Final 3 Days in Ecuador

Our last Christmas Party was approximately 1500+ with another amazing partnership called Remanso De Amor (Haven of Love). They are truly doing Kingdom building in their community and it is wonderful to come along side them as an ER partner and help them in their ministry. Mike and I have been truly blessed to have been able to come on this journey and see what all ER does in person. Thank you to those who helped us to get here through your prayers and support. Last night the Church for Life group that was staying on our floor asked if they could pray for us and it was such a refreshing time. They lifted us up in all areas of our lives and we were extremely humbled. Chris, one of the pastors, had a vision while we were praying that he sees us as a bridge between the people who want to help and the people who need to help. This is right in line with the same vision John Thomas had when we left living hope that we would be a conduit or a channel for which thousands would serve others. We believe God is ever present in our lives and we give Him all the Glory. We are so blessed to be able to fulfill our calling and excited to get started serving Him in January with Extreme Response.
We had a little contest on Friday called the Great Cheese War between the men and the women. We set up an assembly line and had to make 3000 cheese sandwiches for the party on Saturday. Call it what you want but the women won. We made 1800 sandwiches in 1 hr 30 minutes. It was really a lot of fun as there was a lot of “jawing” going back and forth between the teams.
Our final day here in Quito was a day of rest and we got to go have a little fun. We went to a little tourist town outside of Quito, called Mindo. There we got to go on a canopy tour, better known as a zip line. This is 11 cable wires strung out through the trees in a rainforest and you are harnessed in and they attach you to the cable wire and send you flying across the rainforest above the trees. We had a lot of fun but were worn out from excitement. Mike and I both got to be strapped in on one of the zip lines so that you actually flew flat on your stomach and your arms out. They called it Superman style. From there they took us to this great little restaurant then loaded the bus and brought us back home.
We are waiting to board the plane in Quito which signals the end of this journey and our re-entry into life in the states.

Party, Party, Party, Party

We have had 4 parties over the last four days and served lunch one day at the dump for the people who work there. We have reached almost 6000 people and have one more party to go. Tomorrow’s party should be 3000+/-. This has been an incredible week of ministry and we have been stretched as usual. The enemy is always at work when you go on a short term mission trip and this week has been no exception. Our Canadian team arrived in time for the second day and their luggage is still arriving but we have managed to have just what we needed for each day. God is so faithful in His provision.
We have been challenged this week about being a Good Samaritan and following Jesus’ parable to love God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind and love our neighbor as ourselves. (Luke10:25-37) Yesterday Russ Kline, part of the management team, gave us all a 50 cent coin and told us to find a way to utilize the coin as a reminder to pray for the people of Ecuador and to bless someone with it. It will be interesting to hear how the Holy Spirit led people to be a Good Samaritan on Monday.
Our second party at Carman Bajo Church, the pastor asked us all to get into the center of the church after clean-up and the people from the church that helped us clean up surrounded us in a circle and prayed for us it was such a humbling experience for us.
We have used our morning times to prepare the crafts and bags for the next day of parties and this has been an opportunistic time of getting to know so many new people. As I sat and threaded a lot of cross medallion necklaces to be painted at the party, I wondered if the kids would really appreciate the hard work that was put into the preparation when they sat and colored their medallion and strung their beads. The answer is yes! But not the way I thought. We were cleaning up at the end of a party and this man was helping me pick up trash, when all of a sudden he laid down his bag and picked up one of the necklaces on the ground. He was so excited and stopped what he was doing until he had succeeded at getting the necklace around his neck. God shows up and reminds us of His presence when we least expect it.
We have 2 more days before we head back to the states and I am excited to see what else God is going to do with our team. There have been so many great stories I wish I could write them all but you’ll just have to come on a trip with us next Christmas!!

Christmas in Quito Ecuador

We arrived on Saturday evening and got to spend the day indoors on Sunday as the whole city of Quito was shut down for a census. It was a great time of fellowship with new friends and co-workers and some much needed rest from the week before. Monday we began preparing for the week and learning our new roles at Extreme Response. We will be “Shepherding” a team of 25 for the 10 days we are here and learning how they run their Team programs. Today we spent most of the day setting up one of the locations where we will be having one of the Christmas Parties and we have had our volunteers coming in from various places around the world to participate. Unfortunately, we have 15 Canadians stuck in Atlanta due to bad weather and they told them they couldn’t get them here until Friday. Please pray with us that they will find flights for them tomorrow as we have parties planned for over 3000 people/children before their new arrival date. They are not only coming to serve with the various parties but they are bringing a lot of the supplies that we need. We know that Satan doesn’t want us to deliver the message of Jesus to all these people, but we also know that Jesus has already conquered Satan and we must go on. We will be severely handicapped but will continue to persevere during our trials and sufferings. It is going to be an amazing week to see how the partnerships on the ground and ER work together to further the Kingdom. We are excited to be a part of this ministry. Please pray for safety and many people to accept Christ as their Lord and Saviour this week.

