What I did on 16 June 2016

 We spend about six hours in the night of June 16 towards the morning of June 17 praying and crying out to God for our land.  The people of our church (these are young people by the way, likely the same age of those that marched those 40 years ago against Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in their schools) decided that this is what they wanted to do for June 16 commemoration.  Once more my heart was stirred up as we poured out our hearts to God,especially  for our community Lufhereng.
I cringe everytime I hear we are celebrating June 16 rather than commemorating because for me thinking of the day does not stir up a celebratory mood. Anyway I shall leave that to the Language Police.
I kept thinking about all those school children. All they wanted to do was to have a peaceful march. To their families, there were just children. Hector Peterson was just 13 years old. Thats my daughter's age in the next four years. I can only imagine the pain of the loss.  The youth of Soweto 16 June 1976 found a cause worthy enough to risk their lives for. I keep imagining the courage that spurred them on. I also think they thought of the possibility of what the police could to them, or maybe the possibility that they wont make it home that day but courage won instead.
Maybe like Queen Esther who said,if I perish,I perish but I will do this or  Daniel , who said even if God doesnt show up I am prepared to stand for this. No matter what you throw at me this is a cause I am prepared to die for.
I keep thinking how many of us still have a cause we are prepared to die for.

This is why we had to cry out to God, because our young people have accepted defeat by the substance abuse. Wonga and Nyaope have taken over their lives. The freedom fought for by many with spilled blood has since become an illusion of sort. It feels to many that there were sold an impossible dream. Many have succumbed to the unimaginable  state of poverty. Some have been let to believe LoktionManagementSciences -LMMS ( what you do after passing matric, loitering in the streets) is really an option to life. Seriously it is normal for someone to respond I am  doing LMMS as if it is a tertiary institution study option.

Our hearts were poured out to the Master, enough is enough we cant just sit and watch. We have to do something so our young people stood up, some knelt with tears poured out. We prayed that God may grant our young people true freedom their hearts yearn for.
We stood in one accord and we know that this will not be a once off. We know that we need to keep standing in the gap of our  community.
It was a coincidence that where we praying was few meters away from a party. A party in the hood equals loud house music, dancing and  lot of alcohol throughout the night. That means lot of drunkenness.
Our atmosphere was so charged with and by the Spirit of God that the drunk people left their music to come join us  in prayer and worship to the King of Kings.
One particular guy arrived drunk but end up staying until we finished.
We were singing worship when he came in, demons started manifesting in him and after being prayed for and casting out demons...he was set free. He went from being drunk to being sober in a matter of minutes. It was amazing to see God knock out drunkeness out of a person.

What I took out was the words of John the beloved in 1John 2: 14c.I write to you, young men because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you and you have overcome the evil one.

God reminded me He is still God, He is still in the business of changing lives and communities. I will continually pray for our young people to rise up to the challenges we now face. With God on our side, we are assured victory against the many giants we face. Even though the spies said the people were stronger, the land does possess honey and milk and the fruit is large. We shall be like Caleb that as certainly as there are giants in the land, we are certain they can be taken down and the land possessed, I'm convinced we can rebuild our country.

There are many things we can all do, and it does not have to be what I did. Something though, we must do. Each of us can do something and when its all together...the impact is major.

Comments

  1. A beautiful friend indeed. You make me laugh through my tragedy. I have never met anyone like you. You are strength. Absolutely constant and solid. Dependable. What a friend I have in you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A beautiful friend indeed. You make me laugh through my tragedy. I have never met anyone like you. You are strength. Absolutely constant and solid. Dependable. What a friend I have in you.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment