2013 Year in Review

If the following pictures of my newsletter are not large enough for you to read, please email me at sandrachesterman07@gmail.com and I will email a copy directly to you. Happy New Year!

Looking Ahead to 2014

The following is a letter I sent to my supporters. If you did not get it but wanted to, I apologize. This is not just for financial supporters but for all who follow, pray and encourage me. I might have tried to send it to some of you but somehow it bounced back. Please email me your email address at my new email sandrachesterman07@gmail.com if you would like me to add you to my notifications and newsletters (I promise one before the end of the year).

Dear Friends and Family,

If you have not already heard or seen on Face book, as of the end of 2013 I will no longer be working with Children’s Cup. Like Paul and Barnabas we have had a difference in opinion in how to do ministry and are parting ways. They are still a great organization, I just cannot carry out some of their mandates. (The procedure not the principal.) This happened suddenly at the very end of October but they allowed me to stay on through the Christmas parties so I could have closure and help Children’s Cup finish the year strong in South Africa. The parties finished last week….so what is next?
 
I am still staying in Africa but my support will now be going through World Outreach Ministries, a ministry who supports missionaries in the field with the administrative resources to manage donations and issue 501C tax deductible receipts. If you were supporting me through Children’s Cup or the Cross Church in Loganville (the Cross has refocused their foreign missions to local ministries), please begin sending all future donations to World Outreach Ministries directly. The full information on how to donate is at the bottom of this email.

Following the conversation and decision with Children’s Cup, the Lord gave me a peace (supernatural is the only way I know how to describe it) that His hand was completely in my separation from the organization. My initial thought was that I would want to run back to Swaziland where it is familiar but the Lord also gave me a peace and assurance that He brought me to South Africa for a reason. I will always love the people and the country of Swaziland very much but feel I am no longer called to serve there. God has also renewed a 27 year old vision of GABRIEL ministries (Girls And Boys Receiving Instruction, Encouragement & Love): Bringing the message of Christ’s Love. At this point I feel it is reaffirming my passion for children, especially rejected and at risk children. I am not clear in what manner yet, but I will keep you informed as I feel more specific direction.
 
There are several ministries that have asked me to join with them. I have declined the ones in Swaziland and explained why. At the beginning of 2014 I am going to start helping Emonyeni, (www.emoyenisa.com) a current partner with Children’s Cup at some feeding sites in Badplaas. I will assist Emoyeni administratively while we seek God and pray about if it should be permanent. They work with churches and children in the Badplaas and surrounding communities but currently don’t go as deeply with individual children as I havel a passion for. I am also visiting with Michael’s Children’s Village which is a branch of Iris Ministries. It is a village of group homes that works with the South African social welfare system (the same just different to the US system). They have a fantastic heart for Christ and for the children. They will be expanding in the future and we have agreed to spend time and get to know each other better and see where the Lord leads.
 
So, 2014 is a new adventure for me. I have been in Africa for 6 years now and God has never failed to guide, protect and sustain me. Although the future is full of a lot of unknowns and will allow me to stretch my faith, I ask that you continue to support me with your love, encouragement, prayers and finances (for those who have been led to and have been so faithful in doing so). Thank you for taking the time to read this and share in my journey. I would love to hear from you and know your prayer needs. I know many of you have had health issues, job, family issues and other challenges so please keep me updated so I can support you in my prayers. I love you and appreciate you more than you will ever understand. Thank you!
  

Your co-worker in Christ,

Sandra Chesterman
 
Ephesians 3:20 “Now glory be to God! By His mighty power at work within us, He is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.”

Those who are supporting me financially please make sure all donations are noted in the memo section or clicked on in the drop box on-line.

“Sandra Chesterman #286”. The 3 ways to donate are below. Thank you!
 

Credit Cards can be done easily by going to www.WorldOutreach.org/donations and selecting my name from the list.

Checks can be mailed to World Outreach Ministries
                                                P.O. Box B
                                                Marietta, GA 30061

Automatic bank account debits can be sent by setting them up on your on-line banking bill pay system and sending it to the above address (postage free). If you are not familiar with your on line banking account system, your local branch can help you set it up.

Peace on Earth

"I am leaving you with a gift--peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn't like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid." 
John 14:27

Lately I have been processing a lot. (Not like my friend Janelle but more than usual for me.) I have been reading about different people and the miracles that have been performed through them and through different ministries. I was struggling with not having enough faith to call down and witness miracles in and around me. Recently I felt God saying to me that it is not the miracles that is needed right now it is His peace. 

