SUCH TIMES

For what this year and decade has done to my soul  I am grateful for all the lessons learnt;  All the people I came across  All the experiences - good and bad; shameful and unspeakable; glorious and sweet  All the losses made;  friendships that stayed  All the many unspoken of; unfilmed moments that captured my heart & attention along the way  All the memories that make my heart swell from time to time  All the memories forever etched in my heart & soul  Stories to tell the next gens!  Though fear is present, love is always the game changer Though lies & opinions matter for a while, Truth is always the victor,  Though closure does not come, Peace is the virtue that lasts  Though being beat down is familiar, kindness is always sweeter  These are some gatherings I made along the way  Life is too short to focus on the inconveniences,  Grow up, stay friends, make memori...

Of all the "social media perfect photos" I shared this year, (the ones where I'm smiling looking happy, feeling merry,) this picture best describes where my heart was really at - it was time to take him to church: Talatala was waiting, the boys were ready to take him, everybody was calling my name... I knew that day was coming, but somehow in the moment, I still wasn't so prepared for it. I just wanted a few more moments to be close to him physically, to cling to him tightly once more - the hands that carried me, the face that prayed for me, the man that set the standard for me.  Jan 01, 2019:  Told my father not to attend the usual New Years' service because it wasn't wise for his health.  Spent it with him, grandparents, my sis and cousins. Everybody else went to church. We prayed, and laughed and made fun with our grandmother putting powder on our faces while we had tea and cakes baked by my sister. I took videos for kee...

They just updated that they have done a memorial service celebrating sweet Olive's life. Wow. What an impact this toddler made! (God is always using babies ay?! ) There was something that transpired in the spiritual around the globe over the #WakeUpOlive set of events.  I feel like the Bethel community hosted an unplanned, spontaneous round the globe and round the clock worship event to end this decade on a level that sets the CHURCH up for 2020. Kingdom things. I see no loss at all that transpired and all that was said and done. It was glorious. It was real. It was kingdom Fullstop.  It does not and will not change their (our) heart posture, it only magnifies our hunger for more, for greater, for HEAVEN. and frankly, that's a good thing. If there were no radical expression of faith out of a place of pain, then we never really believed what we preach. All I saw transpired was FAITH in its purest form. Nothing less than that and that was stunning and heartwarming....

A prayer I wrote out on Dec 18th:  Maybe its the steadfastness of their faith that beckons us, me in to this global awakening.  But its this church. This community has always from the start for me, been in the business of the miraculous and while the world watch on they have not backed down from this level of faith. They have only grown in/on it! Its contagious!  For me, personally they came around for me at a season where I was questioning what all is there to this faith we profess; it was what steadied me when I was looked at differently for believing more or for trying out something other than just being a "normal" christian or in what I was experiencing then - a stagnant one.  I thought there had to be more than just the going to church and looking pretty when we gather. I wanted more.   In so many ways this community in their worship, have offered the world and the global church a MIGHTY awakening of ...

My sis told me about a trending hash tag on Instagram: #WakeUpOlive and I.was/am.h ooked. I have to see this happen. I need people to see this happen. Not to prove anything but just the comfort that Jesus is real and this gospel that we preach is no lie.  Background story: Olive stopped breathing and has been declared dead by the doctors. Daughter of Bethel's Kalley Heiligenthal. Favorite worship leader. 🌹 Here's my take on it... Oh dear little Olive What a beautiful awakening your little being has brought unto this world  There is no way any of this is a coincidence  Our God had this orchestrated from the start, from your start  I see comments from aaaalllll the ends of this earth  A beautiful awakening of His bride  A beautiful awakening of His child A beautiful awakening of His pride  A beautiful awakening of all that is His.  I see people who've lost touch realign again  I see gospel dots connecting like it...