The Website of Miah and Michelle Collins

Hi,

My name is Ezekiel and I come from Zimbabwe. I’m part of the J-Life ministry team 2010. It’s a team comprised of people from different parts of Africa going through training from January to April.

One of the exercizes we go through is called African realities. We were placed in teams where we had to go through the hardships that other people in Africa go through. Some were made to live like single mothers, some ex- prisoners, some illegal immigrants. I was assigned the identity of street kid and had to live like this for the next three days.

I was really touched to hear that most people in Africa barely use $1 a day, and I truly believe that. It reminded me of situations that many families went through in Zimbabwe in 2008-2009. In that period, my country was facing a period of political change that left the whole country with a trail of povery that no one could explain. The basic markets people went to could not even keep up with the prices of commodities due to scarcity. The shops in towns were empty, completely empty. If you could find something, it was extremely expensive. Just a can of coke was equivalent to R100, or $12.

With a previous season of doughts and mismanaged Agricultural seasons, the people in the villages were the most severely affected by the situation. They did not have produce and at the same time did not have the money to buy the expensive food that was now being imported. I went to a village called Buhera for a funeral and there I got to see this painful reality firsthand. There, the whole village came to the funeral, not because they knew the person, or to pay their last respects, but to get a decent meal (which was now rare). Life there was now unbearable, and this is one of the many untold stories. In some parts of the village, people were surviving on wild fruit. Chiefs had to take charge of certain areas in order to allocate fruit to families. They would make rosters and take turns to come and pick the fruit from the trees for their families. And families would go for days without eating! Whatever they picked on their turn is what they had to survive on until their next turn to pick from the tree.

This is how harsh life can be here. This is one of the situations in Africa. My experience of African realities made me think again about how I can play a part to bring change in other people’s lives and how I can change. How much effort am I putting in to help people in my country?

I must admit that it felt good to get my phone back and to go back to normal life after three days of this exercise. But other people don’t have that, what they are and how they struggle will remain until someone with a heart intervenes....

I’ve recognized that I have been strictly using this blog to share what’s going on in our lives and ministry and not delving into what’s actually going on in my head. I have really left that side of things to Michelle. Since this is a blog and not a newsletter, let’s try something a little bit different.
Lent began last Wednesday. Lent is about 7 weeks of fasting which helps us to reflect on the life and suffering of Jesus. It is a time of moderation and reflection. In the past I have fasted from meat over this period, but this year Michelle and decided to switch it up and fast from everybody’s favorite mind-numbing activity (no, not Facebook): the television. Needless to say there are more books being read, more Boggle being played, and more visitors over for tea at the Collins residence since the tv was unplugged.
I don’t think my spiritual heritage knows a whole lot about fasting. It’s always been a strange discipline with no apparent benefit, except to remind you to pray whenever you feel hungry. It also seems to be very rarely practiced. Or maybe I’m wrong about that and people just don’t talk about it much. Here’s a few things I’m learning from my “high church” brothers and sisters.
Fasting is rebelling against the idea that I can have whatever I want. I understand materialism to be way of understanding the world rather than simply a vice that should be avoided. We are able to avoid pain, truth, and presence through a quick fix (movies, sports, health, buying something). That’s why Jesus said it would be hard for a rich man to understand what his kingdom is all about. The rich are able to bypass any interaction with reality by satisfying their (our) material cravings.
Fasting puts that whole worldview into question. It reminds us that we are lacking; that we have huge need. These needs drive us back to the cross, to look for answers in a place where we know, by experience, answers can be found.
Obviously, Lent does not feature as highly on the Evangelical calendar. I imagine this has to do with abuses in the past, where fasting was seen as a way to earn God’s favor. Nevertheless, I’ve found it to be my favorite spiritual discipline! Easter Sunday is kind of like my spiritual New Year, centered on the resurrection of Jesus, which is the hope of the world.
There are some great Lent reading schedules online including Bible passages, reflection and prayers.  Perhaps you will want to try it out yourself. Commit to living simply and generously, spend more time in prayer, spend more time with people.

