Jesus take the wheel: week 1 — Julita Kok

Episode 1 in a weekly series in which music industry and Worship South Africa exco member Julita Kok reports back on a recent SA road trip in which she handed the steering wheel over to Jesus

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I have been on many assignments with our Lord and there is one thing I have learned. Well, actually, that is not the truth — I have learned a lot and the greatest of it all is the fact that I know nothing. 

But the one thing I can assure you of, is that every time God sends you somewhere or on an assignment, be very ready to be changed and transformed.  I know by now that I am the one who changes the most. The people I interact with also change, but I change the most for I see a Living God in action Who blows my mind every time.  Let me start at the beginning of this adventure.

I am used to God sending me on “strange” missions.  I have been to many nations and to many places within South Africa, but I have never been on anything like the recent trip He sent me on. The mandate was simple.  Visit the people in their homes and just share with them my stories concerning the goodness of God. In Afrikaans there is a great word….KUIER.  I had to “kuier”.

And this is exactly what I did. I went to random strangers He connected me with all over South Africa and I just visited with them in their homes. But God also told me that He would send me on coffee dates.  Random people I would meet. 

Over the next few weeks, I will share with you what God did on this trip of mine.  Led by the Holy Spirit, I got into my car, started the engine and said: “Well Lord….take the wheel.”

One of the first encounters I had blew me away.  Well, not that this is strange at all. He always blows my mind with everything He does in the way He does it.  

I drive on this road in the middle of nowhere, it seems, and get to this part where there are nine or more farm workers’ houses on each side of the road.  Beautiful little area and more or less 500m from these houses, a gravel road starts leading to farms. 

So the Lord tells me to turn around and look for the school. A school? I did not see anything except these few houses, but I know His voice so I turn around and look for a school. And lo and behold, in-between the houses, I see a small board with the name of the school and a little dirt road going down between the houses.  So I turn in and a little down, here I reach the school behind closed gates.  Small little primary school.  Would say less than 100 children, maybe little more.  I never asked.  

A man comes to the, gate, probably the caretaker, and asks me what I want.  “I want to see the principal, please.”  “What for?” the man asks.  “God sent me,” I reply and he opens the gate. Just like that.

I have to sign the Covid forms and have my temperature taken and then I wait. After 5 minutes or so, a lady walks up to me and introduces herself as the headmistress. We go to her office and she asks me who I am and how she can be of assistance. Well…I have nothing else to say, but the truth.  So I say: “My name is Julita and God sent me here today. What can I pray for?”  

The look on her face!!!  Her jaw actually dropped open and all she could say was: “Wow, wow, wow!! And then she started crying, saying: “I sat in this office this morning crying out to God: ‘Have You then forgotten about me Lord? Have You forgotten about me?’ ”  And here I come and say that God sent me!!! I do not know for which one of us it was the biggest moment. Me, knowing that God said: “Look for the school” or her getting an answer from heaven. 

God immediately gave me a word of knowledge and I could minister to her and provide solutions to challenges as God provided them in that moment. It was truly amazing. We both cried because we were both in awe of this God that is so big, He rules the universe, but yet so small, He lives in our hearts.

I drove away from that school crying out to Him, giving Him glory for here is the thing that blows me away. With all due respect, who is this lady and her school? In the Western Cape…..not much. In South Africa….nothing.  In the world….less than nothing. Nobody even knows about their existence.  But this amazing God Who created heaven and earth knows her name and the names of each of those children. He took the time to sit with her and address her challenges and reassure her that He knows about her. She will never again think that God had forgotten her, for she knows….God sent someone. She thought I was an angel heheheehe. But when I cried with her, I think that picture went out the door hehehehe. 

She will always know He knows her name and I will always know that I serve a God who loves everybody. Such a big God, but such a loving One.  

This encounter set the tone for the rest of my journey and boy oh boy, was I being sent on an adventure of a lifetime.  Me and the Holy Spirit, side by side, taking the long and winding road to the next encounter.