So as of now Alicia and I have celebrated more anniversaries in Africa than at home. On June 23'rd we had our 3 year. We went to a world cup game that night. It was incredible. The atmosphere, stadium, crowds and the bus rides. It was Australia vs Serbia and turned out to be a great game, 2:1 for Aussie. We have been spending a lot of time watching the other games on TV with people and it has been a great chance to bond.
We recently found out my parents have booked tickets to come out to South Africa for the end of September and we are extrememly excited. Now we're busy planning what we want to do while they're here.
I can't believe we have been here for 2 months. The time flies here and I get glimpses of how fast this year is going to go. I try to take my time and really take in the experience, so it's not something that just hits me on the plane ride home. The quietness of where we are really has a way of slowing you down. At first coming from the west it feels isolating and boring at times. Then you come to love and cherish the quietness. A chance to reflect. It makes me scared to go back home. To fall into the same old routines again. Life is short and that's why I should be acknolweding the experience right infront of me. Taking time so slow down my pace. The Western world is result driven and here in Africa it's relationship driven. There has to be a way to find a happy medium if nothing else.
Africa has changed me, and I see that can make some people uncomfortable, but I can't deny it. I have new role models, new ideas and a new perspective. I've been challenged. I feel more like who I was meant to be and what I was meant to be doing. If it feels more fitting it must be the right direction, right? I love what is happening and embrace it. While those on the surface might not notice the change, I feel it deep inside. It's true when people say we could be doing volunteer work anywhere, and I'm sure I will carry on back home, but I love Africa. I feel a huge debt to Africa, Hands at Work, friends, family and my amazing wife. It isn't easy to pick up and move across the world, but the support of everyone makes it possible. Thank you, we love and miss everyone at home.
-T
A call to prayer
The World Cup starts today and while there are a lot of positive things happening in South Africa because of it, there is also a huge opening for a lot of scary things to happen. I just recently read a World Cup security brief article (written after a meeting held at the Consular section) that made me very aware of some of these "scary things."
Below is an excerpt from the article that struck me hard and broke my heart:
"For those with children the World Cup is going to be a particularly bad time for child abductions. In South Africa there are 15 abductions/kidnappings every day and they see this as a crime which will get out of hand over the World Cup period. Human trafficking gangs know that the schools are all on holiday over the tournament. They will target shopping malls, cafes, cinemas, public toilets and toy departments in shops. The SA authorities estimate that approx 300,000 Africans will come over the borders for the tournament. The borders will not be able to cope with the surge and checks will be cursory in most cases. Babies will be abducted for scrupulous adoption agencies in Nigeria and the like. Children aged 4-8 will be targeted for the porn industry. Those children around 9 – 13 for prostitution."
It's clear. Human trafficking is very real. Here in Africa, but also around the world. It is a horrific, repulsive and grossly violating practice which is "justified" by the market that demands it. Now please understand I am not bringing your attention to this to bring upon discouragement, despair or worry, but instead my hope is that you will be moved and encouraged to pray fervently against it. Pray for the woman and children who will be targeted. Pray for those who drive the market - the traffickers and the "customers" - that their eyes will be opened to the truth and their hearts will face fierce conviction.
We serve a powerful and mighty God who can move mountains and part waters...certainly he will hear the unified prayers of his people.
Below is an excerpt from the article that struck me hard and broke my heart:
"For those with children the World Cup is going to be a particularly bad time for child abductions. In South Africa there are 15 abductions/kidnappings every day and they see this as a crime which will get out of hand over the World Cup period. Human trafficking gangs know that the schools are all on holiday over the tournament. They will target shopping malls, cafes, cinemas, public toilets and toy departments in shops. The SA authorities estimate that approx 300,000 Africans will come over the borders for the tournament. The borders will not be able to cope with the surge and checks will be cursory in most cases. Babies will be abducted for scrupulous adoption agencies in Nigeria and the like. Children aged 4-8 will be targeted for the porn industry. Those children around 9 – 13 for prostitution."
It's clear. Human trafficking is very real. Here in Africa, but also around the world. It is a horrific, repulsive and grossly violating practice which is "justified" by the market that demands it. Now please understand I am not bringing your attention to this to bring upon discouragement, despair or worry, but instead my hope is that you will be moved and encouraged to pray fervently against it. Pray for the woman and children who will be targeted. Pray for those who drive the market - the traffickers and the "customers" - that their eyes will be opened to the truth and their hearts will face fierce conviction.
We serve a powerful and mighty God who can move mountains and part waters...certainly he will hear the unified prayers of his people.
by prayer and petition
"If we want to be able to love, we must be able to pray."
I have been learning a lot about prayer and petition over the past month. About the power of prayer; about the importance of leaving everything I have at the foot of the cross...all my fears, insecurities, my need for control over today and tomorrow, my unforgiveness, my frustration, my hopes. And to honestly have faith that God hears my prayers. To honestly know that he loves to talk with me...after all that is essentially what prayer is. It is a conversation with God. It is our way of building a relationship with Him. We are His children; I am His child and He desires nothing more than to breathe life into my soul through times of prayer.
Many of the revelations I have been having has been spoken to me through Mother Theresa's book "No Greater Love." Ty and I are currently reading through it together, and I have been touched immensely by her words in the first chapter. She has such an incredibly eloquent way of talking about prayer that I thought instead of trying to explain what I've read, I would instead share some of the quotes I marked down in my journal.
"Just once let the love of God take entire and absolute possession of your heart; let it become to your heart like second nature; let your heart suffer nothing contrary to enter; let it apply itself to continually increase this love of God by seeking to please Him in all things and refusing Him nothing; let it accept as from His hand everything that happened to it; let it have a firm determination never to commit any fault deliberately and knowingly or, if it should fail, to be humbled and to rise up again at once - and such a heart will pray continually."
