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. :)

Pictures?

Well, we had our first official meeting today. Floyd just cast vision what we're going to be learning and why. He went a little into his (and Sally's) story on how they came to where they are now in life - training up people to be and create simple churches among neglected peoples in the earth. A lot of practicals were addressed too. I love my fellow students and the staff. We represent many countries and nations in the world in a rainbow of beautiful skin color. We are mostly young people, there are teenagers, 20 something singles, 30 something singles, married couples and couples with children. We all seem to have similar stories prior to joining the school. A call of God to tell people about Jesus in the world, an dissatisfaction with the status quo, a wanting of a life full and abundant - something the American Dream could never fully provide and a bulldogged commitment to follow what God has said to us. All of us have stories of how God has provided for us to be here. Funds have showed up in some miraculous ways for some, confirmation over and over (10 times in one week for one couple), some couples with kids I have talked to have extricated themselves from their work situations to answer very clear calls from God to go through this program fully relying on Him for funds and seeing Him meet their every need. God is faithful to keep His word. This week is kinda orientation week for us. We're going out to some pretty picnic area somewhere tomorrow for a cool team building exercise all day. I realized pictures were in order. I'm going to have to figure out a host site to dump photos so I can put them on there and give you, the reader, the link if you want to look at more photos than just what I post here or on facebook.

Fish Hoek beach - about a 15 minute drive from All Nations

Two awesome men - Papa Shayne and Cedrick

Pat holding baby Cole

Two hilarious guys Vuyani and Valentine cracking themselves up

Some peoples chilling during the welcome dinner

Big papa Shayne

A bunch of students bonding and cooking pap

A typical view around All Nations property

More Fish Hoek Beach

The grounds at All Nations

More pap!

Real people

Now I know that the LORD rescues his anointed king. He will answer him from his holy heaven and rescue him by his great power. Psalm 20:6 (NLT).

     I have been in ghettos and the projects of different cities. I had and took an opportunity to go with a friend to one such place here in Cape Town. It had all the similar feelings, smells and sights you see in such places. Walking up a flight of stairs to knock on a door there were stares directed in our direction, some baleful and some genuinely curious at these well off white people in a place you wouldn't normally sight one. (There were three of us, my friend the driver, my long time friend from back home and myself.) We met with a man who was a long time friend of my friend, he warmly welcomed us into his home and then started weeping. My words, any words really I think, would be insufficient to describe what he has gone through and must go through still. It was surprising the freedom this man felt in pouring his heart to his friend in the presence of a couple of strangers.
     My friend gave wise counsel and was simply there for our host. The other two of us sat in silence listening and empathizing as best as possible. This man loves Jesus like few I have ever seen. He encountered the raw love of God a few years ago when his world was coming down on him and has since then been discipled by my driver friend. He has clung to the promises and goodness of God and can honestly say that God has met him in all the loss and despair giving him a sense of identity, purpose and just day to day encouragement. As our time with our host drew to a close we asked if we could pray for him. He said of course so we waited on the Lord. Let me tell you, the presence of God invaded that small living room. All of the pressure of being a single father for two small sick children, the pain of losing most of his wife and parents in a year's time, the haunting of a gang involved past not dedicated to Jesus (that he really does realize has been dealt with at the cross) and the stress of men that are looking for an opportunity to kill him fell off his face. He literally looked different - better - as we prayed together and then had to leave. As we left my new friend said that the atmosphere changed as we walked into his house and now there was so much joy and hope in his heart. I hope to spend time with this guy, when he talks to God he speaks with power like I've never heard before. I don't think he realizes yet how much influence he has on Daddy's heart and the authority he has to speak to people and situations around him.

Get excited family, God is moving and CPx hasn't even started yet. It is Saturday, today and Sunday are our last "free days." The rest of the students will show up today and tomorrow and school starts Monday. I am deeply grateful to all of you who have contributed to make this experience possible. I am still doing some fund raising so if you're interested in giving lemme know!

Many hours later...

It is currently 5:30am on a Thursday morn. I am safe, I am on the All Nations property, praise God. I tried to work it so I wouldn't really be jet lagging but I must be a little because I'm not really feeling the need to sleep anymore.

Before you ask, no, I didn't get really any photos of traveling. It was dark and stormy most everywhere and you know, no one wants to see the "tail of the plane I flew in shot as I walk down boarding ramp" shot. No, of course I didn't take that shot.

I got on the plane in Austin leaving my mommy trying very VERY hard not to cry. Learned some interesting things in transit the last couple(?) of days.

First, it is important to love the lady next to you on the plane (from Austin to DC) even if she refuses to be loved.

There's this white stuff that was on the ground that the pilot of our flight called "snow." Apparently it falls from the sky and stuff. Crazy.

It's kind of a scary feeling to be horcking down some fuddruckers and hear "we're now boarding all passengers on (insert your flight here)" when you thought you still had 30 minutes till you got on. No, that totally didn't happen to me, yes I threw my mostly finished meal in the trash as fast as possible and got my behind on my flight, shut up.

The flight from DC to Dakar to Joburg was vaguely uneventful. I sat next to a little Hungarian lady from Toronto who farted the farts of death and awkwardness (in that order) fairly regularly. Watched some fun movies like Megamind. It's an animation about a super villain who basically has a midlife crisis and it is wonderful.

Joburg airport workers expect tips when you ask for directions to terminal D.
Flights from terminal D are apparently rescheduled at whim without announcement so it is important to keep an eye on the flight boards so you can run your behind to gate E2 when you and several other people look around in the waiting area and realize that you should be boarding but no one else is there. No, that totally didn't happen either.

I had some fun people to sit next to on the 2 hour flight from Joburg to Cape Town. A South African business man and a little lady from Colorado who had torn ligaments in her thumb in a skiing accident. Totally laid hands (gingerly) on her hand and asked God for healing. Nothing happened right away but the Spirit was a little heavy (I felt the nearness of God) as I prayed, so I told her not to be surprised when it didn't hurt anymore later.

I was picked up by some All Nations employees at the airport (whew), was brought to the (from what I can tell - it was dark) lovely property, was shown around a little, met a couple of people and was dropped off in the dorm. I was trying to turn off a light - hit the panic alarm button - and had the other residents on the property up and out of bed in a hurry. Suffice to say I won't do that again. Everybody was laughing and said it happens quite a bit to new guys.

Yay. I shall try to sleep some more now. Today's schedule is to get everything ready for the other incoming students and buy a chip for my phone. Hopefully it will work then.