Tough Love

I am sure everyone has gone through some sort of tough love in their lifetime. Whether you have been the recipient of it from your parents, or have had to be the one giving it. Either way, it is never easy. Mike and I have had to be on the tough love giving end and I think it has been tougher on us. My parents have had their living situation turned upside down. Mom fell and broke her hip on Sunday and had surgery to replace the ball of the hip on Wednesday. We had a mission trip booked for Quito Ecuador for 10 days leaving on that Saturday. We went down early to get their accommodations sorted and to pack clothes for them to go and my brother came in after the surgery to put my dad into an Alzheimer’s care facility and handle their finances. All over Thanksgiving holiday of course. We had to leave on Friday to drive back to Nashville but it didn’t come with a blessing. We knew God called us to serve in our new positions with Extreme Response and we had to go. It has been tough I know for my brother and nephew to have to handle the difficult circumstances but it also gave them an opportunity to see how tough it has been on my mother to take care of my dad for so long. A scripture that comes to mind is (Romans 8:28) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. I believe prayers have been answered in a very difficult way but my parents can now have a much better quality of life. It certainly may not seem that way at first but God has a way of bringing about His perfect will for their lives. I was able to call the care facility where my dad is and they say he is doing well and fitting in with all the other folks there and my brother has some peace about all of it. Perhaps someday there will be forgiveness and understanding. Please pray for our family during this holiday season.

“Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some”

As I was reading through John 21:1-14, I was reminded again of how Jesus’ words just make everything seem so easy. The disciples had been out fishing all night and hadn’t caught anything. Early in the morning Jesus was standing on the shore and he called out to them, “Friends haven’t you any fish?” No, they replied, He said, “then throw out your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul in the large number of fish. What a story about provision and how Jesus will supply our needs. This is certainly easier said than done. I was talking to Mike about this story and discussing our need for our support and I said I wonder if we are casting our nets on the right side of the boat. We are six weeks in to our 12 week journey of meeting with friends and family and sharing our story and raising the support that we need for 2011 at Extreme Response. Satan creeps in to those little spaces where we begin to second guess ourselves even though we know we are called. We are to trust Jesus and follow Him and it sometimes means we have to wait. We have total faith that God will supply all that we need but the provision is coming in slowly. We know His timing is perfect and He allows this so we will acknowledge it came from Him. The hardest part of waiting is we want things done quickly. For example (throw the net over the side of the boat and bring in the fish.) God has been so good to us and has proven Himself time and time again. Pray for us to continue to be a good steward of time and that we will continue to meet with as many people as we can while we are in Nashville. Pray that we listen to the still small voice about guidance and where to cast our nets!!

Home, Friends, Family and Technology!

Wow it is hard to believe we have already been home 4 weeks. We can’t really call it home because we are in transition to move to Atlanta in January to work with a ministry called Extreme Response but it is home for now. We are so blessed for the time we are in Nashville because we are able to reconnect with so many friends that we haven’t been able to see over the last 3 years! God is just opening up the opportunities for us to catch up and tell of all the wonderful things He has done and is doing in our lives. We have also been blessed to visit our family there are some we have yet to see but are trying to make all the rounds. Big family!!
We are continuously amazed at the technology and the gadgets that are available. We feel like we have stepped into a time warp and we are totally uneducated about all this new stuff. However, we are catching up quickly!! We are excited about unlimited bandwidth in the USA we can upload and download all we want. What “free wi-fi?” not a chance in South Africa. We are a very blessed group of people. Freedom means so much more than most people really can comprehend. God truly has blessed America!

Our Final Words from South Africa

These lasts few weeks have been a great time for reflection and preparation for our move back to the states. We have continued to knock out our bucket list and managed to do all we hoped to do. We have managed to get all but one suitcase back before us, but our home church comes on Thursday and they will bring it back with them. We have prepared our presentation when we get back to the states, and we are saying goodbye to all our friends that we are leaving behind. Words cannot describe the way we feel about leaving this place. We are leaving such wonderful people and a majestic country, but we know our time has come to an end here. God has blessed us beyond what we could ever have imagined and we give Him all the glory for the accomplishments we have made. Thank you for being a part of our Leap of Faith journey and for praying for us. We will be on furlough in Nashville for 3 months while we raise support for our move to Atlanta to work for Extreme Response International. We are again very excited for what the Lord has planned for us next but we are out there in that “deep water” where we are totally dependent on Him. Please pray with us as we prepare for the next phase of our journey. Some specific needs are a loaner car for the time we are in Nashville, to find the right house outside of Atlanta and to find the right cars once we have moved.

