My name is Sipokazi Somzana, born in a small village Sipaqeni in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. A social worker by profession, with a masters degree in social work health care, a mentor, assessor and moderator. Founder and director of Asta Social Work Services PTY LTD a company that provides social work services focusing on therapy, coaching, mentorship and trainings. Founder of Sipokazi Writes, a Facebook platform dedicated to transformation and empowerment of individuals through words – spoken and written. I am also a Sunday school teacher, who is passionate about bringing children to the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and a passionate about personal and career development through offering the necessary training within diverse settings.
From primary school I have always been a lover of stories and spent most of my weekends and school holidays watching films from dramas, thrillers, narratives, adventure, fantasy, cartoons, etc.
It wasn’t long until I made my way to reading thrillers, romance and mystery books. It was at that point I started writing poems and short stories but due to my delay in speech and starting school late I was never confident in my writing. In fact I never thought much about it and never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever write any book. I looked at myself as a girl from a small village who never was good in any language including her very own language, I struggle with speech and even writing.
In my teenage years just after I become a born again Christian God began changing my interest in the types of books I was reading and changing my perspective about written content. I remember reading my very first Christian book by Joyce Meyer ‘battle field of the mind’, and I have to say that was the beginning of God’s work in my life.
The time had arrived and God was ready to open me up to what I myself at the time could not even comprehend. I remember the day like it was yesterday the 8th of June 2014 around 14:00 in the afternoon, I had just came back from church. At church that day we had a powerful service with a Pastor visiting from Malawi. It was at that time that I heard the voice of the Holy Spirit so clear, “write a book, each day focus on a chapter, it’s possible you have a laptop”. My nerves rose so high that I somehow ignored it.
Later that day, i was in my evening prayers when God the Holy Spirit spoke to me again. Immediately after I finished praying I had the urge to pick up my laptop and I started typing what seemed like a love letter. I didn’t even struggle with the title either, the Holy Spirit shared it with me and it the course of my writing the spirit of God began explaining to me why “Young and crazy in love with Jesus”.
Young in the title refers to an attitude, a childlike stance in your journey with Christ Jesus and not about age. Crazy illustratrates an act of not caring what people say or think, being unapologetic and concerning yourselves mainly with pleasing God and not man. In love illustrates a life of surrender as believer, a life of obedience to His will. Jesus illustratrates the importance of a personal relationship with our Lord Savior
I finished the book and could not move on to the next step, I kept coming up with every excuse in the book of excuses. I was so terrified, I could not believe I was done with the book.
God being forever loving and faithful, His Spirit began guiding me in the journey of publishing the book. I remember one night during the publication process, I was nervous and wondering how will this book look.
I remember the Holy Spirit telling me, I never chose you because of your intellect or your impeccable writing skills. I chose you because you were no ordinary writer, because you didn’t fit the world’s criteria of writers and mostly importantly I chose you because you carry something that I want the world to access through you and your writing. In that moment God had demolished every fear and doubt. I knew without a doubt that this was not about me, but me playing my part in God’s program in this world.
My social media handles are;
Website: https://sipokazisomzana.wixsite.com/astasocialworkservic
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