Today God put some things together for me, or He finally made the pieces come together. I have been reading Proverbs and there are so many nuggets of “wisdom” that I am learning. Some repeating themes in Proverbs: 1.) humility comes before honor 2.) the wise man heeds discipline and seeks counsel 3.) In a man’s heart are many plans, but it is from the Lord that the tongue speaks...there are many more but I just wanted to put a few that have been standing out to me right now.

So, I have been learning some wisdom from the wisest man that ever lived, King Solomon. I have also been learning a lot from the women here in Cameroon who are incredibly revolutionary. These women are very unconventional for their culture, for their positions, and for women in general. I have two examples here that really challenge and encourage me:
1.) Adele- Adele is a mother of 5, a journalist, a teacher, a business owner, and a manager. She makes her own grocery lists every day, and goes to buy groceries everyday. She is on the Cameroonian National Television, as a reporter for the news every night. She runs a training center which she started herself for raising up journalists, audio visual professionals, etc. And she does a lot of the training that happens everyday in this school. Then, she also started her own hairdressing business and gym. There is an upstairs for hair, where she gets her hair done everyday for the news in the evening, and a manicure/pedicure/ massage parlor on the bottom, with a gym in back. Then she also created jobs for 5 young people at her house, cooking, cleaning, driving, etc. She just finished building her own house, where she came on site every morning from 5-10am to make sure they finished on time. She speaks 10 of the tribal languages, plus English, and French and she travels almost once a month to teach in other African countries about news reporting, etc.
Example 2.) Florence- I have already talked a little about Florence. But I want to elaborate a little on what she does. Florence is the J-Life representative in Cameroon, and she does J-Life seminars about once every two months. She is the youth pastor of probably the most flourishing youth ministry in Cameroon. Her youth are all running projects in their neighborhoods themselves, they are creating rap groups for Jesus, they are making dance teams that dance to hip hop songs for worship, and they are making their own evangelism projects such as picnics, or jogging groups. Florence also has her own ministry called I Care, where she does training seminars, intensive training periods, and raises up leaders with missional hearts who understand their strengths and giftedness. She started a radio program for young women, that airs every Saturday morning where they discuss honestly about issues of young women in Cameroon. Florence has organized 5 trainings for us while we are here with other pastors she has created a network with all over Yaounde in order to spread the impact of youth ministry. She has sleep overs at her house (we’re talking about a born and raised Cameroonian woman breaking all kinds of cultural norms) for the youth, and she is personally housing two young people to help them in their lives and to make sure they go to school and stay out of trouble. She is a student now, studying Psychology at the University here in Yaounde, to help her understand youth mindsets and human thinking better. She is a wife, and a mother of two, 5 and 7 years old.

After speaking to God, asking for wisdom in my life, and living with these two women, watching their lives and what they are doing with their time, I have been incredibly inspired. I have realized that the reason I have not been completely satisfied with the idea of doing what I am doing now for the rest of my life is because I felt like there needs to be more, more impact, more people being affected, a wider reach of my ministry. And as I have watched these women who are always learning, always innovating, always wanting to go further and broader in their thinking and their influence, I am encouraged that God wants me to be doing the same thing with my mind.
One thing I have realized that I love to do, something I do naturally and something I am good at is counseling. And God has shown me that I can use this gifting so much in mission work. But the reality is that I have very little background in studying this profession. And I also have realized that people in Africa have very deep issues, many that cannot be fully helped without professional help, and even then, it would take a mighty act of God. The statistic in South Africa are that 1 out of 4 women have been raped. And I do not have the skills yet to help someone deal with that type of a past. So, I am praying about what it might look like for me to study counseling, and how God might want that to fit in with everything.

I am also realizing that my past, my area of study at the University of Texas is very useful to me now. I can also see how my experiences now could help to benefit the UTeach program in general and I am learning some incredible truths about education that I think every teacher would benefit from. So I am also thinking about how we can use what we are learning and doing now to pour back into the programs and universities that gave us the minds that we are using in our work now. I am thinking about how much future teachers could benefit from seeing underdeveloped countries and from seeing what potential education has in the growth of a nation. Future teachers need to see how integral the profession of teaching is to an entire society and culture. They need to realize that they are not just teaching a subject, but they are shaping the minds of the future generations. And they need to be reminded of this all the time, because this is a purpose and a vision that can motivate anyone for a lifetime. Teaching is one of the most under rated professions and I believe that it need to be recognized for how crucial it is to societies as a whole. After traveling to 6 Africans countries this year, I am able to have a visual image and personified examples of what education has the power to do in a country, and it is astounding!