Our Farewell Covered in Prayer

We finished off our time at Living Hope on Friday with an awesome farewell and a time of prayer. We have had incredible opportunities and been really stretched by God during our time here in South Africa. We have been blessed to work with such humble people and been able to share the Lord and all His goodness to so many people. The prayer time was such a special time as all the pastors prayed for us at the end. We know we have been covered in prayer for the next part of our journey. We will spend the next few weeks preparing for the 3 months furlough in Nashville before moving to Atlanta. I wish I could say this will be idle time, but it will be far from it. We will be doing lots of fundraising and getting together with people to share our story. If you are interested in us coming to share either individually or in a group please let us know so we can put it on the calendar. We would love to encourage others to step out in faith and see what God has in store!

The Final Countdown

Our last 2 weeks have kept us on the run so we haven’t had much time for the reality to set in for the end of our time at Living Hope. Now I can’t say I haven’t thought about it, because we have been training our replacements. We had a team here this past week from Sparks Nevada, Summit Christian Church, and they worked in the community of Masiphumelele. The outreach on Thursday was our last outreach and it was great to see 10 people accepting Jesus into their lives. We also got to see a lot of people that we haven’t seen for awhile and to tell them we were moving back to the states. This was a sad day for both us and them. They were asking us if they could be stowed away in our suitcases and brought to America!! On Friday, we had a farewell with the Life Skill Educators and that was very special. We work with them the most because they work with the individual volunteers and the teams. We will surely miss them. OK, so perhaps reality is setting in. We have a friend here this week that will be moving here in October and we have been showing him around. Seems like it was just yesterday that we were the ones being shown around!! God has big plans for us and we are excited for the next chapter in our lives, however, South Africa and the people of South Africa won’t be forgotten quickly.

Teams and Outreaches

August, for the last 3 years, has been the busiest times but the most rewarding times for us. We had a team here for the first time from Danville Arkansas working in Ocean View, and Overlake Christian Church (photo) from Seattle Washington returned working in Overcome Heights. Both of these churches were such a blessing to the people of these communities and to us at Living Hope. They came with people ready to be obedient to whatever God had for them and He really gave them more than they could ask or imagine. We had numerous people accept Christ over the last couple of weeks and thankful for these 2 churches because they are helping to build relationships between the local churches and Living Hope. When international churches come along side local churches it is a win, win for both. When someone says yes that they want to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior the local church then follows up with discipleship and encouragement. The international church connects with local people through door to door evangelism and invites them to the local church for the community celebration. On the day of the celebration, which is the last day the team has outreach, we have various testing’s including HIV, plus games and crafts. This past Thursday, we had over 150 tested for HIV. This is one of the many things we enjoy about our ministry, watching God at work through all the volunteers that come to Living Hope.

Volunteers, Volunteers, Everywhere

We have had our normal winter in South Africa, summer in the USA, of volunteers and we are slowly but surely decreasing them each week. I made an interesting comment long ago about it being easier to raise an 18 year old than it would be to have a baby. Well, God loves to humor me and uses it quite often when I make silly statements like this. Having one 18 year old was all I was referring too, but as always I usually eat my words. Over the last couple of months we have had as many as 20 volunteers between the ages of 18 to 23 at the same time. We are very thankful that we are only given what we can handle! By the end of this month we are always ready to see what’s in store for August. This is our 3rd year for winter/summer break and I must be getting older because it is getting harder. This is always an opportunity for stretching and being able to give all the glory to God for seeing it through. Philippians 4:13 says it best, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

World Cup, Check! Holiday Clubs, Check! Huge Soccer Tournament, Check!

The last 4 weeks have been exciting yet tiring for most of us at Living Hope. We had 4 straight weeks of Vacation Bible School along with soccer almost every night the first week and then tapering off as they got into the finals. We did get to have a little fun going to the U.S. Consulate to watch the USA games and it was such a blessing to be around a lot of Americans during this time. We had about 60 volunteers, both local and international, during this time and we also had 3 teams here helping with the clubs. We watched a lot of “football” (soccer), but nothing compares to American Football. Last Friday was the grand finale with about 750 kids playing matches for 3 hrs. We wrapped that up with the final game on Sunday. Mike was pulling for Spain, so he was happy with the finish of the World Cup. Most of the people in South Africa were for the Netherlands because of the Dutch background in this area. It is all quiet now and you can’t believe that all this took place over the last 4 weeks. We had covers for our side mirrors on our car and today we decided it was time to take them off. So everything is officially over!! Whew……..

