Julie Mavimbela in her traditional Zulu dress on left, and her white temple dress on right.

Photo Credit: ldsliving.com

Today’s Harvest of Hero Story is about Julie Mavimbela. She was amazing! As a resident of South Africa, she was a victim of great injustice. Her husband died when the car he was driving collided with the car a white man was driving. The drunk white was driving on the wrong side of road, but police officers said the accident was Julie’s husband fault because of his race. This was so wrong!

Julie was pregnant with their fifth child when this happened. Can you imagine how awful her predicament was? Her heart filled with bitterness and anger over this injustice. During one night when she couldn’t sleep, her husband appeared to her in a dream, handed over a pair of overalls, and told her to “go to work,” she followed his instruction. She studied the Bible and determined to engage in community projects to help her move forward and let go of the negativity.

Julie ended up being a fighter for many wonderful causes: community gardens, elimination of illiteracy, civil rights for blacks in South Africa, education, and Christianity, as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

You can read the whole of Julie’s heroic story here. More detailed stories are here and here.

If you would like to get more stories about heroes to read aloud to your family, go here to get my Family Devotionals ebook.