I greet you all in the Name of
my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I wanted to share with you what the existence
of LAF has hopefully accomplished for eternity.
Below is part of my testimony
shared with a dear family over there in the
USA early in 2008, who have extended such a gracious hand to
me. They are very dear to my heart for all the hope they manage to create for
the future.
In the society wherein I grew
up, God’s Will as revealed in the Bible is something that almost everyone
declares but very few live according to. As much as a form of patriarchy is
practiced, it bears little semblance of what would be acceptable to God.
Yes, fathers and men, especially those older
are respected more
than what is common in other parts of the world. Regardless of whether they are
Christian or not. Unfortunately, polygamy is widely accepted and runs rampant
through every level and structure of society. Men have two or three or more
wives. Our Deputy President has six women he has taken as legally recognized
wives in accordance with African Customary Law. Further, there is a drive to
try and catch up with the West by our women here who believe that Feminism is
the answer to all the problems bred by dysfunctional family units and cultural
standards.
There are so many ramifications
for swallowing the world’s philosophies, whether ignorantly or with full
knowledge of this sin.
I and everyone else I know have
never been homeschooled. This is unheard of and not practiced except for a few
Christian families whom I have only read about. We were sent to public school,
and, if your parents could afford it, off to private school you went. So, for
twelve years I received all the typical, ungodly brainwashing found in
government regulated education. We were taught that we would never amount to
anything if we did not excel academically, with the teachers never taking into
account the differences in ability and giftings of their pupils. I witnessed
and even partook of so much garbage during my school years. Some may call it
mindless ‘fun’ but that is exactly the problem, it was mindless. None of us had
strong bonds with our families for there was always a sports meeting to go to, another
movie to go see with friends and the relentless warped messages we received
from uncontrolled media consumption.
My heart, together with those
of my peers was all over the place, unprotected and besieged by ungodliness. I
do thank God that I was saved at fourteen and ,because of this, I had an
understanding that certain things were out of bounds for me. I think the best
experience I had during my schooling years was meeting people of a wide array
of cultures and tastes. I made friends with people,old and young of many
different races and cultures. Some have continued until today.
Another destructive force is
the fact that the majority of our homes are led by women both officially and
subtly. The most normal thing is to have a mother who wears the pants at home,
sits on every civil and church committee as well as preaches up a storm at
Church on Sundays whilst the father’s most important function is to bring home
the bigger paycheck and get the biggest piece of meat at dinner. Really. I
exaggerate not. Most of my friends fear their fathers and never say more than a
basic ‘hello’ once a day.
During school, I absorbed all
the junk fed to us by the system. I did quite well and was encouraged by my
teachers and parents alike to be ‘anything I want to be’. I received a few
leadership awards and made up my mind that I would become a political leader. I
counted becoming an ambassador, president of my country and other such
aspirations as career choices. When I matriculated in 2002 (what you call high
school graduation) I went to university 400 miles from home to study for my Law
degree. Before leaving home, I remember going on my knees and asking the Lord
to command my footsteps and lead me into the future He had prepared for me. I
did well in college, I was closer to my dream and was very excited. It was
during my first year that I became aware of the possibility of marriage.
Suddenly, I was attending
classes with 19-year-old engaged and 23-year-old married women. How strange. I
did have a desire to be married and decided to finally ask God that He bless me
with a husband if it was His will. Next, I thought about children. I realized
that I would not want to leave my children to be looked after by a nanny when
they were young so I decided I would most likely stay home with them until they
started preschool (kindergarten), preschool became first grade and by the time
I begun with my second year of varsity in January 2004, I realized there were a
few things that had changed with my desires. I was greatly afraid to even try
to define or articulate them to God or myself, since doing so was fundamentally
denying all I had known, been taught and had come to pursue.
In conversation with my
Christian friends I had met in university I continuously heard a degrading tone
when even mentioning the possibility of a woman staying home with her children.
