Hello my lovely readers! Happy Valentines Day! Love is in the air and it definitely is in the air for this writer too. On the blog today, I bring you lessons on love. Lessons I… More
3 Things I’ve Learnt About God From Leaders Advance 2023
On the 21st of September 2023, I traveled to Malaysia. It was my first time back since leaving the country in 2021. My entire time there was filled with amusement, shock, excitement and strangely a sense of being home. There are a million little miracles that lead up to this point, some of which I will share here and the rest on my podcast which you should absolutely listen to.
Let me give you a backstory. For those who are new here, I lived in Malaysia for slightly over 4 years. I moved there for school in 2017 and in the same year, walked into Kingdomcity for the first time after being invited by my friend. The church was quite big but it didn’t feel that way when I first walked in. It immediately felt like home.
Kingdomcity Zambia eventually opened in 2019 and that was so exciting for me. I couldn’t get as involved as I would have loved to in Kingdomcity when I was in university because well, uni, and I was a little far from where we would meet for church.
Fast forward to 2021, it was time to leave the country, I was officially done with university. However, my leaving didn’t feel final. I kept saying I would be back in the country definitely not for university but for something else. At the time, I didn’t think that had anything to do with Kingdomcity but purely vacations.
When Leaders Advance 23 was announced last year in Botswana, I just knew I had to go. I spoke to my dad about it and his only response was that I would have to pay for everything myself. I did. 5000 people, from all over the world, in Kuala Lumpur for a four day conference that changed everything for me.
In this post, I will share three things I have learnt about God in the lead up to, during and after Leaders Advance 2023.
1. All things work together for the good of those that love Him…
I have come to learn that really, all things work together for good. The great things and even the horrible things. Half the time I was in Malaysia, I couldn’t believe I was there. I kept thinking, “How did we get here?!” Looking back now, I see the Lord’s hand in all the good and bad stuff I’ve experienced over the last few years. From how I ended up studying in Malaysia, who introduced me to Kingdomcity, all the chaos of the last year and how “suddenly” things started looking up for me. Nothing was a mistake, nothing was an accident.
There is a lot of peace that comes with knowing that good will come out of whatever bad thing you may be going through now. My “bad thing” was God’s way of separating me from certain people and preparing me for what was to come. All things work together for the good of those that love Him.
2. Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you…
I always say God cares about every little thing that concerns us. I’ve seen it and I have experienced it before but during the week of LA23, the care was very loud and overwhelming.
Imposter Syndrome is nothing new to me. I hadn’t experienced it in a while but during this trip, it came rushing in like a flood. I’m the youth rep at my church and we had a youth session during LA. So youth reps from different countries were in the room and some who I am really inspired by. During a meeting we had, I found myself questioning and doubting myself. I was sitting with people who have (through the Lord) pioneered large youth movements in their countries. I started to wonder if I had the necessary skills to do what was done there, here. I felt like the imposter in the room. Eventually though, I recognized this as deception and when the meeting was done, I started to counter those inadequacy thoughts with what the Lord says about me. After all, who am I to deny what the Lord can do?
The very same day, I was talking about all this with my boyfriend and he started to hype me up and just telling me about how “big” I actually am and not to doubt myself. As he should, really. He talked about me achieving dreams but also remembering to just learn from those who have gone before me. I took him seriously but then I also thought, “He is just doing what he should do.”
The next day, we had a Beautiful Morning Women’s breakfast event. My friends and I walked into the venue and chose places to sit randomly. Each seat had a scripture card card on it and I didn’t notice mine at first but when I did, this is what was written:
I almost cried because suddenly, all my doubts of the previous day were minute. I was reminded of what my boyfriend said the day before and I just smiled to myself because God was actually really listening to me. He was hearing my heart and reminding me that I should be glad I’m not doing anything by myself.
So I move on from that and the very same day, for the evening session, everyone was just going crazy praising and worshipping. During prayer, the person in front of me turned around and started telling me about a fulfilment of dreams. Yes. Imagine that. At this point, I was thinking, “Okay God, I hear you. I get it,” with tears in my eyes.. The same thing happened the following day. Two of the most random people came up to me and said the same thing, I suppose to clear up any doubts I had.
