April Prayer Letter

Dear Family and Friends—
Greetings from South Africa!  I trust that this e-mail update finds
you well and enjoying much warmer weather back home as we enter our
mild winter here in Durban.  As you will read in my attached April
update, the Lord has continued to work in incredible ways through our
team.  It has been a huge honor to serve Him in so many different ways
and I thank you for making it possible for me to be here through your
prayers and financial commitments.  I am sending my April update
again, after I realized that my first attempt was widely unsuccessful,
and it will be followed by my May update within the next week.  I will
send all future updates out electronically by the first week of the
new month (May update sent June 1-7, etc.).  I also hope that the guy
working on my blog’s website will be able to update it within the next
two weeks so that you will be more in touch with what the Lord is
doing in our daily adventures.  Please feel free to share this with
anyone as we have found that we can never be showered with too much
prayer.  I also want you to know that it is such an encouragement to
hear how things are going back home with you and your families, and to
know how I can be praying specifically for each of you.  Thank you
again for all of your support, love, and encouragement!
In the love of Christ,
Barrett
April Prayer Letter

March Prayer Letter

March Prayer Letter

February Prayer Letter

Dear Friends and Family–

It has been a little over two months since I arrived in Durban, and it has been a most-exciting experience.  The Lord is drawing me to Himself and revealing more of how He is working in the hearts of His children here.  So many things have happened in the past two months and I will be filling you in on those things as I grow in my discipline of updating my blog–haha.  Attached you will find a copy of my February Prayer Letter/Ministry Update in PDF format.  If you just click the link at the end of this post, you should be able to access it.  I will be posting pictures in the days to come as I figure out how to better utilize this site.  As a brief update, there are a lot of exciting things happening and if you would pray for them I would be very grateful.  The first of those is today!  I am getting ready to leave for Pretoria (about a 5 1/2 hr drive) to go to the Campus Crusade National Student Conference–UBUNTU.  ”Ubuntu” is a Xhosa and Zulu word meaning “compassion.”  We are praying that the students from SA, Mozambique, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe that come to the conference will experience God’s compassion and that they will grow in their love for Him.  We will be in Pretoria through next Monday (March 21).  Next Tuesday–Thursday, we will be working with the “Crossroads” ministry of Campus Crusade here in South Africa.  Over the course of those three days, we will work with grade 9 and 10 students in one of the local highschools to teach them about the value of making smart choices especially concerning abstinence and HIV/AIDS prevention.  Consequently, the name of the program that we will be leading is “Smart Choices.”  Please be praying for both of these events over the next week as the power of the Holy Spirit can truly change lives.  Thank you for your prayers and support!  I hope to hear from you soon!

–Barrett

February Prayer Letter–PDF

Greetings from the Township

Friends and family, first of all let me tell you how thankful I am for each of you.  It has been a bit of an adjustment, and a difficult one at times, over the past two weeks.  There are so many things that we are used to having at our disposal that are more difficult to come by here.  Obviously, internet is one of those luxuries as I indicated in my previous post.  This is crazy, but with all the moving around (the retreat and then the township) I just was able to wash my hair with shampoo for the first time in almost two weeks.  Bar soap has been the only thing available and it managed to get the job done, but it’s things like that that you never think to consider a “luxury.”  It’s also been hard for me in a personal sense being away from each of you—people who have been so supportive of me and people for whom I have great love and respect.  I can’t begin to tell you how much all the letters, emails, and comments on the blog mean to me.  It is so encouraging and refreshing to hear from each of you and to get updates on what’s happening back home.  Please be confident that I really do desire to know what is happening in each of your lives.  To hear from you and to know how things are going and how I can be praying for you specifically makes me so happy.  It would be a tragedy to me if you were just being updated on how the Lord is working here in SA and I never heard about the big things He is doing there.  If you don’t have it, my email is wbgrant5@gmail.com .  It would make my day to hear from you and I promise to check it and reply as often as possible once I have reliable internet!

