a shout out for Mama Deane (and for Cold Stone)!

We landed in Newport News, Virginia on the 25th and have spent 4 days being treated to 'southern hospitality' by Deane Mills (aka Mama Deane), a wonderful lady who I met at HG5 in Pemba, Mozambique last summer. We have been given full reign of her house including the use of her truck. It has been an awesome time of rest, peace, and thought. If ever there was an amazing host who I have had the pleasure of being pampered by, it is Mama Deane. So, its not as much as you have given us, but, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU MAMA DEANE!!!
Another exciting thing which has happened in Yorktown has been that I got to experience another cherry cheesecake milkshake from one of my favorite places in the world............Cold Stone Creamery! These milkshakes may be the most tastiest things I have ever tasted! That makes Cold Stone experiences in 4 locations: Franklin, TN '06; Redding, CA '07; NYC '08, Yorktown, VA '08.

Later today, Jenny & I board a plane and head back north towards St Catharines where we will be till September 3rd. I am actually really looking forward to a short visit in St Kits again. The bulk of our time will be receiving pre-marital counseling from Pastor George and Marilyn. We also are gonna visit Scott St Manor, the Karanfilis', and Sheri. There are also many little things we need to do while there which will turn our relaxing time there into something of a rat race, but it shall be good nonetheless. Indeed, cause the God we serve is good.

HG5..........check!

Holy Given 5 is now officially over. Graduation was today. Tomorrow I fly to Dar es Salaam and try to get a visa for Russia. Paul Adams is there already trying to get a visa and the embassy is not playing nice; they don't want to give him one. PRAYER IS NEEDED. I want to go to Russia. PLEASE PRAY EVRYONE. I WANT TO GO TO RUSSIA!!!

HG5 went well. I wont go into too many details but it didnt quite go expected as planned? It was good though. All in all, thousands of people recieved Jesus, many churches were planted, and the Gospel was advanced in a mighty way. And that's what it's all about.

worldliness + fire = purity

There's a desperation that can come on you that shouldn't be taken lightly. It's a desperation for........'less'. In Paul's second letter to the Corinthians he writes, "having nothing, yet possessing all things" (2Cor 6:10 nasb). That's a dangerous thing to desire. It screams of freedom though. Freedom from things that people are killing each other for. Materialism is not as blatant as it appears to be. Even the 3rd World is steeped in over their heads with the need for things which distract them from true freedom. Humanity craves more 'stuff'. The whole reason God gave us a covenant which is based on freedom is so that we would be free. Yet we have exalted that freedom to a status of Master, and it has ensnared us with greed and pride. What an awful miscarriage of justice. We've used God's love for us against Him.

We cry to God for "More" while ignoring His cry of, "I have already answered that prayer." What if we were satisfied with Him, and Him alone? What if God never ever did anything for you from this day on; would you still serve Him? Isn't what He already did for you enough? If He never blessed you with enough money to enjoy your luxuries again, isn't what He already done for you enough to give everything you own? What if the Body was filled with people who never asked God for anything, but were content only to serve Him out of the desperate love which He has for us? What would this look like? I think I know, but it's an answer that would leave 90% of christendom very unsettled.

I desire to be satisfied with serving Christ, period. I do not want to work for Christ, I want to serve Him. "A person who works is paid wages, but they are not regarded as a gift; they are something that has been earned. But those who depend on faith, not on deeds, and who believe in the God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is this faith that God takes into account in order to put them right with himself" (Rom 4:4-5 gnb).

Although we are already dead (Galatians 2:20), we still die daily (1Corinthians 15:31). I pray that the Lord would kill us again, this time slowly and painfully, so that we would not forget. So that we would identify with the love Jesus had for us when He endured the cross for us. Today, I am desperate. Yet not to the degree which is desperate for His lost bride. My desperation needs to increase till I cry as He does. Draw us in closer Lord. In Your fire lies purity. And in Your presence lies Your fire, which burns off the worldliness that feeds our complacence. Burn it off Lord, please, millions are waiting ...................

wasup?!

