Life Update Blog 1.0

Hey guys!!

How are you?

Trying out something new on the blog today, hopefully, is going to be a regular segment on the blog. I am really excited hopefully its something you enjoy reading, this is sort of like a pilot blog, so if you enjoy reading this please let me know in the comments section below or on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter. I also plan on doing a more detailed and awesome life update newsletter + video and even my personal prayer requests for those who have subscribed, so click subscribe to get exclusive content.

With that being said, the purpose of these posts is just to let you know what is going on in my life, some exciting things, some not so exciting things, what God is doing through this blog, and the part you play in all of it. Essentially, I just want to connect more with you, get to know as well so feel free to leave a comment with your own life update. So without any more chit chat here is my life update:

Where am I Spiritually?

Since we are being honest, the past 7-8 Months have been difficult, this has generally been a difficult season in life. There have been things going on in my life that have been crazy, being sick has sucked and affected every part of my life. There are times where I haven’t been able to read and pray as I would like to because I am physically not well, which then affects me emotionally. But at the same time I have been seeing God’s grace in giving me grace, he has truly been the anchor of my faith and I mean that in every way. I recently heard Lecrae on one of my favourite podcast (Truths Table) describe his journey as he was recording his album ATWT, and something he said that spoke to me was “When I was making this album, it felt like I was literally drowning. By the end of this album, I felt like a hand had reached out and pulled me out of the water. And now it was almost as if I had developed Gills like I know how to swim because of the drowning, and all things work together for my good.  It was part of God’s purpose for me to drown so I can learn how to swim, and become a lifeguard and help other people who are drowning ” This is such a good description of personally where I am in my life both spiritually and physically, I am not at a point where I can say I am a lifeguard, but I am developing Gills and realizing I can swim. It is a freeing thing to go through the difficult season in life and find encouragement that God is working it all out for your good and His glory ultimately. For anyone going through a gloomy life season right now, hold it’s going to work out in your favour.

How Is My Health?

If you read my previous blog on this, you probably already know by now that I have not been feeling so well. Since January I have been to the hospital probably more times that I have ever had my entire life (this is just me being dramatic) but I have taken more medication than I definitely have ever had my whole life (over 300 tablets and counting). That makes it sound like I am dying lol, but not really, current diagnosis is that I have an autoimmune disease, the medication I am on is helping manage it and what not. The bright side is that my life is back, not as normal but I am able to do stuff and go on, in January I had to rest for a bit and focus on getting better. I am still prioritizing my health and getting better right now, one key thing I am learning is to listen to my body and know when I need to say yes and no. Going back in a few weeks for a checkup and getting my dosage lowered down, and see how my body is responding to medication. So if ever the Spirit prompts you to pray for me, I would appreciate prayer in this area, since we are being honest, this is hard for me Y’all.

How is blogging?

I am really excited for the year honestly, this blog is therapy for me, its something that I love to do and I am grateful for this space. I am grateful to you for reading, I am grateful that you share it with your friends, I am grateful for the screenshots, whats app messages I get, the statuses and the love. Sometimes writing on the internet feels like you are talking to yourself, but your feedback sometimes gives me the kick to chase my dreams. This is a dream for me, I have so many hopes and things I want to attempt this year, so I hope you enjoy the content and the experiments, I hope you continue to support and engage and tell me when I suck please lol! One of my personal goals this year is to blog once a week, I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep, but February was a good month, so hopefully, i can keep up the pace. I also tried experimenting with travel vlogging, so if you didn’t see that you can check out my trip to Cape Maclear here.

I am also working on something exciting which I cannot wait to properly share with you, but it’s going to be a video series with some of your favourite People! I am really excited, there is so much behind the scenes work happening (Like the Photoshoot below I did with Studio Oxygen). I am also mapping out what the year will look like for the blog, potentially looking into expanding the team, its currently just me but working on logistics for growth. While we are on this note, let me know what topics you want me to talk about this year/month? Also, remember to Like the facebook page, follow on Instagram and Twitter, these go a long way and allows me to keep the site running.