So, God is encouraging me, and giving me visions and ideas of what He might be wanting me to do with my life. I am starting to realize how important it is to never get caught up in just doing your job. But I always want to be thinking about how I can make a bigger impact, what God is doing and how He wants me to use my past, present, and future, to increase the scope of His Kingdom.  I know that this will always be moving and changing but I am ready to do whatever He asks of me. 

Sifiso is his name, and he is 18 years old from a township in South Africa called Duduza. The exciting thing about Sifiso is that he is being discipled by a young man on our J-Life team that we have doing ministry in that township. So, not only is he an incredible example of leadership in a community that needs it, but he is also a result of what intentional discipleship can create.  After the first few questions in this interview, I am already inspired by Sifiso’s passion and commitment to Jesus and making His name known wherever he is. If you hear Sifiso talking, with his eyes lit up and his face smiling the biggest smile, about the transformational power of a relationship with Jesus, you would want to get saved all over again!  I could see that this 18 year old African is very influential.

Now, when I asked Sifiso what he would change about Africa if he could, his answer was not the typical “make Jesus known” response. Sifiso first said that he would change two things: 1.) the way other people view Africa and 2.) how Africans view themselves. He then proceeds to tell us about the seriousness of the lack of desire in Africans to do something about their situations. After that, he talked about changing the way other people view Africans saying, “ there is a joke that says, if you want to hide something from an African, put it in a book.” That joke struck me very hard as I am extremely passionate about education, yet I know how hard it is to teach someone who does not have the desire to learn. And Sifiso put a light onto the harsh reality of what other people’s opinions can do to someone’s identity. It’s the classic idea:  if someone tells you you are not good enough all the time, eventually, you believe them and stop trying.  Amazingly enough, in our other interview, the answer was the same, “ I would change the way people view Africa”. 

This is just a tiny glimpse into the struggles that plague us everyday in Africa. And struggles these young men and women face as they try to make a difference.  But is there any light at the end of the tunnel? What can we do to start creating paradigm shifts in people’s thinking? Where do you even begin?

I would like to suggest that Sifiso is the answer to all of those questions. To change an entire culture’s attitude, you start with one influential life that has been transformed by Jesus Christ. And you disciple him, and give him the tools he needs to disciple others. Just like any challenge, you take every victory you get and you build on it. He is a shining example of the future of Africa. And that gives me more purpose and gets me more excited than anything else this world has to offer.

Another great thing about these interviews is the direction these two young people already have from the Lord on what they want to do with their lives after the year of training. Sam, a girl who just finished studying, is applying to medical school and wants more than anything to be a missional doctor here in Africa. And Sifiso has a deep passion to go into politics and affect change in the South African government.
So, I want to challenge you. In your life, are you using your words or actions to categorize someone or put them down instead of trying to get to know them? How are you inspiring and empowering people around you to be leaders?

We have some great news! Yesterday Michelle and I finalized everything for our trip to Cameroon. It was the most laborious process I have ever taken to get into a country but it seems like we finally have everything sorted out.
We leave this Thursday, October 23rd and will return to Joburg on November 18th.  We will be involved with a youth conference over the first week and then will spend time in Yaounde with Florance, who is driving J-Life in Cameroon. Michelle went to Cameroon a few years back and she is excited to connect with some old friends there. I am excited to unleash the French that Michelle has been teaching me over the past few weeks.

Here are some prayers we have for this trip. Feel free to join us in prayer that:
We would understand the needs of the church and youth in Cameroon and that we would start to visualize how J-Life might work there
We would connect with the people who we will stay with and meet there
That we would start to get a clear picture of what our role might be in Cameroon in the future
That I would be able to get a good grasp of French while I am there

Finally, if anyone knows of any Americans or South Africans living in Yaounde, please let us know so that we could try to connect with them and talk to them about living in Cameroon.