Not once had I ever heard anyone speak of womanhood with enthusiasm or
understanding. Those of my friends who were in courting relationships (for some
it was explicit dating cloaked behind the term courting) and were forced to
consider how they would live as a married couple decided either for the woman
to continue working or maybe someday to have her work at home, pursuing her
career with the only change being her location. During my third year, I came to
know that my varsity pastor’s wife was a stay-at-home wife and mother who
delighted in homeschooling her children. I remained disturbed and horrified at
the prospect.
In due time, I came to an
understanding that all of the subtle ways in which I was introduced to being a
stay-at-home woman must have been God’s leading. I thought about it, prayed
through it, tentatively mentioned to the Lord that if He send me a really good
man, then I would be willing to be a stay at home wife and mother.:-)
It was in early 2006 that I
finally accepted this as God’s wisdom and best for
married women only.
Already in 2005, I had begun to encounter inexplicable difficulties with my
studies. I would try to study and two hours later, find myself still on the
same page. I was so disappointed and, worst of all, I did not know what was
happening.
I could not stand to sit and
watch my BIG dreams die. No. I was the girl who was going to work for one of
the ‘Big Six’ law firms in
South Africa . I was the one who was a tutor to the other students,
the one who would complete a four-year degree in record time, graduate when I
was 21 years old, do my internship and qualify as an attorney at age 24. I was
determined to be director of a world-class commercial law firm before I turned
30. How I had drunk deeply of the maddening wine of Feminism and of worldly
pride, and how intoxicated I was.
In hindsight, it is especially
tragic that the loudest voices booming on about ‘making a success of your life,
being a force to be reckoned with’ all came from Christian folk. Our pastors
drove home the point that the cultural climate had worked in our favour,
especially as women. It was our duty as children of God to occupy until the Lord
came to fetch His Bride; to take over in the market-place and exert our
influence. It was the most opportune time for all of God’s children to be salt
and light out there and not to form holy huddles in our cozy homes. Women and
young ladies who demonstrated an ability to articulate God’s Word were
ferociously encouraged to stand beside men and if possible, to exceed them in
preaching the Word to the congregation. I accepted all this with no second
thought.
My lecturers were shocked at my
lack of performance. I prayed and fasted. Nothing seemed to be improving. In
February of 2006 I decided to set aside a week in March to seriously pray for
my future in detail. I did so with the Lord’s help. I prayed such detailed
prayers and asked the Lord for the strength to make the difficult decisions in
my life, even when everyone stands against me. I did not understand this at the
time. During that prayer week, I asked the Lord to instruct me in the way that
I should go for all of my life. I had accepted the notion of being a
‘housewife’ with no real revelation, even though I lived with deep scars of
being the product of a too-liberal and Bible-ignoring Christianity for the past
seven years.
At
the
end of this week I Googled ‘biblical womanhood’ and what I came across made me
catch my breath in what must have been a holy awe that there were people who
lived as I desired to out of godly conviction. I came across the ‘LAF’ and
Vision Forum websites and ended up having a very silent weekend. I was so
grateful to my Father in Heaven.Everything in me was settled because I now understood
that I was not crazy. I paged back to my journals and could scarcely believe
what I had written about what my life and walk as a woman is hoped will look
like one day. I received confirmation after confirmation, and at times it was
tear-inducing to come across an article someone had written thousands of
kilometers away which mirrored what lay hidden in the deepest recesses of my
heart.
Since I had lived through,
observed, and tasted some of the consequences of a haphazard born-again
existence, I prayerfully sifted through all I was introduced to. Owing to
events completely unrelated to my new found,
newly confirmed, rather, convictions, I had to leave university. The
trouble, heartache and rejection ensuing therefrom would result in a library of
books. My parents, who had done the best they knew to do in providing for me,
did not know what to do. They were seriously disappointed. As if to drive the
point home of the danger of sending daughters away to do their own thing, right
after leaving school in June 2006 until October last year, I went through
a wilderness of such assault that if not for the grace and Hand of God upon my
life, I
should have gone crazy. Horrible. I saw things that nobody’s
child--let alone daughter--should be permitted to see.