The experience I've had in Africa thus far has been largely experiential. I can't really remember a time in my Christian life where the Bible has seemeed so silent, and where God has seemed so contemplative, choosing rather to lean back on His throne and observe me rather than blatantly reveal Himself. The experience is not the easiest, but it is challenging.

I just finished reading Romans 5:3-5; We also boast of our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance brings God's approval, and His approval creates hope. This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out His love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to us. (GNB)

The word translated 'troubles' here is the Greek word thlipsis which can also be accurately translated as 'pressure'. When God is not speaking to us as loudly and clearly as we would like, there seems to be a certain pressure to make sure we're really in His will and doing exactly what He wants us to be doing. Yet the promises that this pressure will yield a harvest of endurance --> approval --> hope. And the hope all comes back to the promise of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It all comes back to intimacy, and connecting to the thing that we already have.

A friend posed a question to one of the staff here in Pemba recently: "If you didn't know what you were supposed to do next and you asked God and He said, 'I don't care. What do you want to do?' What would you do?" It's a valid question. So many times we wait on God, while He's waiting on us.

In my time here in Pemba it feels like instead of God telling me what to do, He's walking beside me and I'm just following Him. No words are necessary, just relying on Him to guide. Trusting in the Holy Spirit and the ultimate promise of God that was fulfilled on Pentecost.

I said earlier that this was largely experiential. I mean that I've been finding out lots about myself and who God has created me to be. It has been an awakening of sorts. One that is crucial in the development of future opportunities. New vision, dreams, game plans, etc are arising inside me. How do I specifically and individually advance the Kingdom in the most effective and efficient way, without falling victim to the "needs" of the ministry. No one should ever minister out of "need", you must always minister out of "love" and "desire". Theirin is your joy, your steadfastness in hard times, your unending perseverance. Whoever said, "Find a need, and then meet it" probably got burnt out pretty quick if that "need" wasn't something they were totally passionate about. There will always be need, no amount of working and striving will eliminate it. We need to follow the Lamb wherever He leads us, wherever that may be. That is what I'm learning in Africa right now. Just to be. Not to stress, but just to follow. As a leaf being carried downstream, so am I.

photos for you

So I had a bit of time to kill today. I'm in town waiting for Precision Air to change my flight back to Tanzania so I can get to Russia. So I came to the internet cafe and am able to upload photos for you. So click ---> HERE <--- to view photos of my time at Holy Given 5 in Pemba. It may be forever before I get ALL the photos on here, but some are here anyway. You can also check out the 'Holy Given 5' link in my sidebar under photogarphy.

Church Planting is cool

Thats right, it IS cool. Just think. Somewhere in the northern Mozambican bush 3 hours outside of Pemba there is a place where people can access spiritual help whereas they had not the opportunity before. That is a piece of the heart of missions; placing a pastor in a church to raise up Spirit filled believers who will in turn do the same in other places that have not a witness of Christ. To have the privledge to take part in this is just awesome, it's humbling that God would allow me to have a hand in the revival He has brought to Mozambique. He trains us so we can train others. On and on it goes till either the whole world believes, or Jesus descends from the heavens.......

Lots is happening in Mozambique. Villages are being transformed by the Gospel. We rejoice with the good, we persevere through the bad. We do not lose heart, cause Jesus has already purchased the victory. We press forward under assurance of His great and mighty promises. We are not shaken, but we shake nations. Is their any other life that satisfies? I highly doubt it. Ministry can be hard, but it's addicting. The Gospel is too good to hide from people. You do not light a lamp and then put it under a basket, you put it on a lampstand, and it gives light to all around (Matthew 5:15). You do not take what Jesus has given you and horde it to yourself, you openly display (and give) it, and the world is amazed at what He's done for you, and what He's willing to do for them. The Gospel is not exclusive. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control are all described as 'fruit' (Galatians 5:22-23). Pick the fruit from the Tree and give it to those who are hungry, for those who are longing for love, joy, peace. patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Give to all what we already have been given. For the joy set before us, we lay our lives down for those whom Jesus still calls out for.

i want cheescake!!!

