Merry Christmas From Muizenberg!

Merry Christmas from Muizenberg!

It has been a little different here this time of year. It doesn't quite fit with the type of Christmas we know back in Canada. In some ways I love it because it is much less commercialized and much more laid back here on the shopping and santa craziness but the lack of cold cosy weather and family makes it not feel like Christmas at all. I still find myself thinking, "Was it really Christmas yesterday?" But I know it was and we actually had a really great day. We woke up and exchanged our little presents, went to church and then had a braii with some beautiful people for the afternoon. We finished the evening off with talking to family and watching Elf. We ate far to much food, a years worth of sugar, opened a few gifts, and thanked God for sending Jesus, infant and infinite. He is amazing. 

To be honest a couple of weeks ago I was actually thinking I'd be ok not to really do anything special for Christmas this year. No tree, no lights, just skype family and maybe lay out at the beach all day (funny considering the one day it rained was yesterday). But as I had these thoughts they came with a gentle yet rather forceful reply from God. You need to contemplate Christmas. So I did. I sat and I though and I prayed and I read the story of Jesus and I became so convicted. It is amazing how even though you know without a doubt that Christmas is not about to time of year and the people and food and warm drinks and carols you still forget. Christmas is about Jesus but I can so easily exchange Him for everything else. Just because it didn't feel like Christmas I was fine not celebrating one of the most important events in history. I love celebrating with my family and the fellowship that happens this time of year but in a way my heart is thankful that I had to celebrate it with out all of the normal joys and comforts. It made me focus on the real joy and the real Christmas Spirit. I didn't wake up to a big tree and a lots of presents and my family and beautiful snow but I did wake with heart full of joy and adoration and wonder at the fact that I got to celebrate the life of Jesus Christ. In that aspect may everyday be like Christmas. It's really the craziest thing. My Saviour came as a little baby. He grew, He learned, He obeyed, He conquered death and He claimed freedom forever in the presence of God. That is something to celebrate. 

Also, we did have a little tree. Our house mate Joe is amazing and decided last weekend he needed a tree so he took a branch from the back yard and beautifully decorated it with lights and proteas. A very South African branch. Perfect. Hopefully we will get to have Christmas in Canada next year or the year after. There really is something so special about a Northern Christmas but until then SA it is. 

Cherry Picking

Yesterday we got to go cherry picking with some friends we have made here in Muizenberg. It was so much fun. I ate way way way to many while picking and don't even want to look at the big bowl of the ones we brought home. They were so delicious though and it will be nice to do same baking and make some smoothies with them. We drove way out of Cape Town through some beautiful mountains to get to Ceres. Ceres, like the juice. It's fruit country and a lot of the fruit you buy around the world comes from there.

Any ideas of what I should make with them? 

A Picture and a Quote

Suddenly she understood. She was beholding a wondrous and glorious truth; "a great multitude whom no man could number," brought like herself by the King to the Kingdom of love and to the High Places so that they could now pour out their lives in gladdest abandonment, leaping down with him to the sorrowful, desolate places below, to share with others the life which they have received. She herself was only one drop among that glad, exultant throng of self-givers, the followers of the king of love, united with him and with one another, each one equally blessed and beloved as herself. "For he loves each one of us," she added to herself, "as though there were only one to love." - Hannah Hurnard, Hinds Feet on High Places

Roots

I wrote a blog a last week about how God was speaking to me in flowers and about why I often use the name Imbali. You can read it here. As I was reading I noticed I was getting sidetracked with a simple revelation. I wrote about this season of learning and said, “It’s been like being in Swaziland but the roots grew deeper into the soil this time.” I just sat there for a second and smiled. Roots encourage me. Often I find it hard to know what God is doing in my life. I know I am changing and growing and can feel it in my spirit but I can’t yet see the change on the surface. It feels shallow but I know it isn’t and that deep things are happening within me. God just said when I feel like that He is growing roots. Roots grow seemingly invisible yet a flower cannot exist without them. They are of utmost importance. I can’t walk in the identity I feel called to if I don’t have the roots it requires. I will only grow so tall and so strong and then stop and wither. I don’t want to wither I want to be an oak of righteousness. Don’t you? 

So heres to letting God plant seeds in us so He can make the roots grow deep deep deep in Him. 

Baby Wave.

This is a canvas I did for some of our closest friends back home in Canada. This wave is for their second baby due next spring and their first little one who is now two and a half got a tree. I had to do it quickly before we left for South Africa because we likely won’t be home until after the baby is born. It’s sad to be so far away for big moments of friends lives but thank God for Facebook and email. These are just pictures of the process because it is really cool to watch the wave take shape and to see it fill in. I love that part of it as I paint. God keeps giving words and I keep painting them and then all of a sudden its finished and complete. Sorry the pictures are not that nice, most of them I took on a backshift, after I did all my work of course, (shhh don’t tell my supervisors) so the lighting is terrible. Oh well. You get the just of it. 

The mama keeps a blog too and she is wonderful so go visit her website: http://courtneydignam.com/

Hope this inspires you to go and create and take the words God gives you and put them into shape. 

Happy Tuesday from Muizenberg! 

Why Imbali?

I realized I should post a blog explaining why I call this space Jillian Imbali and why I hold this name so close. 

It goes back to 2009 in January when I went on an outreach team to Swaziland. Imbali is Siswati for flower. When you arrive people always ask if you have a Swazi name and if not they give you one so our first afternoon there three young girls, who I ended up getting incredibly close to, decided to name me Imbali. It suited so it stuck. I have been back to Swaziland twice in the past five years and my friends there still call me Imbali. I respond to it like I respond to Jillian. I have seen different spellings and sometimes think it is suppose to be Mbali but I like it with the “I” and that’s how the girls spelled it when they named me so I keep it. 

Really there are probably many North American missionaries named Imbali so it’s not that I feel special because I have a Swazi name but I treasure it because that span of time was so full of growth. It was life changing. I stepped into Swaziland as one person and out as someone completely different. Imbali was like a new name for me, for a new season, one of walking in my identity as a daughter of God. It represents change for me and reminds me of who I am in Christ. I am still Imbali and I am still growing deeper in my identity, step by step.

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Throughout the past few weeks flowers have been standing out to me everywhere and I know there are literally flowers everywhere but they were standing out extra bold, extra beautiful. I have a note in my journal from class that says, “I think God is trying to speak to me in flowers but I don’t know what he is saying.” Finally on my run the other day I got to ask Him about it. “God why so many flowers? I love them but I still don’t understand why?” And in that strong whisper that only God can speak He said, “Imbali, Imbali, I am doing it again.” Imbali is Siswati for flower. He was talking about my identity. The past six weeks of LBSC have been so intense and full and I have learned so much more about my identity as a daughter of God and the amazing inheritance that comes with it. It has been like Swaziland was but the roots grew deeper into the soil this time.

So call me Imbali. Call me Jillian. Both are wonderful. Here’s to getting new names and stepping into new depths and new seasons. 

 “The Shepherd laughed too. “I love doing preposterous things,” he replied. “Why, I don’t know anything more exhilarating and delightful than turning weakness into strength, and fear into faith, and that which has been marred into perfection. If there is one thing more than mother which I should enjoy doing at this moment it is turning a jellyfish into a mountain goat. That is my special work,” he added with the light of a great joy in his face. “Transforming things..." - Hannah Gurnard, Hinds Feet on High Places.