My name is Laurie-Ann, and I’m a missionary. During my mission travels, I have ministered with people in Northern Ireland, Pakistan, Canada and the USA. I’ve also ministered in African countries like Kenya, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, South Africa and Botswana. But at this time, we live in the beautiful Western Cape of South Africa.
During our last broadcast, we journeyed through growing in courage. We’re going to continue that journey. We found that true courage is a gift from God. But it is also developed as we choose to focus on our source: God. This is what David did when he confronted Goliath in a mighty way to defend God’s honour to the Israelite army. Courage, strength and joy are connected, as the joy of the Lord is our strength. But so too, is courage. Courage goes beyond the ability to stand and not back down. It’s also strength in the face of pain and grief; especially in the example of fighting an extended illness with great courage. The illness could be cancer, or many invisible disabilities that bring daily pain and discouragement. This is why courage to face the day is needed. Canadian prophet Darren Canning recently shared a great example of courage recently: He said, “One person in a war may seem like one piece of sand upon the seashore but one person filled with courage can speak to the wildest waves and they will have to obey.” (Darren Canning, FB post October 10, 2019)
Everyday courage is also shown in your life wherever you are. It means you don’t have to be a soldier or a missionary to have courage. Every day acts of courage include apologizing when you are wrong; it takes courage to admit that you are wrong partly because you are confirming that someone else is right and therefore has the advantage over you. You also need courage to be yourself, especially in a culture that likes to imitate, and succumbs so often to peer pressure. Don’t copy or compare yourself with others. Pastor Shawn Gabie often tells his congregation that “comparison is a calling killer.” You also need to take responsibility. You are where you are in life because of your past choices, although God’s grace, mercy and favour may have altered these circumstances. Keep your commitments, and don’t be a drop-out. Let go of the past and don’t let it hinder you anymore. Listen attentively to your mentors and grow. And there is still more. If you’ve not listened to part 1 podcast, I invite you to do so; its available on our Copples Western Cape website.
Mark Altrogge shares five reasons to take courage. One, we can take courage, because God is with us, by his Holy Spirit. Even in Joshua 1:9, we hear, “Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” We are not alone. Jesus also promised that he would not leave us alone. He left us the Holy Spirit, who is a wonderful companion. “We can take courage because we aren’t facing our challenges alone. God, the creator of the universe, the all-powerful One, is right here with us. He’s not far off and uninvolved. When we don’t know what to do, he does. He’s never tired, never weary, never takes a break.” [Mark Altrogge, 5 Reasons to Take Strong Courage Today, https://www.biblestudytools.com/blogs/mark-altrogge/5-reasons-to-take-strong-courage-today.html]
Number two: God has a plan for us. An example of this was when Paul was encouraged by the Lord who spoke into his heart. He said these words in Acts 23:11, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.” God had a plan for Tony and me to come to South Africa, which was confirmed by dreams, visions and prophetic words from many different leaders. We are thankful. And there is more after this assignment, although South Africa will always be in our hearts. We truly love it here.
Number three: we can take courage (or take heart) because Jesus has overcome the world. Jesus shares with his disciples, and us in John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Jesus’ words remind us that we WILL have difficulties in life, and when we have tribulation for our faith, don’t be surprised by it. The world hates Jesus, even though Jesus seems to be given a veneer of respect. But Jesus was radically courageous. He didn’t care what the Pharisees and others thought of him. He just kept his eyes on the Father, and was led by the Holy Spirit. And nothing can separate us from his love, even though it may outwardly seem that way. Keep looking up at him… or if you are walking on the water OUTSIDE the boat – don’t take your eyes off of him. Forget the circumstances. They change like shifting shadows. They don’t last.
Number four: we need to remember that nothing can separate us from God’s love. Just read Romans 8 and see what I mean. The list Paul gives is amazing. No matter what you are going through, you can be assured that we aren’t outside of God’s love. Jesus will hold us in his love and never let go. It’s the case with me, as I let him carry me through this cancer journey. He hasn’t let me down yet, and he won’t. Number Five brings us to the promise that God himself will strengthen us. The prophet Isaiah declared many promises of hope and strength. Isaiah 12:2 shares “See, God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord God is my strength and my song; he has given me victory.” Isaiah also declared in [Isaiah] 41:10, “don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. “We don’t have to summon up strength from within ourselves.” [Mark Altrogge] There just isn’t any inside. Pastor Mark Altrogge says, “don’t worry if you’ll have enough courage for tomorrow. God will give you all the strength you need for today. And he’s got bags and bags of grace stored up for tomorrow, a whole warehouse of grace stored up for the future.” [Mark Altrogge] I find that thought liberating.