All these moments and more just reminded me of how good God is. Sometimes we have dreams that people may classify as too big or unrealistic. Sometimes doubt is an entry for the enemy to shut those dreams down. However, realize you aren’t doing anything on your own but you the Lord fights for and with you.
Stop sleeping, get up and do the work. He will fulfil it.
3. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God
This one speaks for itself. Every carefully orchestrated moment, every word spoken to me, every person I sat next to, shared a room with, everything I ate, every flight I got on, everything I was able to do was just a demonstration of God’s love for me. I was, and still am, in awe of the Lord and how He would look at a broken and lost Wonani and decide that I’m the one He is choosing and I am the one He loves.
I know a lot of times we are desperate for a reminder that God loves us, sometimes we don’t even believe that He does. So, if you were looking for a reminder, consider this, that. Look through all the little moments in your life that you may have overlooked. Those where you didn’t think it could have been God. The times a stranger was kind, the times you felt true joy and even the times everything was falling apart and yet you’re still here. He is still choosing you. He still loves you.
I learnt so much more but if I wrote everything, we would never reach the end of this blogpost. Let me know of any thoughts you have on this, any comments, any questions, etc. I’ll be glad to read them and interact with you.
What have you been learning about God? Leave a comment below and let me know!
Thank you so much for reading!
Love,
Wonani Xx
Blogging Again… This Time With Purpose
I have had quite the unhealthy relationship with this blog over the last couple of years and part of the reason why is that after I went through some personal life changes, I haven’t really known what to write about. I needed to step away for some time and just really make sure I understood the purpose of this blog. I realized I was just writing stuff without any intention for the information I’m putting out but simply because I could.
Continue reading “Blogging Again… This Time With Purpose”
Making Friends In Your Twenties: How I’m Doing It
Hello reader! Welcome to week 2 of the Afrobloggers Winter ABC 2023. This week, I will be sharing my story through various ways. That’s the one story I really know how to tell and today, I’m telling you about making friends in my twenties.
Continue reading “Making Friends In Your Twenties: How I’m Doing It”
3 Unexpected Ways To Improve Your Planning
One of the things that makes me Wonani is that I’m a planner. I’m a planner who likes to know the future. This hasn’t always been good as it had led to some bad decisions, hurt feelings and sometimes, no productivity at all. I’m learning to not be a planner. Well, an obsessive planner at least.
Over the years, I’ve come to learn some things about planning. Some of them were lessons learns through great times and others were consequences of my not so wise actions. I’m going to share those with you today and before I do, here is a bible verse I recently discovered. A bible verse that shocked me and summarizes this entire blog post.
“Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
— James 4:13-15 (NIV)
1. Don’t make plans without God
I have come to learn that while it is good to plan and have things sorted down to the tiniest detail, if you aren’t planning with God, you aren’t really caring for yourself. I have a habit of deciding God’s plan or making decisions for God instead of actually asking Him and then waiting to hear from Him. I ask and then give myself an answer trusting that my answer is God’s answer too. It turns out that is not always the case.
Making plans without the author of time or without the one who sees the future just seems like wishing for failure. At least it seems that way for me. The Bible says “you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” and here we are making plans without the one who created us. Yikes!
Rule number one if you’re a planner: Don’t make plans without God.
2. Make goals but stay flexible
One of the worst things I used to do in the past was let my goals for the day dictate how I go about the day. What do I mean? Should I not meet one of my goals for the morning or should a plan I’ve made for the morning not work out, then my whole day is ruined! If a plan failed at 9am, I was done for the day.
Working with a team of young people who have different personalities has taught me this rule. Stay flexible. I could make all the plans of how a weekend should go but should one person show up and they are just not in line with the plan, everything has to change. Now there’s no plan and we have to wing it.
