Celebrating with style!

Allow us to catch up a bit and share about a significant day this past November, a day in the lives of some students in the high school ministry that Cherie leads. But first, a little background to better understand the day…

Being south of the equator, we’re in summer, headed towards fall – and correspondingly, our schools match the seasons. At the end of 2011 students across the nation completed a school year and have begun their subsequent year in the last couple of weeks. This past year was a noteworthy year. The high school class of 2011 was called “Mandela’s kids” because its students were born in 1994, the year Nelson Mandela was elected president in South Africa’s first fully democratic election. Those students were the first to go through their entire schooling under the new government and system that entitles all students to the same opportunity for education and learning. However, that opportunity has not been the reality for the students in Impumelelo Phambili, Cherie’s high school ministry, nor for thousands of others like them.

Unfortunately, large numbers of South Africa’s students are subjected to schooling in inadequate facilities with overcrowded classrooms; under-skilled, under-paid and unmotivated teachers; and a lack of funding and resources for books and materials – in other words, they receive a very sub-standard education that is trying to play make-up from the educational wrongs of the past. Sadly, the students are the ones that suffer from this reality. In 2011, of all the high school students that wrote their exams to graduate from high school, only 70% passed, though this was cause for celebration as this was the highest ‘pass rate’ in the nine years we’ve lived in the country (at least as best as we can remember).

The South African schooling system is different in significant ways from the system we knew growing up in the US. Much could be written about those differences, but here we’ll simply highlight that 12th graders study and write national cumulative final exams, covering material they’ve learned throughout their high school years, in order to graduate. After completing their exams, students wait about one month to learn if they successfully passed their exams, and have graduated. How do they know if they have passed? They look for their results in a newspaper. On the national release date of the results, students gather at their high school with newspapers in hand and look for their student ID number in the paper to see whether or not they have passed and graduated. This is pretty much the extent of their graduation. No formal ceremony with cap and gown (or anything). No Pomp and Circumstance. (Can you read our cultural bias between the lines of this update? Shame on us…) Now, back to a special day last November.

On Saturday the 19th, Cherie’s high school ministry honored and celebrated its first five 12th grade students – young people with aspirations and dreams of graduating from high school. When the high school youth ministry began in 2008, it only included grade 8 and 9 students. Four years later, it had its first grade 12 graduates from Impumelelo Phambili (IP). On that morning, the five graduating students arrived to the year’s final gathering not knowing that a celebration ceremony awaited them. The five were escorted to a separate room and dressed in formal graduation gowns and caps (donated by friends during our US home visit last year). They then paraded in front of their peers to the traditional Pomp and Circumstance march music and were individually presented with a graduation certificate from IP. Small group leaders spoke prayers of blessing over each student’s life and for their future. Graduates then had the opportunity to share words of wisdom, encouragement and challenge to their younger peers, and in turn, their peers got to share words of thanks and affirmation to the graduates. It was an amazing, beautiful exchange of encouragement amongst the students! Cherie had tears of pride and joy for her five graduates – young people that she has known and watched grow since 2002.
The celebration ended with the graduates tossing their caps in the air and much cheering, followed by a pizza lunch and cake which said, “Congradulations Class of 2011.” What a festive way to end the ministry year and honor students that had gone the distance.

In January, Cherie phoned her five IP graduates to find out if they had passed their exams. Only one out of the five had passed all their exams. The other four students had failed a couple of their exams and therefore, did not graduate. Cherie welled up with anger as she knows those students are bright, and the reason they failed was because the education system had failed them. The students who failed were discouraged at first – but they have a second opportunity to re-write their failed exams, in March. All four have positive attitudes and are trusting they will pass on the second chance. They trust they will “achieve forward in life” (Impumelelo Phambili in Zulu)! Peter, the only student that did pass, was able to do so partly because he was sponsored by a family that paid for his high school education, sending him to a better school outside his informal settlement. Peter has been accepted to one of the major universities in Johannesburg and is starting his studies right
now. Cherie asked Peter what he plans to study…his answer? He wants to become a high school teacher! Peter, after having a positive educational experience, will now be able to pour into the lives of disadvantaged students and hopefully become part of the new generation of teachers that are desperately needed to affect change in the future. Please take a moment and thank God for Peter…

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jer 29:11, NIV – the verse inscribed in the students’ IP graduation certificates)

Praise Items

• Thank you for your prayers for leaders of Cherie’s high school ministry as they have developed plans to re-format the ministry. New ideas are in place and are being implemented as we write. Pray for Charles, a local leader that has been identified and will now being equipped to provide point leadership to the ministry beginning in 2013. Pray for Philen, a key leader, as he grooms Charles for that role. Pray for Cherie as she’ll now be primarily focused on recruiting mentors for the students, and writing curriculum for the mentors to use in building into the students. Pray for all, leaders and students, as changes are implemented one step at a time.
• Thank you for praying for David’s research trip within SA, from 29 January – 8 February. God answered prayers! David (and Cherie, who went as well) had an amazingly fruitful time connecting with leaders and returned with 40 completed survey forms from key pastoral leaders. Please pray for another trip that will take place sometime during the middle two weeks of March.

