As I write this post, we are close to finishing up our 8th month on the ground in Cape Town.  The rumor around here is spring is coming but from the weather this week you would have no clue.  We have had gale force winds, sideways rain and there is talk we could see snow on Table Mountain.

We were told winter in Cape Town was quite the show and it has not disappointed us...but with that said....bring on spring... I am over all of this.

This week I've been reading in Isaiah and a group of verses have just struck me hard as I face a reality in this area...there are MANY oppressed and hungry and facing injustice...and what is my role in all of it.

I've written about this before but it seems to be a constant struggle in my soul.  I was getting in my car today, in my garage.  I said to Tate that our GARAGE is nicer than many of the homes in some of our surrounding communities.  It is a solid structure, stays fairly warm even with a window open for the silly cat we inherited....it's nicer than most homes and Tate pointed out that it is the space for about 4 families.  WHAT?!?!  When did we get to the point that our car and cat have better shelter than people less than one mile from me.

I have to be honest, its a hard thing to grapple over.  I have no answers at the moment and never will really....but I think so many of us living in America and many other places don't even grasp the concept that we have so much and they are all LUXURIES not necessities.  I was in Red Hill last week with a team and government folks were there passing out and explaining about these portable toilets that can go IN their homes.  Yes...IN their homes.  On a cold, windy, rainy night they have to leave their house and go to a port-a-potty but now they will have the luxury to have it IN their house.  I used to have FOUR toilets in my house.

Needless to say, it has brought a new awareness in my life about others and trying not to be so focused on ME but on God.  We have so much just in our salvation in Christ but He calls us to live that out...to put our faith into action.  We can easily live our lives to where we don't have to encounter the poor and needy but I challenge you to step outside your life for a moment and do something and it will be an amazing experience.  Let your LIGHT and the LIGHT of CHRIST break forth around you today.

Brooke

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.”

Psalm 23:1

I went to the devotion time Wednesday morning at Living Way and one of the students from the agricultural training program chose this Psalm to read.  It is one of the most popular set of verses in the entire Bible and certainly not ones unknown to most of us in the room.  Psalm 23 has six verses, but for the life of me I couldn’t get my mind past the first one today.  The question I kept coming back to was, “Why did it say ‘want’ instead of ‘need’”?  

Is there even a distinction between those two words anymore for most of us?  I know I can’t even come close to counting how many times I have said I needed something when in reality it was nothing more than a want.   I am sure anyone reading this has done the same.  Living and serving here though has changed my perspective drastically.  Not to say I don’t still regularly attribute a want as a need, but when you are surrounded by people who live and exist on so much less you understand better the division between the two.  For instance I may want my sandwich to be made with ham, turkey, cheese, tomato, avocado, bacon, slightly toasted and with light mayo, but I doubt any of you would believe that to be a need in order for me to not go hungry.  I need shelter, but my want might be for it to have 2-3 bedrooms, running water, electricity and nice conveniences.  You get the point.

So when you find those moments of clarity where you can really distinguish the difference between the two you understand better the power in that verse.  Not only can God provide for your needs according to His plan, will and definition, but can also quench your wants.  However, in order for that to occur you have to be willing to give your life to him and allow him to shepherd your whole being.  And through that, the places in your heart that have been consumed by the wants of the world will surely be replaced by something far greater, sustainable and fulfilling. 

Tate

My life has been a bubble.  A bubble can conjure up a lot of images and one is certainly that of a protective and sheltered environment.  In fact one of the definitions is exactly that…”A protective, often isolating envelope or cover”.  It is designed to encapsulate stuff on the inside and limit the movement of anything out or anything outside in.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing though.  I always envisioned my bubble as just one big one in which all aspects of my being existed.  Once it was popped everything was opened up.  However, I realize now that it is more like the one in the picture in that it is one bubble made up of many smaller bubbles.  Certain ones can pop along the way while leaving the others intact and protected. 

A lot of bubbles have popped at different points for me in this journey of living and serving in South Africa.  Along the way I think God is bringing me into focus in many ways.  My viewpoints on so many things have burst and generally for the good.  Views around poverty, family, church, possessions, success, security, service, dedication, faith, convenience, need, thanks and prayer just to name a few.  In the role I am in now I spend a majority of my week in an office working around initiatives to support the people that support the organization.  It takes a little more thought and effort to make sure that I am also carving out the time to interact and serve the people that our ministries touch or just friends and neighbors from the community.  One of the ways I have tried to do this is just by simply stopping by to visit with patients in our healthcare center which is next to my office.  I come from a healthcare background.  I have been in and around hospitals on a weekly basis for the past six years of my life.  I have interacted with patients at their bedside, been in NICU’s, critical care units, ER’s and seen a lot of things.  Yet I felt so ill equipped to walk into our healthcare center and start chatting it up with patients.  Some of this was probably due to language barriers.  Most people speak English, but accents can be hard and particularly for patients who are ill and may lack their normal strength or ability.  Some was probably due to the illnesses that we care for and my lack of exposure and knowledge of them.  Some might have been because my lack of confidence in how to properly live out our vision to “reach people for Christ, bringing hope and breaking the despair of poverty and disease” in this particular environment.

As I started visiting recently there were a couple of guys I started talking with who had been in and out of the center quite a bit recently. To start they were very brief and casual conversations just to see how they were feeling and how their day was going.  After a few visits I heard that one of the gentlemen had given his life to Christ.  Now, it was certainly not due to any conversation he and I had up to that point and I just felt blessed to now be joining in his journey as he started to explore and understand what all this really meant.  As I was talking with my new friend one day we discussed using my commentary bible to look at some key scripture verses together and understand meaning and context.  We set 10am the next day to get together.  Unfortunately as the journey was just beginning it would also come to an end.  I received a text from one of the healthcare workers the next morning to let me know that he had passed away in the early hours of the morning.  Another bubble popped.  A guy I just spoke with, was set to soon see, who seemed to be feeling well and in good spirits....was now gone.

Three key things happened with this.  One, I gained an enormous amount of respect for our healthcare center workers and workers all over the world who deal with losses like this on a daily basis.  Secondly, there was celebration in knowing that this journey of new life he was experiencing didn’t have the pain that this one did.  His life had been handed over and the battle won.  Thirdly, the urgency of a life with Christ was pounded home in a way like never before.  While it is easily to look at people who have all outward signs pointing to a sooner rather than later expiration date none of us are promised tomorrow.  The need for your healthy neighbor, friend, colleague, stranger or even yourself to hear the Gospel should take precedent.

While I am certain there are many more bubbles to yet be popped I am thankful for each and every one that is broken.  I feel like the person God wants and needs me to be has been buried deep in these for too long.  And just like looking at something through the distortion of a mass of bubbles I know that with each burst God is allowing a clearer picture of who I am in Him to come into view. 

Tate