...carrying {hope+justice+peace} to the poor so that they experience life & purpose in the {kingdom of heaven}...

So I'm almost ashamed that it's been exactly one month since my last blog post. A lot has happened in that time, but not a whole lot that I bet a many people would want to read about.

An example day from our stint in Norman, OK:

• 7 a.m. Wake up

• 8 a.m. Breakfast with old friend

• 10 a.m. Coffee with potential supporter

• Noon Lunch with interested person

• Rest for a while in afternoon, send e-mails, make phone calls

• 6 p.m. Dinner with members of our support team to update them

• 8:30 p.m. Dessert with prayer supporters

That was pretty much the rhythm of life for our time in Norman. It slowed down a bit when we went to San Antonio to visit my family. Then sped right back up for our two weeks back in Norman. And now it's slowed again as we're visiting Brandon's family in Washington, D.C.

It's been a rewarding but also exhausting time in America. But my goal in this post wasn't to complain about how busy I am. Instead, I wanted to highlight one of the people we made time for in San Antonio. One of the major goals of our visit back to America was to find more prayer and financial partners for our work in South Africa.

I'd like to introduce you to our youngest supporter:

Rozalia is the 7-year-old daughter of some family friends. When her family received our support letter in the mail, she read it and started praying for us, putting our magnet on her fridge. She also started praying about whether we were the people to whom God wanted her to give. See, she'd just gotten paid for a job acting in a commercial, and she wanted to give some of her earnings back to God.

When we met Rozalia and her family for dinner, she had all kinds of questions about what it is like to be a missionary, because she said that's what she wants to be when she grows up.

At the end of our meal, she pulled out her brand-new checkbook and wrote us a check, explaining, "God told me to give this to you."

Needless to say, Brandon and I were blown away by the generosity of this young woman. We are so thankful for all the gifts that have been given to us over the past month and a half, but this is one that was especially meaningful. I feel God is going to do something special with the children of Masi through Rozalia's gift and prayers.

Rozalia's gift helps get us closer to our fundraising goal. We're not all the way there yet, but it's been extraordinary to see God provide for us. He's used many dear friends, family members and some very unexpected sources to meet our needs.

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The Norman Transcript published a wonderful article about Brandon and I's work last Friday. I thought I'd post a link to it here so that you can read it as well. It is a pretty good summary of our time over the past six months and our thoughts about it.

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Brandon and I have been back in America for just over a week now, and
let me tell you, it has been a whirlwind. We arrived in Oklahoma City
early the morning of the 13th, and we've been staying in Norman ever
since.

Challenges so far:

I think we're finally over jet lag, but it took about 6 days for our
bodies to start feeling normal. I feel bad for Josh and Laura, who
came over to see us the first night we were back. I was like a zombie,
and finally had to tell them that I just had to go to bed because I
couldn't stay awake any longer. It was 9:30 p.m.

Rich American food has taken a toll on our stomachs. We didn't realize
it, but we've been eating much fresher, healthier foods in Cape Town.
When we got back to Oklahoma, we immediately wanted to have all the
stuff we couldn't get easily in Cape Town: burgers, Mexican food, ice
cream, root beer, etc. We've decided to ease up, and are sticking
mainly with salads when we go out to eat.

Delights so far:

People, people, people! We have been able to spend LOTS of quality
time with friends and family here. We were kind of afraid we would get
back and no one would want to meet with us or hear about what we were
doing. Not true! In addition to great hangout time with friends and
fam, we've had a lot of important time with people sharing about what
we are doing in Cape Town. God has answered our prayers (and yours!)
that he would lead us to just the right people with whom to share our
vision. We've had lots of meetings this week and everyone has
responded very positively. We've had about five new people tell us
they want to support us financially monthly, and others that are still
considering. We've also had a lot of people commit to partner with us
in prayer.

So things are going well for us. Please continue to lift us up in
prayer as we are in the States. We are going at a pretty fast pace and
spending a lot of time with people, which can be really tiring after a
while. But God has been so faithful to provide us times of refreshment
and encouragement each day. It's amazing to see how people all around
the world have a mutual desire to see Africa empowered and uplifted!

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Because we're coming back to the States for about two months, I had to say a (temporary) goodbye to many of my new friends here. With one woman named Hope, who we've written about here, we had an especially poignant goodbye. She said she'll never forget how Brandon and I pursued her. She was surprised when we walked through Masi in the pouring rain to visit her at her shack. It was then that she knew that we really cared about her. It surprised her, because she never had thought she was anything special, but this act showed her she must be.

I was reading the beginning of the book of John this morning, and I was struck anew by the idea of the incarnation. It says "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory…." One translation (I think it's the Message, because it's the one Brandon always uses when talking to people in Masi) says that Jesus "moved into our neighborhood." And then it goes on to say that "No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known."

How incredible that in order to show us who God is, God came to us in our own form!

I've been thinking about this a lot, because essentially that's what Brandon and I are trying to do here in Cape Town. We're trying to incarnate who God is to the people we meet here. We walk around in the rain and come into people's homes because we want to show that God cares about the people of Masi. That's a (very) small picture of what Jesus did. God didn't make us come to him (he knew we'd never make it!), instead he came to us.

So we're going to the people here. We're going to the poor, the refugees, the foreigners, the neglected. And we're saying, "God sees you! He loves you, and he sent us all the way from America to tell you this!"

