May 23, 2022
Welcome to empowering lives with purpose. And I'm your host, Kimberly Hobbs. I am the founder of Women world leaders. And we are so happy that you joined us today. And today I have our guest Tapi from South Africa. And in Lisa Morrison who is returning from last week to say hi. Hi, ladies. Hi. Nice to have both of you. Thank you so much for being on. Ladies, God is working in you giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him. That's Philippians 213. And we believe that women were leaders by women sharing stories with each other that are inspiring and encouraging and empowering. It will help you the listener to just maybe spark something in you that God is birthing or calling you to. And we are just hoping that we can help you in this journey. It's a journey of, of Jesus and living our life for him. So this is such an amazing South African young story of Tapi. And we are just so excited to share it with you today. The God calling on her life. God did something amazing. And this young woman's life he spoke to her. And she answered saying I will go wherever you send me. And so this is part of part two of an interview that took place last week with Lisa Morrison, and who is tabbies adopted mom here in America. And it is a guide journey of a mother from the United States and a South African daughter, and how they came together in God's calling for their life. So Thapi, can you share how you pronounce your South African name? Thapi Table
My real name is Mathapelo.
Kimberly Hobbs
Mathapelo? Yes. Amen. And what is the meaning of your name?
Thapi Table
Oh, it means women have prayer.
Kimberly Hobbs
Awesome. And Thapi is a woman of prayer to be where she is today.
We know that took an amazing amount of prayer. Thapi is an
ambassador of Christ and completely sold out to him. And she was
born and raised in South Africa. And as I said, she now resides
here in America with her God given mother, Lisa Morrison. So we
just wanted to say hi to Lisa again today. And you can hear Lisa's
part of the story. If you go back a week in a podcast and you can
hear Lisa's story today is going to be Tapi story. So thank you
ladies for saying hi.
So Thapi is currently earning her master's in theological studies at the Nazarene Theological Seminary. And she is also an author and you can hear her story are read her story and courageous steps of faith, which I'll share a little bit more about that at the end of this podcast. But Thapi's greatest desire is to serve the Lord by being a witness to his people in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and carry out his purpose to the ends of the world. So to happy, let's talk to our our audience today and just talk about your calling before you even came into your calling. You grew up in South Africa and you had a grandmother that really spoke into your life growing up, do you want to share a little bit about her?
Thapi Table
Yes, I'd love to. So I was brought up in a Christian home Christian
family. And I was brought up by this phenomenal, amazing woman of
God, my grandmother because my dad passed away when I was three
years old. So we lived with my grandmother and she's the one that
brought us up. And it was through her obedience honestly to God and
her faithfulness to God that she trained us up in a godly way. And
we followed it and I personally followed it and it made a huge
difference. And in a way it was like God us Seeing her to shape and
mold what he has put in my life. So that's how I look at it. And so
I'm grateful that she was obedient to actually carry that out,
carry her purpose out in training us in a way that we should go.
Yeah,
Kimberly Hobbs
Yes. And some of our older audience if you're a grandmother,
Johnson, that your life is significant in that the lives of your
grandchildren. The impact is so important, right, Thapi, you will
love that she poured into your life as a young as a young woman, I
mean, filed as a child. And they were, you said it like age 10, you
felt the calling on your life. I was like, wow. And I was reading
your story. courageous steps of faith. I was like, blown away. But
that was at age 10. You knew there was a calling on your life and
you carry that through. But later in your teen years, you spoke of
how you audibly heard from God. Wow, can you talk about that
extraordinary moment where you heard God's voice, and how you had
to exercise obedience and what you heard.
Thapi Table
Right? So that actually that moment, that experience where I heard
God is tied back to when I was 10 years old. So I knew, or I didn't
fully know what was going on. All I knew was I just had this
burning desire to serve God, I just wanted to work for him.