Well, yesterday we returned from our week-long stay in the townships.  It was an invaluable experience through which I gained a lot of perspective into a life-style completely different from my own.  I have so much to tell about and so many funny stories to share, but there’s no way that I could possibly do it all here.  If you know me, you know I love stories so there’s no telling when they may come out in the future.  I think that the best way to give you insight into what my experience was like is through letting you read what I wrote in my journal the second day I was there.  I apologize for the length in advance and I want to assure you that future posts will not be this time-consuming.  Thank-you again for you love and support and for all your prayers.  They are certainly felt by myself and my team!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

My hair is still damp and little able to dry for the dense humidity in the air.  A child kicks a 2-liter bottle back and forth in place of a ball just outside my door.  The musty smell of linens is heavy.  A broken-handled door stands open beneath a roof of corrugated asbestos above my head.  The rich sounds of an African woman’s voice bellows out as she sings to the same God on whom I am now quietly reflecting as I sit on my bed this morning.  It’s only half past seven, but I’ve been awake for nearly two hours because the sun rises early here (and a rooster sang his morning song not far from my bed around 5 AM).   I have just returned from my morning wash, and just as everything else this week has been, it was an experience like none other I’ve had in my past.

Dan (the other guy on our team of six) and I are spending a week in the township of Hammersdale, just north of Durban.  We are staying at the home of Anele’s pastor and his wife—Baba and Mama Phoswa. (You will meet Anele later but he is a local South African Zulu, a year younger than I, who has decided to spend his first year out of college on staff with Campus Crusade in Durban).  Yesterday, Gary (the head of all Campus Crusade staff in Durban) dropped the three of us off in the height of rush hour at the Taxi Rank in the black marketplace of Pinetown.  We scrambled around as Anele inquired as to which taxi would take us to his home township of Hammersdale.  As we ducked and dodged through several lines of waiting taxis, we came to ours which was already half full of people with their groceries from the market and their other personal belongings.  Anele, Dan, and I squeezed into the back row of seats making a rather snug fit.  However, Anele quickly informed us that the back seat was made for four people, not three, and that the taxi driver wouldn’t leave until it was at its maximum capacity.  Only a few short minutes later, a slightly oversized lady somehow managed to squeeze into the other seat.  With my backpack carrying everything I would need for the week in my lap and maybe an inch of wiggle room on either side, the taxi door slammed shut and off we went through an invisible cloud of gas fumes and exhaust.  The driver pressed the accelerator to the floor with little regard for the cargo he carried or for the other cars on the road.  Sixteen people were crammed into a vehicle roughly the size of a suburban or just a bit larger.  I remember being told not to ever ride in a taxi because the drivers were, well let’s just say, not the sharpest knives in the drawer.  Oh well, we were headed here to the township to get a glimpse of life from a Zulu student’s perspective and taxis are certainly part of life as they know it.  As the taxi climbed the hills just north of Durban, we tossed back and forth with the driver’s erratic lane changes.  Midway through the 45-minute trip, unannounced and almost as through some unspoken code, everyone simultaneously got their money for the taxi fare out and ready.  It was startling that at one minute everyone was carrying about their own business and the next all the money was in hand.   The fare was 13 rand (R13) from Durban to Hammersdale.  With the exchange rate being 7.5R to the dollar, a 30+ mile taxi ride for under two bucks was definitely a bargain!