We told that to one man who we met in Masi. He was the epitome of broken: homeless, jobless, the black sheep of his family, and drunk. But when we told him he was special and God loved him, he broke down in tears. He said he had never felt loved by anyone in his life. But that love made all the difference to him. He looks like a completely different person now! And it's nothing that Brandon and I did, except that we were there. And God used our presence in Masi to reach into a man's life and change it from the inside out.

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It's hard to believe, but CPx is almost over! We've officially
finished the "outreach" part of CPx, and are now in the debrief stage.
We're hearing about what God did on all the diverse outreaches as well
as meeting with All Nations leadership to debrief our experiences.
We'll graduate from CPx Tuesday, and then Brandon and I will stay on
for a few more days to attend All Nations' New Member Orientation the
following weekend. We'll leave Cape Town July 5 and head to Amsterdam,
where we'll rest and recuperate from this intense experience for about
six days. Then we'll return to America! There, we'll be visiting
friends and family, sharing about what God is doing in Cape Town and
letting people know how they can be involved in what we're doing. We
are in need of prayer and financial support, and we'd love to invite
you to be a part of what we're doing. We'd love to meet with you to
talk more about it. Here is our schedule for our time in the States:
July 12-23 — Norman
July 23-25 — Dallas/Fort Worth
July 25-26 — Austin
July 26-August 7 — San Antonio
August 7-23 — Norman
August 23-September 8 — Washington D.C.

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Here on the Masi team we are trying to finish our outreach phase
strong, seeking closure in relationships we will leave for a while and
also pressing in to see breakthroughs in people's lives before we
leave. We are seeing great things happening in Masi in our final weeks
here. We've all been working together, but in this blog post I'll
highlight a few of the individual team members' emphases.

Sbu has started meeting with some of the gangsters of Masi, people
that have been neglected by the Church because they instill fear into
the hearts of many. Not our stalwart Sbu, however. He feels called to
minister to them and has seen a lot of favor in those relationships.
He's composing raps with them about the positive things they all want
for Masi.

Lifa is spending a lot of his free time in Masi visiting the people
we've been pouring into, in addition to the Bible studies he helps
lead with the rest of the team. He is creating strong relationships
with potential leaders and leaving them with words of truth.

Pete has been mentoring the Masi mama, along with Sbu and Mel, and
said he is excited to see a Xhosa woman catching the vision for
sharing Jesus with others. This mama is still in the Zion church, but
Pete believes she is being discipled toward a change in her beliefs
about Jesus. And when the church that is being built on her property
is finished, she'll then be able to bring this good news of Jesus to
even more people.

Mel is providing key leadership and guidance to four young women who
have been meeting with her and Julianna the past seven weeks for a
Bible study. This week the girls came over to Africa House for a
make-your-own-pizza dinner and then to watch a chick flick. It was a
lot of fun, and the girls shared a poem they had written for Mel and
Julianna that thanked them for "A rain that change part of our life /
Where we feel the happiness in our lifes." (sic) Another girl who I
wrote about last week that is considering abortion has decided to
postpone it in order to think about her options more. Mel saw this as
a big step towards hopefully not choosing abortion.

Julianna is developing a keen friendship with Hope, a Zimbabwean
woman. She is a powerhouse, and seems to share Jesus, counsel and read
the Bible with nearly everyone she knows. We rarely get time alone
with just her because inevitably someone stops by her house and joins
in our Bible study or prayer. Yesterday our whole team attended her
daughter's birthday 2-year birthday party, which took place in the All
Nations prayer shack in Masi. We prayed over her and ate chocolate
cake and had a great time of friendship and fellowship.

Brandon is helping to mentor our Zimbabwean friend who is being
released to do great things for the kingdom in Masi. Brandon also is
providing great leadership for our team.

This week has felt different because of the start of the World Cup.
EVERYONE in Masi watches all the games and blows their vuvuzelas at
all hours. It's created a party atmosphere in Masi. We haven't had any
negative experiences with drunk people yet though — people seem to be
trying to stay somewhat sober to actually watch the games. Instead, it
has been hard to find people. Over the past week we've had even more
missed appointments than usual. It's making it difficult to say
goodbye to people. This week we're going to try to make it to all of
our friends in Masi to say goodbye and give them pictures we've taken
with them. (Sbu says the best way to make friends in Masi is to give
them pictures you've taken of them. So we're going to try it out.)

Speaking of the World Cup, as a team we drove into Cape Town Friday
for the opening game and watched it with huge crowds of people on a TV
in a cafe. It was a blast! Go Bafana Bafana!

Last week was our final kids club with the Vulnerable Children
ministry. I'm attaching some pictures of us at Kid's Club. We've been
leading it every Friday afternoon during our outreach. We enjoyed our
time, even if we did leave feeling so tired because the kids sometimes
were a little wild. We focused on the attributes of God and each week
taught the kids a new one as we shared stories from the Bible that
illustrated the attribute. The kids learned that God is powerful,
loving, forgiving and wise. Now the kids club is going on hiatus for a
time as all the kids are on break from school and there's other
activities in Masi that Living Hope is leading during the World Cup.

Tomorrow we're also rebuilding a broken roof as a team. One of our
dear friends lives in a shack where the roof is leaking HORRIBLY. When
it rains (as it often does here in Cape Town in the winter), the water
pours into their shack and soaks their beds. So as a team we're going
to completely redo the roof.

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