The Website of Miah and Michelle Collins

Well, despite the fact that Michelle has done such a great job at describing all of our adventures so far I thought it would be good for me to take advantage of the reliable internet here in Durban to add a few things from my side.

Our friend Jason Price has started working at the “Norwegian Settlers Church” which is in Port Shepstone, about an hour and a half south of Durban. Despite having a sweet name for a church, they are impacting their community and those around them in such an beautiful way I think its worth me sharing a few things that we saw there. I knew they had an Aids Hospice that is internationally renowned as a model for caring for people with HIV/Aids. What I didn’t know is that the Hospice with 60 beds is on the church property! These middle class people don’t consider their church space too holy to allow sick and dying people to find rest and love there. Although people do die on the premesis, many others, through care and proper treatment, get better enough to return home and continue with their lives. We spoke to the director of the center who told us a story of a young lady who died in her arms early on while she was working there. When someone from the state hospital came later on they could see that she was very heart broken from this death. The hospital worker said to her “You’ll get used to it” and she told us “Two and a half years have passed and I haven’t gotten used to it.”

This church of about 600 people is also home to community centre (which is where Jason works, running a gym, coaching basketball and distributing donated stuff to the needy in the community), a rugby academy (which is associated with the professional team here), and a strong internship program which introduces young guys to all of these things. I was so humbled thinking about the standard that this church was setting for the people in their own congregation and any follower of Christ who comes into contact with them.

A couple weekends ago I got the chance to speak at a camp for a Student Christian Association in Johannesburg. It was great to be able to interact with high school students in this country and just to find out what kind of things they are dealing with. There were about 25 guys and girls at the camp and as I got talking to them I found that about half of them didn’t claim to be Christian at all. I found their honesty to be really refreshing. I think at youth camps in the States it would be taboo to openly say “I’m not a Christian” or “I’m just checking this out.” I left there with a renewed passion to encourage and equip the young people that we are working with at J-Life so that they will be able to speak life into the youth of Africa.

We’ve also been able to relax here in Durban and spend some good time with my folks and old friends. We went to a Sharks rugby game, a local concert and, of course, spent some time on the beautiful Natal beaches. I wish you were here to see it…

I am challenged all the time by the disparity between the rich and the poor. Just yesterday, we were driving home from Port Shepstone and on the side of the highway, I see hundreds of tin shacks ligned up right next to eachother, kids running almost naked, you know, what Americans would view as the typical African scene. But then, about literally 100 feet away (I was seeing Chatswick), over a little hill, or accross the highway, or down the valley are these huge houses almost identical to the houses I grew up in in Houston Texas. There is a vivid image of the have’s and the have not’s here in South Africa that makes me somewhat understand why theft, robbery, and assaults happen every single day in each of these communities. Yes, there is potential for this place to be an oasis of beauty, relaxation, a hotspot of tourism for the entire world. And then accross the hill, there is potential for this place to be forgotten, cast aside, ignored, despised, and perverted by satan, as much of Africa is today. When two worlds collide as harshly as they do here in South Africa, inevitably problems arise that must be dealt with, and last week we met many people who deal with these problems everday.

This past week has been a great experience for me. We are visiting Miah’s family in Durban and catching up with everyone here on the coast. The first few days of this week, we got to go to a conference for Miah’s parents’ new church. The conference was on “extension ministries”, and the main ministry that was highlighted was a ministry called the container ministry. What the Container Ministry does is deliver several tons of food in huge containers to missionaries in rural and poverty stricken areas.

Occasionally, God gives us opportunities to interact with people who are literally changing our world as we know it. This past week we got to meet hundreds of these heroes and heroins. We met people who are on the frontlines of the kingdom of God in South Africa, ministering to the unwanted, to the sick, to the infected, to the spiritually needy. These people are feeding Jesus everday, they are clothing Jesus everyday, and ultimately they are loving Jesus radically everyday. We get these small glimpses of these people at conferences like this, but the reality of their lives that are completely spent for the Lord, is that day in and day out, they NEVER stop giving.

