Hello beautiful people. My name is Charlotte Sibanyoni-Mahlangu, and thank you for being on this website.

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Let me share my heart with you. I am a child from the dusty streets of Mamelodi, to be exact phomolong extension 6. If you know phomolong, you know very well that when it rains, you pray to find your shack (in my case, my home then) where you left it in the morning. You know that if it rains, the roads are so muddy you have to take off your shoes to get to the taxi. You also know electricity does not exist there…forget load-shedding! Furthermore, water wasn’t even in your yard. It’s a JoJo tank and buckets situation always!

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I am a woman who went through the foster home system and place of safety. I do not have to tell you about that system, as it is another ball game on its own. I am a woman who was taken in by loving families when I had no home. I am also a child who stayed in the backroom with my mother. As you can see, life has pushed me in all directions.

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Like you, I have experienced firsthand pain, loss, rejection, abandonment, and daddy issues. For a very long time, I struggled with forgiveness and allowing people into my life to love me. I am a hot mess, as my students would say. I have always questioned my calling because I kept asking myself God, how can you use someone as broken as me? I am sure you have told God that there is someone out there who can do this job, just not me. Like Moses in Exodus 4, I felt that I was not the one who was sent. But Lord, I can not speak fluently. I get nervous, and anxiety finds me in its clutches.

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However, like Moses, I soon discovered that my excuses were much smaller than my God. God opened doors in my life that nobody could open. I got a bursary from Jakaranda 94.2 radio station to study theology. With all these amazing excuses I had for God, God opened doors for me to become a lecturer at the University of Pretoria. God gave me a breakthrough that no human mind can explain. Through the grace of God, I got ordained as the 1st black woman in the NG KERK in SA.

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When I said let me share my heart with you, I wasn’t playing. I am a passionate young woman who is called to share her heart. I am confident in who God is, and I have experienced the grace of God firsthand. God gave me a PURPOSE by using my life and testimony to reach others. I know this is my purpose because I share with people what God has done in my life every time. I am reminded that through my purpose, there is deliverance for someone else. My purpose is what I know allows God to work through me to set someone else free. For that reason, I am a Reverend, a lecturer, and a speaker because this is how God uses me on this earth.

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I want to leave you with my favourite scripture:

And not only that but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:3-5

 

Shalom

Rev. Charlotte Sibanyoni-Mahlangu