Thanks y’all
Miah

We just had a really great week with meetings all day for the past 6 days. We reviewed our material that we train and updated it and also made it more relevant and just improved it overall. We also outlined the training for the first 4 months of next year and how we wanted to change that. There’s so much involved with the training, and we literally discussed every activity, why we do it, and why we think we should keep doing it, change it, or do something different. Then we had a full day of interviews with young girls and guys who want to come for the training next year. We spend 2 hours interviewing each candidate on theological background, ministry background, spiritual background and personal background. So, it’s been an intense but very productive week and it got me really excited about next year.

The week before last, we were in Durban and Richard’s Bay encouraging and meeting with our teams doing ministry there. They have all matured so much in such a short period of time and we are extremely proud of the ministry they are doing, what they will leave behind them, and the lessons they have learned that have changed their lives for the better.

We are also planning a trip to Cameroun at the end of the month to work with our key lady there. We will be there for 3 weeks, and will be helping her with training, and networking with other pastors and then really trying to lay out plans for a prospective training center. This center is such a pivotal center for J-Life as a whole because it will mean a center that can specifically cater to French speaking African countries, and it will decentralize the one year training program to accomodate people who cannot afford to come all the way down to South Africa for the 4 months training we are currently doing.

Other exciting news is that J-Life has had a great meeting with the Anglican denominational head here in South Africa, and he really wants to send out leaders from all of their countries in Southern Africa, and in each regional leader from South Africa to do the four month training next year. This would mean a completely different training section for the Anglican guys and we would then do training Jan-April, and Aug- Dec. This is a huge movement from God and an answer to prayer because we are mostly working with Baptists and Methodists here in South Africa, but one of our key values to be an organization for all denominations.

So, we need a lot of prayer and praise. God is doing some great things in this ministry, but at times it seems to be growing faster than we can handle. So, we need God’s wisdom, and we really need direction on how to specifically accomodate all of these needs and interests.

We also are in great need of building more onto the training center that we have if we have a completely new session of training. The center we have now has one hall and one very small dining area that is used for our trainees during the four months and also for the tentmaking business we run at J-Life which is campsite ministry. More staff are joining us as we expand this ministry into all of Africa, and we are running out of places to house them. 

Over the past month or so Michelle and I have visited two of South Africa’s neighboring countries, Mozambique, a previously Portuguese colony, and Zimbabwe.

Mozambique was a holiday trip. We had two friends from Durban and a college friend of mine from the States join us in a road trip out to the east coast of Africa. We stayed on some beautiful beach campsites and ate lots of wonderful, cheap, fresh fish every night.

A highlight for me was connecting with an old friend of mine, Arnaldo, in the capital city of Maputo. He became a follower of Christ when I was there on a mission trip in 2003. This was the first time I was able to see him since then and its amazing to see what an incredible man he has become. He gave us such an awesome tour of the city that by the end we were encouraging him to become a tour guide. He also has a fiancée (they cannot be officially married until he comes up with about $1000 for the “Labola” or dowry) and a one year old son named baby Jesus! Yes, gotta love Portuguese culture!

After about a week back at home Michelle and I went out to visit a team we are overseeing in Tzaneen. Check out the picture of us with them at the giant Baobab tree.

From there we joined some other J-Life staff for the long trek out to Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. We met with the J-Life national director, Tarisayi, who is doing some really great work there. In Harare, we helped him train 40 youth leaders in a course called Strategy, which looks at the process of making disciples based on Jesus’ life. We spent the next week checking out the country, meeting with pastors, and interviewing possible team members for next year. Due the economic crisis in Zimbabwe, none of the Zimbabwean interns will be able to raise the support they need and J-Life will have to find the funds for them. Finally, we drove to another city called Bulawayo for another weekend seminar with youth leaders.

I’m sure many of you have heard at least a bit about the political and economic turmoil in Zimbabwe. In the midst of such hardships the people are so calm and hopeful. In a way they seem almost passive and have resigned to riding out this wave of tyranny. Optimists would say this is because they are just great people. But another reason is that they have no choice. There is no freedom of speech in Zimbabwe. You could be detained for treason just for talking politics on the street and being heard by a supporter of the ruling party. Spies are sent to churches to make sure pastors also ignore the pressing issues facing Zimbabweans. There is an eerie calm in Zimbabwe which is hard to describe.

