“Some want to live within the sound of church and chapel bell-
I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” – C.T. Studd

I just finished reading “Living on the Devil’s Doorstep” and was greatly challenged by Floyd McClung’s story. He vividly retells what a life of obedience looked like for him and his family as they lived in, initiated and led a unique work in Kabul, Afghanistan and then the Red Light District in Amsterdam. They poured themselves out to make Jesus and His Love known to drug addicts and dropouts seeking truth along the Trail. They loved on pimps and prostitutes; broken individuals deeply loved by the Father. They trained hundreds of young people for a life of missions throughout the world. Their compassion and faithfulness to the hard places is an indictment on my own life. I wish for that kind of compassion, that steadfastness, that deep vision to actually live out the heart of the Gospel despite myself, despite what’s going on around me and to do it joyfully.

Last week our AR team got to meet Floyd McClung down in Cape Town where he now lives and serves, training African pastors with his wife Sally. Our team sat with him talking about God’s work in his life, what he is currently doing and a little about his friendship with Keith Green. He is a gentle giant and his deep love for Jesus and people bubbles through all the strategy talk of ministry and story telling. He personally challenged our team with a kind fatherly tone on disciple making, doing life with non-believers and horizontal Biblical leadership. We all left feeling refreshed and envisioned.

I don’t mean to “celebratize” Floyd and Sally, and I know they wouldn’t want me to (see quote below) but why are there so few people like them? I confess I feel frustrated as I think how many have run like Jonah, settling for a comfy self-life with a little bit of God on the side. Why do so many Christians drop the ball with obedience, passion, and character the longer they walk with Christ? Where are God’s people who are willing to put it all on the line because they have counted the cost and have found the pearl of great price? In a fractured world in need of God’s love we think loving our neighbor is just a suggestion and we consider the great commission to be a good idea on paper… for other folks. We are not broken bread or poured out wine like we are called to be. We cannot say with Paul, “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” Acts 20:24. We need more Floyds and Sallys; people ready to fumble around after Jesus at any cost. We need people determined to go to the hard places because they want God to be known to the ends of the earth.

Last Words
“There are no verses in the Bible that say, “Well done good and FAMOUS servant!” We are simply ordinary children of an extraordinary God who are learning, trusting, growing and serving together.” - Floyd McClung, Living on the Devil’s Doorstep

Below are a few pics of our trip down to Cape Town along the Garden Route. Enjoy!

Swaziland was incredible! The abandoned 10,000 person mine town of Bulembu is a picture of God’s redemption like few places I know. Let me attempt to explain, which might be hard as it took us days to digest what this place is. In a nut shell; Bulembu is an old mine town in the mountains of Swaziland. It was abandoned years ago and went up for auction. It was purchased by some Christian business men with the vision of revitalizing it with innovative businesses for the purpose of raising up the next generation of orphans whom will be the future leaders of Swaziland (see a previous post about this). Now that sounds like a noble goal on paper, but it’s quite another to actually see it happening and meet the folks whom are quietly and obediently making it happen.

Lee-Ann McFarlane, an old South African Moody friend of mine lives in Bulembu and runs the community center there. She invited us to come and see, with the idea of possibly sending a team of interns there next year to help out. They need people power! They are under funded, under staffed and sacrificially serving daily. Lee-Ann and Fred, her adopted son, were fantastic hosts. Their obedience and relentless commitment to “just doing it” were challenging. And this is what “the big take home” for me was. This town that died and now is coming back to life is succeeding not because God magically called the A-Team to come and perform a miracle. No, this is all happening because some of God’s people decided to get their hands dirty and are faithfully fumbling around. Too often we want a shaft of light or the writing on the wall or some bizarre act of God to “call” us to the mission field or to the right task. Well, as a missionary I can tell you, there are seldom such things. I’m inclined to believe that God has told us what to do in His Word and that should be enough. The truth is, if you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat. Get going and get your hands dirty. Yes it’s messy; yes it’s a great struggle and yes at times it’s stressful but for goodness sake, DO SOMETHING!

