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I recently went on a three-weeklong immersion trip to South Africa and before my trip had even begun, the phrase “rooted and grounded in Christ’s love” was something that God was laying on my heart through Ephesians 3. It’s one thing to understand what this phrase means linguistically, however, it’s another thing to understand what it means to live out this phrase practically. Through being rooted and grounded in Christ’s love, an individual can live from a position of knowing that they are loved. Two of the ways I specifically saw Christ’s love reflected in South Africa was through community leaders meeting needs such as fatherlessness and through personal obstacles, I had the opportunity to face with God’s help. Through the different communities, people, and environments my team and I interacted with, God cultivated and planted seeds of what it means to live this phrase out practically.
During the first few days of our arrival, we intentionally visited many different places to see how God already was moving and meeting needs. During a bus ride to our first outreach location, I had a conversation with a local named Maso in which we explored the fatherlessness we had both experienced in our own lives. We talked about the ways that God has met us in our need, used our needs to draw us closer to him, and what we learned through our dads’ brokenness. This was a cool eye opener experience to the idea that courageous Godly men are seriously needed everywhere in the world and nudged me to focus on how those needs were being met in South Africa.
“Some local kids who started shouting to beat him up and rob him”
The Royal Priesthood Academy was one outreach we visited and while we were there the founder told us about how he had been praying for a way to minister to the fatherless kids in his community. God laid it on his heart to steward what he had – God, himself, time, and his health, and in order to steward these things he bought a soccer ball. On his first day walking around his community with a soccer ball in hand, he approached some local kids who started shouting to beat him up and rob him. These kids were armed gang members, however most of them weren’t even teenagers yet. By God’s grace, the founder was not robbed and to this day he coaches kids’ soccer, building relationships and leading them to the Lord. Some of those kids who were once shouting have now even joined him in order to bridge the gap of fatherlessness and to help him minister to those in their community.
In another location, I had the opportunity to walk alongside local nurses as they ministered in their community, the slums. One of the people we visited was an elderly man named George who had a crippling foot infection. I watched as they washed his feet with servant hearts, and this reminded me a lot of how Jesus served his disciples in washing their feet. This was once again a physical example of God meeting a need through those, nurses, who were rooted and grounded in Christ’s love.
On a personal note, one of the reasons why I revisited Ephesians 3 repeatedly throughout the trip was to remind myself to be rooted and grounded in Christ’s love. There were times I was tempted feel like a black sheep. Thoughts contended for my belief in an attempt to persuade me that I was isolated or that I shouldn’t be in South Africa. I can recall one time in which I was trying to figure out who to sit with for dinner and because I couldn’t find anyone, I set my food down, went upstairs to my room, and just sat for a minute. Then God reminded me of Ephesians 3, so I read it once again, prayed it, and returned downstairs to join whoever had a seat next to them. Nothing significant happened during my meal, however I remember this time because I relied on and was rooted and grounded in Christ’s love in such a simple, yet powerful way.
“Ultimately if our identity is rooted and grounded in Christ’s love, that is somewhere stable homes can build on and insecurities will flee from.
Although my personal community experience didn’t directly remind me of the South African culture I experienced, the South African culture does value community – in fact they value it above most everything, if not over everything else. This was reflected through a conversation I had with Ramos, the manager of Team House, where we stayed. One thing we discussed was his belief that one of the most important things that one can do in life is live for others. This view was echoed by many other partners such as Barry Lewis of UBU homes who also alluded the importance of community fairly frequently. I found this as an interesting observation quite different from America’s view. The only way that this view could be truly effective would be to do it from a position of, once again, being rooted and grounded in Christ’s love.
Through my trip to South Africa, God showed me time and time again the importance of being rooted and grounded in Christ’s love. Ultimately if our identity is rooted and grounded in Christ’s love, that is somewhere stable homes can build on and insecurities will flee from.
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