Everything is difficult in Zimbabwe. There is a cash crisis so that you are only able to draw about $3 a day from your bank account. To get this money you could wait as long as 6 hours at the bank. Despite it being illegal, trade is done primarily in foreign currency and you would not want to hold on to local currency because you could wake up the next morning with the price of groceries having doubled overnight. There are constant power cuts and water cuts, not due to a lack of water, but because they cannot buy the water treatments to make sure it is safe for drinking.

The grocery and department stores are nearly empty. And the stock they do have most people cannot afford (in one store they were selling cans of 7up for $15 each!). We met with a pastor at a restaurant but of course we had no intention of ordering a piece of chicken for $22. It was very depressing when the manager walked around greeting the people sitting at the tables, handing them the photocopied menu with the prices for the day, and not one person in the restaurant ordering anything the entire time we were there.

I could tell many more stories about the struggles in Zimbabwe but in reality it was a really great trip for us because of the great people we were able to meet and just how appreciative and excited they were about the training we did there. It was encouraging to see this movement really starting to take root in other countries. We are continuing to beg God to intervene on behalf of the Zimbabwean people and we ask you also to pray earnestly for the Church and the crisis in Zimbabwe.

We hope you all are doing well and that you haven’t completely forgotten us over here in South Africa. We have had a great couple of weeks with J-life and we are excited about what God is doing.

Right now our main job is overseeing three teams that are out doing ministry in different churches in South Africa. We have a team in Durban working on setting up a youth ministry in a Baptist church, a team in Richard’s Bay working with another Baptist church, and a team in Tzaneen working with the Methodist, Anglican, and Baptist churches there. So, we keep in contact with them and make sure they are keeping themselves healthy while also focusing on the right strategic goals. I (Michelle) am now working to set up resources for our new website and I am also dealing with an issue of discipline for one of our teams, in which God has moved in my life in huge ways, teaching me how to rebuke in love and wisdom.  But speaking of the website, if anyone has any youth ministry resources that we could put up on our website for all our African youth ministers, I would greatly appreciate it.

Miah has just finished the second of the Intern weeks, where he facilitates and plans all the activities, exams and lecturers. Miah and Jann have also created a policy now for the interns and for the future of this program. They are making many improvements on keeping each student accountable and helping these African guys and girls to get seminary degrees while doing ministry part time (and some are working as well) which is a very difficult process. It was a good week and they got many things accomplished with the interns and have also created more unity among the group which is an incredible thing because they are all working in very different places racially, economically, and spiritually.

We are about to take our week of vacation for the year and go with some friends camping in Mozambique. Please pray that God will use this time for us to renew our joy, hope and passion for the people of Africa.

As I sit here in a coffee shop in South Africa, Michelle is back in the States just months after our arrival here, to be with her family as they mourn the loss of Michelle’s grandmother and family matriarch. I’m waiting eagerly for her return on Tuesday.

Michelle and I have settled into a church home. Acts Church meets at a farm house about half an hour’s drive from where we live. The church is about a year and a half old and a lot of the J-Life staffs attends there. John, our ministries’ director, is an elder there.

It is a privilege to have an English speaking home church. When you live here, you realize that English is just one language among many, and although many people here speak English, those of us who would prefer to watch the news, write a love letter, or speak to God in English are in the minority.

I always have felt I’m a small church kind of guy caught in a mega-church so this is a real pleasant change for me. People speak candidly during services about common subjects like depression, crime, economic strain, questions about the future of the country and the constant lure of “the lucky country,” more commonly know as Australia, as well as New Zealand, the UK and the USA. (When America or Europe experiences an economic shakeup, a country like South Africa feels it much worse because developing nations are considered “risky markets” and economists tend to avoid them when there is global economic insecurity as we are experiencing now.)

Michelle and I have found ourselves drawn to this church where a great majority of its tithe goes to projects outside of the church. They are also not interested at all in attracting people from other congregations. It is the responsibility of every person in the church to build meaningful relationships with people in their communities. Once a month the church gathers together not for a service but simply to share a big breakfast which has earned them the nickname “the breakfast church.” I enjoy that a lot.

