I added an Africa ’07 update TAB at the top of this page. The tab opens a page with photo slide shows, various journaled experiences from the trip, and a link to AFnet (the BVG missions partner).By Monday afternoon, I hope to have a new video link and the podcast sharing/XRDS challenge on there as well.
It was a wonderful trip! My view of the world has definitely expanded; we live on a big planet!
I had this picture– in color even! The only problem is that I got robbed in London on the way home.
I decided to walk around and take a picture or too during my extended layover. The city itself was beautiful. The parks of were immaculate. The architecture was astounding; so regal. There was just a sense of sophistication and rest within a city of great history and heritage.
And then it happened. I was slowly walking in the Piccadilly area when I got bumped and a guy pick-pocketed my digital camera right out of my bag. He was good! By the time I realized what had happened, it was too late. There was nothing I could do. I was so mad! I almost hit the first person with a British accent in order to exact a bit of revenge! I just kept thinking how much it was going to cost me to replace it– too much! That was money I didn’t have nor a cost I didn’t wanted to pay to counter-balance the greed of a London-ite criminal.
As I sat on the express tube on the way back to the airport, my anger subsided a bit. Then I had a thought. Jesus paid quite a price to counter-balance the weight of sin in the world. I guess that I should say ‘erase the weight of sin in the world’. The cost of salvation was the invasion and crucifixion of deity. And I am certainly glad that God didn’t get so angry that he lashed out on the first human he found, but instead sought redemption and rescue. ‘Oh sin, where are your shackles? Oh death, where is your sting?” It’s gone now! Christ paid the price even after we robbed the world of innocence in our sin.
That was a powerful thought for me to meditate on while on the plane. And now that I’m home, I’m better with the whole ordeal. I just wish the guy would mail my memory card back so I could at least have the pictures I took… ugh!
We had a great time leading the second Romans Seminar in the region of Venda, South Africa. Wish I had more time to write, but it will come. Check out the photo slideshow and the dancing woman of Venda.
Early today, I stood on the long dirt road in front of Pastor Jacob’s church enjoying the cool morning air. All of a sudden, two boys zipped by with a home-made toy truck. The more I watched it, the more I was amazed!
This ‘toy’ had a steering system that allowed the boys to change its direction with a long metal broom-handle-esque piece connected to the axle of the wire car. Each took a turn running behind the off-road vehicle and mastering the fishtail quite nicely. Scrap metal, aluminum cans, and a rubber band became a Toys-R-Us for a few young boys from Venda.
My son has about 100 little Hot Wheels to play with at home and these guys were making the most of people’s rubbish. I later met a few children that had made a kite out of sticks and plastic bags. One school-uniform clad boy was walking home without shoes– on streets littered with broken glass and rusted Coke cans have you!
These children seemed to have next to nothing and yet their fun wasn’t about to be squelched. Instead ingenuity and creativity prevailed, toy trucks were born, and smiles ruled the day. Great lessons of contentment were stirred up in the dust as these two young boys drove/ran off down the road. Thank you Lord! Let contentment reign.
“Don’t delete it!” she said after I turned the camera around allowing her to preview the photo on the small digital screen. Kshi was her name and I quickly comforted her by saying I wouldn’t delete the snapshot. In fact, I continued to make myself feel better by telling her I would show her photo to many people back home.
There was this odd pain in my soul as I walked away. I could sense Kshi’s heart crying out, “I’m important, don’t forget me!” Isn’t that true of us all– we all long to know we are significant. We all desire to know we are more precious than a collection of colored pixels. As humans we often fail to acknowledge the beauty and significance of others (something God doesn’t ever neglect).
Psalm 139 reads: ‘I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.’
Kshi’s face, words, and worth have been burned into my mind– I can’t forget her. Oh Lord, help us all remember that we truly are more precious than pixels.
Saturday gave way to the end of the Romans Seminar in Sochanguve and graduation took a while– over 200 people received certificates of completion! It was a great experience. It was a great joy seeing present leaders and what will be one day future pastors of South Africa receive greater training in the word. In the words of Rick Countryman, the ‘kingdom wins’ when people discipline themselves to grow in Christ. One young man named Stephen has such a fire for preaching the word and reaching students with the gospel is was compelling. He will one day have a church and lead many people to Christ– I have no doubt.