Last Words
“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. – Jesus
“We have to understand that the world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation.” – Jacob Bronowski

P.S. for an amazing audio visual piece on Abandoned Babies for Christ (one of the ministries in Bulembu, Swaziland) one of our team members put this piece together.
Click on the image below to get to Nathan and Rebecca Clendenin’s Blog.

“If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” – Paul

It’s a warm Saturday afternoon here in South Africa and I feel strangely content. Two of our team members (Will and Bex) have taken their business class out on a field trip to Operation Mobilization. Nate is at the church helping volunteers write and run the churches own newsletter.
It seems we have found a rhythm and a place in the church and community. We have good friends with whom we serve and hang out with. We drive down the streets of Mamelodi and people we recognize wave and smile at us. We go house to house and it’s comfortable and no longer strange and new. Conversations go beyond the surface level and people don’t ask us so much about life in America but more just about life; the real stuff. We talk about lessons learned and past mistakes. We talk about common things and about hopes for the future.
It’s good.

Yet in all this there is a temptation to slip into mediocre relationships and dutiful ministry. Even here on the “mission field” there is a danger of letting the days slip by without being present, or more sadly, resisting His presence. It seems like it could be easy to slip into nice-christian-cruise-control and say the right thing, smile at the right time with the right Christianese response…, but people can smell fake a mile away.
Our house is reading through the Gospel of Matthew in our group devotions. Jesus always seems “to be on.” Always responding genuinely, feeling deeply and caring sincerely. He is led by the Holy Spirit, compelled by an incredibly deep compassion and love for the people, even to the point of death.
As we teach classes, visit the sick, play with kids, and do life here in Africa, we want to be the real deal. It’s so hard. Though we grow tired and weak, pray that our love be sincere, our relationships genuine, and our dependence on Him, daily.

Last Words
“It’s not the stretch of a mans life that matters. It’s the depth of life. It’s not how long we live. It’s how we live.”
– Leonard Ravenhill at age 83

“Michael, I realized that we don’t have a lot of time on this earth. We weren’t meant to spend it this way. Human beings weren’t meant to sit in little cubicles, starring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements.” Office Space (the movie)

God has been challenging me with thoughts about eternity, His Kingdom, Heaven and Hell. I am ashamed the urgency of it all is something that escapes me far too often. Contemplating the sheer terror of hell and contrasting the incredible love of God to be reconciled to his creation, I am compelled more and more to invest my life in that which truly matters. Far too often my life has been about selfish me, focused on that which is so temporal. My worries, dreams and energy spent on… well foolishness. Visiting the aged and sick in the community makes me realize how fragile and temporal this life really is. Our lives are a vapor, yet, what we do echoes throughout eternity.

“…What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” -James 4:14

Last Words
“The longest time man has to live, has no more proportion to eternity than a drop of dew has to the ocean.” –D.L. Moody

The Powerhouse church was finishing off a week long “outreach crusade” on Saturday, after inviting a guest speaker from Zambia to come preach in a circus-sized tent (pictured above), and inviting everyone they could find in Mamelodi. Pastor Vincent had it in his heart that to finish off the week, we must have a party at which the honored guests would be the blind, crippled, & elderly. It was his birthday this week, and so he jokingly said that could be our excuse; this was how he wanted to spend his birthday. Pastor Vincent asked us to show up early on Saturday to go out and pick up our VIP guests. One house we went to had 3 blind elderly women, and a man using a walker held together with wire, as he has lost one of his legs. When someone wasn’t at home, I watched Maria and Jonas (two members of the Powerhouse) explain what we were doing, and why, to the neighbors who came out. Once back inside the van, Maria smiled at me and whispered, “I like to do evangelism. It’s good even to tell them why we have come.”

Once collected, and at the church, we worshiped and sang, then the pastors laid hands on our guests and prayed for them. Vincent chose people out of the crowd to come up to the podium, encourage our guests and tell them how much we love and honor them. Then, we had a big meal, and cake! I was sitting at a table with 6 gogos (grannies.)

During lunch Allan went looking for a walker he’d seen in a back room covered in dust, someone had shipped from America. He cleaned it up, and from where I was sitting I could see him give it to the man with a broken walker. Such joy! He started checking it out, folding it up, trying his weight on it. He was so happy.

