Ethiopia etc Ho!

Ok friends.
I'm trying again to post. Rwanda has not liked me trying to blog for whatever reason.
The last 6 weeks in Rwanda has been fairly uneventful but good. Time spent with friends, thinking, praying - all done in peace and quiet. It was good.
I'm very grateful to my hosts here and it's time to go on to more adventures.
Oh, before I forget, it's official - I'm coming home sometime in September! Get excited fam. I'm still waiting on what God's got planned, but it'll come clear I'm sure.
Anyhoodle, tomorrow afternoon I'm headed to Uganda for an 11 hour layover then on to Ethiopia to be with friends and make more. Will spend 4 days there. Then I'll be flying to Istanbul to hang out for a little while (dates TBA) then home again!
I'm in the market for a job. It would be great to go back to FedEx but I'm also open to new experiences. So if you know of something open - lemme know! We'll see what God does.
So. I don't know when I'll be able to post next, but I'll do my best to keep yall up to speed on life.

Rwanda

Muzungu!

Goodbyes

Whoever invented "goodbyes" needs to be drug behind a pickup for a while then shot.

Seriously, I hate goodbyes. One of the older "papas" here named Shane told me when he left for farther north in Africa that "the kingdom is small" meaning that we'll see each other again (providing I don't join All Nations.) My great-grandmother used to say that in Heaven everyone lives next door to each other. I'd sooner not wait till the other side of eternity to spend more time with some people though.

Is it weird that I read my mom's blog? I had some vague trepidation when she told me (all proud of herself and excited) that she had had someone help her start her own blog. It was kinda similar to the feeling I got when "old" people started joining facebook. Which, lemme take a second to say that yes, my mom and I ARE friends on fb and she's behaved herself very well thus far. I see some poor fools who made the mistake of friending their mom and getting nothing but spam and TMI comments on every last dang post and picture they put up. Poor fools.
Ok, all that to say that my mom has something interesting to say about goodbyes here: http://lovefromaustin.blogspot.com/2011/01/joy-like-swords_2320.html

Ok. So. I'm all graduated from CPx and praying about joining All Nations and spending a year to 3 in Cape Town or just coming home for good. My immediate future in to visit friends farther north in Africa and else where for the next few months. Get excited. I'll keep you updated on all that. I leave here on Friday (in two days) to go to my first stop and will tell you more about it when I get there.

I would love prayer for ending my time in Cape Town well, safe travel and health. So, thank you.

Photos?

Ok, photo update and stuff!
We're in the middle of group debriefing and it's exciting to hear all the stories coming back. Especially of our teams meeting Muslims and they having dreams of Jesus. Good times. So, I thought I'd give you a look into where I was and who I was around.
I'm still praying about long term plans and scrambling to get short term trips in place. Will update as I get more done.

We start our day in OV eating together as a team

This is the house we based operations, ate and prayed in OV

This is where most of the team lived, about 10 minute drive from OV

A typical shot of OV minus people, government housing and streets

Some of the team and some of the guys we are invested in in OV

Some of our team meeting with the local government discussing abuse issues

A buddy of mine at his home

At the girl's camp doing a group activity

The same girls a week later. Seriously I almost didn't recognize them, they're so changed!

The view from the top of Table Mountain

Brief

We're on the final lap here in South Africa. One more week on outreach. One week for debrief. Then some traveling around. And then I'm still praying about what comes next.

This will be a brief entry I guess. I'm chilling out at Africa House right now. Had a late lunch with the one and only Floyd McClung to get some answers to stuff rolling around in my head. Took a taxi to close to the house and walked the rest of the way to hang out, take advantage of the internet to update some stuff and blog.

There's a team Okra, er, Oklahoma here and they're resting after a busy day playing "big booty." Crazy kids.

We took the ten toughest OV high school girls to a camp last weekend. I spent the time cooking, deejaying and other such logisticals happen. The women on our team and AN staff really invested in the girls. They talked straight about sex and drugs and what have you, I tried to stay out of it, particularly when they talked about sex, I was busy in the kitchen anyway. God provided more money for the camp then we could use really. It was awesome. We had amazing food every meal and a lot of it. The ladies put together gift bags with girly things like skin care and stuff, a nice journal, a nice Bible, pens and highlighters. They had a super girly night where women served and did the girl's nails and gave them facial masks and gave them good shoulder and back massages. One of them decided to follow Jesus over the weekend which was pretty cool.

Yesterday we saw them in kind of a follow up visit. I hardly recognized them. Their eyes and faces had changed. They had changed. We were blown away by the changes in the decisions they were making and the things they were doing with their time. While we met we "storied" about Jesus. Meaning that we took a Bible story and acted it out using everyone. The team ladies and girls prayed for each other and talked about life. The girls said that they were interested in going back to church. We asked "well, what is church?" They said "well, a building right?" Then a light bulb went on for them, they realized they just did church; that they were the church. That was really cool to see.

So, for yall that prayed and gave to the camp, thank you. There was fruit and there is continuing fruit with them, thank you. They are coming to understand that it doesn't matter how much crap they have done or been through, Jesus is actively pursuing them regardless. If these girls can come to a realization of the love God has for them then anyone can receive it too.

Believe me.

Aaaand we're back

Sorry about the break in posting if you're following, I haven't had much internet access till recently.

I kinda had a nice little spiel all worked out and pre-written to be copied and pasted here but it's not what I want to put down. So I'll give you bullet points on it then move on.

