This is not going to work

Well well well.  Guess who's been hard at work.  The crazy Fast missionaries.  We have been busy planning a retreat for pastors & church leaders at the end of April, and it's been well... hectic as they say in South Africa.

One of our goals for the retreat is to give these pastors some rest and refreshment in the Lord.  Burn out and moral failure are unfortunately very common, and the pace the pastors operate at often contributes to this challenge.  So we won't ask them to run through the mud (although it's rather refreshing), but we want to make this awesome!

Our theme for the weekend is "Leading like Jesus", and we will be looking at a number of passages together with these pastors to grow our understanding of Jesus' leadership so that they can model their own leadership after Christ's.

But now we have a [good] problem so I decided to make a little video to illustrate this [good] problem to you, as I figured you were getting bored of my crazy blog ramblings!!  I hope you enjoy it (keeping in mind I'm no film director!!!).  

Pastor Zweli, featured in this video, is the pastor Hope Africa Collective has hired to help Mike with church mobilization, so you will get to "meet him" in the video.  Huge thanks to all the Hope Africa staff that participated in the making of this 5 minute video.

--> Pastor's retreat video  

So as you can see in the video, we had booked a retreat site where we could host 25 pastors.  However, now have 80+ pastors that want to come!  So yes, we have a good problem. 

The last few weeks Mike has been trying to find a larger venue to hold all these additional pastors.  We have successfully found a venue that can host about 65, so we are very pleased with this.  Good things people are used to sharing tight spaces here!

If you are interesting in giving towards this: please contact us so we can tell you how to proceed.  

Until then, cheers folks and thanks for stopping by!

The best Yes

(this blog was inspired partly by quotes from the book "the Best Yes" by Lysa Terkeurst, 
and is also an adaptation of my speaking note from NCF Women's ministry: October 9th, 2014)

“We must not confuse the command to love with the disease to please.” Lysa TerKeurst 

I was asked to speak at women's ministry October 9th, and I thought I'd blog about what I shared with these women.  Normally Mike is the one preaching and bring long winded, so beware, it is finally my turn! 

You see, just like Lysa TerKeurst, I’m a chronic "people pleaser", and I'm not very far in my recovery just yet. As I deal with this need to please in my every day life, I have come to discover that in general:

what people think of me matters way too much.

And because of that, I can easily lose sight of pleasing God.  That’s my biggest “pitfall” in saying my “Best Yes” to God.

Pleasing people can be easily confused by those watching us as being loving, but the truth is, we aren't doing these things because we are loving at all.  We can't truly be loving when we have our own interests in mind and our motives are to please others in order to make ourselves look or feel better.  

1 Cor 13:5 "It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."

When I’m trying to please someone, 
the actions that follow cannot be actions of love.

I went shopping with my dear friend last week-end and I put aside my desire to please others big time.  I decided it didn’t matter if this is a big “what not to wear” moment, I was saying yes to the pants, because I’ve been wanting these sweet fake leather pants for years, and it didn’t matter if they were in style and it didn’t matter what people would think.  It was one of my "Best Yes" moment in my shopping life.

Cheers to good friends who put up with my crazy shopping style and love me no matter what!

At this point in my life, I feel like:

The ONLY way we can all give God our Best Yes, 

is by saying NO to “people pleasing”.

 

Ok, but just to confuse you, sometimes the Best Yes is Saying No.  

I have a very addictive personality and I don’t mean that people get addicted to me (although that's also very possible).  So for me, in the evening after I’ve had a long day, sometimes I want to watch one TV show and go to bed.  

But it rarely turns out to be just one because if I sit down to watch one, I don’t have the discipline to just watch that one.  So if I think down the road and I acknowledge that I need rest, for me the best Yes is to not even watch one, because:

I know I’ll be tired the next day,

I know I’ll be cranky with my kids, 

I know I won’t have enough brain cells to do devotions, 

and I know that I'll be less kind (more mean?) to my husband, ...

