The Family Disciple Me Podcast // Discipleship Starts With a Conversation
In a world filled with a lot of talk, we want to have meaningful, biblical conversations with those God has entrusted to us. Join Tosha Williams and the Family Disciple Me ministry for Devotion Driven Discipleship conversation starters that will encourage you to "Seek Him Speak Him" in your own life.
Family Disciple Me is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) Christian ministry dedicated to catalyzing Devotion Driven Discipleship in our own lives and homes as well as around the world.
For more information, visit familydiscipleme.org
The Family Disciple Me Podcast // Discipleship Starts With a Conversation
WAYS TO PRAISE: Praise the LORD // How an Uber Ride Became a Divine Appointment
Can a simple Uber ride turn into a life-changing moment? Join me, Tosha Williams, as I recount an unexpected divine encounter I experienced during my very first Uber journey, where I met Dumasani, a driver whose name means "Praise the Lord." This serendipitous meeting was an answer to my prayers regarding this year's Family Disciple Me Thanksgiving conversations. God often works through everyday moments to affirm our faith journeys, and this year, He used this Uber ride to affirm the FDM gratitude series for me.
My new friend Dumasani's meaningful, Zimbabwean name confirmed my desire to use some other really special names - like Jubilee, Psalm, Zion and Melodia - as welcomes into praise this Thanksgiving season. We'll explore these "Ways to Praise" in upcoming podcast episodes, but we'll start here with Dumisani: Praise the Lord!
Spend a few moment with me as I share this introduction, then listen to what God's Spirit wants to say to you directly through His Word.
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“Hallelujah! My soul, praise the LORD. I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing to my God as long as I live.” Psalm 146:1-2 CSB
SEEK HIM: Devotion is Meeting with God in Our Own Lives! While praise may seem obvious at Thanksgiving, let’s look at it from some slightly different angles this month, starting with these first couple verses in Psalm 146. Seek the Lord about what He wants to say to you about praise and thanksgiving!
- WHAT: What is God saying through this Scripture? This psalm which models intentional praise and thankfulness. Praise flowed from the author's innermost being, and this person pledged to praise, not just for a day or holiday, but for all life long. ~ Do you praise God from your very core; why or why not? How long have you praised Him? What are some of the things this psalmist praised God for in Psalm 146?
- WHY: Why does this Scripture matter? Praise changes the focus of our hearts, gets our eyes off ourselves and sets our attention on the One who can help us. Praise will change our hearts from bitter to better, from hopeless to happy, from grumbling to grateful. ~ Are you more grumbling or grateful? Do you need any heart change this Thanksgiving season?
- HOW: How does God want us to respond to this truth? Psalm 146 is a testimony of how one person praised the Lord and why they praised Him. Godly praise calls forth godly praise, and we’re going to talk about ways to praise in the coming days. ~ How is God asking you to respond right now?
SPEAK HIM: Discipleship is Making God Known to Others! Thanksgiving season is a great time to welcome others into praising God with us! Psalm 34:3 says, “Oh magnify the LORD with me. Let us exalt his name together.” Who can you say this to? Who will you invite into the “Ways to Praise” conversations? Be intentional about that this month, using one of the "Ways to Praise" conversations each week!
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The Family Disciple Me ministry exists to catalyze devotion driven discipleship in our homes and around the world. We believe that discipleship starts with a conversation, and FDM provides free, easily-accessible, biblical resources to encourage these meaningful conversations along life's way. Sign up through our website to be "the first to know" about upcoming releases and resources (including the FDM App - coming soon!!!) You can also follow Family Disciple Me on social media.
Family Disciple Me is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit ministry, and all donations are tax deductible. More information, blogs, statement of faith and contact info can be found at familydiscipleme.org
It was my first ever Uber ride and my driver's name was Dumasani. I was in Charlotte, north Carolina, for a dear friend's wedding celebration and we'd had a minor mix-up about how I was going to get to the venue to help set up. So another dear friend called me saying I'd like to send an Uber to get you, but only if you're comfortable. Personally, I'm usually game for an adventure. So I agreed, threw my stuff together and started watching for the Uber to arrive. I didn't quite know what to expect, but I also had no idea what God had in store for me. Turns out it wasn't just an Uber ride to get me where I needed to go. Turns out it wasn't just an Uber ride to get me where I needed to go. It was a divine appointment that God planned to take me and Dumasani somewhere unexpected. In this podcast episode, I want to share with you what happened and invite you into the journey with us. Let me cue this intro and I'll be right back with this introduction to our Thanksgiving series, ways to Praise.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Family Disciple Me podcast. If you have a real relationship with Jesus, then you're in the right place to be encouraged, challenged and blessed as you seek Him, speak Him. The mission of the Family Disciple Me ministry is to inspire devotion-driven discipleship, which is something we believe every Christ follower can do. Discipleship starts with a conversation, so let's get going with that right now.