Memorial Service, Dry Needle Therapy, Fusion Festival, and finally USA-World Cup

Ok, so the beginning of the week didn’t start out on a high note, but we made up for it by the end of the week. Monday we had a funeral service for, Kuki, one of our carers at the healthcare center. She was HIV positive and doing very well for awhile but then took a turn for the worse. Most of the people who live in this area come from other areas in South Africa to find work and Kuki was one of those ladies. However, when they know there health is failing they will leave and go back home to be with family until they pass away. Kuki died about 2 weeks ago and we had a funeral service in our chapel to give her a proper goodbye. Wednesday was a holiday and Mike and I just enjoyed getting up later, having our quiet time in the daylight, walking a little farther, and enjoying the day off together. Thursday I decided to be a bit more aggressive with my chronic planter fasciitis in my foot and see a physiotherapist for it. I had heard about dry needle therapy and realized that I couldn’t have this done in Tennessee so I wanted to see if it would help. “Stay tuned.” We had a big “Fusion” festival at Red Hill with a group from Australia. They go around holding festivals for communities in great need. We came along side them and did face painting, balloon sculpting, coloring, sack races, and lots of other games. Fun was had by all! Then on Friday some of us American volunteers were invited to the U.S. Consulate Marine House to watch the World Cup game USA vs Slovenia. All I have to say is the USA was “robbed” of a goal! We have enjoyed following the games but are only watching the ones that count for South Africa and the US. Saturday we walked 8 miles with a friend of ours in the morning, and then went to a great little place for lunch. They serve the best chocolate cake ever!! After the 8 mile walk we figured we could indulge a little!!

Fifa World Cup 2010 Is Here!

Ok, so the hype up to the Fifa World Cup has finally gotten here. The roads are completed, the people have arrived, and the vuvuzela’s are being blown loudly. I have watched 3 games of soccer in two days and that is the most soccer I have watched in my life. I will have to admit that it stands right up there with…….. Well it doesn’t stand up there with any sport I have watched. This is a game where it is ok to “draw” or tie, or to not score at all. It really makes no sense to us here. Perhaps it is my Americanism of competition coming out in me but someone needs to “WIN.” We had a get together with the volunteers at our flat last night and only because it was USA vs. England did we have a little enthusiasm in the place. We did however, stand up and sing the National Anthem. I think this was the highlight next to us scoring! We don’t intend to go to any games or watch a lot of them on tv, but we are supporting the South African team, Bafana Bafana and the USA. We have read in the papers that they hope the USA team doesn’t make it to the semi-finals or finals because Obama has said he will come to a game. They are afraid they won’t be able to handle the security. They went as far to say they are “praying he doesn’t get here.” I pray they do! It would be good for them to have to learn how to step up to the plate. The police/security is such a joke!!

Entrepreneurs and Baptism

Entrepreneurs and Baptism have absolutely nothing in common except both of them happened this week. We started another class at Living Way and as always we start out with some eager folks wanting to start their own businesses, but as the week goes on they realize they would rather work for someone else and have the security of earning a paycheck rather than taking the risk of running a business. Most of the reason for people wanting to run their own business is so they don’t have someone telling them what to do. I would presume this stands true for most of the entrepreneurs of the world. I believe they soon find out that they have to work a lot harder and have a lot more pressure put on them. It makes them realize how much their “boss” actually has to work. It is good that they find out now before they go out and put some money into a business that fails because of lack of ability to do it. We have always had Biblical Christian Principles but we have added Biblical Christian Principles and the alpha course to it. Most are surprised that God wants to be involved in their businesses too.
Mike had the privilege of baptizing 2 more of our Zimbabwean friends this morning at church, Blessing and Priscilla. They were going to get baptized when the guys were baptized at Easter in the ocean but the water was too cold for them. They asked Mike if he would do this for them at church. It was and always is a beautiful thing. We know that they are not saved by water baptism but understand it is a public profession of their faith and it really touched our hearts today to see them make this decision in their lives. We are really going to miss this group of people when we leave!

Pancakes on Sunday

We wanted to do something special for the group that got tested on Wednesday, so we decided to make them pancakes, bacon, pork sausages and eggs after church on Sunday. For Mike and I the pancakes were a treat because we hadn’t had any in so long. For our friends I am not sure. We know they enjoyed everything else, but they had never used syrup on pancakes. First of all let me say they don’t have “Log Cabin” here so they didn’t get the full treatment of great syrup. Truthfully, I just don’t think they could really grasp the idea of putting something sweet over their pancakes. We swayed some of them but not all. They have had pancakes before but they don’t know how to make them fluffy. We had a great time and the girls were so nice to help us clean up the church kitchen when we were all finished.