Prayer Points

• Please pray for Nkele, Innocentia, Zacharia and Godfrey, the four IP students that will re-write exams in late March for the subjects they failed. Pray that they will grasp and retain whatever information is needed in order to pass their exams. And pray against the spirit of discouragement.
• Pray for David as he meets with members of the TOPIC Global Leadership Team 16-18
  February…the team faces serious decisions regarding TOPIC International’s future. More than anything, pray that each team member would hear God’s voice, in a unified way, regarding His intentions for TOPIC in the future.
• Please pray for our hosting of a short-term ministry team 3-10 March, serving at the HIV + AIDS hospice home and Cherie’s children’s/youth ministries. Pray for a unified team that serves well, and pray that we can serve and host team members in a way that blesses them.

Language Lessons

A proverb from Guinea: Knowledge is like a garden: if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! (Or, as people like to say here in South Africa, compliments of the new year!...though we haven’t yet found anyone that knows exactly what that phrase means…) We hope this update finds you coming off a blessed Christmas season and ready for 2012. We had a wonderful opportunity to catch our breath surrounding the holidays, and are feeling rested and ready for the coming year of ministry. Thank you to many of you that were in touch in the last month through emails, cards and otherwise.

In our January updates, we like to share broader areas of prayer for the coming year, and this January is no exception. With apologies for the length of this update, after a couple of brief updates since our last ‘normal’ update in October, following are areas where we would value your prayers, and God’s answers to them, in 2012.

Praise items: Thank you for praying for…

• David’s participation in an OC International leadership conference and meetings in Brazil in October. It was a great time of connecting, integration, learning and encouragement. The conference provided a very strong sense of affirmation for us joining this agency in 2009. Please pray for one of the outcomes from the conference, David’s efforts to establish a leadership development network within OC.
• Our local OC team’s efforts on financial planning issues – South African income tax and health insurance issues. We are still in process with this, attempting to find more affordable health insurance options and to reduce/eliminate our income tax liability to the South Africa Revenue Service. Your continued prayers would be appreciated.
• The end of Cherie’s high school ministry year, in November. As last year was the first year she had 12th graders in the ministry, she planned and conducted a surprise graduation ceremony for five students graduating out of the ministry. It was an incredible time of celebration and affirmation!
• We hadn’t announced this in advance, but in November we were blessed by a visit from David’s sister Karen and family friend Chana from the US. We had a blast being together and creating memories as we did some really fun things here.

Prayer requests for the next month…

Please pray for planning efforts for each of us.

• Cherie will be having a series of meetings with other leaders of the high school ministry, to explore significant changes to the structure of the ministry. These discussions will continue well into the year, but several significant meetings will take place soon. A key national leader, one whom Cherie thought could take point leadership of the ministry, has just announced he will be moving to Cape Town in one year.
• Please pray for this issue throughout the year (we’ll keep you posted) – for God’s guidance, for unity, good communication, and for Cherie to increasingly know what her role should be going forward.
• David is working feverishly to make appointments with pastoral leaders through the first quarter, with a goal to complete the data collection portion of a research project he is conducting with a team of others (more below). He will need to make two trips to other South African provinces in the next ten weeks, including one beginning ~30 January to some remote communities. Please pray for networking and connections to find pastors in other parts of the country, and for open doors for appointments.
• We will be hosting a short-term serving team the first week of March, and we’re ramping up our planning efforts for that week. Please pray for our coordination and communication with Pat, Charlene and Denise as together we put together a great week of ministry!

…and for all of 2012 (in random order).

