June 25, 2011 – Day 1 on the Farm

    Happy year and 3 months, Conner Blair!!! (By the way, I told everyone you said hey and you missed him or her!! Nkosi especially :) I got your back.)
    At the grace and generosity of Mason, I now have a pair of white basketball shorts to sport around with my socks, chacos, blue t-shirt and grey jacket instead of the long black prairie skirt here on the farm in the middle of winter.  4 days down in the same outfit, only 3 more to go! Norma can’t go back in to Bulawayo to pick up my bag until Tuesday evening . . . TIA.
    Today is my first outdoor quiet time and it is glorious. I find it difficult to stay focused enough to finish writing. I climbed onto the rocks, saw Norma’s horses in the next field over, hopped the fence to love on the horses, climbed back on to the rocks, sat and gazed. I can’t stop gazing. The clear and cloudless blue sky is mysterious and captivating, the boulders are everywhere, the valley consumes my periphery, the dam is straight ahead of me, and the breeze and heat of the sun is so refreshing. The Lord is so alive in this day. “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” – Psalm 118:24
    When I came back in from the rocks, Mason, Chris, and 3 neighbors and friends of Chris and Norma were building a solar geyser so the girls’ showers, the guest showers, and Chris and Norma’s personal shower can have hot water without having to start a fire under their water tanks! Whoo! I was so worried about freezing cold showers in winter weather again. I am so thankful. Hip hip hooray!!
    We ate lunch and the YL leaders reconvened for one last meeting and now they are preparing to leave and go back to Bulawayo and go to school, go to work, and love on people in the city. I was sooo so glad to be with them and to see Patson and his wife Cindy this morning!

June 24, 2011 – The (Grace) Gospel

    Today was an eventful 24 hours. We were staying at the house our friend Pieter rents a room at in Johannesburg and it was our first night in an African bed. I didn’t have to wake up until 10 a.m. but out of Mason’s boredom, he decided to wake me up at 8:30 a.m. to join him in watching golf on TV. I got my 3 essential books out – my Bible, my journal, and my Jesus Calling – to do a quiet time. After I read a little bit, Mason left to shower and the mom of the house, Sylvia, came out of her room and started talking with me. We got in to the conversation of our ministries – meaning, how the Lord has us best and specially serving people. She started to tell me how her artist friend taught her to paint tablecloths when she and her husband were in need of money and how her success with that let to prayer for ministry. She felt the Lord was telling her to take the method and materials she learned with to make tablecloths to the women in one of Johannesburg’s poorest communities. To help the women start a business, she will bring enough supplies for 60 women to make 1 tablecloth, 6 wine glass markers, and 6 napkin holders. They are allowed to keep 1/3 of the profit, use the next 1/3 to buy a new package of materials for themselves, and use the last 1/3 to bring a new woman and teach her to make the same materials. How creative and how wonderful!! Please be praying for her ministry.
    She drove Mason and I to the Johannesburg airport and dropped us off 3 hours before our flight was scheduled to leave. In the car, she started giving us advice for life and the very first thing she said was, “Do not trust anyone.” She proceeded to tell us crazy stories of God’s protection and grace in their family’s lives in the face of physical attacks and concluded her advice with this: “If you truly understand the reality and concept of God’s grace, then you will never overstep your boundaries because once you understand that grace, everything you do will be done in joy and thanksgiving.” I thought about this and realized how truthful that wisdom was. I constantly find myself pushing boundaries, crossing boundaries, and intentionally not creating boundaries in all aspects of my life. When I catch myself doing that I always blame the power of my selfish and sinful nature and I usually get stuck in a state of disappointment and shame. And because of her comment, I now see that shame as another way for Satan to hold my heart captive.
What I think she was saying is that once you truly feel and know and understand God’s grace that was given to us through His Son’s death, then we will have such a deep respect, honor, and love for Christ and the value of His sacrifice that we won’t even want to overstep His boundaries. When we have that humility from understanding the magnitude of God’s grace for us, then all we should really want to do is to do EVERYTHING for His Glory and His honor to try and return that gift – and that is where the joyful living comes from. That every moment feeling of thanksgiving and humility overflowing from our hearts in a spirit of joy because of the deep, deep love we hold for Christ in our hearts. So where me blaming my selfish, sinful nature and motivations is not incorrect, I must now remember to always come back to the cross in every moment, decision, conversation, etc. – even when I mess up – because that is where we were covered in grace and that is where we learn to truly glorify the Lord. What a beautiful transaction!!
Paul talked a lot about preserving the mystery of the Gospel (especially in Galatians), and
to me, that mystery is the fact that Christ came to give us FREEDOM. “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loves me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.” – Galatians 2:20-21. We cannot truly live without being covered in God’s grace and living in praise of that, because rules, regulations, and sinful nature would hold us captive and under shame if Satan had his way. Remember Christ died to set us FREE from all of those things and more. I challenge you to LIVE under the grace of God – I know He is challenging me to do the same.
    “When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power and work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.” – Ephesians 3:14-21.