Testing Day for Our Bible Study Group and their friends

We have been meeting every Wednesday night with our Bible study group and last week was our last evening because of winter time and darkness. It is the rainy season here and our Zimbabwean friends have to walk and they don’t have ways of getting dried off or warm if they get wet. It is also dark and they are afraid to walk after dark because of all the robberies and the xenophobia scare. We asked them about 4 weeks before the cutoff date if they would like to have a testing evening at Living Hope and they all thought that would be a good idea. LH offered everyone who attended free HIV testing and counseling. The team at Living Hope together with the Desmund Tutu foundation, gave a great explanation of how HIV is spread and lots of information about ARV’s, anti-retroviral drugs, and told them if anyone was positive they would be able to get free ARV’s from the hospital because they had been tested at our facility. 21 people attended but only 13 were from our group the rest were friends or family members of the group. 4 people decided not to be tested, and 5 tested positive for HIV. This makes the percentage of people with HIV close to 30%. We found out later in the week that 2 people knew they were positive but wanted to be tested again, but 3 people got told they were HIV positive for the first time. When Mike and I really think about this we realize that these folks, without help, may not be alive in 5 years. This is the reality here in Africa. All of these people are from Zimbabwe and with the xenophobia getting ready to break out again after the World Cup they may have to flee for their lives and not be able to continue on the drugs. All we can do is to be obedient to what God has asked us to do, to teach them Godly principles and eternal life. We don’t know who the 5 people are that are positive and perhaps that is best but I ask that you would join in prayer with us that our friends would reject the cultural norm of having more than one wife. This culture runs deep in telling men it is ok to have more than one partner and it results in what we had happen on Wednesday evening.

Voice of Truth

As we look back over our last few years, or even over our lifetime, it is so easy to see God working in our lives and through our lives to accomplish his purposes and his ways. Mike and I have been going through a Bible study called experiencing God, my first time his second, and I so want to know Him on such a greater level every day of my life because of it. There is a song called Voice of Truth, by Casting Crowns, that came out about 6 years ago and it really made an impact on my life. It speaks of faith and what happens when you “step out into the water” to trust God and listen to His voice. Through this song and the real Voice of Truth I knew God was going to do great things. He has done more than can ever be imagined and I want to share the 7 segments to Experiencing God that have made such an impact in our lives. You must recognize:

1. God is always at work around you
2. God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.
3. God invites you to become involved with Him in His work.
4. God Speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.
5. God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.
6. You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing.
7. You come to know God by experience as you obey Him, and He accomplishes His work through you.

When you believe and have faith and are obedient to what God is asking you to do, you can do all things through His strength. It is a privilege to take up the cross daily to follow Him.

Reunited with some friends from Fiji

A few months ago we learned that a couple of the leaders from our YWAM Crossroads Discipleship Training School (CDTS) in Fiji, were leading a team here to South Africa. We don’t normally plan for YWAM teams because there are so many teams coming here and they have transportation issues to get to our locations. However, we chose to help Jeff and Ann with their ministry because we wanted them to have an awesome experience working with Living Hope. They came as a soccer ministry but ended up only getting to play a few times due to rain. They spent the mornings at our homeless ministry, Living Grace, and afternoons at the children’s clubs. They had an amazing time and didn’t want to leave as they were just beginning to build relationships. This is true of all teams that come for 8 to 10 days, but hopefully they made some impact for the Kingdom in the short time they were here. It was great to see them and we got together Sunday evening, before leaving on Monday, and reminisced about old times. This part of the journey is where I see God’s hand in so many things. He uses each of us to accomplish His will. Had it not been for us going to Fiji and meeting them 3 years ago, they would not have had the experience they had here in South Africa. God is good!!!

Disturbance in our Bible Study

We knew the time would come when our cultures would collide and it happened last week. We started a new topic on marriage and Mike was talking about keeping the marriage bed pure (Hebrews 13:4) and this caused quite the stir. One guy in our Bible Study that says he is a Christian and believes it with all his heart, soul, and mind, began to argue this point. He has a belief that adultery is only considered in a marriage if there is an exchange for something (paying for the goods like prostitution) If no money is exchanged then it is not adultery. He has been taught this by a pastor or someone with some authority because he had so many “loaded guns” or verses in the Old Testament that he used on Wednesday night. It came up right at the end of our study, so Mike wasn’t going to get started in detail because of the amount of time needed to discuss it. We have since talked with all the other guys in the study and they all agree one woman, one man when you get married. I know it is not up to us to change the way he thinks, because that is the Holy Spirit’s job, but pray for us to be able to clearly deliver the message God intends for us to use this week. Pray for the Holy Spirit to convict him so that his family will be drawn closer to Jesus and he will see changes in his life from living this lie he has believed.

