Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho off to Qumbu we go
Today we are driving through Transkei to Mr. Vumile's home town (or should I say Village) of Qumbu. He has invited us along with our friend & partner Raymond to come train his simple house church of about 15 people in CPM principals. We are so very excited to provide the support and tools for Mr. Vumile to lead his community in reaching those that are far from Christ within their village and to be the church body within their rural African community.
God has begun doing some exciting things within this area. We see a team of African leaders developing around Umthatha, all who have a passion for bringing their friends and neighbors into a life-transforming relationship with Him. It's beautiful-each of them have their own contribution to communities that also provide them access to other influencial leaders in these areas.
As we go this week we are praying:
-for clear communication and open receptive hearts and minds for the folks we are going to build relationship with and train
-we are thanking God for the team of African leaders He has begun constructing in the Eastern Cape and praying for their unity and relationships this week as they spend a bit of time together connecting with Him and finding ways of reaching their communities together
a day without dignity?
I hesitate to post this video because we personally do not find that attacking others attempts at aide is going to change the situation in Africa. We recognize that aide to Africa has become a controversial issue. However the statistics in this video are alarming enough to pose the questions are we often harming more than we are helping without even realizing it?
"Handing out free goods out competes local markets"
"Used clothing imports to Africa caused 50% of the increase in unemployment between 1981-2000"
"Between 1992-2006 543,000 Nigerian textile workers lost jobs due to imported clothes donations"
I enjoyed a few other viewers suggestions and thoughts about the possibility of Tom's sourcing locally to provide a bit more dignity and sustainable change??
build deep to build wide
What a pointless structure...sure it's something to admire as a great work of art, but it's mostly useless. Scaffolding is meant to help build something-to leave something that is much sturdier and far more secure behind. The point isn't the scaffolding but the structure.
"The mission society is like scaffolding that is used to build a building, and the scaffolding is designed to be moved elsewhere eventually. As long as it is there, one cannot really see what the building looks like. Sadly, the kind of scaffolding that some mission societies erect and maintain is the kind that actually holds the building up. Removing it could jeopardize the structure!
Have you ever seen a building or bridge made with poured concrete? The builders put wooden or metal trusses under the bridge, and then pour concrete over the top to form the road over the bridge. Suppose for a moment that the engineers and the construction people built such a structure with concrete so weak that they couldn't take out the framework used to hold it up. That is sometimes why mission societies hold on the way they do, because the structure they built is tied to the mission. And if one were to "take down" the mission scaffolding, the fear is that the entire structure would collapse. It may take a heap of Christian grace to acknowledge when this is the case and to do something about it."
We had an incredible week with Mr. Derrick and his wonderful family. He has built beautiful 'buildings' all over eSikhaleni. But he's in the business for a little renovating. We have committed to working alongside him and each of his teams and church body to plant the gospel through eSikhaleni and Zululand. Mr. Derrick has this inspiring drive and passion to see the church BE the church within their communities. To reach those in his neighborhood, places of business and surrounding communities that are so far from living out of their relationship with their creator.
Each night we were there we joined him and the church he leads at their "Easter week tent revival". Each night Mr. Derrick shared a bit of his vision for what their community could look like if the gospel was at the heart of life in Esikhaleni. He motivated his church body to "be" the church in stead of "doing" church. He even gave a brief training for how they are going to get there.
Mr. Derrick has a dream of planting 35 million simple churches over the next 7 years throughout South Africa. You may be laughing, and you wouldn't be the first. Each time he shares his dream and vision the room erupts into laughter. But Mr. Derrick doesn't mind because he has a plan. This year he is heavily investing in 12 people. The next year he's going to help each of them invest in 12 people and the year after that he'll help those 12 invest in 12 more... Mr. Derrick understands the principals of multiplication and understands even more that he could never build a building big enough to hold, let alone attract 35 million people to himself--beautiful isn't it?
Scaffolding was made to support a structure so it could be moved to help build the next building. It was never meant to be the building. There is no way for it to function the way a building ought to. Plotting, planning and praying as we support Mr. Derrick and his enthusiastic endeavors to bring a bit of heaven to earth throughout South Africa.
This way to Zulu Land
We are spending this week in Zulu Land with new friend and partner Mr. Derrick-what a name, huh?
We met Derrick at a leadership conference earlier this month and his passion for his community is evident from the moment you meet him. He is easily excitable and has a beautiful grasp of vision mixed with hope for the area in which he lives. Mr. Derrick has started a handful of Discovery Groups in the last month and is eager to see more of his friends and neighbors begin the journey of discovering who God is...