We're past half way done in outreach phase. The theme that God has given us that we have been operating under is justice. (For great justice, lol.) We're working with a long term mindset even if some of us will go home in a month. We are looking for houses in Ocean View to buy and turn into safe houses for abused women and children. Abuse is pandemic here and there are precious few safe houses in all of the greater Cape Town metro area. God has a good plan for OV. We are working with high schoolers, druggies, drunks, homeless, gangsters and killers. All my favorites.

This has been some of the hardest 5 weeks of my life. I feel reminded of what someone said a couple of months ago in class: don't ask for a miracle when God is asking for a commitment. I'm learning to be committed to where I am, what I'm doing and the people around me on a whole new level. Some of the stuff that happens here in OV is overwhelming. It will take nothing short of God breaking in and bringing change supernaturally in some ways and things. You look at all the injustice and addiction and dependence and abuse and poverty and lies and bad mindsets and religiousness and corruption and just want to give up.
In a way we should. In a way we must.
We must stop trying to do things ourselves. We let God do it. We partner with him, if you will. That's the only way anything will last, is if we hear a vision from Him and do it with Him.
It's about where your hope is. I'm being shown that too. If we think that different relief programs or organizations or (influential) people will solve our problems then we're in trouble. Yes God uses those things, yes those things are good but frankly if God's not going to use it or bless it and use a different approach then it's pointless. In light of that we must do what God is doing. We trust what God has in store. We trust God. We partner with him. I think trust (in God) is a choice accompanied with an action. James 2:20, faith without action is useless. To give an example. There are 220 churches in Ocean View. Two hundred and twenty for a community of 30,000 people. OV is not a big place, there's practically a church on every corner. But for that demographic there's a ridiculous amount of crime, violence and addiction. Odd. The thing is none of these 220 churches are working in the community. There's no one going out to hang out with the drunks. No First Church of the Drunks overcoming and discovering God together. There's no one out in the big, trashed out field hanging out with the drugs and arms dealers. On Sunday mornings a 3 hour church service is had about how God is great and we trust Him and so on and so forth but nothing is changing in a positive way outside. From my understanding all the churches just bicker with each other over doctrine that, in the long run doesn't matter that much in the grand scheme. If we believe in God and put our faith in Him there must be trust in God and for that there must be love for God, I believe. Because we love God and have faith in Him then we have hope (in some amount) in Him. We cannot be touched by the love of God and not catch His vision for other people. So we have hope in Him for those other people. Reminds me about that verse about faith, hope and love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 and as cross reference, 1 Thessalonians 1:3.
If we love God why do we hide that? If we know God loves other people why do we hide that? Living for Christ means we should be ready to live with a bad reputation for God. Imagine that. First Church of the Drunks. First Church of the Prostitutes. Let it be.

Howdy.
We have came to the end of lecture phase of CPx. I keep rubbing my head and neck like I have whiplash. The last three months went very quickly. This week is all prep for the individual teams dispersing to different places of outreach. First aid training, communication coaching, leadership classes, team strategy and bonding meetings are the order of the day...week. We have where we are going to be staying as a team all worked out but it's a matter of when we will be able to move in there. It's a house in Cape Town not too far from where we will be loving on people. The teams will be departing on or around the 25th and 26th this month. We may not be able to move into the house until May 1st. We'll see, no big deal, we'll get there sooner or later.

I've noticed something interesting things in recent months. Thought I'd talk it out here.

I'm sure this will be no revelation to you, my good reader but it has been highlighted to me. The people who "make it" in ministry or leadership or fill-in-the-blank really are the people who are teachable; they are willing to learn and change. Often that means knowing what it is to be obedient to authority. That also seems to mean that these people receive correction of a bad attitude etc well. I don't mean that they have to like discipline and correction but they....accept the words given as motivated by and given in love. If love is not at the heart of what is being spoken but what is being spoken is non the less true they see it as a chance to grow in both giving grace for the offended party and correcting and (where applicable) apologizing for what where they were wrong. (Hope there's enough qualifiers in that sentence.)
People who refuse to be taught don't make it. They don't get to where they want to be even if they've the finest intentions. And they wonder why. It really hurts me to see people insist on they're own way of doing things or thinking when they are being (lovingly) told and retold that the way they are going is not good. *I would like to take a time out and state that I am speaking of Christ followers when I speak of people being corrected and doing the confronting.*
It is my assertion that this is pride. Pride mixed with ignorance perhaps. Well, pride, ignorance and stubbornness maybe.

Papa Floyd talked to the men about humility this past Sunday. I loved it. He spoke on it from the context of the life of King David. In general Papa Floyd said that humility: -is a door way to healing, -the greatest of virtues, -frees us from bitterness, -goes against instinctive "flesh" nature, -allows us to see God's perspective on things among other things. I David Floyd made four points on humility. 1) It was in humility that David learned to forgive, 2) In humility David learned to repent, 3) He learned to repent and 4) in humility David learned true freedom. David forgave Saul for trying to kill him. Think about it, the anointed future king of Israel forgiving the current king trying to kill him, humility. He wouldn't even kill Saul when he had the perfect opportunity. He did cut the edge of the king's cloak and was convicted over even that. Floyd said "how often have I not 'killed' someone but 'cut some of their cloak off' just to show this person 'see how close I got to you' and then had to repent about it?" I realized I've done the same thing. In humility David repented of the mess he made with Bathsheba and her husband. That was dieing to self to be sure. David was not proud to ask God why He let his son die and removed him from power for a season due to his big fail with Bathsheba - he mourned (in humility.) David loved the law of God. Not in a weird "religious" way but he loved it because it was freedom to him. Floyd used Psalm 19 and 119 as examples. Remember Jesus had not come, lived, died and rose again yet so there was only "the law" and sacrifice to atone for sin and David was committed to it.