In case you missed it, I also contribute to kaleoscope.org and you can read this post I wrote for them: here you might be seeing my work in a few other places in the next few months so I am really excited for that.

How Is Ministry?

For those who do not know, or in case you thought I just blog for a living lol! I like to call myself an urban missionary, God has granted me the amazing opportunity to be able to do ministry full time. I get to serve God through an amazing organisation with some incredible people, and I love what I do and the amazing young people I am honoured to serve. So that is going well, February helped me find my rhythm for the year so I am grateful for that. One of the things I am really excited for is going through the book of Romans with a group of amazing girls, we meet every Thursday and its pretty exciting for me (Something else you can pray for).

In February I got the awesome opportunity to visit Zomba CCAP Youth Group (Invited by Francis, who I went to Uni with and is a reader of the blog), they invited to talk about justification, being with them was encouraging, God is doing something great there and I am glad I got to see it, thank you, Francis. I also got to visit Flood Church Blantyre to talk about the Proverbs 31 woman, you can check out the video of that here. I hope God uses it to encourage you, this opened the door for interesting conversations this month and I am grateful for it.

How Is School?

In case you don’t know, I am also a student, I am studying Biblical Counseling at SMTI in Pretoria, South Africa. It is both a masters program and pursuing Certification process for the Association of Certified Biblical Counseling (ACBC). The work itself is intense, we have to read a lot of books and write a lot (Like 300 pages a lot), so for the past few weeks I have been drowning that pile of work that was mostly due to procrastination. But I love every moment of it, it’s not just head knowledge but God has been using it to personally transform and change my life. I am all caught up with most of my assignments so life is back to normal now, I go to school every 4 months which is hectic especially financial (Another thing you can pray for). But I am excited and loving studying and seeing God grace work in my life through studies.

What Am I reading?

Bible-wise, I just finished a year in the Psalms a couple days ago, going through the M’cheyne Bible in one-year reading plan with my church family, I am behind on that but trying really hard to catch so we will see how that is going in the next Life Update post.

I am trying to discipline myself to read one book at a time, but I am currently on two; “whats the difference; manhood and womanhood according to the Bible” by John Piper (2nd read) and The Habits of Grace by David Mathis, both books are free on desiringgod.org. I recently finished Trip Lee’s book Rise, and it was such a good read, definitely recommend it. My goal is to read 35 books this year, I have read 4 so far (including some of my coursework, is this cheating?lol).

I also enjoyed reading Priscilla Takondwa Semphere’s book Salt Woman, its free here.
What Am I Listening to?

Truths Table podcast is a favourite of mine, I am also enjoying Wiza Jakalasi’s Malawi’s Talking Podcast.

Music, there hasn’t been anything that is really interesting me that much, I had KB’s album on repeat for a while and Daniel Ceasar’s Freudian album. I am still enjoying Emeli Sande’s Long live the Angels Album and KBG’s Zaine Ep and Heaven is Smiling by David Kalilani is my jam.

What Am I excited For The Next Few Months?

iamnotagoddess.com turns 1 in April (technically, we turned 4 years old in February), but April will mark a year since we went live on this domain. I am excited, maybe we should have a small party?! Would you attend our 1-year celebration if we had one? Let me know and maybe we can turn up together ahah!

I am excited to see Black Panther, I am already plotting my outfit, watch this space.

I am learning financial management, if you follow me on twitter you might have seen my thread, if you don’t you should probably follow me haha!

I might be getting a tattoo in March!

I am excited to work hard and well for the glory of God, cultivate faithfulness in all I am doing; ministry, school, blogging, Youtube, friendships, family, finances, health and all of life.

Thank you for reading all the way to the end, I am thankful for your support, I hope you enjoyed this. Should I do another Life Update Post? Let me know if this is something you enjoyed by either leaving a comment below or on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Click subscribe for exclusive content starting this month!