25, finally!! :-)

I was 16 years old, went to bed, and when I woke up I was 25!! …but that’s for another blog. :-)…

My birthday, yesterday, was all I could have wanted it to be (from the kidnappers to the car fiasco- Natalie, can I borrow that word? :-)), thanks to the Lord, who continues to lavishly pour the gift of friendship on Zinty, and yes Zinty is still loving it :-)…birthdays are pretty much a big deal to me, and I love that the Lord knows that, and He made sure I had an amazing day! Lord, wow, thank you, thank you, that You always do exceedingly, abundantly above!!!

Pics to follow soon!!! :-)

The thing with crowns...

So, you make all this progress with the Lord, and it’s great, absolutely great, you’re growing, finally!! :-) yay, yay, yay, yes, it’s so worth 3 yays!!

Then, you start to pray the good Christian prayer, ‘Lord, keep me humble”. And, being the good Lord that He is, He answers you, soon, even! :-) But again, because He’s so good, His answer isn’t what you expected (I mean really what were you expecting??:-))…His answer is something like this, “If I’m going to make you humble, I’m going to have to remove this pride in you.” And He doesn’t just say that, He shows you the pride, you see it, and it’s ugly (I mean, did you think it would be pretty??:-)). So, your prayer begins to sound more like this, “O Lord, this pride is so so ugly, O Lord, I am weak, I am prideful, please, please, loving Father, take it away, take it away, I need You, I need You” and then you just cry out to Him, cause you just, well, that’s just all you can do!! And He pats you on the shoulder and says hey, read this:

They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
"You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being." Rev 4:11

And so , you lay your crown at his feet, realizing, yet once again, that crowns are great, and He wants to give you a crown, but the best place for your crown is not on your head, but rather at His feet!!! You worship Him, thanking, Him, oh so thankful for His grace, and again fully aware that this is a lesson you will learn yet again in the future…

“I Need This Old Train to Break Down” :-)Jack Johnson

The past few days I have been ‘broken down’ physically. Yes, the infamous Swazi ‘flu’ had its hold on me. The headaches, the all-over-the body- aches, the runny nose, the stuffed nose, the teary eyes, the sore, sore, sore throat, all of it!!!!! It pretty much was not fun!!! I am so glad to be well again!!! :-) …I have, however, during this time of sickness been forced to slow down, and do some reflection. It’s been pretty good…:-)

I stepped out of my life, looked in, and saw some good stuff, some great stuff. I have so much to be thankful for. I am not just saying this; I really do have a lot to thank God for!!!

1. My amazing ‘circle of friends’!! The thing with friends is when you have them you think it’s just, you know, something everyone has, but there was a time when I was seriously lacking in the area of solid Christian support and just people to laugh with. However, the past couple of years or so, however, God opened the doors of heaven and rained down some friends for Zinty! :-)and Zinty loves it!! :-)

2. My wonderful family. They are not perfect, I know all of their worst fault, and they know mine!!! But we love each other and continue to make some great memories…and restore some broken relationships…

3. My work. Seriously, to be able to go to a place you call work and love what you do is a huge blessing and that’s all I’ll say about that!! :-)

4. My church. It’s like God said, ‘let’s try this church thing again, and this time let’s see if we can make it work’. Again, it’s not perfect, but I love that I get to call this church my home!!

5. My Jesus!!!

Confessions of an Addict?? 

“Zinty, why are you home early, today?”

Every member of my family, yes, all 4 of my siblings as well as my mum and dad asked me this question when I got home today. At first, it was actually quite funny- the expressions on their faces and the tone in their voices were pretty hilarious. Then I was like, uhh, is it a good thing that my family is so surprised that I’m home early?? I mean it wasn’t even like I was early; early was just a relative term. My mum even said, “It’s so nice to see my baby girl in the house before dark!”….

My point? Somehow, between January (when I made a resolution to leave work at 5 everyday no matter what) and now, I have sunk back into my ‘workaholic’ tendencies. I love to do a good job! If you’re going to do something, then do it well, do your absolute best! Yes, yes, and yes, but you see there’s thing called balance, and it’s pretty useful and I tend to lack balance a lot! I do my ‘job’ well (at least I think so:-)), and I love that I do that, but that’s not all I was created to do well. There’s my amazing family, incredible friends, me :-), and of course my Precious Lord Jesus! All of those things require just as much excellence, just as much 100% of me. I guess it all goes back to priorities, and again, I seem to have those mixed up more often than not!...So, here I am, having fallen pretty much flat on my face, again! :-) I am getting up again!:-) and I’m going to try yet once again! :-) to work on balance, priorities, doing things with excellence, doing life with excellence- all of it!!