This brings me to my big point. Love is what it is all about and it goes hand in hand with obedience and humility. You can't have obedience without love, John 14:15 If you love me, keep my commandments (Jesus speaking, NLT.) And there must be humility - a laying down of your own ideas/rights/etc - somewhere in the mix if you are to obey someone or something. So, it seems to me that humility is a love response. We put ourselves aside to serve our friends, our mates because we love them. 1 John 2:4-5 If someone claims, "I know God," but doesn't obey God's commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. But those who obey God's word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. (NLT)

This brings me to an interesting conclusion that I've been kicking around in my head completely separately the last week or so. And that is this: obedience to the voice of God no matter the cost. "Yes" no matter the cost. I know that Christians always want to be obedient to God and so on and so forth but sometimes we end that commitment when the call deviates from the American Dream. I'm not satisfied with that. I've known too many people, seen too many people, hear too many stories, been with too many speakers here at CPx and felt the consuming love of God too much to not respond. Pride destroys people, humility brings them to good places, people and situations. Let it be said of me that I didn't have a pride problem, I did what God said, served people and loved God and others.

Another long blog devoid of any photos. I'll see what I can do for next time. I'm excited about this week, I may be able to have a sit down with Floyd to bounce ideas off of him about Japan!

Honoring authority and the next step

So, I’ve been trying to figure out how to make this post happen and I got a good excuse for it today. Heavy stuff like lies and vows didn’t interest me so I thought I’d talk about something better, honor.

I want to take a moment and show love to my former bosses Chuck and Steve. I recognize that honoring your boss is unheard of in “the real world” but I don’t adhere to that line of thinking. I'm a Kingdom kid and the value of honor is something I hold dear and a member of this transcendent culture.

Chuck was my direct supervisor for three years at my old job and he’s the best boss I’ve ever had. We had a big boss (Steve) who had a couple few managers under him (Chuck) who looked after the couriers (me) on the job. All the drivers were divided between the managers and every time we had a workgroup meeting Chuck always told us how he treated (and meant to treat) everyone the same. In my opinion he was as good as his word, he never contradicted himself on this. Chuck told me what I needed to hear whether I wanted to hear it or not. I owe a lot of me "growing up" to him. When I was convinced I couldn't do anything right or was acting like a child he called me to a higher level, he even did it patiently. :) My favorite memory of Chuckie is every time he asked for my date of birth and I told him he would shake his sadly and tell me he was graduating when I was born. He ran the box sort after we got off road like clockwork, worked well with everyone, delegated when appropriate and never was above doing some of the hard jobs himself. Needless to say he commands my respect. Every year all the managers are rated by their employees and Chuck has consistently had one of the highest scores in the country. It is well deserved, they don't pay him near enough. I always felt respected and heard by him. I guess there’s a lot to that. If given the opportunity to work for him again I’d be there.

Our station manager Steve is a kind man. Wise too in my opinion. He transferred to our station about a year before I left. He has a pretty open door policy with his people. During the summer when I couldn’t work due to my wreck injury he (and Chuck) was very supportive and patient with it all. It was an honor to be told by him that they would miss me at the station when I submitted my two week notice in January. He seems to operate with the values of respect and no favoritism along with Chuck, the fact that our station’s personnel is doing well compared to many other places proves it.

So, many thanks to those men who acted like and modeled how to be a man. I learned a few things from them. I feel pretty safe in posting this because I don't think they read my posts. :-P

Here in Cape Town I had a fun moment where I could honor those in authority over me. I was originally slotted to go to Zanzibar with seven other people for a two month outreach but God had other plans and it is good. I didn’t really feel any clear direction when we were praying about where to go on outreach some weeks ago so I arbitrarily signed up to go to Zanzibar. I trusted that if I had just missed what God was saying He would get me to the right place. I was not wrong in that assessment. Two of my leaders met with me after class and lunch and said that they were reallocating me to another team; that I will not go to Zanzibar. Was it a little disappointing? Maybe, Zanzibar is a beautiful place I'm told. But there was such joy in being able to obey. The leadership has a pretty good feel on the spiritual pulse of the students and they are here to facilitate God moving in our lives as much as possible. It was explained to me that when the leaders were praying they felt that 1) God is doing big things in me right now 2) Zanzibar is faraway and spiritually an oppressive place and 3) having learned from previous experience they did not want to risk sending me to a hard place when, as they said, the growth that’s happening needs to be guarded. They seemed a little nervous in telling me this, hoping I would not be crushed. Contrary to their expectations I think I felt very loved and honored that they would spend the time to hear from God and act on the direction to put me in the right place. It was very easy to say as much and tell them that I’m totally down for going to Ocean View. The team with is pretty awesome too. My buddy who wants to go to Japan also, a dude who did prison ministry for years who has an amazingly tender heart and the parents of the awesomest 1 year old girls ever, there might be others on the team but that’s all I know of right now.

We have one more week in the local communities then one week of outreach prep. And then we all go to our collective outreach destinations, I'm not sure I can share where all we are going yet but we’ll see.

