South
African Team
Christian friends of mine in the South African
Embassy in Canberra, called and gave me the name and number
of the SA Team's liaison manager and Team Manager, Mac Hendricks.
On Friday evening Mac Hendricks, returned my call and asked
me to deliver 30 videos to the Hilton Hotel for him to distribute
to the team. Apparently they had not received any videos
that had been sent to them in the past. God's certainly covering
all the bases.
At the hotel I met members of the SA Team and personally
handed them the video - one of them, a big man named Lawrence
Sephaka was amazed when I spoke his black language to him.
The other fellows were also amazed when I spoke to them in
the Afrikaans Dutch language and shared the Gospel with them.
Three needy men came to the Lord. What a blessing that was.
Neither the SA Team nor the Samoan Teams know that I'd visited
both teams. Whew! Talk about being discreet and diplomatic.
I was wearing a Samoan rugby jersey with the Samoans and
had to quickly put on a neutral RWC rugby jersey for the
SA team, in fact I had to quickly change in my car in a traffic
jam outside the Hilton hotel where the SA team was staying.
I looked around and saw a bus full of tourists next to me,
watching as I changed.
The Match
I went to the match between SA and the Samoans. SA won
convincingly as the better team. It was so beautiful to see
both teams kneeling on the field after the match, linking
arms and praying. What a witness that was to millions of
people. This had been initiated by the South African captain,
a committed Christian, when he heard that most of the men
on the field that day were followers of Jesus.
The next day a friend from England who had seen the game
on tv, emailed me and asked, "Were you responsible for that, Dave?" No,
God was, and we all played a little part - those who prayed,
who gave and myself who was on the frontline. All participated
and receive God's equal reward.
Monday morning I went to Brisbane airport to meet up with
the SA manager, Mac Hendricks, to ensure the men received
their Rugby Video, and see the SA team off to Melbourne for
the quarter finals. I met with Louis Koen too, who had given
out the videos to the men. I also met up with and shared with Ray Mordt (an
ex Zimbabwean) who is on the SA team management. It was great
catching up with him and sharing the Lord with him. He was
very receptive.
I met with many of them especially Ashwin Willemse, who scored
a brilliant try after a long run down the right wing. I had
a lengthy spiritual discussion with this young man about
his future in God's service as a bright light for Jesus to
the youth of South Africa. In the process I had a prophetic
word for him - I "saw" him as a youngster, standing
on a platform with a microphone in hand, preaching to hundreds
of young people. When I shared that with him, he started
weeping and told me that when he was a child in Sunday school,
he would have dreams of standing on a platform speaking to
hundreds of young people about Jesus. When he became a teenager
he walked away from the Lord and lost that vision. He was
amazed that God had kept the portfolio open to him. At that
point Lawrence Sephaka came over and together we prayed for Ashwin.
God has been so kind to get me into these very privileged
places. |
