It all began on 14 October 2024 when Odette and I did our first CFan Fire Camp training together. We were catapulted into a heart on fire for the lost. We did not know where it all will lead. But it certainly took us from being unsure of what God want us to do, to a certainty of the will of God, a purpose and mission for our lives that now shape every choice we make, even how we read the Bible. Every conversation is now an opportunity to sow the seed of the Gospel, to seek that what was lost and save them to the uttermost.
After an intense week of training, practical application and additional coaching we were ready to take on the the streets with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And we got hammered, shouted at, chased away, and even threatened by the police… In a country where we have freedom of religion, freedom of speech and so on and so on… But in spite of all of that, we were energized, full of joy and ecstatic! We saw the miracles that we only read of in the Bible happening right in front of our eyes for the first time in our lives! The simple gospel of Jesus Christ is the key to the manifestation of His power, miracles and a deeper understanding of belief. We saw people transformed in an instant, grabbed by the presence of God, and snatched from the clutches of death, and released into the abundant life and joy of salvation.
What a prevelige to experience this new birth of a believer. We saw thousands come to Christ amidst the pressure of others who try to intimidate us to stop, or go somewhere else in stead of close to them. We just bursted through them with confidence and veracity that was not our own, it came from somewhere deep inside, it came from the Spirit who lives in me, and I never knew Him… well not in this way, not in this force.
There is an urgency in the air, that not only is Jesus’ second coming very close, but also the magnitude of the harvest, a job that we thought was in some other country, not in our backyard around the corner… We realized that if we did not step out and heed the call of God, we will miss the wave of His move for this era. So many generals of God came from everywhere else in world to preach here, even with so many believers in South Africa, to bring this country into a state of revival, repentance and a turn back towards God. They all came did their thing, but never lasted, it always withered away as soon as they went back home.
I was perplexed, why are we not building momentum with all the efforts of the international speakers, evangelists, pastors, prophets and what not. And then it dawned on me, our impact in all spiritual, but never practical.
‘If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.’1
Jesus Christ
I now understand what Jesus wants. The question you must ask is HOW do you give to them, and what are the things are Jesus referring to?
The HOW
To understand the how, we must see the “How not’s”. Destributing food and clothes is one way of how not to give. The problem you are trying to fix, will now just grow. There is a brilliant Chinese proverb that says:
If you give someone a fish, you feed him for one day, but if you teach someone how to fish, you feed him a lifetime.
Unknown
The WHAT
Where are the workers who stay behind to teach them how to fish? What I have learnt in my lifetime with impoverished people and the government is that the government wants to tick boxes, while the poor have no means of supporting themselves through any of the initiatives that has been rolled out. As soon as there is greater amounts of money involved, corruption enters the room and destroy all the good work that was built. The poor goes back to looting and stealing to survive, and the government ticked a box.
We have many people with many ideas how to approach this dilemma, but none has had success, except one foundation that I know of. And they are Hunger and Thirst. They spread the gospel systematically through teaching the poor how to farm in a bag, supply food for their own home and selling the surplus to their neighbors, creating a micro economy from the house to their immediate neighbourhood. They build trust, influence and confidence, and then they teach them how to live as a believer in the only true God who proved that He is God. That is off course Jesus, who did not only die on the cross for our sins, but rose from the grave on the third day to prove that what He said He is, is actually the truth. No other religion can claim this with factual proof to back their story.
Anyways, as I was saying, Neil from Hunger and Thirst has shown me a better way of evangelism than bursting into a community with speakers, trailers, stages and trucks and shouting from the top of your voice: “The Kingdom of God is come near to you today!” He has shown me that building trust, praying for and with the lost has a longer lasting effect. And it will last generations.
I am not saying that we should not do it in such a manner. All I am saying is that such fruit does not seem to last very long. It withers away and it seems as if everything returns to normal in a view days or weeks. Their should be another gear added to this process of evangelism for it to last. And I am convinced that Hunger and Thirst is that gear. They shepherd the flock, while feeding and clothing them, fulfilling all of the criteria of faith and works.
Footnotes
- James 2:15-17
https://www.bible.com/bible/114/JAS.2.15-17 ↩︎
A farm in a bag… What an awesome idea!