Prayer points:

- That I and the Red Hill team would end well in that community

- That Red Hill team would end things together well

- That the Ocean View team would receive all the plans and dreams on the Father’s heart for the next two months

- That the Ocean View team would bond and gel quickly and have unity of mind, spirit and purpose

- That my health would hold up

- That I would continue to be open to the change the Holy Spirit is bringing in my life

- Lots of hope, love, peace and joy in me

- That our team would find a building in Ocean View to base our operations out of

I think I have a small backlog of photos I still need to post here and on facebook. The internet here can be very very slow so it is difficult to get stuff like that up but I will make an effort to this week.

Texan breezes in South Africa

It was a fun week. I'm sitting out on kind of a back porch area in Africa House drinking ceylon tea, listening to United Pursuit and enjoying cool breezes - I missed the sunset, oh well.

It is getting cooler and raining more - winter is coming and it is projected to be very wet. It's been alright though overall. Today was particularly fun because it was overcast and cool, there were very few people here at the house and there was a little drizzle coming down; it was perfect nap weather. :) I'm realizing that I only have three more weekends here and that I should probably get on the ball and act like a tourist. I was thinking of doing things like swim with penguins, hike table mountain and just generally walk around with a camera in my hand looking clueless - something I do well.

My pastors from back home, Ron and Janine were here speaking this past week and they knocked it out of the park. Can't even begin to tell you how comforting it was to hear a Texan accent. Ron taught on prayer, fasting and spiritual warfare in the mornings and we had extra class time with Janine in the afternoon as she expounded on warfare and by extension, inner healing. It was their first time speaking at CPx and all the students and staff enjoyed them. We have a married couple here from more interior Africa named Oliver and Rhoda. They have been married for 20 some odd years and have many kids. They are so awesome. Tall, stately, dark skinned, beautiful beautiful people who have enormous smiles and even bigger hearts. They are incredible servants with father and mothering characters. They came into class one day very dressed up - they had something to say before the day started. Everyone she was working with in the communities had been asking Rhoda where her marriage ring was because she didn't have one. Apparently exchanging rings isn't really something you do where they are from. Well, that cultural difference started to bother Rhoda and Oliver being the man of legend that he is noticed and decided to act. Last weekend Oliver grabbed Rhoda and went to the big mall 15 minutes walk from here ostensibly to buy some groceries. As they walked by a jewellery store Oliver pulled the ol' "oh look, a store, lets go look in it" routine. Rhoda had no idea what was going on, she said she didn't understand why they were walking in there - everything was really expensive! Oliver went all out on her. He bought her a beautiful ring for her left hand. She was floored. I wish you could have seen their faces when they returned to the house from that trip. She also bought him a handsome band for his ring finger. So, that morning in class they exchanged rings and renewed their marriage vows, there was such a sweetness in the act. I wept unashamed.

Highlights from the teachings:
-faith is spelled R-I-S-K
-people pay attention to the WORDS of the kingdom when they see the WORKS of the kingdom; i.e. I've yet to see people argued into believing in Jesus (or believing that God loves them for that matter) but I have seen and heard countless stories of people blown away when they are prayed for and God heals them or a relative or speaks very personally through the person praying for them. 1Corinthians 4:20 "For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power." (ESV) Or: "For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk: it is living by God's power." (NLT) Nuff said.
-one of the biggest way that we "war" is that we love people

Some things that Janine touched on this week (and a friend's blog post from a few weeks ago) got some gears turning in my head. I want to try and spit out a post later this week on lies, disappointment, vows, motives and impossibility. All stuff that God is dealing with me on. Fun stuff. In a good, cleansing sort of way though.

I wanted to share some pictures that God has been shown me lately.
I was feeling pretty sick last week so I was praying with Poppa Shane, he didn't hear God say anything but I did. God said that I was taking promises and plans for the future he had for me and was getting very stressed out over those things and it was making sick. So I had to come to a place of surrender (again) and start choosing to trust him more.
I had a picture a few weeks ago and I don't remember if I've shared it before, so I'll just do it again if I have. God gave me a picture of me with a huge backpack on with many different pockets and pots and pans hanging off it - like what the hobbits had on in the Lord of the Rings. I had this pack on and was walking on a path and I hear the words "you take what you want to have with you later." It's nothing crazy but still spoke to me in a deep way. God was saying that there is a grace on this time for me to drop attitudes, habits and mindsets that will only be destructive to me later on in life. Hallelujah.
I had kind of an intense picture from God a few days ago. First imagine the incredible worth and preciousness of Jesus' blood. Imagine one drop of the blood of Jesus with the realization that you could own all of the world and everything in it - sell it all and still not have enough to buy that one drop of blood. With that in mind imagine being covered in the blood with it pouring down on you constantly like a shower head. Imagine then as you "walk the road of life" with all that costly flow on you there is a path of Jesus' blood behind you - representing the goodness and faithfulness of God over your life. God was telling me about how much he adores me, how much I am worth to him - constantly and how my past is covered in the blood. Intense. Thought I'd leave you with that.

Japan

Ok, so let say first and foremost that the Amazon Kindle has changed my life. Like, no kidding, it is epic. I have officially lost my "post-literate" status because of this thing. Ok, enough free advertising.

I'm going to vulnerable here and share some of my heart here. This feels a little bit more poignant in light of the recent earthquake.