We're headed about 3.5 hours north of us to see what he has going and offer to serve him and his team in any way we can.
Won't you spend a little time this week joining us in praying for Derrick and his team there, for his friends, neighbors and community....
This week we are praying for:
-eyes for specific needs within the community that may uplift the community and provide opportunity for relationship between Mr. Derrick and his team and other community leaders and/or people of influence that are open to discovering who God is
-our relationship with Mr. Derrick and his family and team, that we might have hearts that serve them in a way that sharpens, strengthens and adds value to their team
-as always, a community with a growing hunger and desire to know God...really know Him, in a way that changes the way people think and live
We are incredibly privileged to be here-to see, smell and taste what God is doing in the hearts and lives of the people here, thank you for your prayers, support, and encouragement.
em-pow-er
1. the giving or delegation of power or authority
2. the giving of an ability
so often we, as Westerners, take that from local African leadership. We come to do jobs that they can do and send a message that says we think we can do it better. We are on a journey discovering that our role is not about “doing” but being a reminder, a mover, a voice that encourages the dreams that people dare to dream for their own communities here in South Africa.
Like our dear friend Ms. Vava. She is a retired nurse. She uses her skills every week by filling her nursing kit, with supplies from her own pocket to serve mama’s and children in rural villages that don’t have access to meds and or adequate health care. Ms. Vava knows better than I ever could the challenges and the heartache that mama’s and children face in these rural areas. So she takes it upon herself to not only care for their physical needs but to lend an ear and a prayer to each patient she sees.
And she doesn’t stop there. She longs to give the people she serves the freeing relationship she’s found with her Creator. That’s mostly what makes her do what she does.
That’s a woman I want to get behind…whose effort I want to support. This week we are accompanying her at a “Health Builder conference” hosted by a couple of Doctors from the states who are passionate about the same things. They are working to train local leaders in testing for HIV/AIDS, high blood sugar and high blood pressure…the most common health issues in rural South Africa.
We’re hoping to sharpen her skills and give her a tool she can use to train other leaders she may come across in her work. This provides her with access to new villages all across the Transkei. She can use her skills in nursing and caring for the sick to find people who are open to Discovering who God is and what a relationship with Him is like.
Won’t you join us in praying for our time with Ms. Vava, for her heart and vision…that she might encounter people who are open to Discovering Him and would join her on her journey of inviting life-giving change to the Transkei…
Update from Bukwini…& Shakira (these hips don’t lie)
We spent last week in Bukwini working alongside Mr. Vumile, a Farming God’s Way expert, and other community leaders. Oh, what a week it was! For the past few months Vumile and his lovely wife Patience have been traveling to Bukwini from their Transkei home in Qumbu in order to serve the families on the Bukwini Child Sponsorship List. Each of these families are caring for one or more orphaned children in this village. We are working toward each of them having a self sustaining garden in order to feed their families. Some of the people on the list have worked diligently in their gardens and have already produced a nice crop. One mama produced 20 liters of spinach alone! Others have put little to no effort into caring for their gardens which was such a disappointment to Vumile who has invested much time and hard work into making each garden a success. He isn’t giving up though. He has found two people who he has trained up in Farming God’s Way in the village and will be sending them back to walk alongside the families that are struggling.
We have a long standing relationship with community leader Mr. Njinjoni and his family who is playing an active role in the Child Sponsorship as well. Together Njinjoni and Vumile have worked to help others realize the importance of working together as a community. If I heard Vumile say it once, I heard it a thousand times, “One hour per day in your garden equals a lifetime of prosperity” and “You must work together, no one can do it alone.” If you spend five minutes with him you’ll quickly realize that he has a deep passion for farming and for people...with little patience for people who aren’t willing to do something for themselves. He will be going back to Bukwini for the next several months to work alongside the current leaders in the gardens of the village.
At the end of the month, we (Raymond, Shea, and I) will be going to Qumbu (Vumile’s home town) to train him in Church Planting principles. We all hope to see Farming God’s Way as an access tool into the community to plant Discovery Groups within Bukwini.
If you want to be a part of what is happening in Bukwini there is a trip scheduled to happen sometime in late-August 2011. You would get the opportunity to help plant gardens, work alongside Vumile, meet the people of Bukwini, and use a long drop for the very first time.
doing my best to be
ironic isn't it? Even "being" requires a certain about of "doing" on my part. I'm challenged by that, I'm challenged by this.
