Let me tell you about one of our students

Hello Friends & Family,

In this blog I (Mike) wanted to share with you the story of one of our recent students.  I will call her Faith (not her real name) as she has been growing so much in her journey of faith with the Lord!

Faith comes from a very broken family background, like most of our students, with an absent father, neglectful mother and trying to survive living in poverty.  For years now she would say that she has been desperate for hope.

As she came to Hope Africa to go through our job training program she met Jesus in a radical way through FDG (Faith Discovery Group, one of the programs I oversee in our church related ministries).  She shared how she was in the midst of a serious crisis, both personally and in her marriage.  She was feeling very discouraged, lacking identity and looking for peace.  In her marriage her husband was repeatedly cheating on her, saying he was sorry, but then falling back again into another affair.

In FDG she discovered that Jesus is the one who brings real life, life to the full.  At first this was hard for Faith to accept as she had gone to church for a long time and nothing good ever seemed to happen.

Faith then started to meet regularly with Bishop Nyanga (one of our pastoral staff) and he helped her to understand that going to church is not the same as choosing to follow Jesus with her life and growing in a relationship with Jesus.  He presented the gospel to her and explained how even people who go to church can still have a hole inside if they are not walking with Jesus.

Faith’s heart was ready to make a change and she accepted Christ as her Lord & Savior!   Mawande (our FDG teacher & my brother in-law) encouraged her to surrender trying to "change" her husband but to instead trust in God that He can change her husband.

Over the next few days the joy in Faith’s life was so contagious that the other students started asking her: "What has happened to you?".  Faith was growing rapidly in her new life in Christ, learning to trust in God and growing in her knowledge of Scripture & prayer.  As she was learning these things, each and every day she would go home and tell her husband what she was learning.

These conversations start to grab her husband’s interest.  One of the days she got home and asked her husband a question from class that day: “What is church?”.  He said something about singing and preaching.  Faith then took her notes from class and helped her husband to see from the Scriptures what the church is really meant to be.  The husband got to the point that he realized that he had also been missing out on following Jesus, but he continued to resist making changes in his life.

Over the next few weeks Bishop Nyanga kept encouraging Faith to invite her husband to church, even if he doesn’t want to go.  Then the husband came to Hope Africa to learn about our new Trade Skills (carpentry, metal work, plumbing, and electrical) program.  That afternoon, Faith and her husband met with Bishop Nyanga and he led the husband to Jesus, and they begin some marriage counselling!

Over the next few weeks Faith was easily the person with the most joy walking around the Hope Africa campus and her life and her husbands lives have been radically changed!  Together they came and celebrated Faith’s graduation from Hope Africa and now they are continuing to attend Bishop Nyanga’s church.

The missionary mom dilemma

I truly believe I've been equipped with an extra dosage of guts to accomplish these tasks God has given me in life.  Oh no!  By any means, don't think this makes me fearless.  I have as much fear as you and your next door neighbor combined.  But I don't stop at fear.  And I'm not a supper mom either.  But somehow I'll sing up to fly across the world with 2 kids by myself and not blink an eye about it...

Some people think I'm crazy.  I just think I have more God-given-guts to balance out my human super-sized fears.  I think it's a gift.  And for that I'm grateful.  But sometimes even with guts full of holy-steroids, a person can find himself/herself in a parenting dilemma that will knock the air our of your lungs: again, again and again.

This time, our return to South Africa was that air knocking phenomenon.

Coming to South Africa, meant we FIRST had to say good bye to Canada. Tearful goodbyes.  It is heart wrenching enough as adults, but when you have to watch your children break down having to say goodbye, AGAIN, it's hard not to be shaken. It's hard to not doubt and question constantly "Is this the right thing Lord?".

Because they know this time.  They know how flipping hard it is to live on the other side of that massive ocean and to count down the days until they can catch a glimpse of those faces again.  Those beautiful blood-related-faces.  Their cousins.  Their aunties.  Their uncles.  Their grand-parents.  

They know how long it will be until they walk the halls of that small country town school.  Until they see their friends again, their teachers, ...  And my Breath. Is. Taken. Away.