I love Japan even though I've never been there. I feel like God is calling me there to work, possibly long term. In November and December 2009 I was kicking around the idea "what would it look like to live in Japan?" I can't think of anything in particular sparked the thought - probably just God. In January I went to a weekend missions conference and met up with a dear friend who told me an interesting story. The story was that my friend and her mother had been talking and God dropped a word of knowledge on them fairly randomly. That word was "I'm calling Stephen to Asia" (and a couple of other places, but that's not important right now). When my friend tells me all this I was floored - talk about confirmation. Ever since then I've been praying and believing for that country. The earthquake kinda rattled me. I know it might be stupid to say that but it did. I was a little teary for a couple of days. Here at CPx we have two months where we go to different parts of the world to go love people and tell them about Jesus; and me and a friend of mine were talking about putting a team together to go do our outreach with the earthquake and tsunami victims. We sat down and prayed about it first though obviously. We both felt very strongly that God was saying wait on going to Japan. There was a lot of peace in that, so, good confirmation. It was a little bit disappointing but God, in addition to saying wait, said that He wanted to do some things there before I or my buddy (or the two of us together) got there.

The verse that everyone has been throwing around concerning the earthquake in Japan is the last part of 1 Kings 19:11 - After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. (NLT) It's kind of taking the verse out of context but it still rings true does it not? Not to start into a subject I know very little about but I feel that God is still good - even if things are not going well around us.

Contrary to what some people would say, I think, God loves the Japanese people. I think God has a lot of good things in store for that country, I think freedom will spring up there so that the unhealthy social pressures there will be relieved.

About 6 or 7 months ago I felt like the Holy Spirit led me to a portion of scripture that He was speaking over the land of the rising sun. It seems extra prophetic to me now.

Isaiah 61:4-9 (NASB) Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, They will raise up the former devastations; And they will repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations. Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks, And foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers. But you will be called the priests of the LORD; You will be spoken of as ministers of our God, You will eat the wealth of nations, And in their riches you will boast. Instead of your shame you will have a double portion, And instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land, Everlasting joy will be theirs. For I, the LORD, love justice, I hate robbery in the burnt offering; And I will faithfully give them their recompense And make an everlasting covenant with them. Then their offspring will be known among the nations, And their descendants in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them Because they are the offspring whom the LORD has blessed.

Township

I wanted to talk about what we’re doing in Red Hill a little bit today. I realized that I’ve been telling stories from our days off etc and not so much been relaying what is happening on site. It’s said that things move slowly in Red Hill, and it’s true. There are 4 or 5 weeks left for us to be here in Cape Town and we haven’t seen that much “happen” per say. This really isn’t a discouraging thing – not to me at least. God has his own timing and we're being faithful to do what we are hearing Him say - so we're in His will.

There are now 7 of us on a team working in Red Hill. I personally wish that we could do more practicals for and with people, but we are somewhat limited as far as thought line of thought goes. We are trying to organize a pretty cool event right now. There is a movie called “Beat the Drum” that talks about AIDS awareness and debunks myths and misunderstandings surrounding the condition. There is a huge stigma surrounding people with AIDS. They lose their friends, no one talks to them, they can’t get a job and (if these things didn’t get the point across) are treated universally as out casts. Fear motivates that conduct. Fear of getting AIDS I mean. Beat the Drum talks about aids testing, how to avoid AIDS and how to get help if you do have it. Apparently there are a significant amount of people who have contracted AIDs in South Africa. Please note that I am not trying to demean this wonderful country in any way – just stating a fact. All that to say; we are trying to set up a way to show the movie in the township and have a free testing clinic if people want to get tested.

We are walking around meeting people and starting conversations about God. We have all felt the artificiality of this – not that it’s bad, just not natural. It’s not hard to bring conversation to the topic of God etc etc because we stick out like a sore thumb – white people in a shack town with no residents of that color and apparently the only Caucasians to come here come with a church group or something. Oh well. The M.O. we’re working under is to find somebody who is not a Christian or following Christ closely and who is spiritually hungry. We ask if that person is interested in doing a Bible study and if they are we teach them how we tend to do Bible studies, i.e. how to lead one. (I say “tend to do” because there are so many ways to do a Bible study or tell someone about Jesus.) We then go with them and do a Bible study with their friends and hopefully see these guys and gals fall in love with the person of Jesus and follow him just from what they see in the scriptures. The idea is that it’s not us, the foreigners, leading the group because when we leave the group will more than likely stop meeting.

We want to show the love of God in practical ways. Red Hill is a remote place with no running water. So there are big water retainers outside of the community that are supposed to be kept filled to be used by all of the residents, but sometimes are left empty. We have been able to bring some water to a couple of people we are working with who did not have any in reserve or were (according to them) did not have a lot of money for water from the store. We have done this once or twice. We have plans to help shore up a shack but we need to locate some lumber etc. It is very very windy in Cape Town for most of the year. We are trying to be wise with what we give and to whom we give such help to because, frankly we are poor students without a lot of financial backing to give aid on a large scale and people always love to take advantage of the Americans. Just a fact of life. Suffice we do a lot of prayer with people for practical needs like jobs and are seeing those prayers being answered.

My man TR leaves tonight. He has spent something like two weeks with and has been a huge blessing. He has been an awesome sounding board for our dreams and an open ear to the plans we have for the future ready with wise advice and/or a word from God on it. To give and example and to hint at the next post, TR helped me and a friend process the possibility of taking a team to Japan for our outreach months.

All that to say things are going well here, we are trusting for a revolution in Red Hill, God is starting to put dreams on the student's hearts and we all love our new friend TR.

An overview of recent happenings

It's been a very full couple of weeks.

