kingdom travelin'

a growing list of thoughts

There are no sissys in Africa (I’m leaving, I’m leaving).

Don’t be in a hurry, even “now now” means in a little while.

There is no limitless ADSL (you pay by time AND volume (MB).

There is no consistency in weather.

There is no heat in the house when you’re cold, wear wool!

There is no shortage of beauty.

There are so many kind people.

There are people who smile and speak when met on the road or sidewalk.

This list may grow.

Goodbye Africa, until next time.

I’m reading a book that is about hard conversations. It comes from some research done at Harvard. I am really resonating with what the authors are saying. It reminds me that all truth is God’s truth. And it reminds me that we live in such a fallen world. I have had a few hard conversations on this trip and I am glad to be affirmed by the research of these guys. Let me give you a taste:

“…difficult conversations do not just involve feelings, they are at their core about feelings.” (p. 13, Difficult Conversations) They then go on to invest three chapters on the subject of handling feelings in conversations… more later on that I’m sure. One think I KNOW: we need to season all conversations, especially the hard ones with mercy.

Before breakfast I went to the bay to speak with the Lord, I am reminded of Lamentations here:

Your mercy is new every morning, great is your faithfulness. Note the star up just left (north) of center (north, northeast)… this was about 07:07. Grace from Peace because His Grace is like the waves, never ending.

At lunch today, Josh saw me looking over the bay, which is beautiful. He said “you’re gonna miss it.” You’re right Josh. When the weather is nice, it really is beautiful (and having space and wireless is good too). But its hard down here, like the whole communication thing. I realized that today when I got tired of not being able to hear Sweet Anna on our daily phone call and went to my room, fired up the netbook and Skypedout her at work. FINALLY, I can hear and talk with Sweet Anna! Man, my whole mood just changed radically. I felt so great after talking to her! I walked to the beach and took some pix. The sun sets here at like 530 this time of year (it comes up about 730. I will get a rude awakening Saturday when i’m back in the Heartland where the sun comes up at 4 and stays up till 8 or something (Hungary is a bit further north than S. Africa is south) So ANYWHO, the sun was setting, so I took off to see the waning light on the bay (see pic below).

It was all the better because of the warmer than I’ve ever felt down here and my general mood. Connection with our most important people (or person) is soooo important because we are beings who are made for community. I was thinking about this and how it is like when I fail to connect intentionally with God, my spiritual self suffers, have you experienced that too?

But there can hurt in community too. Today we invested the morning at a camp being run to serve girls who have been abused. The percentages of girls subject t such abuse (stated in an earlier post) are just staggering.  Abby was an awesome leader on an intentional walk we took. Early on the little journey, she had us get a rock and carry it. We would stop and read a Scripture and someone would comment on it, then we went to this pond where Abby taught us that there are things we need to throw away from our lives, and she prayed as the kids held  the rocks and then they threw their rocks into the pond. This symbolized that when we give our junk to God and really give it to him, we are free from it! On the way back they took a couple of turns in a little pick-up to get everyone back, but I needed to walk to get some exercise, I took the shot of the road to remember this little leg on my journey. There are people with awesome visions to deal with some of this hard stuff, they just need some help getting it done. I’m praying about how we might help them help these kids. But I have a few more things to see… hard things. But Josh has been telling me the saying down here: ‘Africa’s not for sissys’

On Friday I got to see a weekly ministry to kids in action. A South African couple has a burden to see children have a relationship with Jesus. So, for the last four months they have been coming around each Friday after school to have fun and teach these kids about a relationship with Jesus. The activities start out with sports and games and then singing. Then the wife  shares about Jesus and having a relationship with Him. The husband told me that there are plenty of people telling Bible stories but that what they really need is teaching about know Jesus, not just knowing about him… here are some pix from the day… Josh was a star with the kids, singing, teaching American football and hangin’ out…