One blind woman was very weak, and needed help to the bathroom. We had to go very slowly, and the whole time we were shuffling along together I was thinking, “What do I do when we get there?? What’s cultural protocol in this situation?” I had no idea. Whatsoever. I know it’s a strange analogy, but to me, this walk was a picture from God of what my faith must be. This woman was weak, and needed me. I’m the one who saw her trying to stand up, and I needed to go and help her. She needed to do something I had no idea how to help her do, but I just had to get her there. And when we got there, a wonderful, older lady from the church was at the sink, and she took this woman’s other arm, and led us through what we needed to do. As so many of you who are mothers, teachers, social workers, construction workers, Sunday school leaders… already know, God doesn’t often give us tidy jobs to do! And he often waits until the moment something is needed, before he brings it into the picture–be it a person with gifts you don’t have, a situation that provides you with rest, a voice speaking encouragement, or an understanding of what’s expected of you. Our eyes and ears must be open.

When Allan and Jonas drove the guests home, David, the man with the walker asked if he could be dropped off last. Apparently, he leaves his home very rarely, and rides in a car even less often. As he extended the ride as long as he could, Allan watched David in the rear view mirror, alone in the backseat, staring out the window, purest joy on his face.

“When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” Luke 14:12-14

This Powerhouse church can be so literal, so impractical. What a joy to learn from them in fellowship.

These amazing images are taken by one of our team members. Check out their blog www.mamelodistories.org

A problem arises when you choose to take action about something you believe to be important. Oftentimes, if the issue at hand is truly worth your time and effort, it is simultaneously an issue quite beyond your solving capabilities. There are people who thrive on this. The leader/visionary-type, who seem motivated at being overwhelmed. They like to dive into murky waters and feel along the bottom of an issue for the solution they are so passionately certain awaits them…

I am not one of these divers. I stand out on the pier, analyzing the water–”It’s no use today. Water’s too rough. not enough people here to form a well-rounded team. The gear hasn’t arrived. Too cold out, we wouldn’t last long.”

So my husband and I make a good team. Sometimes he listens to me, rightly. We wait on things, situations to change, people to show up. We wait on the Lord. Then sometimes, he shoves me into the water and pulls my hands to the bottom, and we go to work together.

Enough metaphor. We work with the local African church. We worship and pray with them, we visit the sick, the hungry, and the orphans in the community, strategically trying to improve their lives as we love them. So the problem arises; we can’t fix these issues. They are systemic, political (don’t get us started on African politics!), cultural, and they are without a doubt, beyond our fixing… But doesn’t God call us to these things? (Is.58) Aren’t these the things of God? (Mt.25:34) Doesn’t it please him to accomplish them? (Jer.9:24)

We visited a gogo (Zulu for “granny”) on Saturday, and brought her food. She is so tiny! and stooped over, i kid you not, she was dancing around and clapping her hands at the gift. We asked her if she had any requests before we prayed with her, and she said, “how can I grumble now? what more should i ask him for? I was in my room before you came, and told God ‘I have all i need, except food for today’ and now he has brought me this box of it! All the prayers are answered, lets just thank him!”

But although Allan & I both left that day knowing there’s no other way we would rather have spent the day, we were also wondering, how many more are there that we didn’t go to? Why is the problem so big? How can we stop it? And then reminding each other; God invites us, and in fact, requires us to join him in this work of his–but it’s his work. To him there are no murky waters. He sees it all, and it does please him to accomplish it…through his church, when we are willing. Through revelations of dreams and miracles when necessary. Through his own Spirit of power.

In Matthew 25 Jesus doesn’t say, “come inherit the kingdom prepared for you, for you ended hunger and poverty…” he says, “as you did it to ONE of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

This is heavy stuff; we know we cannot earn, or even take part in our own salvation, yet Jesus made it clear in this passage how he will know his children. Somehow, if we want to be identified with Jesus, we must be about these things. Yet they will always be beyond us, the work will always be sized to his strength and not our own. And now the trick is to somehow find his rest in the middle of this flux… although, lately I find myself wondering, if we end this life tired and worn out for his sake, would it be such a bad thing?