Please pray…

• For our intentional efforts to abide (Jn 15:5) and abound (1 Cor 15:58) in our walks with Jesus.
• That Cherie would continue disciplines she began in December, to eat more healthily and exercise regularly (in anticipation of a milestone birthday next January J). And David too, and for his encouragement of his wife!
• For David’s efforts, with colleagues, to sort out challenges facing TOPIC International. (TOPIC is the international pastoral training network for which David leads efforts in Southern Africa.) In mid-2011, TOPIC’s international director resigned, and it took the remainder of the year to initiate a process to address this challenge/situation. Essentially, David will be part of a global team that will work intensively, in the first half of the year, to bring substantial structural change to TOPIC. Please pray for David’s efforts with Otto, Philip, Ramesh and Paul – for wisdom, creative thinking, clarity, communication, unity, courage and more. Please pray in particular for our first in-person task force meeting 16-18 February, which should establish our six-month plan for this significant process.
• That God would reveal a select number of girls from the high school ministry that Cherie can disciple and build into in 2012.
• For opportunities for Cherie to facilitate HIV + AIDS workshops with church leaders around Johannesburg, and to travel with David to conduct workshops in other parts of the country and in surrounding nations. She would like to see these workshops becoming an increasing part of her ministry here, and would like to give this a lot of focus in 2012.
• For David’s leadership of a task force conducting the training research project in South Africa. This project, surveying pastoral leaders about their need for more training and development, has been a huge undertaking and needs to turn a corner in 2012. About 750 surveys have been collected, and the goal is to complete around 100 more surveys in the first quarter of the year.
• Please pray for David as he attempts to ‘crack the whip’ on task force members, keeping all members focused and moving forward. Pray that all would be intentional, disciplined and encouraged, moving forward.
• That Cherie would have more joy in 2012. The 2nd half of 2011 was very difficult, especially due to putting out a lot of fires that developed in her ministries during last year’s home visit. She was pretty well worn out by the end of the year, and is trusting God for a different year of ministry in 2012.
• For us in the midst of transitions within our Johannesburg ministry team:
• A couple, dear teammates and friends, are moving out of the country in July/August, for a projected two years (we’re withholding their names here as this news hasn’t been publicly announced in the region). Pray for us as we release them and prepare for a new phase in our relationships.
• We hope/expect to welcome a new couple to our team, Scott and Maggie, who are currently raising support and intending to join our ministry team this year. Please pray for us to be disciplined and prepared to welcome and integrate them. We’re excited! But we don’t want them to feel like their arrival is just another task amidst all our activity…please pray to help us make it otherwise.
• Related to the couple that is departing from our team, the husband and David have worked closely together on an initiative the last three years, and the husband’s departure will necessitate changes to strategy, leadership, etc. Please pray for their efforts (together with others) in the first half of the year, to adjust their plans and make an effective transition.
• One year ago we asked for prayer as we wanted to seriously consider whether we’d continue as a part of our local church in Johannesburg. Because 2011 was so unusual, with our long home visit, we never truly began that evaluative process. However, we did fulfill, by year’s end, the serving commitments we had made within the church, so once again we’re asking for prayer regarding our church future here. 2012 should be more of a normal year for us, providing us the opportunity to truly engage this issue. Please pray for and with us here.

Thank you for praying with and for us! We’re grateful for your partnership with us in this invaluable and strategic way.

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving… (Col 4:2, NASB)

Lastly, if you’re interested, our agency, OC International, will be periodically sharing stories in 2012 to mark the 60-year anniversary of the mission. If you’re interested in a very brief story highlighting a bit of the heritage of our mission, we’ve re-posted that story below, in the next blog entry.

A bit of OC's heritage

In 2012 OC International is celebrating our 60th anniversary as a mission agency. By the grace of God, beginning in 1952 with just three American missionary couples, OC’s ministry has grown and expanded into a worldwide ministry which last year served more than 1,000,000 national church leaders.

To celebrate these 60 wonderful years, throughout this year we will be highlighting various aspects of OC’s worldwide ministry. As we begin this year of celebration, I want to share with you the amazing story of four Chinese believers, apart from whose sacrifice there never would have been an OC International. Their story is below…
Greg Gripentrog, President, OC International

The year was 1950. The city was Shanghai, China. The Chinese Communists had taken over the city. Four American missionaries, Dick and Ruth Hillis and Paul and Madra Holsinger, were under house arrest because of an anti-Communist tract Dick had written. Over recent months Dick had repeatedly been charged with being an American spy or an agent of the Nationalist
army. A number of missionaries had already been executed by the Communists, and Dick knew that at any moment the dreaded knock on the door might come … the march into the street …
then a bullet in the back of the head.

The knock did come. However, the Communist leader did not bring a word of judgment and death, but rather a word of release and freedom. Two Chinese couples had approached Communist officials and offered to give their lives in exchange for the two missionary couples. Their offer was accepted, and within five hours the missionaries were on a boat leaving Shanghai. Within a year Dick Hillis was in Formosa sharing the gospel with 400,000 Nationalist troops who had fled the mainland, and the next year OC was born!

As a mission we owe our very existence to the sacrifice of these two Chinese couples. I am looking forward to meeting them one day in heaven and recounting to them the incredible things the Lord has done in nations around the world as a result of their sacrifice.

Dick Hillis, OC Founder, was fond of saying, “It’s amazing how much gets done when no one cares who gets the credit.”


Did You Know?

Sixty years ago OC began with one team of three couples on the island of Formosa, with no intent to become an international mission. Today we are:
• 10 mobilization centers (sending countries)
• 34 nations where we have resident personnel
• 74 teams
• 675 ministry personnel (60% non-U.S.)

Culture shock at the grocery store

Heading into New Year's Day, we were without a product to complete a recipe Cherie'd been wanting to make - refried beans. Refried beans is one of those products that comes and goes on the shelves of certain grocery stores in Johannesburg. Cans can be found for a few months, and then for a few months they're nowhere to be found...as is true for certain other imported products. So on New Year's Day, we resorted to a new idea - to finally check out the Spar grocery store in Fourways.

The Spar in Fourways wasn't a new idea, as we'd heard about it for years. Other American ministry workers had shared about this particular store, speaking of it in excited, reverential tones. It was said that this store, supposedly located near a private school where many expatriates send their children, stocked many imported items. We had the idea that the prices would be on the high side, as we'd also recently read in a book that, supposedly, a nearby suburb was the neighborhood of choice for wealthier Americans living in Joburg - many in a gated community that featured herbivores roaming the grounds, such as zebra, various types of antelope, and others. Just a little different from our community!