God’s Providential hand finally
brought me home, wounded, but no one seeing why I was no longer the same.
I wrote in my journal that I finally know why the “old paths” are God’s way.
True,
I was neither born nor raised into the ideal situation, but my parents did do
the best they knew to do.
It is with experience,
unpleasant as it is, that I have come to read the Word and appreciate some of
God’s directives about family life for His children. The necessity of what is
for most folk alive today only a luxury: a father who respects and reveres his
role as the God ordained leader of his family. Home being the center of
ministry and productivity, children being taught at home in the ways of the
Lord. Parents who militantly refuse for the devil to have their children and
are very much willing to do whatever it takes to prevent this. Oh, the rightness
of this. How blessed your children have been. You have been spared much pain,
believe me.
I thank the Lord for all that
He has taught me through experience and instruction in my life. I am under no
illusions of the price one pays to do that which pleases God. None of my
friends or sisters in Christ know anything of what I believe God has revealed
to me. I will share a thing or two about what I believe about marriage or the
distinction in callings for men and women only to be met by stares or sneers of
indignation. Every Christian young man I know desires to marry a career woman
and have one or two children to complement their ‘liberated’ lifestyle. I do
not date, and I make it a practice not to take on familiar airs with men, even
older Christian women find this strange.
I do not see how future
generations of Christians will be given an inheritance by us if we have come to
embrace every worldly way as our own. If we dilute the Gospel of our Lord by
our brazen disregard of Scripture, what hope do we have?
I have made a decision that it
stops with me. Lord willing, there is no way I am handing my future children to
the enemy on a silver platter foolishly called ‘liberation’. There remains yet
a dearth of any like-minded people here. I do not know how this will come about,
since I have never appealed to young men of contemporary appetites nor have
impressed any of this kind. But the Lord, in His Sovereignty, does know. I have
been led by enough women and have myself been willing to lead, for long enough.
Upon my complete surrender to God last year so much weight was lifted off my
shoulders.
Some of my desires include
raising my sons to be strong men, well able to provide for their own. I desire
to raise daughters who are contented keepers at home. I desire to marry a man
who is able to extend grace and patience to a woman who is willing to fight to
impart character and a godly legacy to her children, though she has had no
road signs how this is done.
All still remains a fight for
me. I fight daily to unlearn all the errors I grew up believing. I fight to
refuse discontentment and hopelessness gaining a foothold in my life as a
result of forsaking this determination to own the biggest piece of the pie. I
have been asked to join politics, since this is one of my interests but graciously
declined, for I have come to understand my role in life. Yes, much of who I am
remains hidden, but God has helped me to share some of this with my seventeen-year-old
sister.
Unfortunately, I am unable to
share this with my parents. It would be deemed disrespectful on my part to
‘settle for nothing after all they have done’. I do thank the Lord for opening
my eyes and leading me so gently and convincingly down this road. I am learning
the discipline of contentment, waiting on the Lord in complete trust and living
for Him in a less than ideal situation whilst my dreams are incubated by the
Holy Ghost.
So, there was a brief history
and description of a young woman from
Africa, whose heart has been captured by God Himself.
The Lord bless you all dear,
Miss N. P. N
[Editor's Note: We were so moved by Miss N's testimony and subsequently sent her a package of encouraging materials. Feminism has taken a foothold in so many countries across Africa, promising new freedoms and government-funded programs. Women like Miss N. are pressured to be like men or push men out of the way in their quest for power and accomplishment. This has had a devastating effect on marriage and home life. It is exciting to see young women waking up from the propaganda and taking a serious look into Scripture. We have a second story to share from Miss N. later this week. She hopes to keep us posted on developments in her country and in her own life as time goes by. Please keep Miss N. and South Africa in your prayers.]
