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Friday, 19 December 2008 |
 I recently returned from teaching 1 Corinthians in Egypt. It was fantastic. The school has 11 students and 3 staff. They too want train Bible teachers for the world, similar to our vision, with a different focus. They were warm, hospitable, and great in discussion and question time. It was fun to see their Arab culture come out in the classroom as the respectfully disagreed, talked over each other and "discussed" the different issues. It really was a privilege to teach them. During my time, I was studying Genesis for my next teaching. I was imagining the events of Joseph's life happening so close to where I was studying, which was exciting!
 As a gift for speaking, they take speakers on a site seeing day and pay the admissions. So I saw 4,500 year old Pyramids in Giza. Older than Abraham! Went to the Egyptian Mueseum which is better than the British. Went to the room of mummies where you are literally face to face with people in the Bible. I spent a bit of time with Tutmoses and Hatchepsup, being the Pharoah of the Exodus and the Queen who plucked Moses from the Nile. It was surreal. An experience where you come away worshipping that the Bible is real!
Our school was able to encourage this class and vis versa. The hearts of our two programs have really been joined and the continent has gotten smaller!
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Monday, 17 November 2008 |
School of Biblical Studies
It is hard to believe we are already two months and 10 books into our Bible School . We have a fantastic group of students who really have a heart to impact the world. It is a fun and teachable group. We've seen many amazing things happen in the areas of visas and school fees already. Chris is preparing to teach 1st Corinthians in the school and then the following week in a sister school in North Africa. Then both, Chris and Lindsey will dive into studying Genesis - Chris teaching in Montana and Lindsey here at home in Muizenberg.
 Team from the Worship Center
In September we hosted a team from our home church, the Worship Center. This team was led by the Gathering Place, a ministry in Lancaster to people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. The vision is to see a similar ministry developed here in South Africa were million have the disease. The trip was successful in moving towards that goal. The team also spend time doing kids camps, ministering at some orphanages, and seeing several give their hearts to the Lord. The team was able to help us put on another Orphan Kids Outing, where we took the children to a day at the beach! For some children, this was their first time to ever be at the ocean even though they live only a few miles from the beach.
Ministry Need
Please pray with us to see finances or a work team come to paint our building (currently it is half painted) and install new aluminum windows. Our students have sand and rain blowing into their rooms due to rotting wooden windows. There are birds in our building eaves and moisture is coming through the walls into the building. We must fix this and need the finances and the manpower to get it done. Please pray with us to see this happen.
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Monday, 03 November 2008 |
 I've had an interesting experience these last few weeks following the Philadelphia Phillies journey to become World Champions of baseball. Being out of the country when the team I have grown up loving has a chance to change its mostly losing ways, has been a very different experience than if I was in the US. First of all, watching the games was an adventure. I had to find satellite TV for one. Fortunately my neighbor was away an allowed me to watch on his TV. What a blessing! Secondly was the time change. The first pitch of each game was at 2:37am local time. For the first few games I tuned in between 4-430am, about the 4th or 5th inning. For the clinching games(s) it called for a 2:30am wakeup. There were many days of staggering through life to be a part of this history making run.
As I watched literally what has been a once in a lifetime event for a Philly fan unfold, it felt a bit anti-climatic. There was no one to share it with! Baseball fans in South Africa number in the single digits. In a land of rugby balls and cricket wickets no one cares about 120 years of largely futile history as a Phillie fan. I found myself spending a great deal of time on Facebook to see what people were saying. I changed my "status message" all the time to communicate. I read virtually everything I could get on sites like philly.com, espn,com, and cbssportsline.com just to feel like I was a part of this championship run.
As it came down to the final outs of a victory, I celebrated alone at 4am. Yes, it was wonderful. I even can admit a tear or two in the eyes. Yet there were no high fives or cheers that could be shared. My team had won -that was fantastic. I have had "WE are the champions" running through my mind for days. I made sure someone got me the t-shirt. I encouraged people to go to the parade. I wanted them to celebrate where I could not.
In seeing this, I started realizing how true it is that we really are created for relationship. They often say that sport brings people together. How true! I imagine the water cooler talk in Philly the last few days was not about the economy or the election, but the Phillies. Philly fans would not be Philly fans if we could not share our negativity about our sports teams. We love to talk about it. Now, we love to celebrate together.
It reminded me of the verse in Hebrew that adonishes believers to "not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, all the more as we see the Day approaching" God is on to something. As much as sports bring people together, how much more should God and the church. We were created to celebrate together as well as to mourn together. We need the body of Christ in times of economic uncertainty. political unstability, as well as moments of personal triumph and crisis. To the Phillie fans, lets take the common bonds we feel and extend it to the body of Christ.
Oh, and by the way - WE are WORLD Champions!! I will soon have a t-shirt to prove it!
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Wednesday, 24 September 2008 |
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There has been some silence from our end, sorry about that! The last number of weeks have been a whirlwind of travels and activities. We had a great trip to the United States, very successful in meeting with friends, family and supporters. Chris returned back to South Africa two weeks before Lindsey because of work demands. Lindsey successfully traveled back to South Africa with two boys under four and they are all alive to tell about it.
We are now all back home in South Africa and have hit the ground running. Summer is coming and we are running at full speed into the warmer weather. This weekend our Bible school begins a new school year. It is fun to see all the new students arrive! Also, we currently are priviledged to have an HIV/AIDS outreach team from our home-church, The Worship Center, visiting us and working with their partner HIV/AIDS ministry. We will keep you posted on our lives here in South Africa, please do the same where you happen to live!
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