Vaalwater Mission Trip
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:16
Day 1
The Vaalwater Mission Trip team was one of the most moving trips I have been thus far. I joined Kingdom Revealed on their trip. The team consisted of Hylton, Boby, and myself. We planned to spend the weekend in Vaalwater with a soaking meeting and sermon planned for the weekend.
On arrival, we were greeted by Shane & his wife who had opened up their home to the team for the weekend. They were incredible hosts making us feel at home. We had a little bit of time on arrival to just gather our thoughts as a team and have some free time around the pool and try to nap in the crazy heat.
Before we knew it, it was time to head to the soaking meeting where we had a quick bite to eat and had the opportunity to meet some of the individuals who would be joining in on our soaking meeting in a few min. Individuals with completely different backgrounds and life experiences amongst them were a Tabbaco farmer from Zimbabwe, Game farm owners to students studying the movement of pangolins. All there to encounter the Holy Spirit.
It was time for the soaking meeting where we entered a time of communal prayer and just manifest in the Holy Spirit and enjoyed the encounter with the Spirit. For many people, it was their first time encountering the Holy Spirit. Through Worship and prophecies, we saw all emotions throughout the evening. For me personally going into the soaking meeting I had so many self-doubts about is this God speaking to me or if is it just me coming up with this. The Holy Spirit put that straight right at the end where I had a word of wisdom but had no clue who in the room it was meant for then I saw the spirit move when Hylton our group leader prophecied over Phillip (one of the members’ congregation) the exact prophecy I had in my head and not knowing who it was for almost instantly killing the doubt I still had in my head. At the end of the soaking meeting, all the tension and awkwardness that was there at the start was gone and we saw many individuals come out of their shells myself included.
Day 2
The day started off pretty rough for me, as Hylton wanted to do a 5km run in the morning something I haven’t done since 2015. It did, however, help a lot with clearing my head for the day ahead and really help kick-start the day. We had a church service at 10 am so it was a quick rusk and coffee, pack our bags and we were off to the church. On arrival, I was completely taken aback by the beauty of the church and how the people of Vaalwater were pulling together as a community to make sure the church functioned no matter what Eskom had to say about it. Hylton lead the service and had the message of building your faith and being excited to know our father, with us putting our stick firmly planted in faith and not being distracted by evil. I also had the opportunity to share my testimony briefly. During my testimony, I felt God telling me to encourage people to get to know me the Holy Spirit which I tried my best to work it in mid-testimony but found myself skipping through my testimony at the speed of light. It still went well I was just fortunate enough that Hylton knew my past and was able to add the key elements back into my message afterward.
After the service, we were given the opportunity to pray over individuals who had problems or situations they wanted to bring to God. I was given a word of wisdom for one of the ladies in the congregation along with the opportunity to pray over a lady whose salon was given a lot of resistance from the community. The biggest thing happened near the end when I saw Hylton praying for a man who was struggling to walk and had to use crutches every day and was seeking healing from witch doctors and other spirits. We prayed over him for almost 20min for healing and for a clear soul. By the time we were done he was able to take a few steps completely unsupported. It was then that Baptism was brought up and he wanted to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Hylton then put it in first gear to get Lucky baptized before we headed back to Pretoria. So we headed to the lodge in the area and baptized Lucky now known as Blessing and welcomed him into the Kingdom.
In all the Vaalwater mission trip was absolutely incredible experience for me being able to just sit in the presence of the holy spirit and watch him work through all of us in the community. Once again many first time experiences for me as a missionary which has just made me even more excited for where God is going to send me next.
