Sanibonani. I see and acknowledge you and everyone who came before you.
SEE THIS WITH FRESH EYES
Sanibonani.
My name is Tebogo Yanda Msweli, a second-year
student studying towards a Bachelor of Arts in Forensic Sciences and
Technology. I am a grandmother to four 6-month-old beautiful kittens, Simeon,
Levi, Dan (who unfortunately passed three weeks into his life), and Joseph; two
girls and two boys, in that order. I currently live with my grandmother where I
was born 22 years ago.
I am a very passionate individual when it comes to
the things I love and the people I love the more. With that said, I decided to
write about people who are making a difference in the world that I got the
honour to meet and an even greater honour to have the permission to write about
their work and what they stand for.
The first person on the list is, me.
On the 20th of November 2023, around 8-9
am, the Holy Spirit convicted me. The previous year I had rededicated myself to
walk fully in my faith, and at New Years, I listened to a sermon titled, “See
This with Fresh Eyes,” by Stephanie Ike Okafor. Ever since then I have been on
a journey of healing, of unlearning and learning at the same time and I have
tried so many new things of which I am so proud. And then it dawned upon me
that this message changed for me, I realised it was really seeing life through
God’s eyes. With all that I have learnt and experienced in just that year, I
can attest that Jesus is the WAY, the Truth, and Life.
The conviction was about the learnings I had
absorbed. What was I going to do with it? Answer is I was going to keep it to
myself because I was afraid that my imperfections and mistakes in representing
God would make people distance themselves from the faith, or worse, hate Him
for my actions. Which is a definition of what being a coward is. I had decided
for other people what they would think, without even giving them a chance to
think for themselves.
That got me thinking even deeper, because is not
that what we do to God? We want to do whatever we want and then when we must
face the consequences of that, we prefer God to take the responsibility then. We
are so wrapped around the idea that God is supposed to serve us and not the
other way around. In fact, we have created our own little boxes where we want
the Creator of the entire universe to fit into. So that blinds us from giving God
a real chance to be God.
Please at least try it out. I mean really try it
out like the time you were desperate for something to work because you needed
it to. Give God, give Jesus, give the Holy Spirit a real chance to decide for
Himself, Who He is, what He does and how He does it. It will not be swift; it
will be a process. It will not happen if you’re:
o
Prideful with it,
o
Pretending with it,
o
The way you want it to happen.
Be honest with yourself. I will say this again,
give God a real chance.
Maybe, just maybe you do not see or feel God in
your life because you have created an environment that is hostile to Him. You
have consciously and unconsciously covered all the entrances to you to make it
“impossible” for Him to reach you.
Do not wait until your death bed, don’t wait until
old age, don’t wait on a future nobody promised you’ll make it in.
1st Samuel 12:22 says, “For the Lord
will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased
the Lord to make you His people.”
MY LITTLE TESTIMONY
I had finished my high school during covid which
just set a lot of events in my life in motion, most of them not in the best
way. I had to change careers last minute, fell into a grief-stricken mindset
where I could not see life beyond death because so many people we lost
consecutively, therefore, I neglected to plan for the future. My desire to envision
a life better than where I was, happened to be nearly impossible, I felt death on
my shoulders like I was somehow next in line.
I questioned my existence, my dreams I once had,
the skills I had built and the talents I wanted to cultivate. I questioned
everything, even God. Like what’s up Man upstairs?!
What helped was finding a man called Hindz on the
internet and discovered the art of podcasts, social media content creation,
online ministries and so much more. Hindz content kept me in check, and I hope
one day to meet him and just have a cool conversation and write about it. It became
a foundation I stood on that helped me build up to what is roughly a frame of a
steady house.
I began remembering what I had wanted to do that I could
not do while still at school due to some unforeseen circumstances and
limitations I put on myself.
I found an organisation that I became part of called the no-name-initiative dialogue institute even
today that taught me about facilitation which is something that I am hoping to
help a lot of people very soon. That led me to start creating some content creation,
and met Haeppy, who taught me and a group of other awesome content creators how
to go about making the best of what we have, to make content. I did a job
shadow on the career I am studying towards and still am finding more opportunities
to practically learn more about the forensic field. I started writing, exercising,
learning by consuming other content creators I draw inspiration from.
And then I saw Ben Spaloss’s one video and one live,
that led me to this awesome organisation called the Awareness, Courage, and
Love Global Project where I trained to be a facilitator and I met the most
caring, authentic people in my life. Then I got into Ben’s movement of helping
get off their phone by doing it myself first, ya’ll the phone fights back and it’s
a daily battle. I learnt about the Listening Table by Orly Israel; I made friends
and I recently got into an ambassador program from Its Giving Faith.
Family, especially my
mom and my
friends have been supporting me through it all. My circle is tiny so, family
had to be practice ground. And I am so grateful, for each and every one of
them, for playing a part in who I am today.
And for the first time in a while, I could see the
prospects of the future I might be part of.
God did that.
Today I am many things, a writer, content creator,
ambassador, moderator in multiple servers, facilitator, volunteer, student,
daughter, sister, grandmother, aunt, niece, granddaughter, book dragon (not
worm), poet, dancer (I am learning), a friend, and more to be.
God did that.
Above all man, I am God’s kid and I pray to never
ever turn back from that.
Thank you for sticking to the end, may God continue
to bless you (because He been blessing you!) abundantly with love, light, joy,
peace, comfort, grace, and everything else that you need.
In Jesus name, amen!
If you want to connect:
Instagram: @tebogo.yanda.msweli
Tiktok: @yanda_47
Youtube: Tebogo Yanda Msweli
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/tebogo-msweli-086582211
Check out itsgivingfaith.com and
use my code TEBOGO5 if you see anything you like.
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