Over the past week or so a wild fire of violence against immigrants has been sweeping across poor areas of Johannesburg and elsewhere around the country. There is said to be 2 to 3 million Zimbabweans living in South Africa along with many others from across Africa, India, China and the Middle East. Foreigners have been blamed from everything from crime, to stealing jobs and girlfriends. They say about 50 people have been killed so far. I left the controversial issue of immigration in the States and found it quickly gaining attention here. When I realize how much foreigners are despised around the world, and then I realize that we are also a foreigners where we live, it makes me very thankful for the many people who have treated Michelle and I with so much love and hospitality over the past four months.

Michelle and I will be going to neighboring country, Swaziland this weekend. I am excited for Michelle to see the place and the people for the first time. Then we will be going on a trip along the east coast to visit teams and meet with pastors and church leaders to talk about J-Life.

We continue to pray for Zimbabwe, our neighboring country to the north, which will hold its “run-off” election soon. We also remember our friends there: Richmond, Nhlanhla, and Terasiah, who continue to trust God in incredibly difficult circumstances. 

***I should probably write a little bit about this poetry before I scare some of you. I wrote this after coming back to the US from Zambia in 2005. I wrote this when I was overwhelmed with the wealth and the lifestyles of Americans, me being the prototype. I was writing about my experience with the Holy Spirit in Zambia, and how I wanted to see the US changed by that same Spirit. I had felt and seen the reality of the spiritual realm coming into the physical, and I had noticed that in Africa, the spiritual realm is very seen and is a part of mundane life. I longed for Americans to live in light of this reality as well. Since then, God has matured a lot of my views and has shown me many different truths in light of this struggle. As I continue to experience God’s love and heart for each culture in a unique way, I am following Him and His word throughout all of these challenges.***

One of the things that has sustained me in this time is knowing that Jesus has been through what I am going through, and wants to go through it with me all over again, because His love is that incredible. I have been reading the story of Lazarus and Jesus has been speaking to me through this story of what He is doing in my life today. If you read the story, in John 11, you will notice how much the disciples were confused about Jesus wanting to go back to a town where people tried to kill him, to help his friend who was “sleeping”. This is one of those times when Jesus stops trying to let them understand on their own and He just tells them plainly that He is about to do a miracle, for their sake, so that they would believe him. Jesus knew going into the situation what He was going to do. He knew he was about to blow their minds and change their absolute sorrow to absolute joy, but he was not hasty.... he did a few intentional things before he displayed his power and authority. What a beautiful part Martha played in this story as she was able to declare her theology out loud to the disciples. And Jesus must have set that up, because before he raised his friend from the dead, he got to say, in spoken and written word, that He is the resurrection and the life, and what he said following this was the ultimate declaration of authority over life and death. And when He says things like this throughout scripture, He incites a response from each of our hearts.

Immediately after he gets his response, he does something that hits me so hard. He weeps. He weeps....... Jesus, the Son of the living God, knowing He has the power over death and that he was about to bring his friend back to life, wept. I think the shortest verse in the bible has a profound message to all of us on this side of eternity. Jesus does not just show us how to solve all issues of pain and suffering, or even just how to bring life into a situation filled with death, but Jesus shows us how to go through life experiencing the depth of each feeling with each other. He stops to weep with the people, overcome with the emotion that the people around him were feeling. He took the time to drink in the uniqueness of the emotions we feel on this earth. And because of this, I know he understands me, he feels with me, and he hurts with me in this time over my loss.

Praise God that it’s okay to feel. Praise God that it’s okay to be overwhelmed. But praise Him that Jesus did not let His emotions change the reality of who He was or what He came to do. He gets up from mourning and raises Lazarus from the dead. Because of Jesus, death is not where my grandmother is resting right now, but she is resting in LIFE. Turns out, Jesus’ words are true! And I believe them with everything that I am...... read the story.

I have lost an incredible role model in my life. You don’t get people like my grandma too often in this world anymore, and she is definitely a soul that will have infinite impact on this earth. But she also will live on in my actions and in my life and in our family for generations to come. She was a woman who loved hard, who judged not, who was a determined lover of Jesus until her very last days. I think she would want me to leave this entry with this quote from my continuous role model:

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Do you believe this?