Now read it again. Slowly. Take the time to let the words resonate in your heart because what she is saying to do, is by no means an easy task. For me, I think it might take me my entire life before I will be able to really do this...but i promise to try.
She then moves on to speak about the significance of taking the time to be silent in our prayers. For "in silence we will find new energy and true unity...we need silence to be able to touch souls."
Again a huge challenge for me! For as most of you know, I find it hard to be still...plus, I like so much to talk...I even chose a career that allows me to talk all day :) But, that is not an excuse. I KNOW that now I must begin to practice being silent. How else will I be able to hear?
So that brings me to my final thoughts, which will again be the words of Mother Theresa...
"In the silence of the heart God speaks and you have to listen. Then it is in the fullness of your heart, because it is full of God, full of love, full of compassion, full of faith, your mouth will speak and God listens."
- a
- Mother Theresa
I have been learning a lot about prayer and petition over the past month. About the power of prayer; about the importance of leaving everything I have at the foot of the cross...all my fears, insecurities, my need for control over today and tomorrow, my unforgiveness, my frustration, my hopes. And to honestly have faith that God hears my prayers. To honestly know that he loves to talk with me...after all that is essentially what prayer is. It is a conversation with God. It is our way of building a relationship with Him. We are His children; I am His child and He desires nothing more than to breathe life into my soul through times of prayer.
Many of the revelations I have been having has been spoken to me through Mother Theresa's book "No Greater Love." Ty and I are currently reading through it together, and I have been touched immensely by her words in the first chapter. She has such an incredibly eloquent way of talking about prayer that I thought instead of trying to explain what I've read, I would instead share some of the quotes I marked down in my journal.
"Just once let the love of God take entire and absolute possession of your heart; let it become to your heart like second nature; let your heart suffer nothing contrary to enter; let it apply itself to continually increase this love of God by seeking to please Him in all things and refusing Him nothing; let it accept as from His hand everything that happened to it; let it have a firm determination never to commit any fault deliberately and knowingly or, if it should fail, to be humbled and to rise up again at once - and such a heart will pray continually."
Now read it again. Slowly. Take the time to let the words resonate in your heart because what she is saying to do, is by no means an easy task. For me, I think it might take me my entire life before I will be able to really do this...but i promise to try.
She then moves on to speak about the significance of taking the time to be silent in our prayers. For "in silence we will find new energy and true unity...we need silence to be able to touch souls."
Again a huge challenge for me! For as most of you know, I find it hard to be still...plus, I like so much to talk...I even chose a career that allows me to talk all day :) But, that is not an excuse. I KNOW that now I must begin to practice being silent. How else will I be able to hear?
So that brings me to my final thoughts, which will again be the words of Mother Theresa...
"In the silence of the heart God speaks and you have to listen. Then it is in the fullness of your heart, because it is full of God, full of love, full of compassion, full of faith, your mouth will speak and God listens."
- a
"He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
There is something lost in my pursuit for material possessions when I'm at home. It's a concept I was born into, in the western world, to want the best of everything. To have a big house and beautiful cars is my main goal and proves I am not a failure. The society I grew up in teaches me to work hard and look after myself. I don't work hard to hand over my money to someone else. I don't have to worry about Steve's problems, because I have my own stuff to think about. Steve will worry about himself and I'll worry about me.
Radical generosity was such a foreign concept to me and why wouldn't it be? Look how we grow up. It goes against everything I have known since I was little to give so much. To invest not just my money, but my time into strangers. I do not claim to be radically generous now, because I have truly seen what that means. I only claim that I have been changed, and although there is still a struggle internally, I feel that something holding me back has snapped and it feels unbinding. To let go of wanting the best house, car or whatever, opens me up to so much. In a previous blog I said that Africa is good for my soul. I've come to recognize that all these possessions that I hold onto are not what should be driving me. The poorest people in Africa have little possessions so other things claim their attention. Like family, friends, togetherness and relationships. Through my time here I have identified a part of my soul that has been missing. Although I may have thought that I was coming to Africa to be a helper, it was me who was also helped.
Learning how to let go and truly give of myself has been amazing. To let my heart be broken by people, who up until I let them, had no baring on my life. I am not preaching at anyone, but only unloading my thoughts onto this blog. Maybe others are going through the same thing, or like me before I came to Africa, never had these thoughts cross their mind. There are always reasons we have to not give, but the real challenge is to recognize when they are excuses.
-T
Radical generosity was such a foreign concept to me and why wouldn't it be? Look how we grow up. It goes against everything I have known since I was little to give so much. To invest not just my money, but my time into strangers. I do not claim to be radically generous now, because I have truly seen what that means. I only claim that I have been changed, and although there is still a struggle internally, I feel that something holding me back has snapped and it feels unbinding. To let go of wanting the best house, car or whatever, opens me up to so much. In a previous blog I said that Africa is good for my soul. I've come to recognize that all these possessions that I hold onto are not what should be driving me. The poorest people in Africa have little possessions so other things claim their attention. Like family, friends, togetherness and relationships. Through my time here I have identified a part of my soul that has been missing. Although I may have thought that I was coming to Africa to be a helper, it was me who was also helped.
Learning how to let go and truly give of myself has been amazing. To let my heart be broken by people, who up until I let them, had no baring on my life. I am not preaching at anyone, but only unloading my thoughts onto this blog. Maybe others are going through the same thing, or like me before I came to Africa, never had these thoughts cross their mind. There are always reasons we have to not give, but the real challenge is to recognize when they are excuses.
-T
