Even as I traveled back to America, I often would think of Gloria...

Last Friday at Vovo's women's gathering in Masi, as I sat crowded in a shack full of women, I looked up to see Gloria walk in. I only saw her once a year ago, but I knew it was her! She carried a one year old boy on her back and held the hand of her young daughter...my heart was filled with joy! As many of the women shared their testimonies of God's goodness in their lives, she shared how she was overwhelmed with her difficult circumstances in life but that last year she had gotten connected to Baby Safe (an All Nations project that supports babies and mothers in need). She shared how she had been given hope. I sat in awe of how much the Father loved this woman. After the gathering was over I went to her and shared with her how I had been praying for her since we met. Her face was filled with joy! She is being pursued by the Father because of his great love and delight for her! I am filled with hope and expectancy for what he has for her life and I am so looking forward to spending more time with her.

What joy it is bring such an invitation to hurting, broken and dying people. To go with such good news! To carry a banner of love! To have hands that are full of hope, grace and healing! I am honored to be a vessel of love to a world that so desperately needs it!

Current and upcoming news:

-I have been assigned the families I am mentoring through Vulnerable Children! I am so eager to begin spending time with them and loving on these families!

-Next Saturday we are taking the VC kids to the beach! Listening to them scream and dance for joy when we told them of the beach day was truly priceless!

-I am taking on a lot of administration work for the VC program. I am excited to be able to serve in this way and put my degree to good work!

-I am celebrating the engagement of my dear, dear friend Amanda Sperle to Tyler Hardage! It is hard to be so far away, but I am rejoicing nonetheless!

-I had a WONDERFUL birthday on friday! It was a dream of a birthday! Breakfast in bed, relaxing on the beach, my favorite meal for dinner, lots of friends for a game night and tons of love from home! I am one blessed girl :)

THANKS FOR READING! I am BEYOND BLESSED by each of you who has joined me on this journey!

with love,

whit

dreaming big dreams!

Another wonderful week in Cape Town!

Last thursday and friday, the Vulnerable Children (VC) team spent two days in strategic planning meetings. It was such a good time of vision casting, assessing our current situation and then coming up with the most pressing strategic issues we are facing. My very favorite part of the process was vision casting. Our facilitator asked us, "Ten years down the road, if you could dream up absolutely anything over these children and families what would it be?" He encouraged us not ask the question of "how will we get there," but instead to dream BIG. What a joy to be able to dream abundant dreams! That is the heart of the God of the impossible!

VISION FOR VC PROGRAM IN 2021:

• The Vulnerable Children (VC) kids have become role models and they are influencing all of South Africa. The first generation of VC kids have become the leaders of their generation.

• A model of empowerment has been developed that is now used throughout Africa. This empowerment model is now owned by locals and has become a dynamic movement. VC is running a successful skill training program consisting of a network of local leaders who provide the training for others in their community.

• These children are empowered to impact the nation through their Christ-like identity. They are free from shame and their wholeness is impacting all spheres of the community. These children are free from the spirit and mindset of poverty and generational cycles of poverty, abuse, addiction, neglect are broken. As they have grown up these children are now skilled parents in loving, healthy homes. The value of marriage and family has been restored in Masi and beyond.

• Children are the catalysts for revival and are leading the Church in Masi in moves of the Holy Spirit. They are doing the “greater things”(reference) that Jesus spoke about--signs and wonders, healing the sick, raising the dead and prophesying.

Vulnerable Children Mission Statement:

Vulnerable Children is a Jesus-centered ministry that meets the felt practical needs of vulnerable families. We disciple and advocate for the next generation of leaders, breaking the cycle of poverty, bringing restoration and launching the vulnerable into their God-given purpose.

highlights from the week:

-God healed me the other night! I suddenly became very nauseated and achy on Sunday afternoon (I had a stomach bug the week before so I was sooo bummed to be getting it again!). I felt that I needed to call my mom and have her pray for me. After my mom prayed over me, the achiness instantly left me and after a little while longer all the nausea was gone!!! I have never been healed so quickly and fully! The Father is taking such good care of me!

-I saw my first snake here eeek :( not very fun...i freaked freaked freaked.

-Friday afternoon I got to attend a women's gathering in Masi. Vovo (a incredible woman who lives in Masi and who attended CPx with me last year) had a vision from the Lord for the woman in their network of simples churches/bible studies. She has a heart for community and for these women to have have deep friendship, encouragement and support. So many of the women live such separate lives, not sharing the deep, hard things they are walking through. So she invited the women in their network to come, spend time together, eat yummy baked goods and share our life stories with one another. There was more than 20 woman packed in a small shack, listening intently as one after another shared their testimony of how God has lifted them from the pit and transformed their lives! It was incredibly beautiful. I am so thankful to be a part of community and what the Lord is doing in Masi!

thanks for following my journey! much love, joy and peace to you this week!

with love,

whit