Sometimes I would wake up and just feel like I want to climb the
highest mountain and just share with people about this loving and
caring God. And so you know, when you grow up, the desires that you
have the love that you have for God, it starts fading away, and you
want to do your own thing, right. So I wanted to become a
geologist, I wanted to become a journalist. And you know, that
desire slowly but surely, faded away. It was not as strong as when
I was 10 years old. And one day when I was 18 years old. We had a
college promotion, Nazarene Theological College, came to my church
to do a college promotion. And it was in their moment, and they
were talking about God's call in one's life. And before the
preacher finished preaching his sermon, I knew that God was doing
something in my heart. And I was fighting. I was fighting it. I
remember sitting down and telling him in my mind, I'm like, God, I
cannot do this. I will be anything you want me to be not a
preacher. Because you know how preachers have that stigma of, you
know, they don't get paid, they're poor, and all those things. And
so in my mind was like what I can do, I will be anything, anything
you want me to be, but I don't want to be a pastor. I don't want to
be a preacher. And I remember when the pastor was done preaching.
You know, he said, if you feel that God is calling you, come
forward. I just couldn't, I couldn't sit still. I found myself
forward, crying, crying so deeply. I was weeping. And I was begging
God, I'm like, why now? Why me? And God being God being the
faithful God that he is. He actually took me back at that moment.
It was like a film playing right in front of my eyes. He took me
back to when I was 10 years old. And he reminded me he said,
Remember, remember when you had that burning desire to serve me?
Remember, when you wanted to preach my word to the whole world?
Remember, when you wanted to serve me? And he said, now's the time
that I am calling you to go into ministry. So it was just an
amazing, and yet scary experience for me at that time, because God
had to take me back to when he gave me that desire. It did not come
from Me. It was his. Yeah. For him. Yeah, definitely. Wow.
Yeah.
Kimberly Hobbs
Well, I know that you loved your country very much. And the Bible
says that By faith Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home
and go to another land Hebrews 11, eight. Well, you left a country
that you loved so much, a family that loved you and you love them.
And a grandmother you so deeply love. Your Yes. was huge to God,
your yes to leave all that and go to another land. You laid your
life down Thapi to serve God in a calling that he had placed on
your life. So can you talk about that, that calling where you had
to let go of everything you knew in South Africa at a young age?
You are you are 2021 Right, I called you out of that of your
homeland to go to a far away land. Explain how he called you to
America.
Thapi Table
So I'll just try and cut it short. So what happened is, I always
knew that God would call me to a foreign country for in place. But
it did not cross my mind that that place would be America, I
thought it would be somewhere in Africa. Because my heart's desire,
or the desire that God had put in my heart is kind of like some
mission work. So I knew I was going to be outside Africa, but not
necessarily America. So how I came, how it came for me to be here
in America was through my mom, who you met earlier on how God has
put us together, how God has put this amazing love in her heart for
me. And so that's how God had called us together to come into
ministry. Now, did I know how it was gonna look like did I know why
God had to do it that way. I had no idea why God had called me to
come to America way. We also have a lot of, you know, seminaries,
we have a lot of colleges and universities in South Africa. But he
specifically made it clear for me to come here and to live with my
American vanilla mom. And it was really hard because I lived, I
left South Africa, I didn't want to come to America. I have a
loving family that is very supportive. And it was also hard for
them. And I'm the last one. So my mum was really worried for me to
come here. But I had to obey God, even though I did not know the
end, or why he had asked me to come here, I had to obey, leave
everything behind and just follow him.
Kimberly Hobbs
Yes, and you did that honey, and you came over. And you called her
your vanilla mom,
Thapi Table
My vanilla mom
Kimberly Hobbs
I love that. We have eboin, ivory, chocolate and vanilla - it's
beautiful and you two make the most amazing couple together.
Clearly just a God ordained union. I've tried this so beautiful.