"There is something glamorous about going to help people in remote parts of the world whom we perceive to be less fortunate than we are. Unless that spirit is challenged, however, the seeds of the dependency syndrome will continue to be sown before we even leave our own country. The challenge is to present the Gospel in such a way that people will not become dependent upon the good things that we go out to do.
One of the assumptions is that missionary candidates are being recruited to go out to do something significant among the world's poor, needy and unevangelized people. The emphasis here is on doing something which I believe often results in the development of the dependency syndrome. Without a proper understanding of how to help, Westerners end up doing things which others could do for themselves. The need to be needed is a very powerful force.
What if our heart was "I am going out to be rather than to do? I am going to stand beside open graves and weep with others at funerals. I am going out to encourage other people to be all that they can be before the Lord. I am not going out to do what others can do for themselves"
This week isn't about Derek or I really "doing" anything. I don't have to learn to plant gardens and teach others to, because there are already Africans who know how to do that. I can cheer them on and point him to those I know are in need.
He's here, if He is who He says He is, and His word is a promise and is real then He is reconciling the world to Himself, and it brings me joy up to my ears to get to be apart of that happening here, in this village. I think John says it best by saying "There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light" [John 6-8 MSG]
I am not the light, I am not the provider, I am not the answer to their problems, but I know someone who is and I'm gonna keep pointing that way.
caught day dreaming
"We often assume that the poor have nothing to give back to God. This may be related to a second assumption which is that since those living in poverty don't have much money, they have little or nothing to give to God. This could explain why in some churches the collection is taken in a velvet bag with a small hole in a wooden handle at the top. The only thing it is designed to receive is money-something the poor don't have in abundance. As one man in Africa said, "you can't even put in a banana, let alone a cow or a bag of maize. Churches that have broken dependency on outside resources have learned that a new kind of giving must be found if they are to get on their feet financially. Of course, that will mean changing basic assumptions about giving.
A few years ago I learned about a church in Rwanda that invited its members to bring whatever they had without emphasis on money. They found that so many kinds of produce were brought that the church had to assign a previously unemployed person to collect and sell the produce the church was given. They also found in the process that a side benefit emerged. The side benefit was that they were able to help some truly needy people in the community from the produce given to the church. The church not only had increased income for its operation, but it was able to minister to those who were truly needy in their midst. In addition to the produce stand from which they sold the things member were bringing, they eventually created a cattle kraal [fence] for the animals that were given to the church. When the assumption about what could be give to the church changed, the "offering basket" was enlarged to the size of a cattle kraal!"
Dreaming of hearts in this place that through relationship with Him would find themselves in excess, excess to help and serve those that are in need. Praying for Him to work wonders.
the story of another
As I sit in this village it's easy to wonder if God is really here, if He's always been here, what His plans are for this place...Can't help but be moved, comforted and encouraged by this simple story of truth.
"Some years ago, I heard a story of a Nigerian churchman who met a young missionary in North America. Someone asked the Nigerian, "What would you say to a young missionary who is going out to your country in West Africa for the first time?" The Nigerian reflected for a moment and then said, "I would say, just remember you are not taking God to West Africa; God is taking you to West Africa." That remark speaks to the very heart of the missionary motivation and attitude."
a week in Bukwini
We are in Bukwini this entire week working alongside our friend and "Farming God's Way" mentor, Mr. Vumile. Mr. Vumile is a dynamic Xhosa man who is not only trained, but passionate about teaching his people about planting gardens. But he doesn't stop there. Mr. Vumile puts it best when saying "I teach them to garden, but really I get in their heart to sow God seeds and help them realize they must help their neighbors" . Working along side he and his wife, Patience, is such a gift. We are continuing to build relationship with the counsel and some of the most vulnerable children and families within this village.
We invite you to pray with us
-That God will lead us to "people of peace" throughout the village of Bukwini. People that are open to Discovering who God is and what a relationship with Him is like. People that are willing to open their families and community up to the same thing
-We are staying in the village with one of the counsel-men and his family who we have stayed with before and have been building a relationship with for years, however we still ask for prayers of safety
-We pray that the heart beat of this village will be transformed, redeemed, made new. That the people here would thirst for interaction with God and His word, that they would enter into an obedient relationship with their maker and become burdened by those suffering in their own community
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