Man, time flies when God puts you into some insanely awesome ministry setups! It’s hard for my heart to accept the realities that Swaziland has come and gone. But, it has not passed without God’s spirit at work. It has been the longest we have been in one place all race; God has fully utilized that time, impacting kids revealing how His love overcomes all sins no matter how generational it may be. He has also set me up personally sprinting into this next month of MAN-istry! Yup, you read it right; all the men of G-squad have finally fully united as a team to hit the streets of Cape town for Jesus! But, before I get into the details for South Africa let me recap Swaziland.
Swazi was a another rejuvenating month spiritually and my heart got pumped to continue serving wherever God called. God allowed for a lot of time to dive into His word, dig into some C.S. Lewis to stimulate the mind, and even read through a Formula 1 racing book to fuel the motor part of my heart. Throughout the month I learned that how you live matters, to a greater depth than I had known before. Kids can see if you’re faking it; they have a keen eye for when you are settin’ up a front, clearly not wanting a kid on your lap or not quite wanting to love on them that day. But Jesus clearly said, let all the little children come. So I had to give up myself, yet again, and love’em. As I stepped into the word (literally) God blessed it and as a result many kids without fathers were able to clinch onto His love, the only love that lasts!
The D-team, the Malloys, and Sprags were living examples of the formula to apostolic living. Passion in action daily, rooted in Spirit & Truth (the Word) is what they have taught me. They all have dropped the world, gave it the boot, and accepted whole heartedly what the Lord has given them each day. In hind-sight I see how amazing it has been to partner with each one of them and I can now see the great impact they are making for the Kingdom in Swaziland! In the moment it was just serving and meeting the daily needs of who God placed in our path to whatever capacity. But that’s just it; simply being present, willing, and open to the Lord’s direction on the daily is how ministry must be. This is simple faith, simple obedience to the One above, and out of such simplicity God does marvelous things. I have been blessed to take part in such a ministry and break bread with all my friends there, so Cool! I am inspired and invigorated to run into this next month!
After a few days spent beach side in Durban debriefing with the squad & Surfing (?) the Men of G-squad made the 24 hour bus ride along the horn of Africa to Cape Town! Manistry in Cape Town, WHAT!? Props to our awesome squad mentor Travis for hooking us up with a sick ministry and location to bond as brothers in Christ. Cape Town is like nothing else in the world. Gorgeous mountains collide with iconic beaches and they have bays for dayz! I have never seen anything quite like it; all I can say is God paid particular attention when crafting this part of the world! We are snugged up in Ocean view Cape town, a section known to the locals as ghost town due to the cemetery to the south. During the apartheid, the white people oppressed all the people of color and forcibly moved out of there homes to where we are staying now. We are living a few houses down from our Epic ministry host, and are smack dab in the middle of the ghetto.
Our neighbors are Rastafarians, drunks, dealers, kids, and the poor. Sound systems are thumping rap most of the day and slammed (lowered) rides cruise the block. Our host used to play for the underground soccer league run by some prevalent drug lords. A place were players could make 3x more than professionals, but the Lord of lords redeemed Him and now uses Him to oversee countless churches and ministries in Southern Africa. We will be doing sports ministry for kids ages 8-17. Other times we will walk the streets and pop-a-squat with whomever to have a conversation about Christ in our lives. Our host tells us most have heard of Jesus and know the spiel most missionaries feed. He challenges us to be real and ask straight up, “You know who Jesus is, what are you doing about it?”
This month it will be easy to give into fear; fear of approaching some roughed up folks. It will be easy to doubt ourselves because we don’t have all the right words that our conversations won’t be fruitful, so why try? Pray against that! Be in prayer for all of us men this month that we will be confident in God in us. That we will be emboldened by His spirit, that the words we speak would be God’s and not our own. In Philippians 2:7, it says Christ made Himself nothing. I feel Christ calling me to that, to further empty myself so that more of him will fill me up and I can operate from a state of Spiritual overflow!
Well, the internet is still not strong here so no pictures still. There is a song from Andy Mineo (Christian Rap) called “Where the wild things are.” It hits on what our ministry will be like and our hearts for the city of ocean view. I would normally post the video here, but the interneis sluggish, so go check it out on youtube for me and pay attention to the lyrics! Get pumped as we are; because God is going to do some epic stuff this Christimas Season! Thanks for reading as always, you all rock!