When we were finally dropped off, we got out and began to walk.  For as far as the eye could see, “houses” sprinkled the hillsides.  These houses are not what we are used to in the states.  They are little more than cinderblock structures divided into a few different rooms.  Depending on the size of the house, they typically have a two or three bedrooms with a kitchen and a sitting room.  The toilet (referring to what we call a bathroom) can either be located inside the house or in an outhouse.  In a house than may be 800-1000 sq. feet sometimes 8-10 people can live.  It is modest indeed, but adequate.  Fences with barbed-wire surround most homes.  Chickens, goats, and cows roam freely in the streets and hillsides.  People and children also seem to wander carelessly in the streets, seemingly unaware of the fatal danger that is present with each passing, wrecklessly-driven taxi.  We walked up a very steep hill and Anele led us to a lime green house.  There he knocked on the door and hid out of sight.  He told Dan and I that we had to use the few Zulu phrases we had practiced in the taxi to greet whoever answered the door.   As an elderly black lady peered through the doorway, a reassuring smile and slight chuckle greeted us as we stumbled over the simple greetings that we had failed to perfect.  I’m not sure how Zulu sounds with a southern accent, but I’m sure that she could distinguish the difference.  Mama Msikili  (pronounced Mmm-si-key-lee) was her name and she graciously invited us into her house.  With a mere three steps we passed completely through the kitchen and into the living room.  We sat in the poorly-lit room as an American cartoon played on the television.  Nqo, Mama Msikili’s twenty-two year-old son greeted us and shared conversation.  He was very interested in getting to know us.  Likewise we were eager to get to know him and learn more about life in the township.  After having been there for only a few minutes, Mama Msikili brought in hot tea with milk and sugar for us.  Tea time in South Africa is very important and taken very seriously.  However, the actual “time” is like most everything else here—completely relative!  After spending time with Nqo and Anele, we left and walked a bit further.  No doubt, we drew very interesting looks and even some greetings as we walked through the township—a spectacle for most who saw us.  Shortly after that, we arrived at a slightly nicer house that still had the day’s laundry on the line outside—Mama and Baba Phoswa’s house.  We were again greatly warmly by many people who’s names we could not pronounce.  We quickly made our way through the kitchen and into the dimly-lit sitting room.  Dinner was served shortly thereafter and we had our first official Zulu dinner.  We had stiff-pot (which is a lot like grits but just stiffer as it’s name suggests) covered with a tomato sauce of sorts.  We also had beans and coleslaw with a piece of chicken.  Baba Phoswa is the pastor of the local church and Mama Phoswa takes care of everyone at home.  For women, just doing everyday things around the house (i.e. cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, etc.) is extremely time consuming and often times prohibits them from taking jobs elsewhere.  A little after six, when everyone had finished their meal, someone mentioned that it was time for church.  “What time does that start?” I naively inquired.  “At six” was the reply.  After another five minutes of tidying up, we started our mile-walk to the church.  I thought it was interesting that I was walking with the pastor of the church and we arrived at 6:30, thirty minutes after church was “supposed” to start.  No worries though, we were some of the first to arrive.  “Bantu time” is what the black South Africans call it—little regard for time, appointments, and schedules as the Western world knows it.  The service was rich with song, dang, and worship.  It was humbling to realize that we serve the God who truly is the God of ALL nations!  After the 2+ hr Wednesday night service, we came back here to spend the night.  Dan and I are sharing a bed for the week in the “guest room.”  Although one of the nicest rooms in the house, it is not what we would typically think of as a proper guest room.  However, we are incredibly grateful for the generosity and hospitality that has already been extended to us by so many.  As I mentioned at the beginning of this entry, I have just returned from getting a bath.  A bucket of hot water, a faucet that carries only cold water, and a pitcher in which to mix the two provided quite a challenge.  My “bath” would probably more closely resemble some sort of contortionist attempt to slash water on one’s self without making a royal mess.  I’m not sure how clean I got, but as my friend Andrew (who is serving with a branch of Campus Crusade called Athletes in Action in Johannesburg) reminds me when things are quite different than what I am used to–T.I.A., “This is Africa!”

A Return to South Africa

Friends and family—
It has now been four days since our team boarded planes for an adventure that had seemed so far off for so long. For months, talking to each of you about this unique place to which the Lord has called me was somewhat like the telling of some tall tale from a character of a literary work. However, this is no tall tale; the adventure has begun.
It has been apparent already that this adventure will be filled with both excitement and hardship. The first 48 hours were the hardest (26 of which were spent on the journey from Atlanta to Durban) being torn away from all of you—the ones whom I miss and care about the most. Our team has encountered several challenges already, but the resilience they’ve shown has been encouraging. The next two weeks will be a bit of an adventure as well as we will be living out of our suitcases and traveling.
School for South African students starts the first week in February. Tomorrow (Sunday) we will leave for Port Shepston, a small camp about an hour down the coast, for a four-day retreat with the other Campus Crusade staff from Durban. Although there are other staff in the city, our team will be the first group to be permanently on a college campus since the early nineties (the end of Apartheid in South Africa). It should be a great time to relax and get focused for the ministry that we will be doing this year.
On Wednesday, we will return from the retreat and repack an overnight bag for perhaps the biggest adventure of the year. Gary Price, the city director for Campus Crusade in Durban, has coordinated with a few students from the college campus to secure us a place to stay for the week. The adventure lies in the fact that we will be staying (in pairs) with three students that live in the townships surrounding Durban. We have been assured that these areas are entirely safe, but it certainly can be something to pray for over the next 10 days. I am very excited for the opportunity to enter the home of a student here and live as they live.
After a week in the townships, we will be moving into our permanent residences for the years. The girls will be staying in fairly modern apartments in the safest part of town and Dan and I will be living in a flat (sort of like a converted-garage-turned-apartment) behind the home of one of our contacts here. It is not at all the Ritz, but it will be a great place to live. I have fairly limited internet access presently and over the next 10 days probably won’t be able to access it at all. Please be praying for safety and the ability to settle in peacefully. I miss you all very much and look forward to touching base with each of you on a personal level as soon as we can secure reliable internet! Thank you all for your encouragement and prayers!
Barrett