So we ventured to the Spar late on New Year's morning, wondering what we'd find. In short, our experience was very similar to ones we have every time we're back in the US - we got hit with a blow of culture shock inside a grocery store.

The inside of the store was unlike any we'd seen in South Africa, and certainly beyond the grocery stores where we normally shop. The deli, bakery and flower sections combined were larger than one of the stores we normally shop. And the variety! The overall feeling was one of having been transported into a grocery store somewhere else, perhaps on another planet.

It wasn't merely an exeperience of thinking we were in an American grocery store, as there were, unexpected to us, many products that must have been imported from Europe. We encountered new languages, ingredients and food ideas at every turn. And yes, there were certainly American food products for sale that we'd never seen anywhere else in South Africa - with expected high prices to match. We found labels and logos with familiar names...Campbell's, Kraft, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Old El Paso, etc. Some of the items were products informally known as 'comfort foods - in our case, in more ways than one!

And most importantly, we found refried beans! Mission accomplished. It seemed a bit strange, after an hour of walking through the store with jaws hanging on the ground, to be walking out of the store with only four small products in hand (two cans of refried and one can of black beans, and some butter we'd remembered we needed). But we chalked up our morning to being part shopping, part cultural experience - perhaps the beginning of an annual tradition to be reminded that we can still experience culture shock here even after so many years.

A God of celebration

A couple of weeks ago, David was blessed to participate in a celebration marking the 20th birthday of a family of churches in South Africa. The founder of the churches, Pastor Phineas, is a friend of ours and a ministry colleague of David’s, and David was only too happy to accept the invitation to attend the celebration and share a few words at one of the services. (Unfortunately, Cherie could not participate as she was too busy with prep for her high school camp.) It was a wonderful weekend of relationships, worship, encouragement, vision and remembrance. All who attended were in agreement that it was a great weekend together…but through it all, from David’s standpoint, was a question to be answered – was the celebration biblical?

Certainly God is a celebratory God. He delights in celebrations and parties (counter to the impression that some have that He is a stern taskmaster or chief of the behavior police). In the Old Testament we find the creation account, where God consistently took time to admire the things He had created, and “saw that it was good” – probably times of reflection and celebration. God also commanded His people to celebrate through several types of feasts. From the New Testament, we know that Jesus attended a wedding, and a party at the invitation of Matthew. There can be no question that God celebrates and wants us to as well. But do we find biblical examples of God celebrating milestones such as the birthday of a church – at least in the same way that we celebrate such things today? None come immediately to mind.

We do find biblical examples of God commemorating events in the establishment of His kingdom. The Old Testament cites several examples of altars being built to memorialize times and places where God intervened and demonstrated His goodness. One such example is found in Joshua chapters 3 & 4. After wandering in the desert for 40 years, God was about to bring His people into the land of promise, by crossing the Jordan River. You can read the story yourself to be reminded that, after the people crossed the river, God instructed the leaders to place stones in the dry riverbed to commemorate their crossing (4:9) – stones to commemorate God’s intervention and goodness. Interestingly, the verse states that the stones “are there to this day” – leading us to believe that they will yet be found some day, and will provide us with yet another reason to know the veracity of the Bible and to celebrate and worship God.

So, in the past, God showed that He commemorated ‘ministry milestones,’ as the Joshua passage demonstrates. Reflecting on these types of Old Testament passages might lead one to think that God’s celebratory nature is defined by various piles of stones – dead stones – littering the Middle East. One could think that those piles, that memorialize God’s intervention and goodness, are the extent of His sense of celebration…God was a celebratory God. But to believe this would be to fall short of what God wants us to understand about Him.

Know that in his first letter, Peter calls “you who believe” (2:7) “living stones” – living stones (1 Pet 2:5). You who believe are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people for God’s own possession, made to proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. We who believe, today, are living stones! It’s a blessing that there are piles of old, ‘dead’ Middle Eastern stones that testify to God’s intervention and goodness. But there’s something even better to testify of Him – gatherings of His people, “living stones,” that come together to testify of His intervention and goodness in their lives – to celebrate!

When His living stones come together to commemorate God and His intervention and goodness (“to honor the memory of, to keep alive the memory of,” Webster) – whether to mark the birthday of a local church or otherwise – that is a true celebration. Those gatherings are amazing, present-day examples of God’s celebratory nature! God is a celebratory God! In this context, the recent 20th birthday celebration of the South African family of churches was exceptionally biblical. We pray and believe that as He considered that church birthday celebration, God “saw that it was good.”