But But Thapi. Again, you while you were in America, going to
seminary, and all of the struggles that you you two are facing. And
now you know, Lisa had to take care of a 21 year old when she lived
a single life serving God, just being in charge of herself. Now all
the sudden God gives her a daughter, you know, the day before you
were to, you know, make that decision to come. It's like what God
did in that moment. But while you were here, you had some some
issues going on. And you were pulled back home, you had some
significant losses in your life that brought you back to South
Africa. And you could have ended up staying there. I know you've
made several trips back to South Africa since you've been here in a
mirror. But it was truly obedience to God that led you back here
again. Can you talk about that back and forth and that struggle?
Because it's something you wrote in your book, and courageous steps
of faith is that God asked you Will you still go wherever I send
you tapping? Because you struggled. You got back home and you did
not necessarily want to come back to America? For a moment.
Thapi Table
Oh, Miss Kimberly, there was a struggle. The going back and forth
was a struggle for me. Because once I landed in South Africa, and I
had to come back to America, everything in me. Everything in me
shouted, screamed. No, I didn't want to come back. I honestly I
didn't want to come back. I had I had to fight. I had my family.
You know, they had to say okay, fine, you only left with two months
or three months or so. But it was really difficult for me honestly,
to actually come back when I went home to visit. And because I
don't want to be here. I'm gonna be honest, I didn't want to be
here. Not that my mom is a bad person or that Americans are bad
people. It's just that I wanted to be home and safeguard at home.
And obviously you have the cultural differences as well. But one
significant travel for me was when my grandmother passed away,
which you know, when you serve God, you don't know what you're
gonna get. And you serve him fully trusting and believing that he's
got He, you don't put terms and conditions when you follow God. You
don't say God, if I follow you, you must do 12345 For me, no, you
just do it because you love him. And you are being obedient to Him.
And one of the things that I knew that I was going to face was,
Okay, what if somebody pass passes away back at home? Right? Like,
what if my grandmother dies, or somebody close to me dies. And
unfortunately, it happened, she passed away. And it was the most
painful thing. It was on the Fourth of July. And she was doing some
a ministry. It was, it felt like a dream. To me, it was the most
painful thing ever, in knowing that, you know, she was the love of
my life, I looked forward to going back home to her. Right, she was
the reason why. And so when I lost her, it was really painful. But
there were a lot of lessons learned, where God had to say, I am
your God. I am your provider, I am your support, I am you
everything you should be. You should only love me I should come
first in life, not your grandmother, not anyone. So there were a
lot of lessons learned even when my grandmother passed away.
Because I know headship in alive, I would not be in America today,
I would still be home because I would want I told God
straightforward that I want to take care of my grandmother, I want
to be with my grandmother. So passing away was a word of God saying
that I still have a lot of things for you to do. You cannot be held
up by you know, loving your grandmother so much. So
Kimberly Hobbs
That's right. And I'm sure we can all listen, learn from this
lesson. Like I had goosebumps when you said that, because sometimes
we hold on to things are so tight in our life, that they can almost
become like an idle, idle. Just, you just love so desperately, you
know, and sometimes, you know, it's not that it's a bad thing. But
God gently removes those things. Because he knows it could
eventually be a stumbling block holding you from your purpose. So
you know, if there's anybody listening in, it's like, when you see
God's hand move in a story such as yours. Thapi, you know that God
has gently been moving you forward, you know, when faith and you
see doors opening, and you see Doors closing? Because ladies, when
you answer the call, when God has a call on your life, you see you
clearly see doors open, you clearly are as close as well as Thapi.
Dead, something's happy that you said in your book, I, again, where
he leads, I will follow because home is wherever he is. That was
like powerful. And I wrote that down because I wanted to share that
with the ladies that home is wherever he is. And that's huge.
Because you developed a love relationship with Jesus and you knew
to me that he became your all in all, he became your first love.
And so now you were free to serve Him with all your heart, all your
mind, all your body, everything that's in you, can you share with
the women? Because I know we're gonna close it up, but just share
with them some encouragement, if they are on that road going
forward. They may have hit a roadblock of you know, God, I'm afraid
to serve you Lord. I don't know what that looks like, you know,
this is crashing down all around me. How do I move forward? Can you
share? Because you were at that point? You didn't want to move
forward to your calling.