Speaker 1:So there I was, in Charlotte, north Carolina, at my friend's house. I had had a great morning. I drank my coffee, read my Bible, journaled a little bit and now, there I was, watching for my coming Uber ride. My phone held the text information of my driver's name, car color and license plate information. So when I saw the vehicle arrive, I walked out the door for my first Uber ride ever. My friend had told me all the things to do to be safe Correct vehicle color check. Correct vehicle make check. Correct license plate number check. So with this, I opened the back seat door, peeked my head in and asked are you Dumasani? The driver nodded an affirmation to my tentative pronunciation of his name and he said hello. So I crawled in and off. We went to my destination.
Speaker 1:Now that morning, as I'd spent time with the Lord, I'd read my next chapters in His Word and I was seeking Him about various things. For multiple weeks I've been pondering this year's Family Disciple Me Thanksgiving series. This being my Jubilee year with Jesus, as well as the year that my first three grandchildren were born, I wanted to do something a little different this November. I wanted to create conversation guides springing from their names Jubilee, psalm and Zion. I know this is a really personal approach, but it's also so meaningful to me that I just can't miss this moment in time. Still, I had been waiting for affirmation from the Lord that this is the right way to go, even as I was taking my first Uber ride. Turns out, before my Uber took me to my destination, it took me straight into a divine appointment. After spending time with him that morning in the Word, he answered my questions in such an unexpected way Praise the Lord. So there I was, sitting in the backseat of this car, with about 30 minutes ahead of us on the road, I decided to just well skip the intimidation and jump straight into the conversation with my driver. So I said I see your name is Dumasani. Did I say that right? He nodded yes and said it correctly Dumasani. And so I asked him what does that mean? Without a moment's hesitation, my driver responded praise the Lord. His response caught me off guard. Your name literally means praise the Lord. I asked him and he said yes. I was momentarily speechless because, you see, I'd been pondering this very concept of using names as ways to praise for this series of conversations for Thanksgiving. And well, here was a man in front of me driving this Uber vehicle whose very name means praise the Lord.
Speaker 1:I was so curious to know more about this man's story, so I began asking him questions about his name. Turns out this man's ancestry is from Zimbabwe and South Africa, and when he was born in South Africa, his grandmother was actually the one who named him. His grandmother was actually the one who named him. Grandmas, do you see the power that you have to speak over the lives of those that God has entrusted to you? This man's grandma held her newborn grandson and said Dumasani, praise the Lord. I asked him what language it was that Dumasani is derived from, and well, he said it to me about 10 times and I still can't pronounce it, even though I practiced it with him in the car. But it comes from Kutsosa language, which I know. I just slaughtered that pronunciation, but it's a language from there in Zimbabwe and South Africa, before all the borders and boundary lines. That is his name, that is given to him in this native tongue, from there in Zimbabwe and South Africa, before all the borders and boundary lines. That is his name, that is given to him in this native tongue. So I asked him back in Zimbabwe, when people say your name, do they automatically know that that means praise the Lord? And he said yes, I thought that was such an amazing call to praise, and I kept asking him questions about his country of origin and about how he got to the United States and about how he's working here and what his goals are here and what he wants to do in his life.
Speaker 1:I would guess he's probably about 35 years old or so, so anyway, I told him that I was in Charlotte for the wedding celebration of a dear friend with whom I've prayed for a husband since 1989. And he said well, that's what my mom is doing. She's praying for a wife for me. So I encouraged him in that. And well, I said, dumasani, your name means praise the Lord, so do you go to church? He shook his head no. And I said well, dumasani, your name means praise the Lord, so do you go to church? He shook his head no, and I said well, dumasani, there's a few churches. And I told him about the one in particular where I was going to be a part of this wedding celebration, warehouse 242 in downtown Charlotte. And I said Dumasani, if you want to find a godly woman who's a Christ follower, you need to go to a godly follower, you need to go to a godly place, you need to go to church. He just laughed at me but I felt like he received the words that I had to say.
Speaker 1:Well, as the car ride continued because, remember, we had 30 minutes of a drive time I asked him do, masani, when you read the Bible in your Xoxa language, in that translation of the Bible it says praise the Lord so many times, especially in the Psalms. So in that translation of the Bible, does it literally say Dumasani every time that the words mean praise the Lord? And he looked at me through the rear view mirror and he said you know, I don't know, I've never thought about that. And I said well, dumasani, that would be really cool if, in your native tongue, that the Bible translation has your name, your literal name, all over throughout the Bible. He thought about it for a moment as he looked at me through the rearview mirror and he said well, you know, like in the show who Wants to Be a Millionaire, I could phone a friend. I laughed with him that that would be really great. Phone a friend. Ha ha ha.