…celebrate the Feast of God… (Lev 23:41, The Message)

Praise items:
• Thank you for your prayers for David’s and John’s trip to Mozambique and Malawi. The ministry was very fruitful – good connections and great feedback regarding Pastoring of Pastors in each of three cities. The trip included some logistical challenges as no diesel fuel was available in Malawi. Our tools of the trade (September update, below) came in handy on the trip; for a description of the mild adventure, see the 28 September post below.
• Thank you for your prayers for our recent visitors (it’s been a very busy stretch lately!). Our team had a very good visit with Stacey as we got to know each other and ask whether God would have her join our team. Now that she’s back home in the US, we’re debriefing and considering next steps. Our team was also blessed by the visit of Daniel and Ellen, a couple that spent a week with us doing team-building and providing life-coaching. It was a full, rich week. For one team member’s perspective on one day from that week, you can visit http://insteadbless.blogspot.com/#!/2011/10/becoming-spiritual-community.html. Cherie and David were also blessed to host Bill, a pastor from one of our supporting churches, for a three-day visit, and we also thoroughly enjoyed a dinner with a short-term team from our home church that passing through Joburg on its way to Zambia.
• Thank you for your prayers for the high school ministry camp that is concluding as this update is being written. Please thank God for the funds that were donated to underwrite the camp. Please pray for post-camp follow-up and next steps, as the ministry year winds toward conclusion in mid-November.

Prayer requests:
• Please pray for David as he travels to Brazil 17-28 October for leadership meetings with OC International. Please pray for clarity, communication, encouragement and unity regarding future steps for OC and our local team in Joburg.
• Please continue to pray for our local ministry team and our steps with financial planning issues, especially as we research South Africa income tax and health insurance issues. November could be a key month of decision-making. Pray for our next steps of researching options, and for wisdom in decision-making.
• Please also continue to pray for wisdom for David and other leaders as they continue to determine the best direction for TOPIC internationally as it is undergoing change. This will probably be a significant prayer request through the remainder of 2011; we’ll provide more info on this request in early 2012.

Language Lessons
A proverb from Ethiopia: Anticipate the good so that you may enjoy it.

David's Mozambique / Malawi trip, 11-17 September

(On the road to Malawi.)

It wasn’t supposed to go like this!

In the middle of our conversation with our Mozambique pastors, my teammate checked his phone and his face changed expression. “I just got a text from Johannes (our ministry partner) and he says there is no diesel in Malawi. We need to bring diesel in with us.” One small problem; we were sixteen hours from home where our jerry cans that we often take on our ministry trips sat.

David and I had both remarked as we started on this trip, that this might be a more relaxed trip than normal (Big mistake on our part!). The vehicle was not packed as full as normal and we had none of the stress of last minute prepping and preparing of teaching material for any training that we might be doing. This was to be a different trip, where our goal was to go and get feedback about how the POP (Pastoring of Pastors) process was developing in their different communities. Thus, we didn’t have to pack lots of materials; we just needed good ears and good questions to generate responses for our evaluation process. Even the problematic Beitbridge Border post had been a breeze the previous day. Fuel issues had never been a problem in Malawi, until now.

All of our plans and schedules had to change and quickly. After some more time with the pastors, we excused ourselves and said we would have a follow up time with them on our way back through Mozambique. Since we were in a country that wasn’t an English colonial possession, we were also hampered by language issues as our Portuguese is pretty limited (David has more of this language than me). Yet we now had to search for jerry cans in a strange country, with a strange language and a less than familiar city.

(These are trucks parked along the side of the road in Malawi because they could not get diesel.)

Fortunately, we were able to somewhat communicate (a mixture of Portuguese, English and Spanish) with our leaders in Chomoio well enough that they gave us a lead on the jerry cans and we had a general idea of where the store was situated. The problem: it was now “siesta” time and the store was closed for another hour. This led to further problems. We were supposed to drive north that afternoon and get through the Malawi/Mozambique border before it closed and spend the night in Blantyre, Malawi with friends. That would not be happening.

When the store finally opened, they indeed had the fuel cans we needed and with prices that should have had them coated in gold (or silver at least). Unfortunately, we didn’t have much of a choice other than canceling a trip that we were already two days into. This day it was a seller’s market. Also problematic was the fact that the cans did not come with a “nozzle” to fill our vehicle. We had to use the old funnel approach and these metal jerry cans did not have any “bleeder” values to make the pouring of the fuel easier. We could add fuel, but it was a difficult and smelly process (made all the harder as you are trying to keep your “ministry clothes” and yourself free from reeking of diesel while you are meeting with people).

Our plan was now to drive to the border and sleep in the vehicle overnight there so as to be at the border when it opened at 6am. We had a meeting with a group of leaders scheduled for 9 am in Blantyre and needed to make that meeting. Driving north later than we had planned or hoped for also made us do something we try to avoid: driving on African roads at night. This time we had little choice. If there is any vehicle to be driving in at night in Africa, it is my teammate David’s. He has had some “auxiliary” lights mounted on it so that on high beam, you see the road and the sides of the road far better than any other vehicle I’ve been in here. And we needed every bit of that light.

