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!