I think what I will do is just give an overview of what's happened recently in this entry and unpack more thoughts and experiences in subsequent posts. Thank you for your patience. :)

A friend came to visit Bowen and I in the first few day of March. Tom is his name and loving and serving people is his m.o. I met Tom 10 years ago. He is a real joy to be around, he's a deep thinker and it's so cool to bounce ideas off and talk about life with. He has a unique, humorous and peaceful outlook; very untroubled by anything not of God. He met a lot of the CPx students and staff and blended in quite well. He, Bowen, some of the staff and myself on a day off went and made a day of it. More of that and pictures later. It was a sad thing when he had to leave.

God has been teaching me trust. The way you learn is to choose to trust even if you don't want to. It seems like you have to become like a child in order to learn (or relearn) to trust God. You make a simple choice, stop spinning your wheels and enjoy what is around you. Humility is key.

A bunch of us went to a rugby game on Saturday night. It was a Cape Town team versus a team from New Zealand. It was awesome. The only other time I've seen a rugby game was when I watched a buddy play a collegiate game a few years ago now. I really liked how it wasn't near as commercialized as American football.

We are deciding where we want to go for our 2 month "outreach phase" of our Church Planting Experience. I didn't really feel any strong direction so I went with my gut and signed up for Zanzibar and we'll see what happens I guess. I'd sooner go to Japan then anywhere else right now.

We got to skype with heavy hitter church planter David Watson. He does things somewhat different then All Nations. It was good though, David is very strategic in his approach to outreach.

We have cool kid here hanging out with the students for the next couple of weeks. I call him TR and he loves on people and tells them abut Jesus in countries where it's not allowed. Hence me not using his real name or adding a picture. There seems to be a trend of our speakers needing their identity protected because they are seeing cool things happen where Jesus is not allowed.

Let me just take a moment to say that it is because of our love for Jesus that we tell others about him. We don't want people to live without the hope of who Jesus is. He said "go and make disciples of all nations.... (Matt 28). And the gospel will be preached to all nations...and then Jesus will return (my paraphrase of Matt 24:14) We as humans are jealously loved by God - he came, lived a sinless life, was killed for our sin in order for us not have to be separated from God and then rose again nullifying our fear of death and sent the Holy Spirit to us so that we can be full of peace and joy until his return and see the dead raised the sick healed and the epic news of all the above spread to the whole world. And all this we do in love - not yelling at people about going to hell and being judgmental and not not telling people about him. *pant pant* *gets off soapbox*

So this guy TR, he's doing the whole telling people about Jesus in crazy places and is here with us to share his experiences and just listen to our hearts and give counsel about what we feel called to by God. It's a blessing to have him.

So, that's probably enough there. Sorry to go on a rampage there, but how can we must not remain silent and opt out of a life of obeying Jesus (in whatever we're called to) when our neighbor across the street is having a hard time in the States or there is such abject poverty of mind, spirit and resources and blatant racism in places like South Africa and when there is awful destruction in places like Japan.

So, I love you, whoever you are reading this (I don't think there's a big audience for this blog though). Thank you for reading this, know that my prayer for you is that you will have a deeper revelation of God's love for you. More pictures and actual details to come later!

Differences

The prayer room

Other side of the prayer room

Thought I'd hit you with pictures

All the locks here are big skeleton keys!

Outside of Africa House

Walking in to Africa House - the entrance

Door on the right is the kitchen, door on the left goes to the hall where bedrooms and bath rooms are

The kitchen - Mama Louisa and Sylvia are cooking something up!

Long hall with my room there at the end

Community room!

An odd picture someone took of me...not that there's any normal ones

Well, we're due for another post I think.
We're on our normal schedule now, there was kind of a lot that needed to get crammed into the first 2 weeks so we were pumping on all cylinders. It's nice to have a break. Today is Monday. We have Saturdays, Sunday afternoons and Mondays off. We "work" on Sundays. Meaning that we are in the communities talking to people and doing Bible studies because, honestly, the people who tend to not go to church tend to be the people we want to love on and point out the love of Jesus to.

Something came up the other day that really made me laugh and yet cry at the same time. A guy (I'll talk more about him later) was spoke to class about the Holy Spirit for a few days and some Americans (me included) and Africans were just talking about it all. The Americans told the Africans that there are a lot of churches and Christians who don't believe that Gods heals people any more or that the gifts of the Spirit are still active. I wish I could have taken a picture of the African's faces when they heard that. Jaws hit the ground and didn't come up for a while, they were seriously stunned that people thought that and were confused as to why they would think that AND preach against it. Things supernatural and the Holy Spirit moving - bringing healing, speaking words of knowledge, giving prophesies, giving pictures, giving supernatural protection etc etc are just a fact of life for most who call Jesus Lord here. Just saying, it was an interesting cross cultural exchange.

Now. I must apologize for not having photos of our speakers this week. I totally didn't even think to get photos of one and the other they asked us to protect his identity as much as possible.
The wee little man from Scotland, Joe Ewen, came and spoke to us concerning the Holy Spirit, His gifts and operating in them. It was a good time. Joe is a pastor of a network of churches in Scotland and also has a real prophetic anointing on him. He gave time to meet with students one on one while he was here to speak wisdom into us and give a word according to what God was saying, if that makes sense. So, for example. I signed up for a session with Joe and told him a little about what was heavy on my heart - the things that were hard for me here and my fears for life post CPx. And he just spoke to those fears and frustrations with simple, practical and Biblical wisdom and truth. As it is said, the spirit of prophesy is encouragement. As our time came to a close laid hands on me, prayed and had an encouraging/timely word that God spoke.