Click through the pics to see the day of loving our neighbors.
“Not by our mouth but by our actions… that is what the church of God is.”
These were the words declared by the African pastor as he emphatically concluded a powerful message about loving the poor and going out and DOING SOMETHING! You could feel the Holy Spirit pull the people together in the service. Surely we will meet during the week and create a committee to figure out next steps, I thought. But he continued and stepped towards the ecstatic congregation.
“This week we are going to fast as a church for a week. We are going to cry out to the Lord to come and help us be His church. And on Saturday we are going to go out. We are going to go to widows taking care of orphans, the elderly, and the people dying in their beds. Those people whose bedrooms have become prison cells. We are going to bring hope… to confirm the whistle has not blown. To say, you are still in the game. God is not done with you and you are not alone. We will bring food, we will clean, we will sing & pray. We will invite the neighbors to come pray with us so that they will see these people are not rubbish. They will see they are valuable.

You see we are in a culture of selfishness. But as children of God we say that it is time for us to live for each other. Love is not love until it is put into practice. There is no love until we obey. Love one another.”

So the church fasted all week and met every evening for prayer, worship and a message. Hungry for God we prayed. The words passion, fervency, urgency and dependence make sense when applied to how this church cries out to the Lord. No wonder it is called The Powerhouse Church!

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him. Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Saturday rolled around and we went out loaded up with staple food, we went from house to house, praying worshiping and loving on hurting people. Throughout my life of ministry, during church events I often stop and ponder… what does God think of this? What do you think of us right now Lord? …this time, beyond a shadow of a doubt I know that God was well pleased with his church on this day. It was almost like I could feel Him smile.

I know every church is different but it just seems so uncomplicated here. People just do it. They read it in the Bible and they do it. No questions, no stalling meetings, no talk,talk,talk, no excuses.

It’s refreshing. We have so much to learn.

More coming soon. We love you guys.

I find myself repeatedly responding to the question “so what did you think?” with the slow pensive response; “It’s overwhelming.” I said it after the elders meeting regarding the needs of the community. I said it and felt it on the drive back from our day at the Apartheid Museum. I say it and mean it after every time we drive out of the township.

It’s not that I’m feeling undone, but rather feel that very, VERY urgent need for the Lord to show up and be present or else… or else we will be undone! It was relieving to hear Pastor Philip say, “God must do it. It’s his work and we are just tools. He said it, so He must do it.” While I know this is true I am still tempted to allow disappointment to engulf me.

As we zoom in on our daily activities, like teaching computer classes or re-igniting the churches Food Pantry and kicking off the Gardening Project, I can’t help but look around and see the big picture and realize our best efforts are but a drop in a bucket of need that contains the ocean. I would like to convince myself that helping one person is enough… but I feel that would be a cop out of what I feel compelled to scream out, HELP! We need more people to come and do and love and share and give and partake. Yes, we have an amazing group of people supporting us and with us but we need more to join in. As a mobilizer I have visions of myself as William Wallace in Braveheart, waving the flag for the Scottish Nobles to join in at the battle of Falkirk but none of them are joining in. Yet I must fight these overwhelming feelings … and so like Pastor Tom Stark prayed over us when we were leaving the U.S., “Lord, they cannot solve all of Africa’s problems… but neither can they give in to despair…” and so we continue.

Lord, we need you to show up and bring some folks with.

Above- In Mamelodi with Pastor Vincent

Finally we are able to update. With many miles under our wings we are safely in South Africa. To attempt to try and touch on everything would be ridiculous but here is a brainstorm of highlights in a nutshell;
1. Annie got pooped on by a bird,
2. Ants LOVE our kitchen,
3. Language lesson; Umfundisi means pastor in Zulu. Maumfundisi means pastor’s wife in Zulu.
4. Gas is $5.80 a gallon…and we drive a 12 person diesel bus …but movies are only $3.75
5. We painted our house as the bright orange color was causing me to gag every time I walked in.
6. We love our team members and have not killed each other yet. Check out their blog www.mamelodistories.org for great updates and stunning photos. And check out Dave’s blog who is with the team for 2 weeks.
7. There are less than 660 days before the World Cup comes to South Africa.
8. The Powerhouse Church is a vibrant body of believers whom have made us feel so welcome and loved.
9. As we find our feet in the township it has been more encouraging and personally challenging then I could explain in words. To be honest we are feeling joyfully overwhelmed. The best way to attempt to explain it is by sharing an excerpt from Annie’s journal:

Today, I fear the Lord. For I met with his sons, and did not see myself in them.