“A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.  The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.”  Proverbs (22:3)

Doesn't mean YOU can't just watch one show, but for me, not watching any in that situation would be my Best yes!

Another way to know if this is a best Yes, is when the cost of saying No is even higher (in terms of down the road consequences).

There are situations in life that are serious enough, where you and I just have to say Yes because the cost of saying No is so high.  Perhaps too high for you to follow through and you couldn't bare to live with the consequences if you said No.   

This is HARD stuff and I'm no better than you because I now have this missionary title.  In fact if you knew everything that’s in my heart, you would be appalled and then perhaps relieved that I’m just a regular human being, struggling through life, trying to make the best decisions possible with a really weak ability to stick to my decisions and also a really really scattered personality (just in case you haven’t noticed yet).

James 4:17  is talking about saying Yes to something you know 100% God is asking you to do because if you don’t, you know you aren’t following His best plan for your life and the word of God calls it sin.  

It’s not called “refusing the BEST God has for you”, it’s called sin.  There is no getting around this one.  I actually sorta tried, and failed.  So when we don’t obey God’s will, we sin.

It is God who gives knowledge into what is the right thing for you.  What I’m saying is that: it’s not enough to just follow all the rules and laws.  This might not be something that is a “thou shall not” or a rule that is written out clearly like a law in the Bible, but it might be something that you KNOW you ought to do and aren’t doing yet.  Or something you should stop doing and haven's stopped yet.  

Time for a little honesty talk.

“In this great day when most women wave banners of authenticity about our pasts, we crouch back from honesty about our presents. We’ll tell you all about our broken places of yesterday but don’t dare admit the limitations of our today” Lysa TerKeurst

In a previous blog post in April, I wrote about letting go of people’s expectations of me as a missionary in South Africa.  I shared that I was struggling with what people were expecting me to be doing.  I told you that I find it hard to know how much or how little to get involved with our ministry, while being a stay at home mom & homeschooling the kids.

Also a part-time toy maker...

Now that we are heading back to South Africa in 5 weeks and that I do not have more of calling over my life than that of taking care of the children and supporting my husband (same as before), it's hard!

And the truth is, this call is amazing, but I don't get why God would call me to go to South Africa to do it, because frankly it’s much easier being a mom here in Canada with my friends, a dishwasher, a dryer and a vacuum.   Oh and HEAT.  And perogies.

 But if God hasn’t called me to say Yes, then I better get used to saying no.

“Escape the guilt of disappointing others by learning the secret of the small no.” Lysa TerKeurst

This season of fall I admit is the worst, because everything starts up again.  This a prime time to “get people suckered into volunteering”.  I’m not saying volunteering is bad.  I’m not saying commitment is bad.  But what are your reasons?  Is that your Best Yes?  Are you doing it just to please someone, or are you doing it out of love for Jesus??

Again I tell myself, if God hasn’t called me this or this ministry, then I better get used to saying no.  

Say “NO” with me just for practice sake?  Great.  (Actually I have no way of knowing if you did you little stinker, but if you are even still reading this, you rock).

“Overcome the agony of hard choices by embracing a wisdom based decision-making process.” Lysa TerKeurst

When faced with hard stuff, hard choices, the best is to not lean on our feelings too much.  I’ve learned that once a month, my decision making process should get revoked for about 2 days (maybe 3-4 days sometimes).  So I try to avoid making decisions and I advise my husband not to put too much weight into what I say during those 2 days.

When faced with a decision like going back to South Africa, it’s not an easy thing and it’s not going to get easier by eating chocolate.  It is God who gives wisdom.  

When I embrace God’s wisdom, His promises to never leave me nor forsake me are what I hand on to.  His words breathe life into me and give me the knowledge that I need to make decisions.

On my own I can’t do it.  I can’t go back for another 2 years to a difficult situation, even though a lot of it is awesome and amazing.  But the Great God who has called me is worth obeying more than anything.  Saying No costs too much.  Saying No is something I would regret.  Saying No is tempting but not even an option.  The Best Yes is hard.  He never promised it would be easy.  But the Best Yes is the Best option. 