Our other speaker we had I'll call pastor Joshua. Joshua is seeing an insane amount of churches start then start more churches in closed countries. He had a real passion to disciple people in love into a knowledge of God's love for them gather several people like that - start a simple church from that allow those guys and gals to reach their friends with that good news and so on and so forth. Joshua was once (I should say at least once) almost executed for his love of Jesus and telling other people about it. He was speaking out against senseless killings and pillaging that his country's military was committing and made one particular high ranking officer very angry. This commander had Joshua arrested, tied up and lined up to be shot. Joshua was praying and told God that he would be fine with going home to Heaven but he wanted to save the commander first. As they were about to shoot him Joshua asked if he could talk to the commander for 5 minutes, commander said "spit out your nonsense." Joshua told commander that God created the world and man. Man sinned and lost perfect relationship with God. And God was so broken hearted over this that He couldn't stand it and came to earth as a human, lived a sinless life and was killed to atone for all sin there after for those who accept this gift. This was all so that those who believe in and follow Jesus would not have to be separated from God when they died and could have joy, hope, peace and life on earth in the mean time. And that this gift of the blood of Jesus was for commander too. Commander said "let this man go, he is insane." A few days later he came to Joshua's house and became a believer, was discipled by Joshua and his team and is now a church planter too. The Holy Spirit used that same simple story that has been told and retold for 2 millennium to burn in commander's heart and caused him to fall in love with the living Jesus.
Joshua is intense. He walks into Muslim nations where, if he was caught by the government with a Bible in hand or preaching the good news that Jesus is alive he would be killed and sees radical moves of God in those places. All of the students were really affected by Joshua's testimony, life, stories and approach to telling people about Jesus. I have been challenged to the core.

That's it for now I think. I think I'll put another post up soon to give yall a better idea of what we need prayer here for most etc. Thanks for putting up with these long posts.

Lotta Glowray

Awesome shot I got

Another awesome shot I got

Some of the long termers chilling

All in all it has been a good last couple of days. This is a big change of pace from how the last 5 days have been. It’s hard to describe what was going on but to sum up I just wasn’t feeling great. A very big part of that was the fact that I am an extreme introvert and there’s very little opportunity to truly be alone living in one building with 30 other people. I am learning a lot!

Part of Red Hill

We, the All Nations Church Planting Experience class of 2011, were split into our own “simple churches” this week. We had to choose a township to apply to work in for the next 3 months and the staff divvied out the teams (read “churches”) into those areas. I felt drawn to a place called Ocean View; think I touched on it in the last post. But I wanted to hear what God was saying about that so I took Sunday morning and prayed it through. I went into the prayer room on the property and asked what He had in mind. He didn’t answer right away. It was a little frustrating. So I finally asked Him “God, why are you not just saying what you want me to do? I mean I WANT you to tell me.” I heard Him speak this (pretty much word for word) very clearly – “I know you, you can be really task oriented. If I just told you what I have in mind you would just clap your hands say ‘ok great, let’s go git r dun’ and just leave and not spend time with me. To me - you investing in our relationship is way more important than getting an answer to a question that I will address in good time.” Suffice to say I chilled out and just relaxed in the presence of God, maybe an hour later He told me to go to Red Hill. Long story short I hooked up with a team going there. There are 6 of us, four Americans, two Africans, 4 men and 2 women. Our “job” is to be church – worship God, study the Word, love each other in community and reach the lost and replicate that model in our community of Red Hill. I would like to take a moment to emphasize that people and places are not projects. We do want the inhabitants of this camp to come to know the raw love of Jesus but I want to stress the fact that we love them with no strings attached. If I spend all 3 months in this community discipling people who don’t choose to make God they’re shot caller then it’s ok. It really will be.

A street level view of part of Red Hill

The team talking and driving out to Red Hill

Dan Baumann

     After our first afternoon in our township on Thursday we as a church (plus one of our coaches) went to a place near the local YWAM base to hear a lovesick man named Dan Baumann. This guy blew my socks off. He was falsely accused of being a spy while sharing Jesus in Iran and thrown in prison for 9 weeks. He has an amazing testimony of allowing God to change him at his lowest of low points in prison and see his captors as Jesus sees them not how fear would dictate. I highly recommend getting and reading his two books A Beautiful Way and Imprisoned in Iran. So, we were in a big rented meeting room not far from the YWAM base. It looked like there were a couple of hundred people to hear Dan, both YWAMmers and the “local crew” like us. God was moving in some fun ways that night. All glory to God. He used me to speak a couple of things He wanted to say to a couple of random strangers that He pointed out to me. I don’t normally have a hard time giving a word to strangers but it was hard this time to tell these guys what I was hearing but what God was saying was kind of intense. Those words were a step up from what I normally hear so it would be more awkward than it probably would be otherwise if I heard wrong. But God was good and the guys I prayed for were blessed. My gut says that if God is giving me more and bigger words for people He is growing the prophetic gift in me. Worship was intimate and the stuff that Dan said was challenging - he talked about loving your enemies. I felt like I needed to respond and come up to the front for prayer when the invitation was given after the talk so I did just that. I felt like God said to ask one guy on the prayer team specifically for prayer so I did. It was one of the most powerful wonderful encounters I’ve ever had with God. I and about two other people praying for me got a picture of a big nail or bolt or something being pulled out of my heart and chest. Deliverance of crap, it’s a beautiful thing. There really isn’t room to go into what all God did and is continuing to do but I can say that some very deep seated lies were pulled out by the root, lies specifically dealing with my view of the goodness and faithfulness of God. I’m a heavy drinker of the Spirit and His love, if you know me well I think I hardly need say that my friends had to carry me out of there. I couldn’t stand or walk under my own power I was so intoxicated in and by the love of Jesus. To God be the glory. That was Thursday night. Ever since then I’ve felt lighter, happier. Ever feel like all of a sudden weight is lifted off of you emotionally? You should take a moment right now and ask God if there’s anything He wants to say to you about that. He doesn’t disappoint. Friday morning we woke up, came to class and Dan Baumann was there to speak to all of the class that morning so we all got to hear from him. It was a real treat.

