archives: february 2011...

editorial...

Last month we mentioned that we wanted to introduce you to some legendary followers of Jesus. Whether you’ve heard of these people or not, they are figures that stand out as shining lights in dark places… they are people who reveal Jesus to the world around them and inspire others to do the same.

legend number two: angela

I don’t know Angela’s surname. In fact, if don’t know much about her at all. I met her one morning whilst out in Durban, South Africa. I only spoke to her for about half an hour, but those 30 minutes keep coming back to me, encouraging me to do what I can to serve Jesus with what I have.

Angela lived – and maybe still lives – in a township called Amaoti, just north of Durban city centre. She had HIV. She was a widow. Life hadn’t been kind to her. She was poor and lived in a small shack of two tiny rooms. She had several children of her own but she’d also opened up her home to five or six other children, all of whom had been orphaned. Like Angela, most of these little people had HIV and some were already showing signs of weakened immune systems. Quite a few of them had been abused. Amaoti wasn’t a safe place.

Angela didn’t have much money, in fact it was unlikely that she could live on her small wage by herself, let alone feed, support and clothe at least 10 other children. But she told me she’d met Jesus 10 years earlier and he’d changed her life. She was now trying to give others that same chance with whatever scrap of life they had been given.

Angela was one of those people who just shone selflessness. She was generous to the point that it actually cost her. Forget tithing and giving £20 to a charity TV telethon, her giving meant a 24/7 lifestyle change.

After playing football with some of the local kids I left Amaoti and I’ve never been back. Often, especially when I’m in church, I remember her. I remember her generosity. I remember how heart-broken I felt after meeting some of her children. I remember thinking how my faith needs a radical change to have any of the authenticity that hers had. She might not have been a theological mastermind, but her life stands as a call to me to be different: a call to live selflessly and give out of what I have. When I remember her, I hear Jesus say to me:

"this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on"
Luke 21v3-4

That’s her. Legend number two, Angela. To me she’s an example of selfless faith, who in her poverty gave Jesus all she had to live on.

We hope you find this story and the rest of the articles challenging and inspiring this month. There’s some serious stuff on the plight of the persecuted church and what you can do to stand alongside our brothers and sisters around the world, plus some help for those of you who will be single this Valentine’s Day. Mike P is also back from his New Zealand travels with a fresh article on failing and we also have a new mp3 on God's plan for you. There’s loads to get on with reading, so we’ll leave you to get on with it.

Peace out homey’s.

editor@soulsurvivor.com