    Now back to the trip – Mason and I flew in to Bulawayo via the unreliable Air Zimbabwe and received a visa and passed through customs with NO problems! That is almost unheard of for foreigners. Norma picked us up and we helped her go grocery shopping in town. It was an interesting experience and an interesting environment. We are SO spoiled with our American grocery stores. We picked up Chris’ brother and picked his grapefruit tree to make juice and headed on our way to Morning Starr. Now, to all my Chi Omegas – we almost hit a GIANT owl in the middle of the road on the drive to the farm and no one could understand how excited I was at the sight of it! Hootie hoo! The sun had already set, but before everything went completely dark, the sun left a midnight blue color painted on top of the horizon with stars scattered all above in the dark black. As the blue added and back took over, more and more stars started to appear – what an artistic and romantic God we love and serve! It was a magnificent welcome home. Nkosi, Godfrey, Montana, Lloyd, Sharon, Pierre, Rentia, Quinton, Pumba, Footie, and Chris were all waiting for us and it was a glorious reunion. We ate at the fire, stayed up and talked, then went to sleep. Talk about living for the Gospel to be spread, these YL guys really know how to do it. They LIVE and WAIT for even just one more conversation or question or opportunity to discuss or display the beauty of the Gospel. I really want to learn from them – I am so sad they are going back to Bulawayo tomorrow!

June 23, 2011 – Johannesburg Flight

God, I know I can never doubt whether or not your timing is perfect because it always is and always will be. And there is no doubt that you honor those that seek you and honor you. So I want to thank you for that and being the faithful God you are and blessing my time in your Word directed in today’s Jesus Calling. How cool is it that the chapter (Ephesians 4) with the verse that is the title to my blog is one of the directed readings. Thank you for that reminder and the faith challenges that come along with that chapter.
We are to live in the light so we can be a light, and I pray that you can lift Mason and I up as we seek you through this trip so that we may be able to salt the earth and be placed on a hillside to light up a city, god, and maybe even a nation. Zimbabwe desperately needs you. I pray how David consistently did in Psalms that you would please frustrate the plans of the wicked and ultimately save their souls. God, protect the people of Zimbabwe and be their support. I pray that Mason and I could just be encouragers for that. “I will praise you forever, O God, for what you have done. I will trust in your good name in the presence of your faithful people.” - Psalm 59:2. You have led our hearts to these people and to this trip, and ultimately, we have followed you. We have not been perfect, but we have been persistent.
    Forgive me for what I feel a lack of preparation mentally, spiritually, and emotionally specifically for this trip, but thank you mightily for the time I had with Conner, contemplating and experiencing our relationship. Please use all that I have learned and felt during those 5 weeks with him to bring glory to Your name here. Please let me be clay in the Potter’s hands and mold my thinking, feeling, living, etc., in any which way you please so that I may bring more glory to Your Name. And I pray that even in the moments, weeks, or months where my flesh is trying to battle Your will, that I could bring You glory in the form of communication, questions, patience, and then my humility. Blessed be Your Name.
    I pray that Deuteronomy 31:6 would be forever on my heart and I can remember it and call it out to expel all fear that leads me to doubt You or cling to my own human forms of safety and security. I pray that trust and boldness in You and with Your Name would couple together to change someone’s heart and open their eyes to the power, love, grace, and freedom given access to us through the cross. Your Son’s death is a sacred thing, and I pray that I would live a life that honors His sacrifice. And as Ephesians 4:1 says, “…lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.” And Ephesians 4:30 says, “And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.” Let me honor my Father and follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in my heart in everything I do so that I may help His Kingdom come by glorifying things of heaven and not of earth.
    Lord, you know my fears and you know my heart. You see my bitterness, jealousy, unforgiveness, selfishness, insecurities, ugly words, actions and thoughts, and You have chosen to look over them and instead look at the heart YOU first created for me. I pray that You would reveal more of it to me and I would continue to learn how to use it as a greater reflection of Your own heart You have placed in ME. Help me have persistence to try and live by and with that heart, covered in Your grace and glory, not the heart covered in fleshy motives and sin. You can overcome ANY human weakness.
    “So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.” – Deuteronomy 31:6.
    Love, Me

3/4 of the way there.

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that I am in Johannesburg and at Pieter's house. We just got back from a great burger restaurant called Dros. Their hamburger buns are gigantic and their pickles taste funny, but a cow still tastes like a cow over here. I'm exhausted but Mason and Pieter won't let me fall asleep yet because it is only 8 p.m. over here. It hasn't even been 24 hours since I left the U.S. and I am already dying and feeling like I've been here and been traveling for a few days now. I miss home and everyone so much already.