Coming around one corner, a cloud of dust kicked up on the side of the road and out of nowhere, a donkey cart with a driver thinking he was perhaps Dale Earnhardt turning laps in the Daytona 500 came shooting off the side of the road directly in front of us. I was able to stop in time (and after attaching the defibrillator to get both my and David’s hearts going again), but without the advantage of having David’s lights, I doubt I would been able to avoid the cart, driver and donkey. Add to that the truck traffic that continually strays into your lane at night and by the time we got to Tete, Mozambique, about 1 ½ hours from the border, both David and I were exhausted.

(This is one of many roadside wrecks we passed by on our trip.)

We looked for a place to stay in Tete as well as fill our jerry cans with diesel so we could travel in Malawi. Tete, located on the banks of the Zambezi River, may be the hottest place on this earth I’ve ever experienced and it may be the mosquito capitol of the world, too. But while not my first choice of any place to spend the night, we could go no further without some rest.

We could not find a place to sleep at first. We finally turned onto a side dirt street and saw a sign in plain English “Guest House” and stopped to check it out. Again, despite the sign, we encountered language problems, but a very nice young woman politely told us again there were no rooms available. This seemed very strange as we saw a key holder full of room keys still on their pegs. It may have been that we stumbled onto a place that did not “rent” rooms out for the night, just by the hour, we hope not! However, the lady was nice enough to give us directions that directed us to two other possibilities and one of those worked out for us. Piling into our room and into our beds we tried to get as much sleep as possible before the 3:30 am alarm went off and we again ventured off towards the border in the dark.

Enough of the Travel notes, What in the bloody blue blazes were you doing in Malawi, John and David?

We arrived in Blantyre the next morning tired, but without incident and just in time for our first Malawian meeting. As noted above, we were going to evaluate the implementation of POP there. For those of you not familiar with it, POP (Pastoring of Pastors) is an initiative to bring health and relationship to pastoral leaders and spouses (as well as single leaders). Many church leaders are alienated from the body of Christ because they are a “leader” of the church and are not supposed to have problems. POP is designed to provide pastoral care to pastoral leaders who are used to giving care, but who don’t experience care themselves.

So far POP has been introduced into South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi. We are now in a season of evaluation to see how that implementation is going. Some key things we are looking at are: What is working well? How many groups have been started? How many spouses are taking part? What have been some of the challenges in starting to implement POP? How has the material provided to leaders assisted them or hindered them? How can we further help encourage those involved in the process? How has POP affected your own personal life?

Before we go further with POP we want to get feedback so we can adjust things as the POP process continues to roll out. We are looking for trends across the regions as well as situations unique to certain localities. Once this information is gathered and analyzed we will report our findings back to the all of the areas. They will see information not only from their nation but regionally as well.

The pudding isn’t good until you taste it! (What is going well!)

This was the comment of one pastor regarding his improved relationship with another local leader. He admitted he had had a poor relationship with this other pastor in the past (the leader spoken about was in the audience as this pastor shared). He confessed that he had often viewed the other pastor with suspicion. Yet, because of POP, he shared with great joy, how the man and his wife had become good friends! He had even invited this new pastor friend to share at his church. This former adversary blessed the socks off his church with his teaching!

Other comments:
“I see my life changing!”
“I don’t need to know everything, I have pastoral friends to ask and help.”
“Our leaders are now having “unplanned” meetings (they enjoy each other company so much informal meetings are now the order of the day).”
“POP gave me spiritual advisors.”
POP has “removed the fear.”

Clearly, we know that groups have started and those groups are still going in all three locations we visited on this trip and had done training in the last year. For quite a few, we know the depth of their relationships has grown and fear and distrust of other leaders has been eroded.

One pastor shared that his church was on the verge of a split. When he started using POP principles with his leaders, the split was averted and those leaders who were at each other’s throats have become part of a group and close friends who now “meet in each other’s home” something unheard of previously in the church. I also was encouraged by open disclosure of some leaders who had failed to implement anything and took reasonability for it; a rare thing in African culture (or any culture for that matter!) While we had made it clear we were there to “gather information” and to see how they were (renew relationships) and not to slap their hands if they had not done anything, the candor of some of these leaders was encouraging!

There’s still a lot of work to do (What are the challenges?)

On the flip side, the blending of genders in the process and the inclusion of females still is problematic. We have known from the beginning this would be an issue going forward and so we were not surprised to hear that inclusion of spouses is hard from both a cultural standpoint as well as issues of time management and literacy. Nobody said it was culturally unfeasible or inappropriate but just that such a change will take time and intentionality.

In Lilongwe, one group expressed that while the change to include their spouse had been and would continue to be hard, they also were beginning to see the benefits. We are also dealing with a few leaders who are teaching POP without being part of a group. One of the non-negotiable aspects of POP is that in order to teach it, you must first experience it in your own life. “Live it first; teach it later!” Yet for some leaders, POP is a new “tool” to put in their “teaching” tool belt, rather than an opportunity to deepen relationship and develop personal and ministerial health.

A morning at a refugee camp

After our last POP “debriefing” meeting in Lilongwe, Malawi, the next day we were taken to the Dzaleka refugee camp. According to our hosts James and Diamond, Dzaleka means “change” as the place used to be a location of a prison and when people heard they were going there, there was strong incentive to “dzaleka,” that is change! Currently it is home to refugees from around Africa. The majority of refugees come from Congo, Brundi, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Diamond and James are two local pastors from Lilongwe working among the refugees there and had previously started something most closely resembling what we would call “accountability” groups with some success.