Thapi Table
Yeah. Actually, the wherever you are, wherever God is. Home is
where wherever God is, was actually inspired after my grandmother
passed away. Because then when I went home, it did not feel the
same anymore, right? Because my grandmother was not there. And I
realized that actually, God has been everywhere I've been. And I
cannot define home by a place. A certain place I can define home by
a certain country. Home is where God is where God is. That's where
I'm gonna build my home, right? Because he is there. And so my
encouragement to women out there would be another scripture verse
for me is tonight pick up the cross, deny yourself to Capri cross
and follow Him. And He says that if you're not worth it, if you
don't, if you're not willing to let go of your mother, your father,
your brothers and sisters, then you're not worth it to be caught
his disciple, right. He's not saying God is not saying that To be
mean and spiteful for to us, but he knows that when we let go of
what we are holding on to his going to take care of it, right, I
let go of my family, I let go of myself, my interests, my
everything. And I focused on him and I held on to him. The thing
is, when you hold on to God, then He takes care of everything. When
you let go, he takes care of it, he takes care of your family,
whatever it is that you love, he knows that he's going to take, you
cannot take care of it on your own. So that's why he says we should
cling to him, let go of all these things, because he know, he knows
that he's got it. He's got it. He's got you in your budget, and
your worries. And so with that, I have this like special song that
I would like to share. And seeing it basically says that, you know,
God has made a way he has made a way where there seemed to be no
way for me. God had has opened up the doors, not only for me, but
for me and my mom, I mean, please buy the book, you will read our
story. Everything is in the book, because we have a limited time.
And so God has made tons and tons of like ways for us when we
thought okay, this is it. We you know, what do we do next? God he
just has come through for us all the time
You made a way Oh, you You made a way. When our backs were against the wall and it looked as if it was so far, you made a way. Lord, you, you made a way. And we're standing here humbly because you made a way. Amen.
Kimberly Hobbs
Oh sweetheart, that is just beautiful. And you you sing to the Lord
from your heart, which is beautiful in itself. And he surely made a
way and he's still making a way for you. And ladies, we just feel
that God is making a way for you to know he is because he doesn't
he won't leave you where you are. And he wants you to come and that
verse Luke, it's Luke 9:23 that Thapi shared that if any man will
come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross. And
follow me. And ladies, we just pray that over your life right now,
if you you are feeling led into a calling, don't doubt that
calling. Don't let the enemy put things into your mind that
shouldn't be there. Take up your cross and be obedient and follow
him. He wants you He loves you. And boy, again, Thapi, thank you
for sharing your story of obedience, and the calling that you had
on your life. And as we spoke about Tapi stories and courageous
steps of faith, as is Lisa Morrison story. They're side by side in
this book. And this book is put out by Women World Leaders and will
be available in November of 2020. Through womenworldleaders.com or
on Amazon, I believe it comes out on ebook on November 12. And then
it'll be available paperback on November 26. But we do a prefer if
you would go through womenworldleaders.com To get your copy of
Courageous Steps of Faith. And we're just so excited about this
book and the fact that we know it is going to inspire and give hope
for those of you out there that just need that courage. And all of
these gods stories of how these amazing women like Tapi herself at
such a young age, took a courageous step of faith to go into her
God calling on her life. And now look at her She's almost done with
seminary and we just can't wait to see what God is going to do. He
is going to change the world through you Thapi. Thank you honey for
answering that call. And we will continue to pray for you Thapi so
please, ladies, pray for Thapi, pray for Lisa as this as a journey
of faith and trust. We all know what it's like to be in those
positions. So we will pray for you, hon. So ladies, if you enjoyed
what you heard, we're asking you to please share the podcast with
those of you with those that you love. And just invite them to hear
more about God's extravagant love and your courageous purpose.
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