UKUKHANYA

UKUKHANYA is a Zulu word meaning “Light in the Darkness.”  It is also the name of a ministry started by an American woman from Kansas, named Penny Dugan, that we met here in Durban and a South African guy named Prince.  The name comes from 1 John 1:5: “God is the light; in Him there is no darkness.”  UKUKHANYA will serve as a hospice for people in their final days as they succumb to the unavoidable demise which AIDS brings about.  After losing her ex-husband to the disease which he contracted after being unfaithful in homosexual affairs, Penny felt the Lord really calling her to reach out to people with the disease.  In the early 90′s, she and her three children started a ministry known as New Jerusalem Missions.  The Mission served the same purpose as what she is doing now in the township of Ntuzuma where we have been working.  She created a hospice for AIDS patients in their final days.  The connection with South Africa?  Prince has a story all his own.  After finding out that his fiance had been unfaithful and being temporarily disabled by a terrible car wreck, Prince (a young man in his mid-twenties) was ready to throw out everything that the Lord had done for him and end his life.  However, God began really working in his heart.  Prince described the experiences he had in which God spoke to him in an audible voice telling him the plans to open a ministry care center for people living with AIDS.  Soon after recovering from the injuries sustained during the wreck, Prince answered God’s call.  He found a building in the township of Ntuzuma which God had already showed him in his visions.  He gathered staff and started the mission.  One day, not too long after starting the mission, Prince was volunteering at a local homeless shelter.  He found a pamphlet in the bottom of a clothes bin and shoved it into his back pocket out of habit.  When he got home that night, he found the paper he put in his pocket earlier that day.  He opened it and inside read the story of a lady who was doing the same work that he was doing–it was Penny’s story!  Prince called her that night and shared with her how he was doing the same work and felt that God wanted her to come and partner with him in it.  Penny told me that after several visits, she really felt God calling her to move to Durban and do His work through this ministry.  It has been exciting to be a part of that work over the past few weeks.  Along with setting up the hospice, Prince and Penny believe it to be important to express the Good Deeds and Good News of the Gospel through helping people in the community.  Yesterday, we did just that.    

We visited the home of two sisters who lived together with their three children.  Petunia (25) had a seven year old daughter and a 3 year old son.  Her sister (23) had a three year old son and was pregnant with a baby that is due in August.  Their younger brother also lives with them.  Their mother died 5 years ago and there was no talk of a father.  The girls and their children have been living in the one-bedroom house with their three children.  The room that they live in is no more than 8′ x 12′.  Their brother lived in a lean-to on one side of the house.  However, he has become involved in a gang and one night, after apparently falling into ill-favor with the other members, a group of guys showed up and set the lean-to on fire.  Fortunately, the brother was not at home.  However, it scared Petunia and her sister greatly.  Penny and Prince decided to rebuild the lean-to but to build it as another permanent room, making the house twice as large.  This would be especially beneficial with another child on the way.  The walls and roof had been built.  Yesterday, we were able to install the window and the door.  As with any projects in South Africa, they took about three times as long as it should have taken.  However, after three runs to the supply store, coping with malfunctioning tools, and a smashed finger or two–we were able to all but complete the new addition.  The only thing that we lack is to pour a new cement floor in the house and install the linoleum.  Each day on project has been immensely rewarding, but yesterday I felt like the Lord used me most.  I enjoy providing for people’s physical needs and getting to work in such a way was rewarding for me.  One really fun thing that happened yesterday, occurred on our second run to the supply store.  It was about lunch time and Penny suggested that we stop by one of the roadside stands and get some grilled chicken affectionately known as “chicken dust.”  Sounds appetizing I thought…but it really was.  We stopped at a little shack of a stand and placed our order.  I noticed something that looked like chicken-on-a-stick.  Not wanting to miss out on an opportunity to try so a great native dish, I picked up a stick, paid for it, and took a bit.  It tasted really good I thought.  Penny informed me that what I had just eaten was actually CHICKEN LIVERS!!!  I’ve never tried them in my life; who would have thought that a roadside stand in an African township would be my inaugural experience?!?!  They seriously weren’t bad but I’m sure I would’ve been a lot more reluctant to indulge had I know what it was.  As one of the local guys working with us, Pilani, told me this was Ntuzuma’s version of fast food!  As we waited, I talked with a group of young guys about my age that were sitting out front.  I noticed that one of them was wearing a pretty cool soccer jersey.  After talking with them for a few minutes, I convinced the guy to sell me the jersey he was wearing.  I bought it for R100 (a hundred rand)–that’s about $14.00 for those of you in the States!  He was really excited to sell it to me and Pilani assured me that he would probably tell everyone he talked to for the next three days of how a white guy in his township in South Africa stopped at a roadside stand and bought the jersey off his back for R100.  Soon after that, our food was ready.  With chicken and jersey in hand, I waved good-bye to my new friends and jumped in the car.  I’ll never forget the cultural experience I had at the roadside stand in the poorest part of the country, nor the guys that I met there!

