Africa Burning

Africa Burning – I would like to share a testimony of how God talks to mere mortals and how He guides us through His infinite grace.

In 2016 God woke me up with the clear and distinct vision that we needed to pray for Africa. There was an urgency in my spirit to convey the message as a clear indication of what is happening in the spiritual realm. God gave me the vision and instilled the urgency to create the painting with the message of “Africa burning”.  Living in faith, I had no idea where to start as I did not trust my ability to be able to execute such a large task. I prayed to God to assist me in painting that which he instructed me to do and to guard my mind so that I would not deviate from His message and use my artist license to achieve this. I also trusted God to provide the platform for His message.

I shared my vision with a friend who offered to make up the canvasses to the correct size of which I had dreamed. Once the canvasses were ready the urgency to paint just became more prominent and I started painting from seven in the morning till seven at night. It needed to be completed as soon as possible. In the seven days it took to complete the painting, I prayed and cried being very emotional.   At times I was so tired that I questioned my vision, then I just prayed and asked God to guide me. I was in awe of the task ahead of me, yet also realized that I could paint in total trust that God would guide me. I do not paint human forms let alone celestial ones, (this was not my strong point at all) yet here I was painting angels and city scenes, feeling so unequipped to the task. I have always painted from the heart and emotion and never from photographs as Art was always my “wellness tool” and my method of ridding myself of mental toxins. It was my escape tool…never intended for commercial purposes, although it was always a great compliment to my gift (my art is my gift from God) if I did sell a painting. To paint from photographs bored me.

So here I was painting this massive, big painting and feeling the need to complete it within a certain time. I painted in a frenzy and completed the painting within 7 days. Strange things happened at the time. I would paint the faces of the angels and then repaint them as I thought the expressions were so sad. Once repainted, I was left with the same image. I then knew that they needed to stay the way God intended. Next, the Angel in the middle – no matter how much white paint I used the wings stubbornly stayed blue. I could not understand this but decided to just leave it.  I was later told by a pastor’s wife who came to visit me and who was moved to tears by the painting, that she has no doubt the wings should be blue as it is the “water angel”.

The other strange occurrence was the little Spaza shop in the foreground, I had removed it as I thought it did not fit there even though it was in the vision that I had in my mind. However, it kept on appearing until I made peace with myself and realized God wanted it there.  The flames in the foreground and the water did not meet yet, hence the fact that there is no smoke even though the sky was filled with heat and the burning fire still there was no smoke.

Once it was completed, I was emotionally drained and exhausted and slept well for two days only surfacing to eat something.  The following week I sent the photograph to a friend of mine who is a missionary worker in the DRC. His question to me was whether I had painted the angels in Revelations 14: 6-13. He was approached that very morning to start a “Three Angel Ministry” and thus saw it as a confirmation of the ministry.

Exactly seven days after the painting was complete, I heard over the news that Knysna and Plettenburg Bay area was burning. Many people lost their homes and yet there were also amazing testimonies and miracles shared by believers over the Grace of God in their lives. These people have a living relationship with God…As for me and my family, we will worship the LORD.”