Another hero we got to hang out with was our friend Jason Price. Now, I’ve always known Jason to be a guy who has a deep need to make a difference in this world, but when you get to see him actually doing it, you get to experience the thrill of the victory of Jesus’ life and resurrection on this side of heaven. That thrill is something that I think every single follower of Christ desperately needs. But getting back to the point, Jason is changing the world right now in a ministry to communities on the South Coast of South Africa that are over 40% stricken with HIV/AIDS. He runs a gym for these guys, and he stops and has a bible study, and prays with them before they head out for the day. He also visits an HIV/ AIDS hospice that the church runs and hangs out with them, loves them, and helps them to die with the dignity, forgiveness, and love that Jesus pours into them through Jason.

God has been challenging me constantly that I am the church. Jesus left (sent the Holy Spirit and left) with the challenge and the commission for us to show Him to the world. And I am in a stage where the most dominant characteristic of Jesus in my mind and my heart right now is His radical love. I keep seeing this image of Jesus in my mind, bleeding, sleepless, persecuted, poor, saying “ The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” When we can go around the corner, over the hill, or wherever it is He leads and radically love people, why isn’t His church doing it?

There’s a song that I love by Nick Drake that has a message about a question that I believe is a question everyone asks at some point in their lives.....

“ I could’ve been a sailor, could’ve been a cook,
a real live lover, I could’ve been a book.
I could’ve been a signpost, could’ve been a clock,
As simple as a cat, or steady as a rock...... I could’ve been one of these things first.”

And the song goes on to talk about all the things in life he could’ve been. As a follower of Jesus, I don’t have to ask the question of what I could’ve been as much as I ask the question what it would’ve been like to have been raised in a different culture.

John and Lorna’s little 3 year old son Nathan was talking to me the other day and he asked me a question. We were just getting up in the morning and drinking some tea and Nathan came in with his little toy train. We started talking and he was wondering why I was so tired. So, I began to tell him how I had been through a really long trip and through leaving my home country, etc. Then he asked, “ Why did you grow up in the United States?”. Wow. How do you answer a question like that?

If you read the Bible, you might recall this passage from the book of Acts that came to my mind as I told him, “ You know Nate, I don’t really know, I just know that God set me there, like you were born here, so we might reach out and find Him, even though He’s not very far from any of us.”

The truth is that this question that Nate, in all his 3 year old brilliance asked, is a question that I still consider today and that I think I will consider for the rest of my life. In fact, this is a question I think most people who begin to live in another question will ask. How do we minister, teach, and demonstrate love to people who grew up with completely different value systems and completely different ways of life? What do we have to offer these people?

Another reality that I have been facing is what being American means to people here. In all my travels, I’ve found that being American generally brings one of two responses: 1.) people absolutely love you and want to be like you, basically worshipping the American culture or 2.) people hate Americans and think they are all just ignorant, prideful, and demanding.  Obviously, there are many exceptions to these two ways of thinking, but generally people will have some sort of strong opinion of Americans. This reaction never used to bother me as I was traveling, because I thought of it as a challenge to prove to people that Americans had flaws but we can be kind and loving and polite. The stakes are a little bit different now, however, as I realize that this is a reaction that I will have to face almost daily as I meet new people here.

As I go through a period of seeking how God wants to use my background, my faith, and my perspectives to benefit His body as a whole, I am often asking this question, “ God, why did you raise me in the United States?”

Hey everyone. Welcome to our new home on the internet. Thanks to our friend Adam Beaugh in Austin for designing this for us!

It’s been a great first week of meeting people, trying to get organized, and getting used to running in the altitude. I’m thankful that both Michelle and I have been able to connect to the staff and students here very well. There are 10 different countries represented amongst the 35 students here including Congo, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia, England, USA and Peru! You can’t really come here are feel culturally “out” because nobody is really “in”. It’s fun to learn and to watch people learn from each other. And there is always hot water boiled for tea which, of course, I have been taking full advantage of.

Besides drinking tea, Michelle and I have been sitting in on lectures to get a feel for exactly what the guys are learning here. I’ve also been playing lots of cricket and soccer and learning the full scope of the ministry here and around Africa.

Michelle and I took the day off yeasturday and went to Johannasburg to hang out with our friends Warren and Kaylee. We were able to see their new home and visit their church. They also treated us to some great pizza.

Soon we will be buying a car that will be navigating a lot of dirt roads. We don’t want to choose the wrong one so if you would like to pray for that we would appreciate it.

We will hopefully add some pictures to the sight when we are with my parents in Durban next week as the internet connection here on the farm is very limited.

Miah