So proud of my big sis!!

Alice Chasusa

Meet Alice Chasusa who holds a degree in theology, used to teach RE in Swaziland, but is now a news reader on Zambezi Radio 107.5 fm here in Livingstone! Alice guested on our show on Sunday night The Chanters Lodge Experience With The Milli Jam Ingredient, and she's a natural having joined 107.5 fm recently after a lengthy audition process.

Milli Jam walked straight into a trap, given Alice's theology degree, by asking me what was on the blog this week. Yup! Straight in with the story about the priest, the nun, and Psalm 129 which you'll find a couple of posts back. Particularly relevant not only because of Alice's religious background, but also because Milli Jam's battling to present "Gospel Highway" on 107.5 at, wait for it, 06.00 hours every Sunday morning! "If you're not well informed you might miss an opportunity" I told listeners and riskily told the tale of the priest in the car who fancied a nun, but didn't know Psalm 129 which allegedly says "go forth and seek, further up you will find glory". (Actually when you look it up it doesn't say that at all but it's a good story!)"Why didn't you become a nun?" I asked Alice. "I'm looking for adventure!" was the reply "so was the nun in that story!" Said I.

Alice was brought up in Swaziland and studied there as well as in Illinois, USA. "Weren't you roped in to become one of the King of Swazi's umpteen wives?" I wanted to know. "If you're a foreigner you're not obliged to accept" said Alice, without saying whether she'd been proposed or not, going on to explain that for some of the many young Swazi girls who do marry the King, it's regarded as an honour.

The music on the show was nice. Alice likes Luther Van Ross so we played "I'd Rather" which was good and there was some Westlife and Dolly Parton to keep the listeners happy. Milli Jam wanted to know why Alice wasn't married to anyone, never mind the King of Swazi. "Haven't found Mr Right!" "Boyfriend?" "No!" - you could almost hear some of the listeners' increased interest! I wanted to know how it happened that she'd given up a good job teaching to come and read news on local radio, but all Alice would say was that she had a passion for broadcasting, and who was I to disagree?Milli Jam wanted to know who we'd had staying at the Lodge so we told of the Manhattan Muscle Man and Don Mackay's group from Chitokoloki Mission. "Such VIP's at Chanters" sighed Milli Jam!
Tags: africa, zambia, radioshow, guests, lodge, livingstone
Tuesday 22 April 2008 - 07:07AM (EET)
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Hmmm

“Jesus never watered down the cost of following Him in hopes that Peter would then choose to follow. If Peter chose the path with Christ, it would mean for Him that one day he would be taken against his will and dragged off to be killed. If he wanted to live a life of love and allegiance to the Christ, it would cost him his life. We too are called to a path filled with uncertainty, mystery and risk…It’s not fair or equitable…when you follow the call, you must recognize that it is a life an death proposition…this is not a cattle call…your life is unique before God, and your path is yours alone…’If I want John to live and you to die, what is that to you, your part is to follow me, My part is to lead the way’ Jesus

Erwin McManus, Barbarian Way

Promoting prayer...:-)

You don't CNN or BBC or whoever to let you know that the world we live in is pretty messed up; leaders are corrupt, people are dying, entire nations are being destroyed...the wannabe politician in me wants to stand up in front of the world and make a speech that'll change everything!!!...we all know there is no such speech and I would never make it as a politician( my charisma exceeds my political skill!! :-))...and...

...our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms... And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Ephesians 6:12,18...

so please, pray, pray, pray, and pray, and then pray, and pray, and keep on praying, and when you're done, pray some more...pray for people you know and people you don't know, pray for people you like and for those you cannot stand! :-), pray for those you lead and those who lead you, pray with your understanding and pray in the Spirit...

we are in a battle, a battle for souls, a battle that'll determine where people spend eternity, O Lord, give us, a sense of urgency like never before, bring us to our knees and keep us there!!!!!!!!!