1 Timothy 4:12

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity.  -1 Timothy 4:12

As we have found the case to be since our arrival, yesterday’s sermon did not manifest itself without a few minor “speedbumps.”  It is almost universally true that if you have specific plans in South Africa, you better make sure that both parties are extremely clear on the details of the arrangement.  In meeting with people on campus, we have realized that it is much harder to keep appointments with South African students.  Even with adults, it seems that people are more prone to tell you that they will do something so as to appease your request than they do out of a sense of really desiring to honor this notion. 

So how did this play out yesterday?  After a few minutes into the service, I realized that there were no youth conducting the service.  I thought this strange seeing as how it was supposed to be “Youth Sunday.”  And then came the all-too-common realization that some sort of miscommunication had occurred.  “Youth Sunday is actually NEXT Sunday” my friend Londiwe informed me.  I spent the next 15 minutes of the service trying to hold back my laughter.  You really have to learn to “roll with the punches” when it comes to pre-planning things in this country.  However, one young lady in the congregation apparently remembered that we had been asked to deliver the message and she spoke with the pastor.  He was very gracious in that he just scrapped what he had prepared and invited us to still bring the message this week.

Hace opened up the sermon with a passage from 1 Samuel 16 in which Samuel annoints David to become the next king of Israel.  As he talked throught the text, he explained that David was not the person whom people would have chosen as their next leader.  By all the standards that men viewed–height, birth order, family status, etc.–David was not the man for the job.  However, Hace explained that God chooses people based on His own sovereign standard.  God can see what man cannot.  He sees the heart and it is based on one’s heart that He makes His selection.  Hace explained that, likewise, God looks at our hearts and disregards the outward things that the world holds to be important and of value. 

The text from which I based my part of the sermon on was the one which you find above, 1 Timothy 4:12.  I talked about how Paul wrote these instructions to Timothy so as to encourage Timothy in his faith and his work as pastor of the Church at Ephesus at a young age.  Through the sermon, I explained the ways in which God tells us we are to honor Him and set an example for others through our speech, life, love, faith, and purity.  As Hace explained, I used several of the promises God has made to assure the people that God does not choose the people through whom He will work based on worldly standards.  It is all about the condition of our hearts.  The two parts of the sermon, Old Testament and New, complimented each other very well. 

It was an experience that I will never forget.  Working with a translator was somewhat of a challenge, but the Lord used it to ensure that the message was clear and thorough.  To be a part of a multi-cultural, multi-national worship service, was an incredible reminder that ours truly is the God of ALL nations.  The experience served to only grow me in appreciation of His sovereign and holy nature.  We are headed back to Ntuzuma this morning to do more work in the community.  One thing that I will ask you to be praying for is this weekend.  We are hosting a retreat as I mentioned before, for the students that we have met on campus at the University of KwaZulu Natal-Westville.  It will be a weekend in which the students will be encouraged spiritually and through which we will seek to equip them with the proper tools for ministry on their campus.  Our goal is that the Lord would “raise up a movement of students on campus who are seeking Him.”  The students that will be coming this weekend will be the leaders of that movement.   Pray that students will commit to come and will be excited about it.  Pray also that as we continue to plan the weekend, that it would be productive and that God’s would work to change students’ lives through it.  God Bless!