The first few times this happened, especially when it wasn’t on my account, I would get so frustrated. Now I have learnt to be flexible. One thing not working out shouldn’t affect the rest of my life. We plan, yes, but we remain flexible.
3. Don’t be so focused on the plan that you miss the here and now
I love this one so much because I can get very engrossed in planning tomorrow that I miss the doors that have opened for me today. I can be so taken by planning what I’ll do at work tomorrow that I forget Sunday is for rest. Also, if an opportunity arises right now that could alter your plans for tomorrow, take time to actually think about it, consider it.
I can’t begin to tell you the opportunities I missed because they didn’t line up with my plan for tomorrow. We plan, yes, but we look around and see what God is doing so that we aren’t left behind.
Let your plans benefit more than just you
I’m a strong advocate for “there’s a fine line between self-care and selfish”. I’ll write about that one day. This is another thing planning has taught me. Earlier, I mentioned working with a team of people with different personalities and making plans for myself.
When I made those plans, I looked out for myself mostly. I made those plans because I wanted to feel safe and I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t get stressed and I would have a good day, etc. I could go on and on about how that benefited me only and how there was zero to no consideration for the rest of my team.
If your plan benefits you only, it’s probably not a good plan. You are most likely leaving others at a disadvantage. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with planning but it wouldn’t hurt to be mindful of others as you plan. How can more people benefit from your plans? Let me know if you don’t agree with me.
Let me know your thoughts on this in the comments! Are you a planner too? What are some things you’ve learnt about planning? Leave a comment below and let me know.
I’ll be back on Monday!
Thanks for reading!
Love,
Wonani Xx
Why I’m Still Writing When I Don’t Feel Like It
It is no secret that I have been struggling with writing lately. It takes me a lot longer to come up with what to write about. Previously, I could draft a full body of work in less than 10 minutes but lately it has been taking me days, weeks and even months to come up with something new. This is not because I have run out of things to say or things to write about. I still do have things to write about. A lot actually. The difference between now and then is more to do with how I feel than not having what to write.
What do I mean? I once wrote an essay on the relationship between sadness and creativity. The relationship between the two, I concluded, was that it is easier for me to write when I’m sad compared to when I’m happy. It’s easier to give negative feelings or emotions names. It’s easier to describe them. My vocabulary is quite limited when I have to describe happiness but very wide when I have to describe sadness.
This is not because I have experienced more sadness than joy but maybe because when I feel negative emotions, they overwhelm me and I desperately need an outlet so I’m quick to grab my journal. There are many happy moments I haven’t journaled about simply because writing about them wasn’t coming naturally. Did you know that some of the best or widely recognized creatives did their best work in moments of sadness or depression? Sylvia Plath. Van Gogh. Virginia Wolf. That sucks.
So, because I haven’t been sad for a while and I’m definitely not depressed, I am learning to write from a place of Joy. As I was looking at the themes for the Afrobloggers Winter ABC 2023, I looked at this week in particular and it was about “a spark that makes you, you.” After much thought and debating on whether I will take part in the challenge this year after I failed miserably last year, I decided I would try.
I’m writing today because my spark isn’t sadness or depression. I’m writing because the very first time I wrote, I was happy. That’s the spark I’m choosing to light. The one that believes that even happiness can be written in the most beautiful, artistic and creative way. The spark that believes that my best work won’t come from sadness and the one that believes that we all deserve to be happy. We deserve to be happy and creative.
With that said, I’ll be taking part in the Afrobloggers Winter African Blogging Challenge 2023 (Winter ABC) this year. The idea is to write a post every weekday for the month of June. I’m not 100% sure I will make it through all those days but I will do my best. I’m doing this because one of the times I felt amazing about blogging was the last time I seriously took part in the Winter ABC. There was joy then and there will be joy now.
I will put all posts in this challenge in one place so you can find them whenever you need to. I’m also very excited to read from bloggers old and new. It’s aways fun to see the many different ways one theme can be interpreted.
I will be back tomorrow!
Thanks for reading!
Love,
Wonani Xx
Dose of Wonani 