Sandy Peasnell has approached the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium management about hiring a 12 000 people capacity open area adjacent to the stadium on Saturday October 22, which is just before many Grade 12s will start their matric exams.
Peasnell, whose son, Warrick, is in Grade 12 at Grey High School, has kept detailed notes of her remarkable experiences since July 20, when she started to sense that God was calling her to do something for matrics facing immense pressure as their crucial exams aproached. She has shared her notes with family, friends, her church minister and even “divinely appointed” strangers. Encouraged by the positive response from all these people to her record of how God has been speaking to her, she decided to press on in faith.
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This afternoon, she faced her first major faith challenge, when she heard that the venue, which was previously confirmed as available on October 22, may be needed for an important rugby match on that day. But rather than book an alternative date she has decided to put her trust in God’s directions.
“I need to proceed in faith as it is important to let the people know about the event. Jaco (the stadium manager, Jaco du Plessis) ensured me that an event can be arranged within three weeks of the date with no problem. So we will arrange it.”
She said anybody interested in finding out more about the event, receiving her detailed notes which she is continuing to update, or helping with arrangements, should become a friend of her Matric Prayer Day facebook page, or email her at jesusformatrics@yahoo.com.
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Some of the experiences (summarised) that Peasnell has recorded in her notes are:
• A vision to talk to matrics at Grey. Over a few days this evolved into a plan to include Collegiate matrics in a series of encouraging weekly talks, and then make it a citywide prayer day for all matrics. Each change of plan was prompted by a sense that she was missing God’s actual plan. She also felt that Grey would be an ideal venue for the prayer day — until God indicated otherwise.
• She had a vision of the stadium, which was subsequently confirmed in surprising ways by two mature Christian people.
• She was drawn to an email she had received about a prayer day for Christians somewhere on October 22. She then discovered that October 22 was the last Saturday before her son started his matric exams and that it was the only Saturday in October on which there was no booking for the stadium.
• A woman from Mothers Who Care, who had seen her notes which were starting to circulate in email networks, approached her for a meeting to offer prayer and encouragement and possible support. On the way to the meeting she found herself sharing her story with a stranger in a coffee shop. The stranger turned out to be an arch deacon at her church and encouraged her to push on with the project as it was from God.
• She had a clear vision that October 22 October was a day after the “mad hatters” say the world is coming to an end. She Googled. “End of the world 2011” and said she was not surprised to find a site listing that proclaimed that the world was ending on October 21, 2011. “Now I have this warm feeling,” she says in her notes. “We are having a prayer day for the youth of the Eastern Cape the day after the world is supposed to come to an end.”