Delta didn't get my bag on the plane, so now I won't have my hiking pack until Monday. Mason and I are going to still fly in to Bulawayo tomorrow as planned, but we will just have to stay there at Pierre's house until the Bulawayo airport receives my bag and then Chris will come pick us up and take us to the farm! Thankfully I have just enough medicine until Tuesday night so that is relieving, and I have travel sized soap, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, toothpaste, and a toothbrush. The fun in the situation is that I am stuck in this floor length black skirt, chacos or toms, a white tank top and a thin blue tshirt, and a fleece until Monday. Go Africa!

Once I get to the farm, then I will be helping Norma make mosaic cabinet things for women in the villages. I love arts and crafts, I love Norma, and I love African women, so I am stoked.

An opportunity arose where I might be able to get a real cheap flight to Cape Town at the end of our trip to possibly stay with my friend Emily and visit my friend from school, but also just to see how beautiful it is since I have come this far already. I would stay for 2 nights I think and still fly back with Mason from Joburg to Atl on our scheduled departure date. I would hike Table Mountain, maybe see Robin Island, go wine tasting, visit friends, and see stunning scenery!! We're also gunna go see a Rugby match in Pretoria on August 6th! Ballin'. We'll see.. I have a long time to decide on plans.

Just wanted to give you an update!! Love you all!

Finally Here

So the departure date is finally here. I have 30 mins until I have to leave for the airport, and roughly 3 hours until my flight is scheduled to leave. IT is seriously surreal that I am actually leaving. I was talking to my mom over lunch today and told her how I was thinking about the last 5 weeks at home and how that isn't even HALF of my summer. I have the incredible gift and blessing to spend it IN ZIMBABWE! How cool. I am so excited and so nervous and so confused all at the same time. I don't quite know how to process all of this, but I do know that God has it all under control. My family, friends, and boyfriend at home, my future best friends and international family in Africa, any unexpected circumstances Mason and I may find ourselves in, and the list goes on. I can wonder and worry about them all day long, but as Matthew 6 says, worrying cannot add a single hour to our lives. The preparation for, departure to, and perseverance through this trip are all giant leaps of faith for me and my relationship with the Lord. I am learning to trust Him and His sovereignty over any other worldly security I may try and cling on to, and it is great. Pray for a NONdelayed flight because it just started pouring, but also pray for a safe one. HERE WE GO!!

Christ Alone.

I just did my quiet time this morning and I wrote it completely in obedience to what I felt the Lord has been putting on my heart. I have been constantly thinking about how I don't even know the way Christ loves. I have felt like I do not even know who he is and how he saves me day-by-day. As I patiently and quietly waited on the Lord this morning, I just started to write. I wrote a letter to our God about His Son.

Lord,

As Your daughter, Your Son's sister and model of his Bride (the church), I am to seek Christ's face in ALL that I do and say so that I can be the best representation of YOUR creation that I can possibly be. Christ is my perfect role model, my perfect leader, and my perfect friend sent to this earth to dwell in flesh and follow Your Word and die on the cross so that he and I both can personally and intentionally invest in each other's hearts and lives. His confident trust in You and the life in Your Word gives me security in His ability to lead me and reveal YOU to others wherever He is and wherever I follow. All of his joy, his advice, his words, and his thoughts are meditations and imitations of Your own.

His gentle pushes and challenges on my heart let me know that He wants me to stay focused on the purpose and the glory of His cross, but He keeps in mind my human frailty. His grace and forgiveness let me know that I am ALWAYS welcome in his heart and in his life that You have planned for us. It affirms my beauty and confirms how much he really desires me to be one with him as he leads me along the path of your will. He constantly extends to me the lessons You are teaching and have taught him so that I, too, can learn from his transparency and rejoice in the life You give to the world through Your Son.

His fruitful life and spirit of joy truly fills my heart with strength as we laugh and smile and sing in Your Presence together. He delights in my desire to praise You because he KNOWS that "you inspire shouts of joy." (Psalm 65:8) If I let go of his hand and fall away from the cross, he quickly tries to lift me up again and place me on your wings like eagles to remember that nothing I cling to on earth is greater than You alone. His patience gives me comfort and rest and it encourages growth and humility. 

His love gives me rest. I am secure in his love and his love alone, because his love if Your Own. Your love is unfailing, God.

Let my life forever be a model of Psalm 63. "O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy. I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night. Because you are my helper, I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings. I cling to YOU; your strong right hand holds me securely." Psalm 63:1-8

Lord I pray that I would seek your Son's face in every moment of my days. I pray that I would find my life, my hope, victory, honor, security, and salvation in You alone. I pray that Christ would always be my example and my leader and that I will always be obedient to how He is shaping my heart to be more like our Father's. We are told in Your Word that a man is to represent the body of Christ sacrificing His body and all that He is to serve You and love Your people, Your church; and as the woman, I am to represent the church, His Bride, and shower His every step with praise as He walks perfectly in line with Your will and Your Word. I pray that I would encourage that same determination and selflessness from all men of the Lord as I seek to live as the most humble, strong, joyful and servant-minded woman I can be. And PLEASE, Lord, let me model Your grace and Your forgiveness and encouragement when we fall short. Keep my eyes on You. I never want to look away. 