Worker Readiness class at Living Way / Handling Money God’s Way

I finally got the privilege to put together a program for our worker readiness course at Living Way to help folks learn how to manage their finances from a biblical perspective. I really believe this was something God laid on my heart when we first started talking about coming to South Africa. But up until this year, it hadn’t come to fruition. Early March I felt like God was pushing me to do a 4 week Bible Study for our Zimbabwean group so I did and we finished that in mid April. Then Richard, the General Manager, at Living Way asked if I could facilitate about a 1 ½ hour presentation for the worker readiness which I completed on April 28. We have now decided to incorporate it into the Entrepreneur class that will be starting next week, and finally, one of our co-workers has invited us to come to their Bible Study in July and facilitate the same program with them. I am very excited that we are getting this opportunity to share God’s love through finances because I believe there is so much that people don’t understand about God and money. Please pray that the people who hear this will be eager to know Christ more and be a good steward of what has been allotted to them for this time.

An Unfortunate Accident

Brighton, the young man in the middle that Mike baptized Easter weekend, had a very unfortunate accident just a few weeks ago. He was working in a plant using a table saw, when the blade slipped off and hit his left eye. He is from Zimbabwe so the healthcare for him was not going to be the best, but like any other place in the world they have to treat him. They did surgery on him to sew the cut over his eye lid, but a blood clot remained behind the eyeball causing him his loss of site. He went back for a check-up only to find out that they told him there wasn’t anything else they could do for him. He came to our Bible study with a patch on and we talked about his situation a little bit. We wanted to disciple him in the correct way and help him to understand when you accept Christ in your life and make the decision to follow him, everything isn’t going to be easy. He understood and said that some of friends had already been giving him a hard time and telling him he should have gone to visit a “Sangoma”, a local witch doctor. He recognized immediately that this was probably a test from God and told his friends that he was choosing to trust Jesus for his healing and health not the sangoma. We were so thankful that he understood this, but know that he still has a long road ahead of him of trials and tribulations. Please pray if it is God’s will that Brighton’s blood clot would dissolve and he would regain his eye sight. We believe this can only come from a miraculous healing that only Jesus Christ can do. This would give him such an awesome testimony. We also understand that this just may be God’s plan for his life but we would like to believe that he will be healed.

God’s Creation

A few weeks ago Mike and I, and some of the volunteers, took a little road trip to Sutherland South Africa. This is supposed to be the coldest place in South Africa because of the altitude. This, however, was not the main reason for us going. We went so we could say we saw the 2nd largest telescope in the world. Unfortunately, we still can’t say we have seen it because they use it in the evening hours for research. We opted to view the stars through a couple of very high powered telescopes and one of our highlights was seeing Saturn, not the car To see the big telescope we had to wait until mid day the next day and we didn’t really have the time or finances to do both. We really enjoyed our time and had such an encounter with God. When we arrived to do the tour, we could see the clouds were rolling in and the tour guide told us that she wasn’t sure we would have time to see everything. It was so amazing it was if the sky stood still and the clouds stopped moving. We made it through the whole tour including taking the photo of Saturn through the telescope. We returned to our cars, drove down the hill and stopped for another look. Within 5 to 10 minutes the clouds rolled in and the sky was covered for the remainder of the evening. God really showed off for us big time!
The other photo is the sunrise looking out of our front window. It was so beautiful I just wanted to share it with you!

My Birthday Weekend

My birthday weekend, also Easter weekend, was so much fun we decided to start working on our bucket list and do the touristy things around Cape Town. On Friday, 6 of us hiked up Table Mountain again, but this time from a different starting point. The day before Mike and I were exercising and I thought to myself “well I probably won’t be hiking Table Mountain again” and then later that day one of our friends invited us to go and we didn’t want to say no. This route took us about 3 ½ hours including a wrong turn going back down the mountain, but it was a great challenge and I am glad we agreed to go. I will say this again, 3rd time should be a charm, I shouldn’t need to do this again! Saturday was my birthday and we went down to the waterfront to go to the Aquarium and to go to my favorite little restaurant. After all if this we stumbled on this coffee shop that had the best cheesecake we have found here. Yes, we cheated again on our diet since it was a special occasion!! Easter Sunday is always a special time here as we go to the Sunrise service on the beach. This one however was even more special. The Wednesday before Mike and I shared the Evangicube in our Bible Study and all the guys recommitted their lives to Christ. 3 of them that had not been baptized were baptized by Mike at the Sunrise Service on Sunday morning. We are so blessed to be able to share these special moments with our Zimbabwe friends and I ask that you please pray for them to be able to stay committed to all God has in store for them. Lastly, on Monday we took the Big Red Bus tour that drives around the city and talks about the history and takes you to all the highlights. I have wanted to do that since we got here and Mike was eager as well since it was still my birthday weekend, technically. We had 4 days off and used up every bit of our time taking in the sites. We ticked off a couple of things on our list. (They say ticked instead of checked)