Moving on from that, I also have a few things to say about Haiti. Well, not so much Haiti as such, but the kind of questions that come up from a tragedy like that. Everybody, believer or non-believer, needs an explanation for what happened that day. Here’s my take.
When things in the world go really bad, it’s there to remind us that things really do go bad. There is nothing good about hundreds of thousands of people being crushed under buildings. I believe that to write it off as “all in God’s perfect will” is to sidestep the issue. Some take it further and call it divine retribution which is very interesting. I wonder if those people then are against humanitarian response at all, because wouldn’t that then be working against God?
Jesus may give us a hint here as to how we are to react towards tragedy. When Lazarus died, Jesus wept. When John the Baptist died, all Jesus wanted to do was get away from the crowds and be alone. Jesus never said “It doesn’t matter, he went to heaven anyway.” Buddhists believe (if I have this right) that pain and suffering is an illusion. We can escape pain by denying its existence. I can’t imagine anyone continuing to believe that while watching the pictures coming out of Haiti. Jesus recognized pain, he believed that bad things really are bad.
But, the other thing we learn from Jesus is that death and suffering do not have the final word. In the resurrection, Jesus demonstrated that God has the final word. Jesus came to teach this to the world through his words and his actions. As Christians, we must also point the world to these truths. If there is anything we know as Christians, it is these two things: Pain is real; God will have the final word. This can be summed up in the word HOPE. As we respond in love to crises around the world, and as we respond to crises on our street, we are stepping into the world’s pain and pointing them to God’s kingdom. We are reminding our materialistic world that what they see is not all there is and things really are going to change.
By responding in love and compassion rather than judgment and fear, we show the world that we really do believe what Jesus taught: “the kingdom of Heaven is near.”
When life is really swell, there is no need for hope. I have heard people tell me, “I’d love to follow Jesus but life is just too fun right now.” We have to avoid this trap at all costs. Every time we encounter the pain of others, let it remind us where our hope lies.
And I guess that’s it for now.

We have just completed what was probably the busiest solid month of the year for us. Our new trainees joined us on the farm on January 10th. I’ll (Miah) introduce some of the guys in the pictures section if you want to take a look there.

Over the past week we had our “J-Life Africa Summit” with our country leaders and other guests joining us on the farm as well. We took all the delegates to a local golf course and played a round of mashie (3 par) golf. For most of the guys it was their first experience with golf. I was shocked, not only that they seemed to enjoy it so much, but that they played pretty well. I was beaten by a Swazi playing for the first time! It was kinda fun to watch a bunch of African missionaries enjoy the game of the rich and famous.

Tarisayi shared about the changes which have happened in Zimbabwe over the past year. It hasn’t taken a whole lot of political reform to improve their situation in Zim quite radically and to make Tarisayi much more optimistic about the future. Government control has really eased up and allowed significant ministry to start happening there.

Zambia’s training center is now 90% complete which should really open up some great opportunities in Central Africa.  Florence, the Cameroon country leader who Michelle and I visited in 2008, has been passionate about providing quality J-Life training for French-speaking African countries. The organization she started called “I Care” has been offered land just 15 kilometers from Yaounde for a very reasonable price.  J-Life may redirect funds earmarked for a building project in South Africa to make that happen in Cameroon. Florence is doing such great work there in Cameroon.

Another exciting development is that Christian, a trainee from Nairobi, Kenya, is heading home to work with J-Life after spending more than a year here in South Africa with us. He’s one of the coolest guys ever, but he will need prayer support as he is filling the shoes of Yallo, who passed away in a bus accident last year.

J-Life will also be starting to do some work in Liberia (a country coming out of civil war) and Zanzibar (our first predominately Muslim country) this year.
So, with all the excitement of what’s happening around the continent (and that’s just the start of it), its time to refocus on what’s happening here in South Africa. Michelle has been working on her counseling studies. It’s amazing to see how focused and dedicated she is with it. I don’t know what happened to the scattered, high pressure University of Texas student that I met 6 years ago! She also ran her first half marathon a couple weekends ago. “It was easy,” was her response to me afterwards. I’m also keeping up with my running. The Comrades Marathon (55 miler!) is a mere 3 months away now.

South Africa in general is pretty focused on the World Cup. It’s kind of a big deal here. A common joke is that if anyone talks about plans for 2011 or 2012 someone will say “What? I thought the world was ending in 2010.” So yeah, South Africa is definitely the place to be in 2010. We’re dying to introduce some of you all to this beautiful continent. So why not come see us? Pray about it.