Britnee Bradshaw shares how God makes a way through what seems impossible at first. Earlier I mentioned the story of David and Goliath. Tony and I have had impossible situations on our mission trips – from travel blocks stopping us getting to Sierra Leone (like the Iceland volcano grounding most trans-Atlantic flights), to bureaucratic slowness dealing with many things in South Africa, to my illness. Tony and I actually persevered through the Sierra Leone situation, when the Holy Spirit whispered to my heart that there was another way to get to Sierra Leone, and we took it, with a professional travel agent. Britnee has her own story. She also leans on the promises mentioned earlier of Joshua’s declaration of God’s power over circumstances. She also reminds us to live out of his strength rather than our own, and calls on Psalm 40:2, “He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground, and steadied me as I walked along.” This is as much a promise as my favourite winter prayer from Jude 1:24: “To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.” Being steadied, and being kept from stumbling in many ways, is very much a promise that I depend on. But then there is the time where God makes a way where there SEEMS to be no way. Here’s Britnee Bradshaw’s story. She says, “I thought my world was falling apart back when I was a new stay-at-home mom. Actually, though, my life was coming together. God gave me wisdom, experience, and the opportunity to keep moving forward in my life through faith, even though I didn’t understand how I was going to overcome. Well, I’m here and alive to tell you that God was right! During that season, he impressed on my heart that even though I felt weak, I was not. I had him on my side and my weakness only served to display his strength.
Since we are human, we all have areas where we are weak and where we are strong. In the areas where we are strong, we are, because He is. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul reminds us that in the ways that we are weak, God’s “power is made perfect.” [Britnee Bradshaw, Be Strong and Courageous: How to Rest in God when Fear overwhelms you https://www.ibelieve.com/health-beauty/be-strong-and-courageous-how-to-rest-in-god-when-fear-overwhelms-you.html]
In what areas of your life do you need to rely on God’s strength? Missionary Tracy Evans uses the story of Gideon and his little band of 300 men. Because this small group trusted God, the large army that came against them was routed – not by their own might. They only brought lanterns and trumpets! “No swords. No bows and arrows. No spears. No shields. Not one person in God’s army was carrying a weapon!” [Kris and Jason Vallotton, Outrageous Courage: What God can do with Raw Obedience and Radical Courage] Like Moses before him, who was led to battle for the release of the Hebrews in Egypt, Gideon was given the promise “I will be with you.” “An incredible bond of trust was formed between God and Gideon on the battlefield of self-abandonment. Through Gideon’s courageous choices, and unyielding obedience, the impossible happened. A nation stepped back into its rightful place with God, and the people’s inheritance was restored to them. Those five words, ‘I will be with you’ are our security when God invites us to face an impossible circumstance.”
“You may be facing an impossible situation in your life right now, but whatever your circumstances, God wants to invite you to follow Him on this supernatural Great Adventure. The key to answering his invitation is letting go of everything you look to for security, and simply trusting Jesus instead.” [Kris and Jason Vallotton]
What areas of your life do you need to rely on God’s strength? If you can remember the book of Numbers, it features the leaders Joshua and Caleb. They were the only older leaders who originally had the faith, courage and confidence in God to cross into the promised land (where there were some giants living there). Although the giants were bigger and stronger than the Israelites, Joshua and Caleb knew they could take the land because God was with them. Numbers 13:30 shares, ”And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.” This was because they knew God directed them to do so. Ten of the other scouts hesitated due to their fear of the Anakite giants. Their eyes were on the giants and their own physical ability; rather on God’s ability.
Perhaps you are looking at your OWN situation through your perspective. God wants you to come up higher to where he is, so that you can view the things that make you feel small and weak. Instead, be strong and accept HIS strength in you.
To move forward, it is best to face your deepest fears!. Britnee Bradshaw shares how she faced hers. She says, “Fear and I have definitely gone round for round over the last two years of my life. I can say that I am a victor over fear, but it took my being afraid and having to be placed in situations to face and reject it. I met fear the day my daughter was born. We had to have an emergency c-section, which was never part of the plan for me and Christopher. We had planned for a natural birth at a birth center, not a surgical one in a hospital. I hated hospitals because it reminded me of sickness and death. Even though I intellectually knew that people get healed and live there, the reputation hospitals had in my mind wasn’t a good one.
