Hallo family! What a journey the Lord has put us on as the Esterhuizens for the past couple of months.
We are now well and truly finding our feet here in Stellenbosch. Thank you for all the prayers, support and encouragement that we have felt from the wider Shofar family. We are humbled by your love and support.
Here is a little glimpse to encourage you with our journey. At a pastors’ summit in Franschhoek many years ago I had a dream in which Sias died and his ghost was still hanging around in our meetings, but I felt it would only be for a little while then he would be gone.
We were gathered at Stellenbosch High School Hall (the place Stellenbosch congregation gathered back then). In the dream, I go out to one of the classes and when I come back to the hall, I sit a few rows back from where Hercules sits, he turns towards me and points at me as he says, De Waal you have to take over from Sias. I shared the dream at that summit, and we interpreted it as relational/pastoral gifting that we were neglecting at that point in time.
At Convergence 2022, the Lord showed Danelle a vision of four corner posts, and he moved out the corporate corner post and said to her that the way that pillar would look in her life would change and be different and that it would be a gift for Danelle. So we expected a change in terms of Danelle’s work.
November 2022 I also had a dream that was very vivid for me, and I shared it with elders: My family and I are in an apartment next to the first river in Stellenbosch, a very detailed dream which I am not going to share now. As an eldership, we put time aside and got together to pray through the dream and for Stellenbosch.
Danelle and I then went to Ellel Ministries in March 2023 where the Lord gave us direction: Eze 37:16 And you, son of man, take a stick and write on it, For Judah and for his companions, the sons of Israel. And take another stick and write on it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and all the house of Israel, his companions. Eze 37:17 And join them to one another into one stick. And they shall become one in your hand. Two sticks became one, we knew it was Danelle coming closer to me in ministry. As a family, we considered the implications and we made a small ceremony out of it where we put sticks together and we gave the Lord our Yes. Danelle resigned that week.
The day before I spoke to Heinrich, I then read this scripture and felt the Lord say it is for me.
Hos 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.
The Afrikaans translation for that says “Plough for yourself a new land”.
As concise as this is, it was absolutely astonishing to experience the way in which God spoke to us, even from years back already. So our encouragement to you would be to hold on to words, dreams, visions and prophecies. God uses them even when you do not expect it.
Another encouragement is to make your families part of the journey. This was not De Waal following Gods’ call, it is us as a family following Jesus. He also has a part for every family member to play in this new season. So we shared with our children what we feel God is asking of us right in the beginning and asked that they pray and trust God for a word and tell us what Jesus says to them.
Our youngest came and asked where Gideon in the Bible is. He thought of all the people he knew of in the Bible and that was the one he thinks he should read about.
At that time, I was looking for space in schools and a house at the end of the year and the doors seemed so shut everywhere, I was very despondent.
He came back and said that he felt Jesus say he must go to Eikestad primary school because he read in Gideon’s story that the Angel of the Lord met him at the oak tree. Oak = Eike. So I focused my attention on that school, God opened doors miraculously, and the shut doors of the morning ended up with both of our kids being accepted for the next year by the close of business that same day. Make your children part of the journey, you will see God speak through them. For the high school, it was just as challenging. By Monday we received a letter that he had been accepted into the school. The Lord also provided a perfect house for us, less than 2 km from the schools.
Starting to work with the staff and hearing how God has been speaking similar things to them (before our arrival) has been a tremendous source of security – in our hearts, there is just no doubt that we are in the will of God, and this is such a safe space to be.
We have so many stories we can tell but there is not enough space in this newsletter.
We do just want to give God praise for both Malmesbury and Stellenbosch. The way Malmesbury is continuing to reach that community blesses us so much. The way in which Stellenbosch embraced us humbles us so much.
What we do know is that Jesus builds his church, and we get to do that with him. May you be encouraged to stay the course through the tougher times and know that together we are so much stronger than we think.
Lots of love, in His service
De Waal, Danelle and the boys.