Speaker 1:The next thing I knew he was dialing in a number on his phone that was mounted there in the car and he gets his sister on FaceTime with us there in the Uber. Now I must say I was a first-time Uber passenger. I don't know how these things typically go, but I doubt that most Uber rides end up with phoning a friend and calling a relative to find out the meaning of a name and whether or not it's in the Bible. This was an amazing divine appointment. So there we are in the Uber ride going down the road. The phone has his sister there on FaceTime with me and we're talking. He introduces me to her and I'm laughing with her about praying for her brother to find a godly wife and, well, to find a church where he could actually find a godly wife, and we were bantering back and forth about that, having a great time. And then he said to his sister Tasha has a question to ask you. So I said to her here's my question.
Speaker 1:In the Zimbabwean translation, the Xoxa language translation of the Bible, every time it says praise the Lord, does the text literally say Dumasani, since that's what your brother's name means. Without skipping a beat, his sister said oh no, the word that would be translated there in the Zimbabwe translation of scripture would be Dumasenkosi. That's what we would read as a call for all of us to praise the Lord. I was stunned. Here's a woman who loves God, who knows his word, a woman who's the granddaughter of a woman who names her grandson praise the Lord. This woman that I'm talking with on FaceTime is the daughter of a woman who was up at JFK Airport trying to come down to Charlotte for her first visit in multiple years, a woman who was praying for her son, dumasani.
Speaker 1:And in the mix of all this, in my very first Uber ride ever, god put me in the car to ask Dumasani, what does your name mean? And because his name means praise the Lord, it catapulted us into this amazing conversation about God. It was a moment. It was a moment for Dumasani, it was a moment for his sister, it was a moment for me, as I'm sitting there absolutely in awe that, in this season where I was talking to God about whether or not I should do this crazy idea about writing Thanksgiving conversations using names as ways to praise writing Thanksgiving conversations using names as ways to praise and God puts me right, smack dab, in the backseat of an Uber driver's car who just happened to pick up the call for me. Meeting a driver and his name is the answer to my prayers, an answer to my question God, how do you want us to live out ways to praise this year? Way too soon.
Speaker 1:We ended up at my friend's house. That 30-minute Uber ride felt like maybe it took 10 minutes. It was such an amazing conversation. My driver, dumasani, pulled me straight up to the curb and I lingered in the car for a moment, just hardly even believing this moment in time. We had just had Two strangers who are brother and sister in Christ, two strangers from opposite sides of the world who, by divine appointment, end up in the same car for 30 minutes in Charlotte, north Carolina. Two strangers who will probably never see each other again in this life, but two strangers who had a God encounter right there as we learned one more way to praise the Lord.
Speaker 1:I looked at Dumasani as he turned around in the car and looked at me and I said, brother, go find a church, live for Jesus. He loves you, don't wander away from him, stay on this path that your grandmother started you on, that your mother is praying for you to walk on. And, dumasani, if I don't see you again in this earth. I'll see you in eternity beside the throne room. And with that, I got out of the car and I walked into my friend's house. Here I am a couple weeks later, and you can hear the emotion in my voice because it was so powerful.
Speaker 1:I'm still affected by that moment when, well, quite frankly, I chose not to be intimidated by a strange situation and I just decided to start a conversation with somebody and interact with them, and let one question lead to another, lead to another. Let one question lead to an opportunity to share Christ, to encourage somebody, but more than that, even for me, to hear God speak to me in a situation where I had been seeking his affirmation about what he wanted me to do as the leader of the Family Disciple Me ministry, and there, in such a unique, special way, he answered my cry. So with that affirmation, I want to welcome you into this year's Thanksgiving collection of conversations. I'm calling Ways to Praise. With this. I'm going to start with the youngest of my grandchildren and work my way backwards through their names, and then, well, for good measure, I'm going to throw in another baby and her name at the end of this collection of conversations. Each of these names, in and of itself is such a powerful way to praise, ways to praise that are not unlike that grandmother who named Dumasani, back in Zimbabwe, and claimed over her grandson praise the Lord. My Uber driver's name is literally a call to praise and, well turns out, this is exactly what my grandchildren's names mean as well.
Speaker 1:So this Thanksgiving, let's praise the Lord together through these unique ways to praise. I'm so excited about this conversation collection because, well, it's so meaningful to me and as I tell the story of my family and my life and what God is doing in us, more than anything, I wanted to encourage you to think about your story and your life and your family, and what God is doing and is about to do in you. The scripture says in Psalm 146, verses 1 and 2, hallelujah, my soul, praise the Lord. I will praise the Lord all my life. I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. And then Psalm 34, says oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. Will you join me? And, what's more than that, will you invite those entrusted to you into these meaningful, intentional discipleship conversations as well? Let's do this together. I can't wait for us to live out these ways to praise this year.
Speaker 2:Thanks for joining us in this podcast episode. You can find the matching conversation guide in the show notes. To get the latest updates about the Family Disciple Me ministry, as well as word about our soon-to-be-released app, sign up to be the first to know at familydisciplemeorg. Also, if you enjoyed this podcast, help us get the word out by leaving us a review on your favorite podcast platform. God bless you, friend. Now go seek Him. Speak him.