Our Trip by Train

In our newsletter we wrote about going to Beaufort West to check out another ministry and a good time was had by all, meaning both of us. Our car has still been a thorn in our side, or better yet the biggest LEMON any one could ever imagine. We weren’t able to drive it because that week it had issues of its own. We had already planned the journey to meet up with our friend, so we checked into taking the train. It turned out to be the cheapest way to travel and it took a lot longer but it was worth it. We were like 2 kids running back and forth from window to window checking out the scenery. We got to eat in the dining car and because we got to go off of our diet for a couple of days, I had a toasted cheese sandwich (grilled cheese in the US). Man it was good. Mike and I have been trying to stay away from bread and sugars but I was ready to cheat and that I did. I even had one the next day at another little hole in the wall and it was even better!! It was an awesome journey and this time I am so glad our car wasn’t co-operating.

Swimming Upstream

It seems like sometimes you take 2 steps forward and 1 step back when you are working in ministry. You want so much for the people to be able to get out of there tough situations, but the truth is they are generally there because that is the way they choose to live. Other reasons for their lives of poverty are cultural issues or what we “westerners” would call laziness, but we are still learning that sometimes it is not that at all. Sometimes it’s just lack of education or resources. Over the last few weeks, I have been asking locals about different cultural issues and I am amazed at the ideas that people have different from ours (this doesn’t mean ours are all right but this is an example). We learned from the black culture a long time ago the children are responsible for their parents and they work and support them until they die. Now when these children have children they also have to support their children so how can they possibly get ahead? We just learned last week that the same goes for the colored culture. The colored culture has a desire to go to school but can’t be all that they want to be because the parents will not have income while they are in University (College) so they don’t allow them to aspire to be Doctors, Lawyers, etc. These world views differ all over the world but no matter what we do or say they are still the people’s values and beliefs and we are swimming upstream if we think we, without Jesus Christ, are going to be able to change any of it. All we can do is plant the seeds that God gives us and hope that the Holy Spirit will touch their lives and help them to be true disciples of God with Biblical world views. This really hit home when Mike and I went to see the movie, Precious, Saturday night. We knew this movie would be hard to watch, but we didn’t realize how hard. This is real life all over the world and it will break your heart to know that people who are supposed to love you abuse you for selfish reasons. Here in South Africa that abuse happens every day and no one cares. Just last week, one of our healthcare workers was called to come home because her 3 yr. old daughter had just been raped. This is horrific news and it is only getting worse in these communities.
The other issue that makes things so difficult here is the stigma for HIV/AIDS, it is unbelievable. Living Hope is hoping to promote a new program to try and figure out how to Stomp Out Stigma (S.O.S.) People are dying all the time with complications of AIDS but the families don’t know the patient, family member, is infected so it appears they died from Tuberculosis or some other ailment. It is like breast cancer was 20 years ago, no one would talk about it and thought it was a bad thing, but we have now learned to have the awareness so we can save lives. I have been reading a book titled, “A Hole in our Gospel” by Richard Stearns, President of World Vision, and there are a lot of challenges to the things I am writing about here. He states, “We are not to judge others by their culture or the state of how they live” and I truly have to ask God for forgiveness in this area. It is difficult when you live it out day to day. Please pray with us to help stomp out the stigma of HIV/AIDS.

Cape Argus, Lance Armstrong, and the Capricorn Celebration, wow what a week!

Last Sunday was the 110 kilometer annual event for 35,000 cyclists from around the world. The roads around our area are always closed, so we decided in 2008 that we would make the Argus an annual event and we have thoroughly enjoyed it every year. This was our third time and Lance Armstrong came for the event this year. Now I can’t actually say I saw him because they came by in a flash. There was one guy that was way out front in the colors that we knew Lance was wearing, but it turned out not to be him. We got some great photos of that guy!! We had the majority of the volunteers camped out with us in the middle of the road so we could see all the bikers coming down the main road in Fish Hoek, for most them it was their first time and great fun was had by all. Lance wound up coming in 9th and took home the grand sum of R1000 equivalent to about $130. He left immediately from the race in his private jet, almost an oxymoron.
We had a team here from Birmingham at the same time as the Argus and their team leader actually rode in it. The team manned a water station and this kicked off their week of ministry to Living Hope. The remainder of the week the team visited Capricorn Community and went door to door knocking, praying with people and inviting them to do testing on Thursday, including HIV, diabetes, blood pressure etc. They had a huge success and tested about 100 people and 68 of the people for HIV. They also invited them to come Thursday evening for a community celebration including a meal and there was close to 350 people present. Children and adults were singing praises to the Lord and thanking Him for all He has done for their impoverished community. This was our largest turnout event yet for Capricorn and we had 5 people that accepted Christ into their lives. Overall, this was a huge success for this team and they are planning on bringing back two more teams this year. Praise God for what He is doing for this community and may we see others come to know the Lord through Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Birmingham Ala.