I will say that I wasn’t ready to die on that operating table. But I felt like it. I mean, to be honest, up until that point, my pregnancy was healthy and extremely low-risk. I didn’t even understand how we got there. So, if being in the hospital could happen to someone like me, surely death could happen too, right? And it wasn’t just my life that I feared for. It was my daughter’s life, too. Her heart rate dropped with every contraction I had. The contractions that were supposed to bring her alive into the world were instead hurting her. I was afraid.” [Britnee Bradshaw] But Britnee did face her fears and found strength in her weakest moment. She says, “In that operating room, I trembled with fear. I smelt it in the air. It was overwhelming. But in my heart, I knew that Jesus was my savior for a reason. He had defeated and conquered fear. So, I thought on his name. Almost instantly, the fear in that room melted away. Jesus gained the victory over fear and death. He gave fear and death black eyes and knocked them out for good. I had Jesus. I still do.” [Britnee Bradshaw] The scripture she clung to during that time was 2 Timothy 1:7, which says, “God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and sound mind.” Other versions of that verse say self control or discipline, but sound mind takes into account deeper aspects of not only the psyche but the spirit. Britnee notes that Fear IS a spirit, but it is not one that God gives us. Therefore, we can be courageous and live above fear. This doesn’t mean that we won’t ever feel afraid. We will. This means that when we start to feel fear rise up, we can combat it with the truth of what God has given us: Courage.
Maybe the source of your weakness and fear isn’t the same as mine. That’s OK, it doesn’t make your weakness and fear any less valid to God. God’s Word is the same for my situation, as it is for yours, as it is for the next person. It is real and active and alive. Decide not to live in a place of weakness and fear. Take captive of the victim mentality and choose to know yourself as God knows you. Be strong and courageous!”
Tracy Evans (through the writing of the Valattons), says that after you accept God’s invitation to trust Jesus instead, “at first, it may feel as though you are free-falling, but you can be sure that He will catch you before you hit the ground. The MORE you trust him, the more fun it gets, Before long, you will be like an excited child shouting to his or her father, ‘Do it again! Throw me up and catch me again!’ THIS is the secret to the Great Adventure – blind faith and wild trust!” [Kris and Jason Vallotton]
Tracy Evans has many stories of how she developed amazing courage, in the Philippines as a hostage, in the dumps among disease, in Mozambique in the midst of riots and gunfire, and in emergencies like one I read on an earlier radio show when Tracy helped over 18 wounded people on a remote South African road side. She didn’t even have medical supplies yet. She used her medical skills to tend to the wounded, and God took care of the rest. The rest included major healings, and a lady, who was confirmed dead, but came back to life. To read of these stories and the courage that came from radical obedience and trust, please go find a copy of Outrageous Courage: What God can do with Raw Obedience and Radical Faith.
You may not be at that level of courage, but there are times that you can be if and when you trust God. There are times that I’ve been emboldened and Tony has looked at me with amazement. But it’s Holy Spirit, and me responding with authority. I especially do this when there are children involved. I guess it’s the mama or auntie in me. I’ve truly become a spiritual mom, and that in itself is a courageous thing. Something changes in you when you become responsible for someone else. It is when we sacrificially love someone that we can become a hero. Tracy Evans says, “These days, it seems as if the idea of sacrificing for a noble cause has fallen on hard times in Western culture. [Just look at veterans and how they are treated.] Heroism has gradually declined. It has been replaced by a self-centred, comfort loving, virtueless culture.” [Kris and Jason Vallotton] “Simply put, people who do not know how to sacrifice do not know how to love. They will never know the depths of human fellowship the way [that those who sacrifice have learned. These include veterans]. In the words of Christ, only he who lays his life down for his friends, knows such great love. [Just read John 15:13]: “Greater love hath not man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” [Kris and Jason Vallotton] I know of many such people who are not afraid to be at the centre of God’s will for them. Tony and I are even shown respect when we go into Avian Park. Our car is known. We are known as friends, and the gangs and any who seek to harm, leave us alone. We are even given smiles and greetings of “Uncle Tony!” Others, such as Erena in Change Makers, are greatly loved by the people in Roodewal. It’s such a delight to be with people who aren’t afraid to walk in their calling. They have great courage.