We drove out to Temba to visit Pastor Philip at Ebenezer Bible Church. At Ebenezer we met Nthapeleng (Thapi), a young pastor. Sharp, critical thinker. speaks with understanding about the needs and weaknesses of the African church; he said, “we are all about saving souls, saving souls, but have no administration, and so it all collapses…Until the church can run efficiently, the impact it can have on the community will be minimal.” What a weakness to have! Oh, that the church in America could struggle a bit more with this one!… He longs to get some workshops on church administration in the area.
We asked Thapi if he is a full time pastor. He said he does feel called to full time ministry. He quit his job and was a pastor full time for a year and a half, until he could no longer feed his family, and so now he does both. He pastors a small church in Mandela Village, and works in construction. What a heart he has, it poured out of him as we spoke. That if you don’t have God, there is “no life, and no warmth in you. You become stiff and can’t move without God’s warmth. Life is un-livable.” And the way these pastors work together, and know each other! They say about their community, “this is my side, i must pray for all of these, that is your side, you must pray for all of those. what do you need from me? how can i help you? and can you help me with this and that?” …Why does this seem so foreign to me? Isn’t this how it should work? Mustn’t we be strategic about our work in the Lord?

Then Vincent took us to a place on the outskirts of Mamelodi, this small dust-plot with a few trees. Here, a pastor named Isaac is pouring out his life. We meant just to go see the place, but Pastor Isaac was there. He couldn’t stop pouring, and he broke my heart. I hope I never recover from this break. We hardly stepped out of the car and he was at our sides, still in his tie from work. Whether because we’re American, and that implies connection and possibility, or because he simply can’t ever stop himself, no matter the company (i suspect both are true) He started sharing the vision God has cast for him. He said God has filled him with passion for the elderly, and he needs to build an old-age home next to the church. Many in South Africa have no patience for the older generation, as they are quite set in their ways of ancestral worship, and are very closed off to the gospel (i’ve heard other pastors write them off, say we need to focus on the youth). Isaac says, the devil cannot have them. He says if they must die, they will die knowing Jesus. He says in this part of the township, they don’t send ambulances. So he must get some vans donated, and setup a call center, and go to pick people up when there are emergencies. And the hospitals send people home too early, so he must go to the hospitals and tell them, “let’s work together, give me a ledger of who you had to send home, and my church will go and care for them.” and he must build a hospice on this land for the sick, so he can feed them, because the old people don’t take their pills if they have no food to take them with. and when they have food with which to take their pills, and when they feel they are loved, then their bodies will heal.
And i knew as this man spoke, that when he dies, Jesus will know him. Jesus will welcome him home, a tired and beloved brother, whose work is done.

The beginning of a computer lab at Pastor Isaacs’ church

The church is the size of a small house, built of cinderblocks, with a corrugated metal roof. on the floor are a few carpet remnants, that must have been found somewhere along the road. they aren’t just dirty, they’re covered in actual gravel. So tomorrow (saturday) the youth will come out, and he and the youth will clean the carpets so that the elderly don’t have breathing troubles during service on Sunday.

We asked him, is he a full time pastor? He said he also has a job (apologetically!) and as if to explain, he said, “when God has blessed me with work, i must take it. I must keep this work, so that i can use my salary to build the church into what it needs to be. I must keep giving and building for now.”

But why are these brothers so tired? why are they doing the work of 10 men on their own? This family is broken. This family of God, it is not working as it should.
What will God say to us?