Miah

As a precursor to this entry, I thought this is very interesting. I am studying for a certificate in Christian counseling right now, and this is one of the defense mechanisms that people can use to prevent awareness of anxiety arousing instincts. I believe that projection is a deep issue in our society here, and it is a main way of sort of continuing fear/ hatred of other races, and creating a paralysis towards action or change.

* Projection
People rid themselves of threatening desires or thoughts by attributing them to others.  They may blame their mistakes or shortcomings on an external source, or they may form a delusional system, in which they believe that enemies are disrupting their lives.

As I return to our place in the Vaal, I am faced again with the completely different culture we face up here as compared to the coastal regions where we just spent our holiday. And although I have a great church family here and people who are ready to accept us back into our community, there is still an attitude and mindset of people living here that I struggle to connect with having been raised in an extremely safe, white, community.

Here in Vereeniging, there is still so much fear of any other race besides your own. Now, my biggest culture shock when coming here was the way people can joke and stereotype each other in negative ways and how that is completely normal, even for Christians to do. I came from Austin, TX, where political correctness and respect for people who are different from you was the beginning of understanding and was just standard of interaction. So, for about 7 months, I battled in my mind whether or not I can point out to people that this form of humor deeply offends me. Now, I am not a Nazi when it comes to jokes, and I can appreciate some crude jokes every once in a while, but I always draw a line when the sarcasm and negative joking starts to infiltrate my way of thinking and my attitude in general. Coming to South Africa, I was faced constantly with people going to far in my perspective in joking about another race or culture.

For example: we have a coloured lady on staff with us at J-Life who works in the kitchen. She is loud and funny and can tell great stories. One white guy from our staff made a joke to her, saying, “ Watch out, Chevonne’s a coloured and she’s got a knife!”, which was a joke about how coloured people from the Cape are notorious for stabbings. Now everyone in the room laughed hysterically including Chevonne. In my perspective, that was a really rude joke and it put her in a horribly negative category that, even if it was meant in jest, subconsciously, I believe it affects her. (I still believe this even though God has brought me to a place of better understanding of the culture here)

My other examples are more personal, which is why I believe that this issue is so important to me. There were constant jokes in the staff members about Americans and of course these were 99% of the time negative stereotypes. At the time when we joined, I was the only American, and I was struggling to be away from my family, to start this new job in a new culture and to try and fit in and build relationships. But the constant bashing of American culture and politics and attitudes made me stay in a state of defense, which probably lasted for those 7 months before I confronted people about this.

So, for my first 8 months of living here, I was deeply offended about half the time, wondering if the people I worked with were truly serious about following God and being the bride of Christ. I know this sounds extreme, but feelings eventually create a stigma in your brain, and when this stigma is constantly associated with a person or group of people it becomes easy to judge things as sin, when it might just be misunderstandings. But finally, after much discussion with Miah and much heartache of having to confront something that to everyone else was not a problem, I spoke to our boss about this type of humor. I brought in scripture and my own stories of offense, and my boss understood.

He did defend the humor, as most South Africans do because they see nothing wrong with it if it is in a friendship relationship. But what I have realized after studying this issue for the last two years is that political correctness is not always the key to creating a relationship of respect among different races and cultures. Here in Jo-burg, people are constantly confronted everyday with other value systems and other ways of doing things. This is not an easy psychological feat and it can take a toll on someone very easily. So, I have realized that humor is a coping mechanism for people here. Instead of getting angry or offended, they can bring the issue up in a joke and everyone can have a good laugh at it.

However, I still believe that as Christians, we should be setting a different example. We should be set apart, striving for holiness and to look more like Christ. We should be encouraging and building each other up constantly. We should take the negative aspects of someone’s background and give them the support to bring change to that background. So, I still don’t participate in these jokes as much as possible, and I try to speak positive things into people’s lives in order to break stereotypes and strongholds. But I have more grace and more freedom to accept people who make these jokes and I am not as deeply offended by them as I used to be. God has given me understanding.

I honestly don’t know what the future holds for South Africa in terms of the integration of all races here. I do know, however, that my job as a follower of Christ is to show people on earth a little bit of what heaven will be like. And I know that every tribe, tongue, and nation will be there, and we will be together, and we will love each other deeply and enjoy our Father together. So as much as I can bring peace and understanding in my lifetime between races, I will strive to do so, not for the cause in itself, but as a taste of what is to come….