Shelly- Capetown, South Africa
Dan- Jo-burg, South Africa
Olefile- Soweto, South Africa
Steve- Jo-burg, South Africa
John & Lorna- Camp Eden, SA
Piet & Linda- Kimead, SA
Warren & Lynette- Heidelburg,South Africa
Bhuti & Jann- Camp Eden, South Africa
Tara- Camp Eden, South Africa
Kenneth- Swaziland
Amos- Ghana
Kevin- USA
Connix- Malawi
David- Zambia
Gary & Sharon- Congo
Sabin- Congo
Florence- Cameroon
Pete- Burkina Faso
Francois- Burkina Faso
Teresai- Zimbabwe
Yallo- Kenya

Each of these leaders were incredible men and women of God with such amazing insight to the problems and spiritual issues in their own countries. So, as you can see, God is doing something huge here and we are very excited to watch Him move in these next years.

The trip to Israel itself was the trip of a lifetime. I learned so much and there’s absolutely no way to summarize such a spiritual, historical, emotional trip. If you want to know, I would love to explain some of the places we went and sermons we heard and things we learned, so e-mail me if you are interested.

After Israel, we came home only to leave the next day to live in a township for the next few days with the J-lifers who are training at the camp this year. It was an amazing experience, with 17 of us sleeping in a 2 bedroom house with one faucet that was outside the house along with the toilet. We took bucket baths and enjoyed brushing our teeth out in the open. It was a great experience! I know that it might sound miserable for some of you, but when you are with the people, there is nothing else that can compare to the joy and community you experience. We led a bible club for all the kids, and just after going around the township and inviting people, we ended up having around 150 kids. I fell in love with a little girl who was tiny and just so shy. The cutest thing that I’ve noticed about kids here is when you try and make them smile , they usually get all shy and immediately cover their mouths to hide their laughing. It’s adorable! But we also worked with the youth there, and it was amazing to watch the J-life guys who could speak Zulu just connect with them, and really have impact in ministry right away. It’s the type of impact that I couldn’t have achieved unless I was able to be a part of that community for a couple of years. There is an understanding between them and when you watch that interaction, you get the visual image of the definition of culture. And this is the beauty of this organization, because J-life understands that connection and empowers these guys to be all that they can be as ministers of the gospel in their cultures.

We have put the J-life guys into teams for the year, and we are so stoked about the ministry these young men and women are going to start in the six churches around South Africa. Most of the teams consist of 3-4 of the J-life guys that have been training on the farm for the past 4 months. We had the pastors from the churches that they will be working with over to the farm last week for a time to get to know each other and share their vision and goals for the year.  We also had training sessions with topics like personality tendencies and conflict management, generational themes in the secular world and in ministry, post- modernism psychology, and visions in leadership. It was an amazing week, and we all learned so much from each other.

As far as transitioning into the culture is going, for me it has been an interesting process. South Africa is not a very hard culture to transition into as an American, and it is very similar to the States in many ways. But I think the difficulty in my transition has come in the little things. For example, there are many differences in accents and when you are really trying to understand someone, or just having a simple conversation, you have to stop to figure out a word they said. Or they might have a completely different word for something and this causes confusion a lot. You wouldn’t think that this is a big deal, but after it happens about 20 times in one day, I get a little exhausted. I’m also realizing how much my mind is analyzing and interpreting things all the time, so at the end of the day, I’m a little bit more tired than I should be. There is also so much humility that comes with being a foreigner. Even if something originated from my culture, I have to accept the way this culture thinks about it, or interprets it or says it. Telling people the way we say things or do things in the States will not get me anywhere, and many times I just have to let go of my way of doing things and accept how they do things here. Other times, it’s very beneficial to talk about these cultural differences and to explain to people why certain things offend me, just to get the open discussion of these things. There are really SO many things that I can do that would not be problem in the U.S., but that really offend people here. So, it is a long process of learning and discovering and although it is very tiring and frustrating at times, it is also liberating and exciting other times.  And the main point of it all is that I am learning and being challenged, which are two things I always want to have in my life. I am very grateful for this stage of life and I am also so grateful for Miah, who is helping me in this transition everyday.

-Michelle-