Sincerely Loved, 

Hannah Leigh Hatterick - Your lamb, Your beloved, Your daughter,  and Your prize.

I pray that I am able to reflect Your beautiful Son while I am still in the earthly body of one of Your chosen daughters. I pray that each day, here in America and there in Africa, that I would live, truly LIVE as a declaration of Your redemption and Your glory dwelling in and working out of the hearts of your brilliant creations - human beings.

Provision

There have been crazy amounts of provision in regards to my mission trip this summer.


First, I am in a class here at Samford on Sunday nights called Perspectives on the Global Christian Movement. It is a 15 week class that looks in depth at the biblical, cultural and historical perspective of global missions and you get to hear from a different speaker every week and read from multiple authors during the week so you can start getting in to that mindset of "there is not only ONE way.. My/our way." What I have learned about the whole point of global missions is the fact that God is a missionary God and every people group out int he world has something different to offer in worship and praise to the Lord that may or may not be different from the gifts He has given us here in America or in our hometowns. Missions is NOT about conversion.. it is simply about figuring out how to face each people group toward the Kingdom of God by showing them Christ, and letting God change and move in their hearts. Learning that makes me want to die to self and be humbled os much more because it helps me see how we are all truly created to worship HIM and bring glory to HIS name - including myself. So learning to let the Lord move and create in me the heart of His that He wants me to image forth has been such a great experience. I have never been so excited and felt so blessed by any form of education than this class I am taking at Samford.


Next, as I was working on a paper for English one day, a funny phrase I had heard in Sunday school came to mind. The idea of going out and reaping "Kingdom equity." I decided to google the term to see what people think about that idea and either the top or second link on the page was a page on a Christian conference called the "Kingdom Equity Conference." I was curious and saw that their last conference took place last March and the topics of discussion were all centered on ministry to widows. As I started to look for contact information so that I could possibly get ahlold of some of their products/supplies/etc., I saw a "205" area code... THAT'S HERE IN BIRMINGHAM!! I contacted the conference sponsors immediately and talked with a precious young lady named Melanie. She told me all about their ministry and what they do and why and it resonated so deeply in my heart because of how much I care for the women and widows in Zimbabwe. The more we kept talking, she told me about their main author and speaker who actually travels to Africa 4 times a year to work on widow's ministries and now I am in contact with her! These two ladies are helping to educate and mentor me through this process and planning for Africa this summer. I am so so thankful.


Now along the lines of mentoring - last Perspectives class there was a lady that spoke briefly on her ministry and the organization she works for in Atlanta and I find out that her job is to actually help mobilize college students who feel led to the missions field. I talked to her after class and we swapped information an I met with her and her teammate the next day after class to start our relationships. I told them about my trip this summer and the types of relationships I have with people here at school and at home and what I feel I need more help/guidance/education on, and how I can start planning now. They told me that the biggest thing I can do right now is to work on making disciples here in Birmingham before I even try to take it out into the world around me. To capitalize on the opportunities here and learn how to make disciples so I am not just trying to figure it out all at once when I arrive in Zim. As part of that goal, they encouraged me to start a prayer or Bible study group as a way of support and helping to transform the minds of others to think and pray more globally, too. To sort of combine those two, I will have my first meeting with 2 of my closest girl friends here in Birmingham tomorrow to just sit and pray with and for one another while also going through the Bible Study, "Discipleship Essentials." I am so so excited for the strength and courage and support that will come from meeting and praying with those girls. So now each time that I meet with one or both of my mentors, we pray and they hold me accountable for the goals I set for myself and my heart and faith and walk and preparation. It will be such a blessing.


Also, I recently talked to the lady I will be staying with this summer and she told me about a medical and educational clinic I can volunteer at this summer while in Zim. It is a tiny bit over a 3 mile walk from where I'll be staying, but I will be allowed to assist them in any way they need, even if it just teaching girls or boys basic skills. I can help the missionaries there to teach the Bible, assist medically, love on and invest in whoever comes through, and help tutor or teach or anything they need. I told Norma how badly I wanted exposure to medical missions and and she immediately told me about this clinic. As part of their ministry, they have actually started a boarding house for boys and they educate and train them consistently! 


I hope this gave you some insight about the ways the Lord is leading me to prepare my heart and my mind for this trip this summer! So sorry it has been so long since an update. Praise the Lord for provision!!!! He is truly all we need.