I'm still in Pemba but it appears I won't be heading to Khartoum, Sudan to work at an Iris base there. The story goes that Iris is shutting down the base there till they get proper local leadership in place. This puts a bit of direction change in my future, but the lord has provided an amazing alternative as only He can. It now appears I will be heading to Armavir, Russia in about a month to help with the Holy Given: Russia school. It is an amazing opportunity to minister the Gospel in another place that is in desperate need of the love of God. As of right now, HG Russia has no international support; so we don't know where sleeping accomodations, or food, or anything will come from for our students. It has the potential to be an amazing experience of trusting God and seeing Him move in ways I have never experienced before. So I will likely head to Russia shortly after the missions school graduation here in Pemba (Aug 8) and may spend the rest of 2007 there, we'll see. We will be involved with some church planting in that area as well so there will be opportunity to stay on afterwards and do some discipling, etc. I want to add that I'm more excited and expectant about Russia than I've been about anything in quite awhile. So if everyone could pray that I will find a cheap, safe flight to either Moscow, or Armavir, it would be appreciated!!

Here, things are well though. The rice and beans are starting to taste a little bland and the culture is starting to wear on a lot of the students. But lives are being transformed and the Kingdom is advancing in a mighty wave across northern Mozambique. It is a great priviledge to have a hand in this great move of God. I can't really say I'm homesick, but I do miss a lot of my friends back in Canada; I hope you're all expriencing the fullness God wants you to.

good times at the expense of the............witchdoctor!!!!

So my color group team (Vibrant Grey) which I lead went out into the village on wednesday to help a family repair some of the walls of their house. The local pastors whom we went with ended up being extremely unprepared so we didn't get much done (not a big surprise, this is Africa after all) but we arranged for them to be more prepared another day and we made a date to go back. While we were hanging around and playing with the baby though, we noticed he had a strange looking bracelet on him. I asked Justinho about it, and if it was a witchdoctor charm to ward off evil spirits and stuff. He asked the mother and she said it was. They had been having problems with him, so they took an hour and a half journey to see the witchdoctor who informed her that her child had a demon attached to it and this bracelet was supposed to keep the demon away. I told them this was unacceptable and that the bracelet needed to go. We asked the mother if we could remove it and she said we could. I expected a little more resistance on her part. Many families are terrified to remove a witchdoctor's amulet because they fear a demonic attack upon their lives. Anyways, we cut the bracelet off (with the help of Elise's key) and then gathered around the baby and prayed for the blessings and peace of Jesus to abide on him and heal him. Then we explained to the mother that trusting in Jesus was so much more steadfast and everlasting than trusting in the witchdoctor. It was good times.

The children here at Iris make their own bracelets out out different color beads which symbolically represent the new life which is found in Christ. One of the members of my team bought one and when we go back to the house we will replace the bracelet we took from the baby with one that represents the everlasting covenant God made with us through Jesus. How absolutely awesome is that?! It's pretty awesome. I love it.

update from HG5

I'm at this sweet internet spot in downtown Pemba. It's hilarious. Not really high speed or anything, but it's what we got, and for here, it's absolutely fantastic. So I'm full on in the role of staff for HG 5 (short for Holy Given) and things are well. It is a wee bit more chilled in Africa right now than I remember, but afterall, this is their winter. I mean plus 20 degrees is still pretty warm, but I expected some major heat to be cranking out. We got about 150 students here and only about 40 guys!! So the girls have us slightly outnumbered. It's all good though. So far we have had a steady diet of rice and beans! But don't worry, there are some restaurants that cater to our western needs!! All in all though, things are well. My mind has been preoccupied with things other than Holy Given, but God is good, and He's starting to minister to me in intense degrees.

