Brodrick + South Africa | FREE15

If you’ve been reading “The FREE Fifteen” BLOG post series, you can definitely agree that a common theme has occurred in some way, shape, or form.

God provides.

Brodrick waited with excited anticipation for the summer of 2010 to arrive.  Seemingly negative circumstances strengthened his confidence in Christ’s calling.  His travel partner was suddenly unable to make the trip, he had only $500 and the trip was 3 months away….  In spite of that, he was confident that Christ had called him to go to South Africa.

God’s provision isn’t always what we expect.

Brodie prepared to go to South Africa to change lives.  He went through everything that the Lord had been teaching him and was prepared to share it- expecting that God would use him to bring people closer to Jesus.

What he didn’t expect was that Jesus would use the people of South Africa to bring him closer to Jesus.

Brodie found himself surrounded by a culture that didn’t just love, they loved deeply.  Their passion for Christ was contagious.  While on a prayer walk Brodie met a man who had gang green in his leg. He witnessed one of the South African guides clean and pray over the man. The guide anointed this man and prayed that the Lord would do a healing work not only in the man’s body, but in his heart as well. Brodie knew instantly that when she prayed for him she believed that God was going to heal him.

They returned later that week and the man’s leg was scabbed over and healing.  Brodie’s heart couldn’t contain his joy as he began to realize the healing power of Christ.

That was just one of the amazing mind blowing situations that Brodie had experienced during his two weeks overseas.

Brodie met families torn apart by HIV, men on their deathbeds that suddenly could walk, children rescued by missionaries and raised as their own children. You would think that these people would be broken and hurting. No, the pain that they had they used to praise the Lord. Their happiness was not based on their circumstances, but instead, on Jesus Christ.

Brodie’s own relationship with Christ deepened.  For the first time, he was able to step outside of “American Christianity” and see what a deep dependence on Christ really looked like.  So often the term “Luke Warm Christian” is used in the states because we feel we have the luxury of treating Jesus as an advisor rather than a King.  In South Africa, the people who believed in Jesus and had a relationship with him were in awe of him and trusted him with everything they had- because they had to.  Brodie was able to witness the beauty and liberation of trusting in Christ Jesus, and because of that he himself wanted to not only deepen his own relationship with Christ, but encourage others to do so as well.

“We so often get caught up in what we’re doing and what’s going on in our lives that we don’t realize that there are people that are hurting and need a physical, mental, or spiritual healing. You might be the only Bible that some people read.  God took me all the way to South Africa to show me this!  The amazing part in it all is that the hurting person, the person that needed help, the person that needed to hear “I love you,” was me!”

 -Brodie

God provided Brodie with a spiritual view of what true dependence on Him really looks like.  Christ’s love is like a refining fire- burning away all the unnecessary distractions and deepening our intimacy with our Creator.  Often, we just want to enjoy the warmth of the fire, but don’t want to let it burn away what our American culture views as comfortable or luxurious….
How are you letting it refine you?

Xo

AnnaFilly