And for all the people who say: "This is amazing, your kids have such a cool life.", I think they have no idea the sacrifice my little ones make on a daily basis.  No amount of "cool" can make up for that. In fact, please don't EVER say that to anyone.  It's awful and not fair. No one does mission because "it's a cool life". So those comments are well... hurtful.  Because my beloved mini-me sacrifice for Jesus more than anyone probably realizes.  

And they have been sacrificing with such grace and even ease at times.  Maybe it is because children are resilient, but knowing their heart, I know it's mostly because they are madly in love with Jesus. They are so inclined to listen to His calling.

But this time, something was dramatically different.  Not their hearts.  Oh no.  Their hearts are infatuated and more on fire for Jesus than ever.  No something else.  Their desires, hopes and dreams were being shattered by returning to South Africa.

Even after a few weeks of being back, the boys were crying often and wanting to go back to Canada. We prayed and asked others to pray.  As Vincent, the youngest, got over the worse of it, our oldest, Raphael, was still really struggling.

He wanted to play hockey. You might say he was struggling with "earthly things" and this too shall pass.  But no amount of distracting him worked or will ever work with this boy.  If you've had the pleasure to know him, you will know what I mean. He usually only has one thing on the mind and it is to play HOCKEY. But as you can imagine, South Africa and hockey aren't very compatible.

He mourned this quietly.  Not with anger, but with genuine heart brokenness.  Including on Christmas morning, when he said all he wanted was to play hockey :(  It was almost too much for my mom heart.  My super-sized-guts were no help.

"What are we to do?" we asked.  The only hockey here is on Sunday mornings and we absolutely love our church family.  Even Raphael agreed all these years with our decisions.  But this time, we needed to re-evaluate, because we knew the long term re-precautions of this could be massive.

He could hate church.
He could hate mission.
He could hate us.
He could hate God.

or

He could think it's fine to not go to church.
He could fall out of love with Jesus.

So what now?  Well I don't know!!! This is the missionary mom dilemma.  And dad too.  And this is where we are at now. Seeing if we can find a different church, as heart breaking as it is.  Or other options of altering hockey frequencies.  There is no magic answer. They all have good and bad to them.  And no one prepares you for this.  So we pray and continue to ask guidance.  And ask that you please would join us!

Young Pastor training program

We have just recently started a new training program aimed at young pastors.  Please pray for us in this new and exciting ministry that I believe is very needed.

There is a strong culture here of young leaders rebelling against their older pastors/mentors and splitting churches to create new “movements” and churches.  We believe that it is close to the heart of God to see reconciliation between these parties and we are uniquely positioned in that we as Hope Africa have programs that reach the young leaders, but my personal work is training the senior pastors.

Meet Portia

Meet my friend Portia.  I met her in March during street team.  She was helping her neighbor who is renovating her house.

Portia has been coming to our Hope Africa office for some time now, visiting our prayer room for much needed prayers, counsel and love.  She told me: "I always feel so much better after [they] pray for me and can sleep."  She also said how she feels "happy and able to not focus on everything that is going wrong for a few hours" after receiving prayers from our staff.

Portia has a 6 year old son, who's father chooses not to be in the least involved.  He wanted nothing to do with the child since he found out Portia was pregnant.  You see, dads don't have to help their children financially here as they do in Canada.  They can just pretend they don't have them, leaving the women to take care of their children alone.  

Portia lives with her son in a small shack with no running water, no fridge & hardly enough space for the double bed they share.  When I visited her, there was no place to sit inside, so we ended up chatting outside, sitting on the ground.

Without a job or a way to make money & desperate to be loved, this leaves Portia at the mercy of not-good-for-you-men.  It's not hard to understand why a woman like her would stay in an abusive relationship(s) "just not to be alone" or for the few dollars this person might provide.

Helpless situations birth hopeless choices.

For Portia, her life is at a cross road right now.  We have offered for her to join our programs at Hope Africa, so that she can learn skills and get a job.  During her time with us, she would also grow as a person, and learn to stand on her two feet better.  She would meet Jesus in a new way as well.  But for many students like Portia, when their lives have been in pieces for so long, it's not as easy as one would think for them to take hold of the hand that is trying to help them. Truly help them.

There are always more obstacles than we can foresee.  Some real, some not.  People like Portia are so used to things not going their way, so used to failure, that sometimes it's easier not to try at all. Especially when it sounds too good to be true.