Today we went to the church that the BVG brick team built. We had to take a back way in order to avoid a mob that was rioting in the street. As you will see in the slideshow, (click Photo for Updated Slideshow) the orphan center is nearing completion. It was astounding to see these men and woman worship. They had such joy in their hearts! After the singing I was able to preach about the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel. It’s such a challenge to preach in other cultures, but God was gracious as always… and my heart was filled.
They used to meet in the tin shack above. Yet thanks to the money given last year at Big Valley and many hard work hours they now meet in a huge building. They will soon complete it and will definitely grow to fill it. They had four visitors and three of them gave their lives to Christ! How amazing… God is growing His church!
Tomorrow we drive 6 hours to a region called Venda near the Mozambique border to lead another seminar. Pray for us… we’ll need it! Until we’re home…
Following the graduation, Bobby Fisher, became quite the celebrity. It was actually pretty humorous (to Him as well). Ladies, young and old alike, wanted the photographer to take their picture together.
I found myself caught up in the humor of the moment before i thought to grab my camera myself. It was then that I began to think, ‘These people will most likely never see these photos.’ There wasn’t even the immediate gratification of viewing a digital snapshot that so many Africans love. The local photographer was even using regular 35 mm film.
The more I watched this scene unfold, the more I was puzzled. Why even get your picture taken and walk away never to see it developed? Why not even ask for a copy? I’m a crazy American, that I know, but why even pose?
I later asked Christo, our AFnet chaffer, why would such a thing occur? I was stunned by his response. “They do this because they know the picture will outlast them. They don’t need to see it know this.”
Just to sit and ponder on that thought was powerful. Of course a picture outlast us all. Many generations after us will laugh at the stylish hair of the 1980s and the bad boy band poses of the late 90s. However, this wasn’t exactly what Christo was referring to as ‘outlasting’. The people of South Africa battle many adversaries, natural and unnatural.
Nearly 1-3 people in South Africa are infected with the HIV virus. The nation of Zimbabwe, to the north of South Africa, those numbers are even worse. What makes these statistics epidemically scary is that near 2 million of the 5.5 million Zimbabwe residents are currently seeking refuge in South Africa. Funeral homes have become a leading industry much in part to the HIV crisis alone.
Poverty is a leading cause of secondary deaths as well. People don’t die from lack of money, but near 20% of child fatalities before the age of five are contributed to the lack of proper malaria medicines. This is medicine inexpensively available in nations such as the United States.
People don’t die for lack of wages either, but wages provide for basic sanitation needs worldwide. The impoverished of Sochanguve had no way to dispose of their trash until recently. How is that a people group in this day and age have only in the last few months had access to a garbage truck? Up to this point trash was burned or thrown in a pile outside the home to be carried of by wind (or rather caught in a fence). Stray dogs stumble by a pick through for table scraps and beggars will search for anything that could be resold. Also, imagine trying not to catch disease from a toilet made of excrement-stained wood planks over a shovel-dug hole in the ground. These bathroom accommodations are more common that one would think.
No! The absence of money is not the direct result of third world death; however, a lack of money breeds a rise in crime. Every wall around every home has an electric fence and/or barbed wire. Anything left unsecured will be permanently borrowed or pawned. Sex-related crimes are on the rise as well. Witch doctors at one point were espousing the belief that raping a virgin would help cure AIDS.
Taxi drivers carry pistols or old war regime AK-47s and will shoot a man for nothing more than stealing a customer on a busy street. The police are often as corrupt as the criminals themselves. A routine traffic stop can be ignored with a 100 Rand wrapped license ($15).
For many who live in these conditions, being remembered means they must outlast their environment. Photos don’t wrestle disease. They never have to avoid gun-toting taxi drivers nor are pictures aren’t tainted by corruption. Their biggest enemy is fire, water, and forgetfulness. Pictures say, ‘I was here, I’m important!’ And even if I don’t stay here long, I know this picture will outlast me.
And for us in the western world, I hope a picture never let’s us forget those that long to outlast a photo.
Photos of Soccer Guys of Venda.
For more in this vein of thought, listen to Derek Webb’s Rich Young Ruler & This Too Shall Be Made Right.
The country of South Africa has 11 official languages. Yes, eleven! The only one I know, of course, is English. The site of our first Romans Seminar was in a city called Sochanguve.
This area is a combination of four major indigenous tribes of the African people.