Is there an area in our life where we need to say No?

Is there an area in our life where we need to say Yes?

A year gone boom

Guys, seriously!!!  The year didn't just go by, it went BOOM with a BANG.  Like "wow".  Some of it felt long, some of it felt short, but after being in South Africa for a year, we marvel more than ever at the work of God and His ability to reach out, save and transform lives.   

This is no joke, we (you all included) serve a God who is alive, He reigns over all the earth, calling His creation back to Himself.  AH!  We are so stinking privileged to serve Him, and our family is so privileged, by His grace, to be in a ministry in South Africa where we see His hand moving daily. WOW.

Mike has been teaching Faith Discovery group every six weeks since February, and then every Wednesday he teaches a follow up class with these same students.  He almost always starts off the classes with an opportunity for them to share what God has been doing in their lives.  It never ceases to amaze me the stories he shares about how God changed the students lives during their time at Hope Africa.

• One student shares how God has changed their attitude to enable them to let go of their anger.   
• Another student shares how God has helped them forgive someone they never thought they could forgive.  
• Another student testifies to how God has healed their lungs from lifelong breathing problems.   
• Another testifies how God has given them a passion to know Jesus.   
• Another testifies how for the first time in their life they felt the presence of the Holy Spirit as they gave their life to him!

And that's just one week's worth of testimonies, this happens every Wednesday.  And that is entirely based on the work God has done, and we get to be a part of that.  

Mike says: 

"I now come to Faith Discovery Group weeks with huge expectations about what God is going to do.  I know that the students will have gone through severe trauma and struggles in their lifetimes.  Before every week starts, my co-teacher Mawande and I, spend a lot of time praying for what God wants to do.  I know that on Monday as Mawande and I share our testimonies, God will open the doors for our students to open up about their life stories." 

There are always 2 groups of about 15 students taking the class at a time.  We now know ahead of time that in each group:

• Many will share about not having enough food.
• 14 of the 15 of them will have no fathers in their lives.
• 7 or 8 of the 15 will have one or both parent(s) dead.
• 3 or 4 will have been rejected by not only their father, but also their mother and that they were raised by a grandma or aunt.   
• 1 will share about being raped, and as she shares, another 3 or 4 will start deeply weeping immediately as she says the word.

Mike says: 

"But we also know that God is the good Father.  And as we begin to teach about God, the good Father, who is forgiving, just and loving, we know that through the Holy Spirit there is freedom, there is healing, there is power to forgive others, there is the forgiveness of sin.  Through Jesus, we can be made right with God again, restored according to His plan from before creation even began!"

He continues: 

"This past week in Faith Discovery Group, God blew me away yet again!  And as I heard the students testimonies in our follow up from our last week of class, I think about their life stories they shared last Monday and I am so deeply humbled.  I am so humbled by their authenticity, by their openness, and by their hope in spite of despair all around them.  I am so humbled to see God working through our ministry. 

In particular I am humbled by being used by God last Friday, when I was able to go around and pray with 7 students.  When I came to the first student, I asked him what God had been teaching him last week.  He said, “I want to respond to Jesus’ call and follow Him.”  So I talked with him about counting the cost and making sure this is really what he wants, and as he affirmed it, I lead him in a simple prayer of repentance and turning to Jesus. 

I proceeded to talk to the next student and she tells me that she actually gave her life to Jesus for the first time while I was reading Isaiah 53, and as she did that she felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in her life. 

The next person asks me to pray for them as they are struggling to forgive the deep hurts from their abusive father. 

The next two students I talked to, also make first time commitments to Christ.  And then 2 more, asked for prayer for various struggles and hardships.

For those that know me personally, sometimes I think that driving Camaros or Arctic Cats, or playing hockey is fun.  But there is nothing like watching someone experience the joy of salvation, never mind four in one day!  This makes me so deeply humbled to be used by God is this way."