Sweet Sorrow

With the time change in the States, I’m now only 6 hours ahead of EST. After the first weekend of April when we change our clocks, it will only be 5 hours. For those trying to do the math and not adding up, it’s because we’re in 2 different hemispheres so we change in opposite directions. In the north it’s “spring ahead, fall back”. Down here, it’s “fall forward, spring back”.

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Today’s my last full day with Don & Jackie. I take them to the airport at about noon tomorrow to send them back to life in the States. It’s been great spending some time with them. They definitely bring an American sense of humor which has been fun to share. They also brought some tastes from home (Nutty Bars, Reeses Pieces, M&Ms, and such). But more importantly, they brought my first experience with hosting short-termers from home. They’ve helped restore my faith in short-term missions because there definitely is some value.

Short-termers bring an encouragement to long-termers by simply listening and getting excited with us about what we’re doing. Nothing increases ones joy more than sharing the thing that you love. Like recommending a good book, their love for the ministry brings a revitalizing joy. They also bring a renewed energy to the ministry. Where it often becomes everyday life for us, they realize they only have so much time and want to pack it full of opportunity. Just for now, I’ve associated myself with the long-termers only because I’m here longer than my visiting friends. However, I more than recognize even my year is very short term. The long-termers I’ve come to respect and love are those who’re committed to 10yrs, 20yrs, or a lifetime of service.

International Womens Day

As of this afternoon, Jackie can add to her resume, International Keynote Speaker. Sylvia Beukes, the national director for Hope’s Promise, was helping put on a large event to celebrate International Womens Day. She had asked Jackie to prepare a message on “the seasons of women” which she has been working on and collecting input from everywhere we’ve been so far. So this afternoon, while Don and I were out playing pool with Franco (don’t ever let Don fool you, he’s smoking!), Jackie was delivering her speech, poised and prepared, for about 150 other women. In the end it was only 7 minutes, but apparently very motivational since everybody was asking for copies. You just never know what ministry opportunities God might have for you when you show up over here. :) Congrats Jackie!

Photo of the Day

Illegal Alien

As of today I’m officially illegal. My 90 day tourist visa ran out yesterday so now I’m on the run, ducking police roadblocks, cringing at every siren…well ok, not quite. With my application in the hands of Home Affairs they say I’m fine since they’re the ones holding it up. To make a long story short, since it’s the second time I applied they came back and said I needed to file an appeal letter. Fortunately, since there’s an agency working on it for me they do all that stuff so I don’t have to worry about it. Hopefully this is the last of the run-around paperwork and I should be golden within the week. Thanks for all your prayers!

Bring the Fire

Another weekend in Arandis made for more late nights, investing in relationships, and lots of funny moments. Friday and Saturday nights at the crusade provided more of the same. Crowds of people flooded the stage to be prayed over for healing or employment or to be ‘baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ Toward the end of the last night while the different pastors were praying over people and they were falling down left and right, the preacher called me over to pray for me. Realizing there was no polite way out of it, I begrudgingly set down my guitar and let him pray for me. He kept praying “Bring the fire! Bring the fire!” and I kept praying “Thank you Lord that I already have the Spirit living in me!” I found humor in the situation, mostly because I believe so differently than they do. I went back to our Bible study in Okahandja on Monday where we were talking about the Spirit of the Lord leaving Saul and coming upon David, and made a special point of emphasis about us receiving the Spirit once for all when we become children of God. Guess the whole experience made a lasting impression.

Overall, it was a great weekend. I spent a lot of time with the young people from Arandis Community Church since many of them were also helping with the music. I finished up taking family photos of the Hope’s Promise families that I didn’t get to last weekend. That whole process has been cool because it’s allowed me to get to know many of the kids that I didn’t know before. But probably my highlight of the weekend was leading worship for youth group on Sunday afternoon. It was a great joy playing and worshiping together with such an inspiring group of teens.

Don & Jackie had already started their 48 hour countdown when I left. They will join me back in Okahandja tomorrow, then we’ll head down to Rehoboth on Thursday, stopping in Windhoek on the way to hang with Toivo.

Photo of the Day

Photo of the Day

Chandre twirling her braids.