After discussing our programs and having her promise to come on the following Monday, the day our Life Direction course started, we left at peace.  I felt confident that she would come, despite the obstacles, which we had talked through (I thought).

But Portia didn't show up on Monday.  And it is hard for a person like me, who's never ever faced the kinds of challenges she has faced, to understand why not?  I want so bad for her, and many like her to know freedom from poverty.  To be able to stand on their 2 feet and tell those no-good-men to get lost.  To hold their heads high.  To feel loved by the King of Kings.

Because they are indeed loved.  And completely loved.  And as I write this I sigh.  A LOT.  Because I don't know the answers to my questions. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.  To my knees I fall and pray and ask my Papa for help, on behalf of all the people, like Portia, who are suffering, feeling their obstacles so heavy on them they can hardly see past.

With hope I say this story is to be continued.  Because you bet I will storm up to heaven's door for this woman and I know you will too!

Seeing new things or seeing differently?

It was a Thursday afternoon when I met her in the streets of Philippi, during one of our street team outing.  She looked at me and I looked at her, trying as hard as I could to hide the many questions popping into my head as to why she had a yellow-looking-mask all over her face.  And why, if it was indeed a mask, was she out of her house walking around as if nothing?

credits:https://misseuphony.wordpress.com/

But our street team stopped and started talking to her. She never mentioned it, and neither did I.  I used up all of my missionary politeness on this one, for I am very curious in nature.  And honestly, if I had met someone in the streets and invited them into my house while wearing a face mask, I would have certainly explained myself to my guests.  "Sorry guys, it's a bad time for my skin so I must..."  But this lady, nothing.

She was completely unapologetic.  I had to sit on my hands with the question burning up in my throat, trying to focus on what she was saying.  She was speaking in Xhosa, which makes it 100% more difficult for me to follow!  She did use hand gestures a lot, so it helped greatly, as she spoke to a fellow staff member (Sam).

One hand waived to the stairs and she made a lot of "BOOM" sounds, making me believe that she had fallen down the stairs and her repeatedly pointing to her sound system, while shouting and flailing her arms, made me believe that someone had possibly attempted to rob her recently. Having been here over 2 years now, I have stopped assuming that someone is mad just because they are yelling.   It did take me a full 2 years (and even now and then) to realize that Xhosa people just like talking very loud and even though they sound mad, they rarely are.  And this woman was proper-yelling!

All in all, I was only guessing, and now hearing the word "surgery" and perhaps "infection", I was gathering enough to know that this woman needed prayers.  I first thanked the Lord that Xhosa is sprinkled with English-like words that help me follow along in these types of situations, but also thanked Him that He knew her needs more than any of us ever could!

And as the Xhosa staff listened and ministered to her, I quietly prayed and cried out to God on behalf of this woman and her family.  She was an important woman in the community, I found out, while she dashed out of her home to go get her neighbor lady who had a terrible illness.  She described it as something similar to tuberculosis.

And then it happened.  Her neighbor was also sporting the same facial mask as her.  I had to double bite my tongue again and well...

Let me completely honest, as I have grown accustomed to be with you, when I say that in that moment I also prayed for my own safety and physical strength against this terrible disease.  I felt guilty for my own selfish reaction, although very human, and resumed my prayers for this frail lady.  As I prayed and sensed an overwhelming darkness, I feared her ailment was possibly more spiritual than physical and in my soul I began to pray and intercede on her behalf.

I have often prayed for God to give me wisdom, to give me eyes that see what He sees.  For Him to give me a heart like His.  Yet for some reason, every-time a moment like this happens, where I feel like the Father is showing me glimpses into a person's soul, showing me how He sees this person, somehow I'm always surprised!  Did I not just pray and ask for that very thing?  Then why, oh why, am I surprised that my Father is answering by showing me these things and allowing me to feel such deep emotions and compassion?

Our Heavenly Father is so good and so compassionate, and loves deeply and freely.  He lavishes His love on us.  And when I'm overcome with a flood of love for a complete stranger, I know it's from my Father in Heaven.  He gives me words that I could never know to speak in such foreign situation. He gives me insight that I wouldn't have on my own.  As a girl from a far away land, I shouldn't dare speak up yet He empowers me.  He makes me bold.  He speaks through me when I choose to completely abandon myself to Him and trust Him.  I sometimes feel foolish, like I might not be saying the right thing, yet time and time again I see light and understanding from the other person.  That can only be from God.