AMAZING GRACE, HOW SWEET THE SOUND!

“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost, but now am found; was blind but now I see!”

Mark it down: one life goal completed.  Never have these worlds been so meaningful as this past Sunday.  As you may remember, there are a group of 6 of the team members and 1 staff that has been attending church at kwaDabeka, one of the townships just outside of Durban.  Well, this past week, we were asked to be a part of the choir that sings in church on Sunday–hilarious right!?!  Me, singing in a gospel choir, in a Zulu-speaking church, in South Africa!  When asked what we’d like to sing–I suggested “Amazing Grace.”  We also thought about another classic, “O, Happy Day” but that one will have to wait until we have more time to get the swaying and clapping down.  On Sunday, just after the offering was taken, the 7 of us and about 10 of the youth members of the church made our way up front.  I must admit, I felt controlled by my nerves.  However, we did make it through the song and much to the applause and cheering of the church members.  So Michael, you definitely got the singing genes of the two of us, but you have some ground to cover (though, I haven’t sang in countless weddings as you have!)  Glenn, Mrs. Linda, Mrs. Melba, and others…thank you for all the time that you’ve poured into trying to help me to “make a joyful noise!”  I know that Mrs. Angeline was looking down with one of those huge smiles she had anytime the youth would sing!!

This week, we are working in another of the townships: Ntuzuma.  It has about 500,000 residents.  We have had the opportunity to work on people’s houses and play with kids as well as visit the schools in the area.  Yesterday, I helped finish putting a roof on a lady’s house.  A few months back, the original crew that was building her roof had almost finished.  On the day that she was going to go get the last of the supplies, she had a stroke.  This left her paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair.  The top peak of the house, where the two pitches meet in the middle, was left unfinished.  Anytime that it would rain, water flooded her house.  Well, we were able to go get the rest of the materials and finish the project!  Mom, don’t read this, but there was no ladder to get up on the roof.  Rather, I had one of our team members and a guy that works in construction hoist me up onto the roof.  I then helped to pull the other guy, Pilani, up onto the roof with me.  What were the roofing pieces made of you ask??  Asbestos!  I explained to Pilani that asbestos had been mostly eradicated in the U.S. and the reasons surrounding it.  Another job that we helped with was diverting water that was seeping through the cement blocks of another lady’s home and into her bedroom.  Well actually the house belonged to a young girl of only 23 who was the head of her household.  After losing her parents to HIV/AIDS, the girl, Laura, took responsibility for raising her 5 brothers and sisters.  After a crew of about 6 guys worked to dig a 2 foot deep ditch all the way around the house the better part of yesterday, the water continued to run.  When we went back today, it seemed that we had only exposed the problem–we haven’t fixed it.  In talking to Pilani, the governement was not supposed to build a house on the site because they knew that it was really wet.  Tomorrow, the chancellor of the region is coming out to have a look at the house and the work.  We are hopeful that they will be able to move Laura and her family into a new, dry home.  Please be praying specifically for her in this matter.  Even if we were not able to fix the problem, we would count it a success to have had a part in securing her a new home.  We will continue to work in Ntuzuma with several other projects this week.  Please pray for our continued safety as we travel to an area that in not common for whites to be in.  It certainly can serve to make us targets of theft and other crime.

Another note on kwaDabeka; I was approached by one of the youth leaders, Mona, after church on Sunday.    She relayed to me the fact that this upcoming Sunday will be youth Sunday.  It will work much like a youth Sunday back in the States in which the youth of the church are responsible for conducting the service.  She asked if I would be interested in sharing an “inspirational word” with the students.  I gladly accepted!  However, as I continued to talk to her about the particulars of sharing a word or two, she revealed to me that mine would actually be the main message.  “So by main message, do you mean that there won’t be any other sermon?”  I asked.  “Yeah, basically–you’ll be the one doing the sermon!”  Wow…things just got a lot crazier.  She informed me that I would have anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to speak!!  So one week in the choir, next week in the pulpit!!  I asked her if I might have some help and she said certainly.  Hace, my roommate and a Crusader from UGA, will be sharing the duty with me.  All we know is that we are probably going to focus on 1 Timothy 4:12: “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity.”  We will also look at David’s life as a young man and how he can serve as an example of what it means to grow up pursuing God in all that we do.  Please be praying for us.  This is a challenge unlike any that I’ve faced.  We will also be having someone interpret the message from English into Zulu so that everyone can understand.  I really appreciate your continued prayers and especially will be comforted by them as we share the Good News in church on Sunday.  I love you all very much!