(A child at the refugee camp)

Last year in November, they were exposed to POP and intrigued by the relational aspect of it, have implemented into their own lives and after practicing themselves are now trying to blend POP principles into the lives of these refugees. So that morning James and Diamond took us into the camp for their regular “monthly” meeting with church leaders and members they have built relationship with. We met in a small local Baptist church and listened as people told us of the hardships they faced in the camp, but also the hope that had come from the development of their small groups.

In a refugee camp full of people where many of them come from different countries, ethnic and language groups, it is easy to feel “alone.” Yet we heard story after story from both men and women how their “small group” has given them encouragement and hope despite the plight they share. Many times, the messages had to be translated a minimum of three times so that all of the locals and visitors could understand the message. And while some of the concepts of POP will blend nicely in with what Diamond and James had been previously exposed to, some of it is contrary and so in their attempt to move to a more relational type of care for the people in Dzaleka, our two Malawian pastors know they need to move slowly and carefully, but they seem determined to do just that!

A couple of “African Firsts” (Or things to alternately chuckle at and/or be horrified about!)

One first time experience for me came on our trip home and our return engagement with leaders in Chomoio, Mozambique, cut short a few days earlier because of our “diesel” issue. Meeting in the middle of town at the appointed place, our local contact looked at seating at a small outdoor café and seeing that it was crowded, motioned us across the street to another place which had a few small outdoor tables next to the street. As we approached the place, I noticed it was not a café, rather it was a beer hall and billiards place. Now to most of our American readers, that may not sound too risqué, but in Africa, at least in my limited experience, it is unheard of!

A local church leader would not be seen within shouting distance of any establishment that sold liquor or where smoking took place. Yet our local contact and the other pastoral leaders did not seem bothered at all by our venue and seemed to be on familiar and friendly terms with the older gentleman who ran the place. So it was both my and David’s first church/beer hall meeting in Africa.

If only you could listen in on some of the conversations we have! Another first came on the trip home and the enduring of 7 road blocks within a 100 kilometer span (that is not a first in Africa). We were traveling home along the eastern border of Zim, not far from the controversial Marange diamond fields near Mutare, which has been the subject of many human right abuses and atrocities (just Google Marange and you’ll understand quickly).

However, because the diamond fields are so close, the police and military of Zim are trying to curb the smuggling of the diamonds out of the area, hence another reason for lots of road blocks. People, desperate to make money, risk their lives sneaking into the area to dig diamonds and then attempt to slip out unnoticed and sell them. Some will even attempt to covertly sell them by roadside (we had one young man attempt to flag us down between roadblocks, making a hand signal that he had diamonds for sell). While that was a first, the real first time event came at the roadblock. A young man with an AK-47 slung on his back (remember he is “supposed” to be protecting the public), asked a couple of questions and then went straight to the point.

“I’m in trouble my friends, I haven’t had anything to drink since last night (alcohol), do you have any Castle or Lion in your vehicle for me (types of beer here)."

David later related that based on the man’s breath; it hadn’t been since last night that he had any alcohol. Can you imagine getting pulled over by the police and then being asked for some alcohol to help them out?? Answering the man’s request in the negative, we drove off anxious to reach the friendly confines of home in another 12 hours. Only in Africa!

On a more somber closing note, please remember to pray for Malawi on this coming Wednesday, September 21.

There has been a lot of political and social unrest in the country normally known as the “warm heart of Africa.” However, it would take a whole update itself to explain what is happening in Malawi. Suffice to say, there is talk of large demonstrations to protest the political and economic situation in Malawi on Wednesday. Just a couple months ago, there were demonstrations in which 18 people were killed, unheard of in this normally passive country, people are upset.

Please pray for the people and country in general and please pray specifically for the leaders who are attempting to integrate POP into their lives.

Blessings and thanks,

John

Tools of the trade

What are your tools of the trade? Everybody’s got some things that they depend on to accomplish their daily tasks. What are yours? Yours could be a hammer, stethoscope, changing table, cell phone or a cash register, or perhaps chalk and a chalkboard, a procedure manual, guitar, drafting board or the internet.

Just as we have tools we use on a regular basis, the Bible makes many references to tools that were used in the normal course of life and work back in the day. Tools referenced in the Bible include, among others, the anvil, axe, compass, fire pan, fork, furnace, hammer, knife, plowshare, plumb line, pruning hook, razor, saw, shovel and wheel.

There are some tools that are an everyday part of our work in Southern Africa – our tools of the trade. More than anything, we depend on our Bibles. Without them, we have no point of reference and really nothing to offer. We use other tools that are ‘normal’ and to be expected…we heavily depend on our laptops, our cell phones and our GPS-guided vehicles (we easily admit that we’re we are completely soft in comparison to forerunners like David Livingstone). We use other tools as well. We affectionately refer to Cherie’s “bag of tricks,” a backpack full of items she uses on a regular basis ministering to the women at the AIDS hospice home. (How many of you regularly carry around a bag with Bibles in different languages, playing cards, a CD player with worship music, nail polish and other items?)