Stay with me as I process this...

I have a dear friend who is struggling with severe health issues and although I prayed with her this morning for complete healing the word the Lord gave me was to have her focus on His peace. Specifically to not let the enemy fill her with anxiety and rob her of her peace.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6

Not in the ultra spiritual, that will preach kind of way but in a deep, true to heart kind of way. I'm not sure if this makes sense but lately God has flooded me with His divine peace. It is not something that is natural for me but it is something that I now crave. And it is like God has been opening my spiritual eyes to how Satan is robbing people of their peace. Whether it is because of their health, family issues, work situations or lack of work, finances, fear or other outside circumstances, He keeps showing me the lack of peace and increasing my desire to not let go of the peace I now have. It seems to me that peace equals trust and that fear and anxiety are a lack of trust and thus a lack of peace.

God has reminded me how I have held onto this peace in one aspect of my life since I was 20 and I first lived out on my own. I was becoming anxious about being alone in a crime filled San Fernando Valley. A helicopter with a search light was flying over my apartment. It was one of those moments with God that I specifically remember. I came to the point of saying, "Lord, I trust you to protect me and to be with me if something bad happens. I refuse to dwell on the what ifs anymore." Since then, I have always been able to be alone when needed and not chasing my imagination of what could go bump in the night (which I feel the enemy feeds on).

Unfortunately, as profound as that was, I never connected that peace to extending to the other areas of my life, until my current epiphany. I have always felt my theme of growth since I came to Africa was to trust and obey. But, as I so often had done in my past, that trust, I realize now, was done a lot in my own effort, my own strength or my own manipulation of the situation. Even, honestly, in how I would post things on the Internet. It was not really trust at all. Or at least not trust in God. Let me become totally transparent here; I can choose to let you put me on a pedestal and pull your heart strings because I am in the midst of poverty and I can make you feel guilty by pulling the "missionary card" and saying I am in need. Where is the trust that God will provide? That short circuits His miracle of knowing my need and moving on someone else's heart to provide without us ever communicating. Now I'm not saying we should never put the needs out there. But I am saying that it should be because I feel led to share not because I feel if I don't share, the need won't be provided for. Tough balance and that is where the peace comes in. The peace in trusting and obeying God and not trying to control or manipulate (trusting my own efforts, not God's).

Since the decision of my separation from Children's Cup, as unexpected as it was, I feel God has blessed me with divine peace about the situation. Something beyond what I can grasp but something that once given I am holding onto with both hands, feet and my whole being. Picture me wrapped around a tree in a flood of uncertainty. God is saying that He is that tree and I am safe in Him. I might not have the answers of what lies beneath the flood waters but I can trust Him that there is solid ground and I will see it, and be able to stand on it when the time is right.

He also revealed the truth of His peace when my heart was acting up recently. It wasn't like a flood but it was waves of fear as I would go back and forth between peace and anxiety that my heart may stop and I might not wake up in the morning. Before seeing the cardiologist and finding my heart is structurally fine and the arrhythmia is nothing to worry about, I had to wrestle with and be at peace (and yes trust) that if I died, it was okay. God has a plan and no matter what, I would not let the devil rob me of that peace. I literally had to choose His peace, His plan, His Word over living with anxiety, lack of sleep, stress and fear.

"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them." Romans 8:28

These are not just words on a page, they are truth. They can be trusted and they bring peace if I let them. Even in bad situations, I pray that I will hold on to Him, that I will trust Him. He has my back and everyone else around me. He doesn't need me to make all things right unless He specifically tells me to do something. Then I need to obey even if I don't understand it or agree with it.

I believe in the power of prayer and am lifting up my friends (two of which I just heard today) whose health is in an easily anxious mysterious state, and friends who are without employment and those who are in employment but frustrated and angry and for those who are worried about their finances and other issues or where worry has just become a habit. While seeking peace amidst storms, I still will ask Him to quiet the winds but when He doesn't I will choose to trust Him, be at peace and if He calls me, to even walk on water in the storm. I patiently wait in anticipation for that moment!

Thank you for letting me process and be lengthy. If you made it to the end of this blog, bless you and thank you. I hope that maybe my journey was something that you needed to help you on yours.
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Luke 2 :14