Eight of the eleven languages are represented in this city alone. It became completely confusing to greet someone in their native tongue. Once I memorized one language’s phrases, I’d use it on the wrong person. And even English with an California accent was difficult for people to understand. I can’t imagine living like this all the time. There is something to be said for the preservation of one national language (and issue that has actually been debated among the Presidential primary candidates).
There was a moment during the worship gathering when everyone in the seminar began to pray aloud. Never have I heard such a holy roar. Men and women alike were pouring out their hearts to God. With hands lifted high, they shouted and sang; declaring their love for the Lord. I stood there overwhelmed when through the great volume God whispered a simple thought in my ear– ‘I hear them.’
Of course God can hear them, He’s God. He is supremely ever-present and all-knowing. But it was a greater truth than that. God was hearing each voice, understanding every native tongue, registering each request, and welcoming every word of praise and honor.
What was like an incomprehensible corporate prayer to me was somehow, to God, 100s of individual conversations with His children. I wished for one moment that I could be like God– hearing just as He does. But something tells me that my heart couldn’t bear the weight; the great glory and the dark grief. (I was reminded of the prayer scene in Bruce Almighty).
Then I began to remember that we weren’t the only ones praying and praising God at that moment. Millions of people on this huge blue marble in space were tapped into the greatest communication network in the universe. Somewhere someone was confessing Christ as the Lord. Somewhere someone was pouring the oil of adoration on Jesus. Somewhere somehow a young woman was bringing broken pieces of her heart to God. Somewhere a prodigal son was returning home to the Father.
All over the world people were speaking (even thinking) and God was listening. The Father always hears the voice of His children crying out to Him. Prayer and praise is a language the Lord loves… so speak up!
Today I was able to visit an orphan center and the church that the BVG Brick Team built. Christo, the Richard Sasser look-alike of the AFnet team, had to deliver supplies and so I went on the excursion with him. (click pictures for SlideShow.)
In this picture Chris is holding a 20 lb. bag of hamburger for the dinner that night at the pastor’s conference. This is one interesting way to get meat. The store was called ‘Meat World’ and had whole (skinned) sheep, pigs, and sides of beef hanging on hooks. It was a straight-up vegetarian nightmare. Chris is one great guy and he has a huge heart for the broken people of South Africa.
The orphan center was wild! As soon as I arrived, the children all started to shout ‘makuwa’ which means ‘white man’! As you can tell, they are unbelievably cute kids. Orphanages run different in South Africa. Most of the kids have a shack they can stay in at night with an older brother or an Aunt or family friend, and so the government won’t allow orphans to stay overnight in the orphan center. However, since these siblings or family members don’t have the means to take care of them, they come to the orphan center during the day for food, education means, etc. It’s sad to think of a 14 year old boy taking care of his younger brother on his own every night from about 3 pm to the next morning. This is just not right! My heart get so raw seeing it and thinking about it– XRDS needs to be a part of this great cause!
The pastor’s conference has been going well. The culture is so different here, and yet people are people. And the people we have encountered here have been so grateful that we’d come to their church and offer training they could never afford to get on their own. It’s been encouraging to know that we are training some 300 pastors and leaders that will be making a difference for the sake of the kingdom after we leave. We are just one piece of the puzzle.
Well, until next time. Keep praying for us (I’m a bit homesick today) and we’ll keep letting God use us!
Hopeless is the word that describes how I feel in side
Affluence always seems to disguise the brokenness in other people’s lives
Lord grant me new and loving eyes
I’m tired of being comfort-hypnotized
No longer ruled by cultural apathy,
Let me surrender sacrificially, that the world might see
We are the Body of Christ, we are called to care
People lost in darkness, countless hungry everywhere
We are the Body of Christ, when will we see
God longs for no one orphaned in His family
Abounding are the depths of poverty
forcing the hand of man’s depravity
Desparation can overwhelm the soul
Our Lord alone can made one whole
Yet the thundering hunger of a man
Can often deafen the ears to God’s plan — to save a man
We are the Body of Christ, we are called to care
People lost in darkness, countless hungry everywhere
We are the Body of Christ, when will we see
God longs for no one orphaned in His family
True religion has called us to free
the widows and orphans & those left to the street
Clothing the naked, feeding the hungry,
Samaritan the dying, be His Body
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Works without Faith is Philanthropy; however,
Faith with Works is Philosophy (Bobby Fisher)
There is a holy tension between the saving gospel and the social gospel!