Interview with Lyndie McCauley
1. Lyndie you have been living in America for 7 years now, How has life treated you in the States?
Krissy and I have been living in the US since August 2000. It has been a wonderful journey with tremendous blessings and of course challenges, but overall the experience has been amazing!
2. What has been the biggest adjustment for you?
It has been hard to be without my family and close friends. Often one thinks that you can simply make new friends and yes that is true, but the new are never better than the old! There is something about good old South African friends…So you grit your teeth and shut out the ‘sad’ feelings and you press in and press on! Really the best place is to be where God wants you to be! When He ‘plants’ you it’s a very happy place …I guess I am not ‘planted’ yet!
3. How did your daughter Krissy adjust and what does she think of the American way?
When we arrived in America, Krissy was only 7 years old so she adjusted quickly. She really loves living here and has made the most wonderful friends. She is almost more American now than she is South African! Every year she returns to South Africa for her long summer holidays and within a week she is speaking pure ‘South African’! It takes another two weeks when she returns to the US to speak pure ‘American! It’s crazy! We laugh so much about it and love the different meanings of words between the two countries. In the US you get the “mail” not the “post”! I am always in trouble over that one …
4. Is the American lifestyle very different from the South African lifestyle?
I find it very different. Culturally the American folk are deeply patriotic and honour the flag and all it stands for. The Americans are very hard working people and mostly have at least two jobs to meet their monthly expenses! Because of their very busy schedules, they do not have much time for socialising or friends -their days comprise of work, children, home chores and sleep (if you are lucky!).
Teenagers leave home at the age of 17 to go to college (which is normally in another state). This suddenly leaves mom and dad alone with each other and the children never return. In South Africa it’s nothing for a man or woman to leave home until they get married. I like the second one best!
South Africans are wonderful at keeping a good balance in all areas. We are very friendly, very social, work very hard and have very close families!!! Our kids stay at home until they marry and even then they are hard to get rid of!
5. Where in the States are you based?
Originally I was going to be based in Virginia and work with the governor of West Virginia but I did not have the necessary visa, so we moved to Tampa, Florida to be with Pastor Rodney and Adonica Howard-Browne. They have been amazing friends to me over the years and continue to support my ministry. Two years ago I felt the need to step out more on the water and work with another South African friend who launched a fellowship of Pastors in the Virginia area. The Loudoun Church Alliance invited me onto the Board and it has been a blessing to see how so many ministries across the region have formed close relationships through this fellowship in Virginia.
6. What do you do on a day to day basis?
Having recently moved into the area, it is taking a little time to settle. I have been assisting some wonderful Christian friends of mine with their business and continuing with my ministry. I have travelled quite a bit on weekends and consulted with several ministries. I have visited most of the local churches and met the pastors. Finally we have decided which church will be our home while we are in Virginia. I have also been invited to do some special ministry like: praying for unity on the National Day of Prayer along with 7 other Pastors; praying for the orphans of the world at the Global Day of Prayer, preaching at a Ugandan Pastors church in Leesburg! God has been faithful in the opportunities He has given me.
7. Is this your passion?
When you go through practical changes in your life it takes a while to settle into your passion again. There are many projects that I have loved doing and I know there will be more in the future. Of course soul winning and touching people’s lives with the Good News will always be my passion.
8. What other “big” dreams do you have?
I would love to have my own television program again. The 10 years that I hosted ‘In-Focus’ were wonderful years of hosting guests who shared their amazing testimonies with our viewers. There is always so much to tell about God’s goodness and television is a huge key to getting the message across. In a year from now I will start work on my new book ‘Lyndie’. It will be a biography of my life with the main thrust being the fact that God loves us and reaches out to us with His continual love and kindness.
Obviously, I would love to continue preaching all over the world and to build a strong international women’s ministry. I love ministering to women as they tend to need much more encouragement than men do.
9. Lyndie McCauley Ministries – tell us more about your goals, achievements, commitments etc
I have been in the ministry for almost 27 years and have loved every single moment of it – talk about a journey! I would never have thought that it could be so amazing, exciting and deeply rewarding! Not from a material point of view but from the viewpoint that people are so very precious and we are called to love them, help them, teach and train them and then show them how to love and serve God. This life is so short and everywhere I have been on this earth, I have seen broken hurting people. How hard is it for us to go beyond our private borders and reach out to a lost and dying world that has no hope? How awesome is this privilege?!
The greatest honour I have had in ministry was to be involved in the changes in South Africa. For years we prayed for the breaking down of oppressive boundaries and barriers and to see it all happen in my life time was a huge blessing! To hug the neck of a black brother and sister destroys the work of the devil and set us all free. Today South Africa is reaping the blessings of change. Of course there are challenges, but there are challenges wherever you live in this world, but at least we can rejoice that we are free from legal oppression!
Four years ago Pastor Florence Kaweesa travelled by train from Uganda to attend my Dynamic Woman’s Conference in Rustenburg, South Africa. She shared about the many orphans that she and her husband were taking care of and asked us to pray. Since that day I have stood in faith believing for a way to help this precious couple build a church and an orphanage. Recently, a very close friend of mine and I spoke about this need and she shared with me how her church had been praying for a project such as this to undertake! By the time this article appears I hope to have travelled with her and their administrator to Uganda and have a building or property secured for the project. What a great blessing! The orphanage will be home to approximately 100 children and also provide educational and sporting facilities. Along with these facilities we are also hoping to build a church.
10. You return annually for a visit to SA…tell us about your trips?
For the last five years I have hosted Dynamic Women’s Conferences in South Africa. These conferences have been a huge blessing to the women who have attended and I have also been very blessed to have a number of speakers from the USA travel with me. This year, my trip will be different. Most of my ministry will be in Cape Town at various ministries. I am very excited about this trip and look forward to meeting new people. 2008 only God knows …?
11. Have you got a special message for your South African fans?
There simply are no people in the world like South Africans. They are the nicest people in the world. From the moment that you get off the plane you see happy, smiling faces … and I can promise you that simply does not happen when you arrive in the US! Mostly, you will be greeted by a very stern immigration officer who growls, “Why are you coming to the US?”
As far as a message to my friends in South Africa I think this one is foremost on my heart.
A while ago the Lord spoke these words to my heart, “I want you to be whole!” It was so clear, like a command or a strong directive and it exploded deep in my heart. I argued back that I am a Christian; I walk by faith and know the Word! But still, it just flooded my heart, “I want you whole!”
The Father has already provided for our ‘wholeness’ through His Son Jesus and the cross. All we have to do is receive it and to walk in it! Unfortunately it’s not that simple as we try and receive wholeness and cling to our issues at the same time! These ‘issues’ seem irrelevant but they really are a key factor as to why our lives are broken as Christians. We are robbed of our peace and joy, sick in our minds and our bodies, sleep depraved, struggling with our finances, fighting with our children and our in-laws, hiding our fears and on the brink of angry outbursts all the time …something is very wrong with us!
Jesus did not die in vain. He died so that we could be whole. We have to decide to deal with the issues that torment us – bad behaviour, bad habits and enemies new and old! It’s time to be completely whole in spirit, soul and body!
South Africa will always be my home! Nothing can beat borewors, pap, melktert and Bar One milkshakes!
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