On sunday morning we visited His People Church of N1 City. Chanel, Charde’ and I (Iwa) shared a hula titled Aloha no Kalakaua with the congregation. The song is about how King Kalakaua restored hula back to the hawaiian people after it was banned because of the foreigners. The people really enjoyed it. They want to learn how to dance hula! It was great to be able to share our culture with them and ultimately share God’s love with them through our warm aloha spirit. Smiles and warm hugs were shared among everyone. We got to chat with some of the people there and it was great to hear more about their culture too.
On Sunday night we attended the youth service at the University of Western Cape. Mark gave the message that night entitled “Be the Change.” I shared my testimony about my cancer experience and how I needed to deny myself and take up my cross. I’ve never been comfortable talking about my cancer experience and how I was ridiculed and teased all my life. I have always battled with the insecurities of not looking the same because of having a fake eye and having people always looking at me differently. So sharing my testimony that night with the youth was a huge stretch of faith and I’m glad that God gave me the strength and the words to speak. I was very nervous but the Holy Spirit was definitely speaking through me and it was great to hear that my testimony touched many lives that night. I expresed that the most important relationship that we can ever have is with Jesus Christ and that the more you chase after temporary hypes your life will not have meaning and it will be empty. It isn’t until you experience the full love of Jesus Christ that you can be made whole and enjoy all of your other relationships. After the service one of the leaders of the church who is involved with community ministry commented that by me sharing my testimony that night was a very big break through for the people there because it is not customary for women to have a part in speaking. Being able to speak out about my struggles and how the Lord has helped me through them is a very big step in the right direction. Women are seen as being more quiet and aren’t really looked upon as being strong in that they can’t handle things on their own, but we know that God gives all of us the strength to handle what ever situations come up in life. In God’s eyes we are all equal, no matter what our gender, or race, or skin color. I’m very gald that we were all able to chat with the youth after the service and get to build more relationships. A lot of the students are looking forward to our Hawaii night this coming Saturday. They are keen to learn the hula and learn more about our culture. We will use this opportunity to share with them the warmth of God’s love through our aloha spirit. Many of them greet us on campus by saying ALOHA! They have quickly adopted this greeting and are very excited to learn more about our culture as we are also excited to learn more about theirs.
Totsiens (goodbye Afrikaans) Iwa