So today I praise Him for the lady who had a strange facial mask on, who brought her sick friend over [to perhaps do another facial?].  For I have seen the Lord work in mysterious ways and perhaps it was more to minister to my soul than to theirs, but I doubt it.  He is so good.

Oh, and it turns out it wasn't a face mask.  It was...  a mix of white clay and Umemezi, that Xhosa women [especially older women from the Eastern Cape], apply to their faces to protect them from sunburns and harsh weather.  It is also used a "makeup" and regarded as a symbol of beauty by the women.  Now since our students are younger, I wasn't familiar with this practice, but now I know!

I'm not only seeing new things, but with the Lord's help, I believe that He allows me to see people differently.

Bishop Nyanga

HUGE answer to prayer!!!  Last month we asked you to pray for God to send the right person to our ministry.  We were looking to hire an older local pastor who can work with Mike in ministering to the local churches.  The person who was previously helping Mike with this has moved on from Hope Africa at the end of his term (December 2015) and we now have found someone amazing to replace him.

Mike greeting the Bishop at our first staff meeting with him

We are very excited to be able to introduce you to Bishop Nyanga.  He is a local pastor that we worked with a lot in 2015 and have a strong relationship with.  We will give more information about him soon.

Bishop Nyanga telling our staff a little bit more about himself

• The boys are back into the school daily grind of homeschooling (after the holidays) and things are going well.  
   
• The boys enjoy playing soccer on Friday afternoons in a little kid's league near our house.  Vincent is rather fierce and Raphael is more "calculated" & tries to do fancy moves.
   
• We have been enjoying our first actual ever garden.  It's a lot more work and a lot harder than one would think!!!  The soil here is well... sandy.  And the wind is a big problem, never mind the snails!
   
• I [Marie-Eve] broken my toe at the gym by dropping a whooping 20 kilo weight plate on it.  Not my brightest moment ever. he he.  I guess I didn't want to have to do "leg day".
   
• Mike has been enjoying playing tennis on a weekly basis with friends and has even started running. He (not so secretly) misses hockey, snow & everything attached with winter.  I, on the other hand, miss none of it.

Staff retreat blessedness

Mike and I (Marie-Eve) had the opportunity to go with our staff to a work retreat for 2 days and spend quality time together to dream, pray and refocus ourselves on this wonderful ministry the Lord has called us to.

Even with a broken toe, I attempted to participate in as many events as possible!

This nail challenged seemed nearly impossible, until we figured it out and gained speed at doing it :)

Jeremy became really intense and wanted to win so bad.

The pool was a relief as the heat was almost unbearable.

I was the saddest at not being able to do this rope challenge, but everyone did so fantastic.

Good kind of whirlwind

The last few weeks have also been packed with ministry events, times of teaching and speaking in local Xhosa churches.  There is so much to talk about, and I find myself lacking words to describe the whirlwind we find ourselves in!

Add to that the arrival of our family from Canada, and you've got yourself a beautiful chaos of laughter amidst profound ministry time that we have been having together.  It is so beautiful to share with them what we do here and to get to do it with them!

Boys on their way to go see our their cousins for the first time in AFRICA!

(We found a house walking distance from our place to host Mike's brother (Randy), his wife (Joyce) and 3 kids.  It's been a blessing to have them close by and for the cousins to bound together.)

Getting "new" hockey stick just the right size

Visiting the aquarium

Getting introduced to our Hope Africa staff

More staff, more people to love

Seeing on the map the areas where we drove through or walked through (in the township of Phillipi)

Seeing our hair school at Hope Africa

We had an amazing time walking the street of Phillipi, praying for people but of course I do not have pictures of those moments.  It is hard to describe how powerfully the Holy Spirit is working in and through our family during this time together in Capetown.

Another highlight was visiting Mawande's family in their home in a neighboring township called Mfuleni.  The hospitality we received was like nothing we had experienced before.  How beautiful seeing our 2 families, from completely different countries, background and life, come together for a meal.  That is real church guys!

