“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.” – Psalm 68:5

We have been moved this year as we reflect on how God has used us to fulfill His promises. Many times throughout scripture God speaks with strong language about loving widows, caring for them and His deep concern for their plight. Widows in Africa are not much different from those who find themselves the object of God’s compassion in scripture- they are oftentimes destitute and lonely. They cannot care for themselves and are many times taken advantage of by those around them. I strongly believe it is the role of God’s people to step in and care for them. It’s our role to figure out what they need and support them with dignity and respect.

Last Saturday a team from Campus Outreach- Georgia, joined our Powerhouse team and together we worked side by side restoring the homes of three widows whom we dearly love. Two blind widows live in one house and the other by herself, both needed some major fixing, clean up and paint jobs. The team worked hard together. Singing as they worked and putting all their love into action they finished strong. The old ladies were so grateful, the young people energized, and God was glorified. It was a great day for the Kingdom!

Thanks to everyone who rocked it.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” – James 1:27

^“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” James 1:22

View Nathan Clendenin’s pics of our trip to Mozambique in this slideshow above

It’s logically always made sense to me that God would love orphans but I had an experience recently that made me really feel why God loves the “fatherless”.  He in fact calls Himself, “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.” Psalm 68:5. Throughout scripture we see God’s special concern and fervent love for the fatherless… but speaking to the fatherless face to face here in Africa, God made it really hit home. These boys’ now young men seemed to have an air about them. I sensed they were His and He was their defender. It surprised me how strongly He impressed this on me and how it moved me. He really cares for these guys. Then God kept showing me the privilege and honor He bestows on you and I to be protectors and defenders of His “fatherless”.

For example-

While in Mozambique I studied Job and I wanted to know what kind of man he was that God could place full confidence in him above all others on the earth. It was surprising and relevant. Here is Job’s description of himself as a man who took on God’s righteousness and what this practically looked like;

¹¹ Whoever heard me spoke well of me,
       and those who saw me commended me,

 ¹² because I rescued the poor who cried for help,
       and the fatherless who had none to assist him.

 ¹³ The man who was dying blessed me;
       I made the widow’s heart sing.

 ¹⁴ I put on righteousness as my clothing;
       justice was my robe and my turban.

 ¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind
       and feet to the lame.

 ¹⁶ I was a father to the needy;
       I took up the case of the stranger.

– Job 29:11-16

And then Job goes on to describe sins he did NOT commit and ends with heavy language describing what should happen to him if he were to commit these sins.

¹⁶ “If I have denied the desires of the poor
       or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,

 ¹⁷ if I have kept my bread to myself,
       not sharing it with the fatherless-

 ¹⁸ but from my youth I reared him as would a father,
       and from my birth I guided the widow-

 ¹⁹ if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing,
       or a needy man without a garment,

 ²⁰ and his heart did not bless me
       for warming him with the fleece from my sheep,

 ²¹ if I have raised my hand against the fatherless,
       knowing that I had influence in court,

 ²² then let my arm fall from the shoulder;
       let it be broken off at the joint. 

– Job 32: 16-22

 I’m not sure I have the courage to pray the same prayer. Yet I hope that some of the former things could be said of me when it’s all been said and done.

The picture above was taken a few months ago when we first met Nicodemus. He is a 38 yr old man who has been severally handicapped his whole life. When he was born the doctors told his parents to give him up for institutional care. His parents told us they’ve always known that he is their special gift from God, and that they always want him with them. For 38 years this (now elderly) couple has bathed, fed and cared for their son with the very limited resources they have. Nicodemus can’t communicate verbally, but understands much of what is going on around him. He cannot move, not even in a wheel chair. He spends his days lying flat on his back on an old mattress in the garage, set on top of a homemade wooden bed frame, listening to the radio or the neighborhood kids playing around him. To look around the room he strains his neck around. As soon as we met him I knew that he needed a real bed, a mobile hospital bed with wheels. The kind that makes that cool air-brake sound when it lets you sit up or lay down.

A few days after we met Nicodemus I was trying to help lay tiles in the new computer lab (check it out here) and I pulled something in my back. I couldn’t move at all, but only lay on my back in pain. During those uncomfortable hours of seeing the doctor, x-rays and a shot in the butt, I really contemplated what life must be like for Nicodemus.

Life got busy… yet every “to do list” I wrote began with “find a bed.” I can’t afford a hospital bed, yet God was instructing and I needed to pay attention. Speaking with the Doc who helped with my back pains, he put us in touch with a guy he knew in charge of maintenance at a hospital in Pretoria. He had us come down to the hospital. In a few minutes we had the perfect hospital bed and mattress loaded up on our truck. It was pretty surreal how God seemed to have orchestrated all this. Words cannot tell what followed. The pictures in the slide show above show the delivery and celebration that ensued. The joy on Nicodemus’ face was beautiful as he sat propped up in his new bed. His father led with a powerful prayer of deep gratitude to answered prayer.

Stopping and paying attention to God’s voice made a world of difference to our friend Nicodemus. God could have used someone else to answer those prayers, or because of my disobedience, not at all. We have the incredible opportunity to impact people’s lives in major ways. It speaks loudly of the Father’s love. Our grassroots projects list is our way of facilitating that experience for you. So do something, give a scholarship, buy a drum set or give a warm meal. You may not be here in Africa to see the smiles, but you can still share in the joy of joining God in his work. CLICK HERE to see our Projects

Last Words

“And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.” Matt 10:42

“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.