It is also a courageous thing to stand up to cancer and not let it get you down. There is a reason why the support groups call those who battle cancer, warriors. Because it IS a battle. Some days the cancer seems to be stronger – but not for long. Remember, that God is still bigger than the cancer. Thankfully, due to my faith, Jesus is carrying me through it. Even when I had a fall due to a walking stick accident, and a loss of balance in a moment of chemo brain fog, there was a nurse who just happened to walk by. She even remembered me from my time in the local Mediclinic hospital. She got me up off the sidewalk safely. I am thankful she was there at such a time. It reminds me that even if we DO fall, God will be there to pick us up at just the right time. Psalm 91:11-12 Passion Translation, says, “God sends angels with special orders to protect you wherever you go, defending you from all harm. If you walk into a trap, they’ll be there for you and keep you from stumbling.” While I did fall, I was cushioned slightly and rescued quickly. I believe that I will not fall again, and have learned there is such a thing as loss of balance due to chemotherapy, as well as the associated brain fog that comes with it. Then it will take courage for me to walk where I used to walk normally. It will be OK – since God will give me the courage I need, the awareness of the surroundings as well as his presence. Courage faces us forward. Fear has us look back. Which will you choose? Will you move forward WITH me?
Lord Jesus, thank you for protecting me, despite my fall. May you keep me from falling again. Thank you for those who are listening. Reach out to any who have been dealing with fear of their circumstances. And for those who are in a battle. You fight for us. Yes, we are warriors and you embolden us, but the battle is yours, and YOU fight FOR us. Thank you that you do, and that you have won. We don’t have to whine like victims. We are victors, as my name says. Laurie-Ann is victory through grace. And may you give us that victory through YOUR grace. In Jesus’ name.
If you’d like to hear an audio version of this article, please visit the Ways to Grow in God (WTGIG) podcast page on the coppleswesterncape.ca website (under the “Listen” drop-down menu). Click here: (https://www.coppleswesterncape.ca/wtgig-podcasts.html) and scroll down to #65! If you have been blessed by this article, please let us know!
Updates: For those looking for news on my cancer journey, I’m now declared chemically cancer free as of February 2021, but still in post-cancer treatments (lymphedema massage, physio, medications, scans and bloodwork). On a side note, while I was in my cancer journey, I ordered a “Courage” key from the Giving Keys NGO in Los Angeles. I still expect to wear this after we return to Canada later this year.
It will take courage to uproot ourselves and move back to Canada in the midst of heavy covid-19 restrictions in Canada that will severely limit us re-settling in both Toronto to take care of my frail 92 year old dad, and then in Ottawa, where we have our condo (which is rented out to others at this time). We also need courage to face a crisis with Tony. He has TB, and has been in treatment for six months.
He also is battling a nearly detached retina in his left eye. It’s one thing after another, but we are in SA on medical visas now, so it’s appropriate that we are having treatment as well as ministry. We believe that the medical treatment here is excellent, although expensive, despite the rand-Canadian dollar exchange has helped keep costs almost 15 percent lower.
We have incurred significant medical debt, although kind people in Canada and around the world have helped us so far. God bless each and every one of them. But we still need help. Tony has significant medical bills as well for TB, eye surgery and other issues. Please click here for the medical campaign page to get more info: https://www.coppleswesterncape.ca/medical-campaign.html.
I want to thank Teriro, who blessed us with a gift in February. We weren’t expecting it when it came! Most people who are led to give are friends, or friends of friends, so when friends we’ve not met yet respond, it’s very special!
We are still crowdfunding to cover the post cancer treatments (as well as Tony’s TB and eye treatments). If you feel led to contribute, please do so via our PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/WaystogrowinGod
L-A’s colouring book: If you are in South Africa, and would like to purchase one of L-A’s colouring books, they are available at OliveTree Bookshop in Mountain Mill Shopping Centre (near Pick n Pay), Worcester, Western Cape. You can also buy them at LeRoux and Fourie Wineshop on R60 beside Cape Lime (between Nuy and Robertson). Or you can order one (or more) printed for you through Takealot.com through this link: https://www.takealot.com/colouring-with-jesus/PLID68586424 The Colouring with Jesus 2 is in the works. We just finished translation mode into Afrikaans, and are awaiting a proof reader in both languages. After we return to Canada, we plan to republish the devotional colouring books into English-French.
Bless you and thank you for your support!
Laurie-Ann
Ways to Grow in God 
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