Don't be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit…. Ephesians 5:18 (NLT)

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth--for your love is more delightful than wine. Song of Songs 1:2 (NIV)

...If you find my lover, tell him I am weak with love. Song of Songs 5:8b (NLT)

Worship team at YWAM

Everybody at the YWAM thing

Week 1

Floyd blushing as Sally talks

George, what a man

This week we have been getting settled. We are figuring out and talking through how a multi-cultured, mixed gender residence will work. We have listened to a little bit of Floyd and Sally's story today and it was cute, seriously, they're one of those slightly older couples who are so sweet to each other and cute together that you throw up in your mouth a little. Some good friends for the McClungs came and spoke for a couple of days about unity and holiness and purity and honor. They were a fun couple - a (I believe) Zambian husband and an American wife with a cute baby. George, the husband, was fiery, he has a lot of passion to see servant leaders raised up in Africa. I have been told that a big problem in Africa is that it is "over evangelized" with precious little actual discipleship happening. Many ministers and pastors live in a very hierarchical system and expect to be served and honored with really investing in people, without serving people themselves. So to hear of this man all out raising up young people in an opposite attitude - working and investing themselves into where they are called - it is an uplifting thing.

*I would like to take a moment to explain something. In South Africa people are referred to as "white," "black" and "colored." "Colored" is not a derogatory term in South Africa. When I was told that people were referred to that way I freaked out. As a non racist white American it's really hard to coexist with that term. But it is cultural and not a word I came up with. Colored people are varied in they're ancestry. They are not fully white and not fully black. Some look vaguely Latino or Indian or Asian. ***So if I say "colored" people please please know that that is simply what people say. It is NOT meant as a racist statement in the least little bit. I am not racist, I do not refer to people in racist ways.*** If you are at all offended I am sorry that you are offended but recognize that I am not calling YOU anything and that I am not doing anything unacceptable in THIS culture. The labels came about when the South African government classified people according to how they wanted people located geographically. The labels stuck.

This week we have prayer walked three different communities that All Nations is involved in. We will be split into small groups on Monday and we will choose one of these towns to work in for the next 3 months. They are "townships," places where under the appalling law of Apartheid non- whites were forced to settle, ghettos essentially. All these places have distinct feels and atmospheres. Unfortunately I was not able to get any photos of any of them because of safety reasons. If outsiders specifically white folk walk in with watches and cameras and wallets we make ourselves targets. these aren't the most safe of places.
-Wednesday we walked Masiphumalele (Masi for short.) It is a community of some 35,000 people in shacks. It's a tough area, it's urban in the sense that it's mostly composed of shanty shacks built of scrap metals and woods. Dirt roads connect everything, there are a few better built homes on concrete slabs with a few layers of cinder block walls but they're maybe 2 rooms big. Now that I think of it there were a few nice homes which I was told belonged to the big league drug dealers. Walking through the village the children were calling out "mulungo!" which means "white boy!" Kind of a derogatory term I'm told. As the team I was with were praying and walking we passed some guys on the corner hanging. One guy passes us as we pass them walking very fast, he looks over to the corner guys and tells them that he's gonna shoot them and keeps walking. I'm told gangs, drugs, alcohol and violence are big problems in Masi.
-Next day we went to Ocean View. It is a slightly smaller ghetto that really reminds me east Austin or north Philadelphia. There's a lot of project apartments and small houses, not really the shack town that Masi is. I'm drawn to this town most although it is possibly the most dangerous. There is a lot of drug abuse, domestic violence and some gang activity. Lotta Rastafaris and Muslims in Ocean View. It's pretty developed, no shacks here, just small houses and apartments next to paved streets. There have been a few prophetic words that this is OV's year, that God is really gonna move. That gets me excited because this town has the fewest All Nations long termers in it. I'm still praying about applying to work here.
-Finally we walked Red Hill today. Red Hill is very different from the other two ghettos. It is up on a mountain in a remote part of Cape Town. It is a small encampment of about 2 thousand people total. It is very peaceful and is pretty safe. The atmosphere is different in that sense, I sensed no hostility, no one looked at you aggressively, no children ran up to try to take your watch without you realizing it or pat your pockets looking for a wallet. There isn't a lot of drug usage there and no gangs. I was told that there is a fair amount of alcohol abuse by the men which ends in fights and wife beatings but it is all kept under wraps and not addressed publicly really. Not really attracted to working there.

I'm realizing I'm obsessed with mountains

Soccer out on the lawn after dinner

More soccer

So, be blessed fam, I'll have more to say later, there's a lot going on but it's hard to put it into a blog post. :)