Our “tools of the trade” take on a new dimension when David prepares to go on ministry road trips. Most readers would know that on a regular basis, David joins ministry colleagues on trips to other parts of South Africa and to other countries in the region. Some have mistakenly thought that we fly on commercial flights for our ministry travel, but rarely is that the case. (We might fly once every 18 months or so within the region.) Rather, our ministry travel within the region is via the road, whether taking long day-trips to Swaziland for meetings (four hours in each direction) to, at the other end of the spectrum, extended trips to Malawi or Zambia, which mean three days driving in each direction.

On these trips, there are the normal ‘tools’ one brings for meetings, workshops and training sessions – Bibles, manuals, handouts and a flipchart (we try to avoid using PowerPoint – we attempt to do as much training as we can using tools and methods that trainers and leaders can use themselves). And we pack the items one would normally bring in their luggage on a business trip, such as clothing and toiletries. But our context is unique, so we also pack items that might be considered abnormal elsewhere.

(The back of our vehicle, packed for a Zimbabwe trip earlier this year.)

Following are some of our abnormal ‘tools of the trade’ when going on a ministry trip. (Some items may remind you of a camping packing list.) How does this compare with your tools?

Personal effects

• Sleeping bag – we never know where, or on what, we may be sleeping
• Medications (including malaria medicine) – we assume, usually correctly, that won’t have access to a pharmacy
• Basics that we can’t take for granted, such as a towel, a mirror for shaving, detergent for washing our clothes, etc.
• Toilet paper – you never know where you’ll need it, and where you won’t find it!
• Battery-powered fan and light – air conditioning is a rarity, and fans aren’t typical; we can’t always count on electricity for anything

Miscellaneous

• Foreign currency (on long trips a LOT of it) – we can only rarely use credit/debit cards or other cash-reducing strategies
• Adapters for electric plugs that differ by country; extension cords; adapters to power laptops from the vehicle cigarette lighter (very helpful for getting computer-based work done during many hours on the road)
• First aid kit
• Flashlights

Food!

• We can’t depend on finding a McDonald’s on every corner, so often we carry a lot of food with us, including clean drinking water. To make things easier, we typically bring a cooler that is AC/DC powered.

The vehicle

• Paperwork – vehicle registration; insurance documentation; authority letters; police clearance certificates stating that the vehicle is not stolen
• Fuel – in some cases we must carry 25-liter jerry cans of diesel for coverage between far-flung gas stations
• Emergency supplies – tow rope; tire patch/pump/compressor; triangles; reflector tape; spare fuel and oil filter; spare belts; windshield crack glue; fluids (diesel oil, fuel additive, transmission fluid, anti-freeze)
• Chains; padlocks; bungee cords; ropes
• Tools (literal) – for vehicle repairs and other unique situations that arise
• Fire extinguisher

These are some of our trip tools of the trade. We can’t imagine leaving home without them! In like turn, we’re sure that you have tools of the trade that we couldn’t imagine depending on – maybe even ones we’ve never heard of! Regardless, we can be grateful for the tools we have at our disposal that enable us to do what we are called to do.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men… (Col 3:23, NIV)


Prayer requests:

• Please pray for David and our teammate John as they depart on a Malawi trip on 11 September (through the 18th). They’ll be conducting meetings and feedback sessions to evaluate the effectiveness of past Pastoring of Pastors efforts there. Please pray for their ministry connections, for safety and for Cherie (and John’s wife Heather) while the husbands are gone.
• Please pray for Cherie and her teammates as they prepare for the annual youth camp 14-16 October – for creativity, wisdom and unity in their preparations. Please also continue to pray for funding to underwrite the cost of the camp for students and leaders. If you would like to participate in the funding of this camp, please email Cherie at cbulger@topicsa.net.
  
• Please also continue to pray for our local team here as we continue to wrestle with financial planning issues, especially as we research South Africa income tax and health insurance issues.
• Please pray for our time with Stacey, a young woman that’s visiting our team (and currently staying with us) as we jointly are exploring whether God is calling her to join our team in Johannesburg. Please also pray for us and our team during the week of 3 October, when we’ll be hosting Daniel and Ellen, a couple which will be spending time with us from the US. They’ll be doing team-building and counseling with the various families on our team.
• Please continue to pray for wisdom for David and other leaders as they continue to determine the best direction for TOPIC internationally as it is undergoing change. (TOPIC is the pastoral training network David leads in Southern Africa.)
• Please pray for Cherie’s friend Winnie’s recovery from back surgery. Specifically, pray for her rehabilitation, which has gone much more slowly than anticipated. She is currently in a wheelchair, and is scheduled to resume her job on 26 September. Pray for a more rapid rehab effort and for her as she is currently fighting an infection.

Language Lessons
A proverb from the Kikuyu of Kenya: Travelling teaches men their way.