Mom Fast helping getting the meal ready

The mamas and bride-to-be

Tata (grandpa) and auntie

Real tough Jets' loving boy

Mama and Mawande having a chat

The kids hanging out with the neighbors

Mike, Mawande's uncle & Mawande

Uncle Randy keeping the troops under control

Our beautiful host!

We have also started taking some very early steps to connect some of the white churches and Xhosa churches which is very very rare here, with the goal of building up and equipping the churches.

Who knows what next?!?  We await with such expectation!

Listening to the Holy Spirit

As many of you know, because Mike didn't get his Visa on time, he was unable to leave to go to Malawi.  And because of that turn of event, we found some an unexpected treasure at a difficult time.  No surprising though, knowing we serve an immensely wise God. 

That week was a school holiday here in South Africa, and like we have done during the previous school holiday, we arranged a week of student ministry.  This time, it was for 3 local churches and a group of 25 teenagers (our other programs work with post high-school students).  We spent time in worship, prayer, and teachings times.  We also got to go out into the community to serve at a disabled center and do some evangelism at a local mall.  

On Friday, the last day, we took the group of young people to the beach and had a braai (BBQ). Myself (Marie-Eve) and the kids got to join and I had the opportunity to visit with one of the teenagers and hear some testimony of her week and... capture it all on video for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

It is really special to know this young lady was encouraged in her faith, together with many of the other students, and that this would probably not have happened had Mike gone to Malawi.  Thank you Lord for unexpected treasures in difficult times.

To South Africa and beyond

Who knew when we first came to South Africa that God would expand our ministry to the "beyond" part of Africa?  Well He did!!!

Mike had the chance to go to Zimbabwe at the end of February, to join an Annual Equipping Event hosted by Global Disciples.  He had been in discussions with Global Disciples for about 8 months (met with them first while we were in Canada) and this was an opportunity to hear about their work first hand from current program directors.

About 75 Global Disciples program directors (all pastors) came to the event from 10 different countries.  (Just in 2014 these 75 men and women planted about 40 churches in their respective countries, and well over 100 churches in the last 5 years!)  Around the world, Global Disciples planted 1400 churches last year, with 40,000 new believers in these churches! 

I think for most Canadians, when we hear the name Zimbabwe, we think in our heads “ends of the earth.”  Well after spending a week at the “end of the earth,” Mike has a lot to say about his incredible week.

"The country of Zimbabwe has been struggling for the past 20 years, with unemployment now at 90% in one of the poorest countries on earth.  But praise God, the church is stepping forward to share the gospel with this nation of desperate a needed people."

Could the church feed a nation?

"We were hosted in Zimbabwe at this amazing church that is reaching out in so many ways to the people of the nation including teaching them how to grow better crops.  The church is a part of the Zimbabwe Evangelical Fellowship and it is their vision to feed the nation, both spiritually and physically.  In order to accomplish this the church uses a combination of church planting and farm training."

"They run crop demonstrations at the church where their crops are 10 times the yield of the average Zimbabwe farmer.  They have now trained 10,000 farmers, and these farmers currently average 3 times the yield of the national average with just some basic training techniques.  Currently Zimbabwe only produces 25% of the food that is needed to feed their nation, but the church believes that they can feed the entire nation by training their farmers!"

"Each day during the event there was testimony after testimony of how God was working in these servants to make disciples, to plant churches, to heal the sick, and to provide for their communities.  We spent hours every day in worship and prayer, and also took 24 hours to fast and pray on Thursday.  That evening we spent many hours praying for the salvation of the nations, praying for God’s church to fulfill the great commission across the globe.  We prayed against the evil in our world, recognizing that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the rules, power, and principalities of this dark world.  We prayed throughout the night in shifts with me having the 2-3 a.m. shift with a few other pastors.  I was amazed how quickly the time of prayer went, and in the morning we started to pray again at 7:30 a.m.  The passion in this group to fulfill the great commission seeing churches planted in every people group of earth was both encouraging and contagious."

Our hope and prayer is that in 2015 I will be able to launch some of these programs with the churches of Cape Town.  We are hoping to start with the church leadership training and sometime after that, hopefully to launch a discipleship and church planting program.  We am very excited to see where God will take all these things.