Life goes on

The weeks just seem to run together and before you know it 6 weeks have gone by. We have been consumed with working on our car and trying to get our new budget with Shepherd’s Staff worked out in detail. We have had our second team come and go and that has been an awesome experience for all of us. The last team from Franklin Tennessee, just outside of Nashville, left on Saturday and we are expecting another team from Birmingham Alabama on Friday. The outreach that they do with the communities is so rewarding and it really gives both locals and internationals an opportunity for God to work in them and through them. The Rolling Hills Team built a cover over our medical clinic and re-leveled the buildings where the ground had shifted. They also fed about 200 people at the celebration. We had a Nashville songwriter “celebrity” and his family on the trip and they jumped in and participated in all the activities. He only sang one song at the celebration but is sure makes us miss country music!!
We had an opportunity this past weekend to attend a “Lobola” with our Zimbabwean family Brian and Blessing. This was the couple that got married last year, January. The Lobola is the ceremony where normally the future son in law would pay a “bride price” for his future wife to the family. We did it a little backwards because the mother and father allowed them to get married last year before Brian had the money to pay them. We were thankful that he allowed them to go ahead and get married but we really thought they had forgiven the Lobola. Unfortunately for Brian, they had not and it cost him a lot of money (used to be cows and goats) to make it true with the family. I know this doesn’t seem right to our Western way of thinking but it gives them a lot of security in the community as a whole. It lasted about 2hrs but an experience that will last a lifetime.
Lastly, we have started to listen to God’s lead for the next season of our lives as our visa’s run out at the end of the year. We are praying and seeking God’s will for direction. This is always a stressful time as we want to be sure we do what He wants us to do, not what we think we should do. Please pray with us as we need wise counsel and guidance for this next course in our lives.

Update on the Car

Wow is all I can say when I think about how God rescued us from mouths of hungry lions. With lots of perseverance, we were able to find someone that had a rebuilt car part and we saved 2/3 of what the original quote was going to be. In the states we are very fortunate to be able to go to junk yards and find parts to replace the one’s that break down. Had we not been a seasoned shopper for parts they would have taken us to the cleaners!! Sorry about all the clichés, but I know you all understand every word I am writing. We got the car fixed in a couple of days and someone from Living Hope loaned us her car so we wouldn’t have to pay for a rental. We were truly blessed and give God all the glory for all of the repairs and provisions.

Getting back into the swing of things

This past couple of weeks has just been getting back into the swing of things. We had lots of catching up to do and decisions to be made. While we don’t always see God’s plan, we know that He has one. We have not raised all the support needed for us to be here, but we don’t believe it is time for us to leave. We believe He brought us here for a reason and that we will stay until He calls us to do something different. He is our Provider and He will supply our needs. Speaking of meeting our needs, we went to Table Mountain for a hike yesterday and when we got ready to park our gear shifter “went whonkey” that is the term they use here for totally messed up. We had to tow our car back to Fish Hoek, about 20 miles, and will have to deal with car repairs all next week  It doesn’t matter where you live there are always car challenges it just seems our car has been more than the usual for folks around here. Join us in praying that it won’t cost a lot to get it fixed. We have NO budget for car repairs this year and this car cost $1600.00 last year. We hope everything has broken that is going to break.
I have wanted to do a Bible Study with our group about Biblical Financial Principles for a long time, and it is finally coming together. We started last Wednesday and will continue on for 4 more weeks. I am very excited and challenged at the same time. This has been a passion of mine. I hope that we can continue to use it at Living Hope and anywhere else it is applicable. Please pray for me to gather the material and information needed for their cultural differences. It is very different from the way Westerners think. Mike has been “snowed” in with e-mails from volunteers wanting to come and serve in the ministry. We know this is going to be a very busy year with the World Cup Soccer coming here and people wanting to visit and serve at the same time.
We hiked Table Mountain again yesterday, but we weren’t sure we were going to make it. We huffed and puffed all the way up. It was great to get to the top, but I have decided that I won’t do it again. I can say I have done it twice and that is enough. The other 3 folks that went with is hiked it up and down. We rode the cable car down. Ahhhhhhh!!