And whenever we leave them, they pronounce such blessings on us! they pray for us in such a way! Isaac said, “if more Americans like you could come! all we’ll have to worry about then, will be natural disasters that we can’t prevent. these manmade problems could be gone as they ought to be!” …and he said it with hope. he honestly did. more hope, i’m afraid, than i have at this time.

Whenever Vincent tells us of some issue at the church, some problem, he always says, “so then we started praying. We fasted and prayed for one week.” or, “that was a real problem, so we fasted 21 days, and prayed in the church everyday.” And then God shows up, teaches them something. When the church’s computer school kept getting broken into, they fasted and prayed. The problems stopped, and he said that God spoke to them, “you are too selfish. people outside of the church are hurting. they are robbed and broken. now you have tasted what they know, and you can minister to them.”

And, God forgive me, all I can see in my mind are the countless church meetings spent on milk. How do we entertain the youth better at youth group? is it yet time to re-paint the sanctuary? are the seats comfortable enough? how do we raise money for new ones? are we honoring people’s time, keeping services and meetings short enough, so that we know they will feel comfortable showing up? What about honoring God’s time? We can’t even take 30 minutes to worship him before hearing his word. why would he show up to really teach, fill, and bless us? we haven’t even the time to receive these things from him! what must he think of us? Oh God. Today I fear God. Today I am afraid. Are we the ones who will cry out to him, and will he know us?

Winter Road Trip
2,200 miles… it was 2 weeks on the road that brought quite a range of experiences down in the South. From a low country boil in Georgia to grits and gravy in North Carolina we loved it all! We finally got to meet Will Brown (far right) for the first time, whom is going to SA with us this year. We got to see old friends, spend good time with our interns for next year and met their families and church families! We got to share with churches, pastors, missions’ coordinators, individuals, and even got the chance to speak to a couple of 7th grade social studies classes in Georgia about South Africa! God opened doors in amazing ways.
To read Annie’s thoughts on our winter road trip experience click here.
One last shout out to all our hosts along the way; Bac & Hailey, Greg & Nicol, Sean & Kristie, Nate, Bec, Pip & Champ!

[I HEART AFRICA]
Our Valentine’s Party Fundraiser was a blast. The evening was filled with amazing live music, a silent auction, a real live date package auction and a photo gallery depicting life in Africa. Our good friends braved the cold and supported the event in their typical style. Thanks to everyone for making the night such a success! A special thanks to Nicole Red for all her hard work.
Check out pics of the night in our photo gallery collections right here!

As many of you know, AR has steadily been working on plans to build Church Orphan Homes throughout communities in Africa. The orphan home plans are completed and we thought it time we give you a glimpse of the model. God has been opening up doors with folks willing to come on board with this unique orphan care model.

While in Africa, we will be working with Pastor Vincent and others to make considerable steps towards building our first Church / Orphan Home / Skills Development Center. Our goal is to have it up and running by the World Cup 2010 hosted in South Africa. We need churches here in the US to partner with us in making this vision a reality; if you know of any churches who may be interested in finding out more regarding AR and innovative Orphan Care, please contact us! See video below of Pastor Vincent showing us the potential land for the Powerhouse Church in Mamelodi, South Africa where, Lord willing, the first Church Orphan Home will be built.

On a personal note…
Farewell Chicago! Annie and I leave Chicago at the end of May for Michigan where we will spend a month with family preparing to leave for Africa at the beginning of July! It’s exciting but terribly sad to be leaving behind our friends and family…if only they could all come with us! It seems that in our personal lives God has been challenging us to “count the cost.” In a time when so many choose part-time followership and easy discipleship we too easily forget that “when Christ bids a man, He bids him ‘come and die’” –Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
We have been on a Keith Green kick recently. We both consumed NO COMPROMISE and have his music collection playing 24/7! It’s been refreshing to have that kind of passion and commitment to Christ and His cause constantly washing over us. We are challenged by Keith’s crystal clear convictions and passionate obedience. We highly recommend reading his story and listening to his tunes. And it’s on this note we end this entry, with some of his challenging lyrics.

Last Words
“Make my life a prayer to you, I want to do what you want me to–
No empty words and no white lies, No token prayers, no compromise,…”
– Keith & Melody Green (full song lyrics here)