Zkahle: A Place of Safety

Yesterday, we went to a orphanage in the township (similar to a squatter’s camp) of KwaDabeka–the same village where I have been attending church the past couple of weeks.  The name of the orphanage, as evident from the title of the post, is Zkahle: A Place of Safety.  We split our team into two groups and the other group scouted out a site on which we are going to help establish a hospice shelter for patients with HIV/AIDS.  For the whole of the team, yesterday was the most trying.  It was the first time that we have all been really exposed to the extreme poverty of the people here in South Africa.  The children at Zkahle are mostly under the age of four.  Zkahle serves as a short-term refuge for children until they are restored to their families, adopted, or placed into foster care.  As we played with the children, it was evident that theirs’ was a story of despair and hopelessness.  The sadness in their eyes, even in the midst of frequently laughter and smiles, depicted the brokenness of the lives which they had experienced.  My prayer as we played and held these children was that maybe, if only for a little while, the Lord would be able to reveal His face of incomprehensible Love and Hope to them through us.  The reality is that the Lord’s promise He has made to us through the Gospel and the person of Jesus Christ could possible serve as the only means of hope that these children ever experience.  I write this certainly not to offend anyone; rather, I write it as being an overflow of what I really believe to be true.  Tim Keller once said:

“The Gospel is not only the only was to have eternal life, but it is also the only way to solve every problem, the only way to face every challenge, and the only way to grow into maturity in Christ.”

The various thoughts and emotions that riddled my mind yesterday certainly deserved a time of reflection and contemplation last night.  I wrestled with feelings of sadness and despair at a desire for a better life for each of these children, as well as the millions of disadvantaged children in the US and around the world.  In that, the Lord pointed me to a scripture that I have read many times.  However, in light of the realization that there is nothing that I can do to provide for each of them, this verse took on an even greater meaning.

” ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ “  -Jeremiah 29:11

God does have a greater plan.  His desire is one of hope, love, and prosperity for me, for you, and for all of His children.  Please be in prayer for our team as we go into these townships, the breeding ground of much of the poverty and despair which faces this country today.  You e-mails, comments, prayers, and encouragement have served to spur me on in doing the great things that the Lord has in store for me here in Durban.  My gratitude cannot be expressed in any colorful arrangement of words.  Quite simply, I am extremely thankful for each of you.

An excerpt from my journal…

Along with my blog, I have journaled daily (usually more than once a day) to record my experiences, thoughts, prayers, quiet times with the Lord, etc.  I have yet to include any of this in my blog so that is what I offer now:

 

“For I am the Lord your God, who churns up the sea, so that its waves roar–the Lord Almighty is His name.  I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand–I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the Earth, and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’ “   -Isaiah 51:15-16

What a beautiful proclamation of the Almighty nature and being of God.  Indeed, it is HE that created the vast heavens and beautiful Earth.  He set things in motion and continues to govern them with His righteous and sovereign hand.  He alone can know the number of stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the ground.  This morning at about 6:30, Hace, Troy, and I headed down to the beach in hopes of seeing the sunrise.  As we waited in eager anticipation, we snapped a few “trial-run” shots of things around the beach.  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, at 6:39, the sun crept over the break of the horizon.  A beautiful reddish-orange at first, it appeared hazy and distorted from the atmosphere.  As it rose with relative rapidity, it changed to a brilliant golden-yellow.  It shined with a radiance which can only be attributed as being the reflection of the radiance of its Creator.  The waves were crashing and the sea roaring.  We scurried about on the beach and the pier in hopes of getting the perfect shot.  Although I was duly distracted as I feverishly snapped a shot here and there, the serenity of the morning created a calming peace in the air.  My thoughts wandered from place to place, but my heart truly lept with joy in awe and reverence for God–the One, who in His infinite Glory, had the foresight to create something so beautiful….

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–His eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”  -Romans 1:20