I believe I have been approved by Iris to go to Sudan in september. But as of right now noone knows what the leadership wants to do with the ministry in Khartoum so nothing is finalized right now. As of this moment I have no idea what is taking place in september. It is totally up in the air. I don't plan in being back in Canada till at least January, but as I said, I've no idea what the Fall holds. I'm not too worried about it though.

So thats the latest. Pretty much been entertaining myself with the kids, refreshing my portuguese, getting the lay of the land again, and dying to self (which seems to be never-ending). It's all been real good though. We'll see what God intends to do in the next little while, but I'm expecting it to get A LOT more intense. Sometimes God pushes things to the forefront that must be dealt with; internal things. Here we go. See ya's.

welcome home

Yee haw!!, back in Africa. A 7ish hr trip from Montreal - Zurich, followed by a 8ish hr trip from Zurich - Dar es Salaam took me into Africa again. I grabbed a taxi [they ripped me off >:(] and drove to the Holiday Hotel for the night. The sights and smells of the poverty of Tanzania shocked me. I have been away too long. I had forgotten a little the severity of poverty. After checking into my room, I get a knock on the door and guess who...........Paul Adams, who arrived in Dar es Salaam the day before and hunted me down. Good stuff. We catch up and head into Mozambique together the next day.

I hit the ground running in Pemba when I arrive. The regular Iris staff all are going to Maputo for a staff retreat, so Kylene and I are put in charge and given a host of duties to see to. I immediately get put on key duty at base 1, work duties for the missions school, and distribution of donations and gifts directed towards the children and student pastors. I also am generally in charge of the 50 or so guys that are coming is as students for the missions school. It has been fairly busy indeed.

But enough about crazy busy time, here are some funny, interesting things that have happened since arriving about 5 days ago:
-- we go to town to buy some fruit, etc and get followed around by this demonized girl who is stripping in front of us and stuff. It was interesting all right.
-- I come home my first night and am greeted by an enormous hairy spider on my floor. After a 30 minute battle, I spear a Croc at it and injure it enough so that it falls off the wall. I finish it off with the other Croc. Victory!!!........and peaceful sleep!
-- I go outside to check up on my unfinished kitchen and an even BIGGER spider (pictured) has taken up permanent residence. My friend Paul grabs a loooong stick and whackes it, but it doesn't die. The thing is huge!! He squishes it with his shoe and ends the life of this terrifying creature.
-- I am awakened saturday morning at 6:15am by a text from Kylene saying some guy had lost control of his car and had rammed it through the wall of our water house (pictured). I walk the 15 minutes to base 2 ans sure enough, some guy had lost control of his car and had rammed through the wall of our water house!! So, we have to manually move 700 (1.5L x 12) boxes of water out of the room so they would not be stolen. It was a heavy duty move job.

I can't really think of much more now cause it's late and I have to go to bed. A lot has gone on in the last few days and rest is a GOOD thing. Staying close to Jesus in these busy times are also a GOOD thing, the very best thing, in fact. There will be many more stories to come, be sure. Internet is accessible here, but not a whole lot, so I will update as God allows me to. Sleep time.

Hallelujah!

Today was one of great joy. I booked my ticket back to Mozambique. I graduate from Celebration Bible college on April 28th, then head to Redding, California for May 2nd-9th, then head back to PEI from May 12th-27th, then head out from the Island on May 27th to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. From Dar I get a flight to Pemba, and hopefully arrive there by the 30th of May. Hallelujah all right! It's been a journey back to Africa 2 years in the making, and now it's one step closer; one BIG step. I plan on working as a staff member for Iris Ministries Holy Given 5 Missions School for 3 months, then heading up into Sudan for the rest of the trip. We'll see what God has in store. Anyways, I'm pretty stoked. It's like I've come alive again since the invite was offered. More in a couple of days when more details become available.........

a less intense post (thank God)

Last week we studied 'apologetics' with Peter Karl Youngren; good times. It might've been the best week of Bible College. This week we are studying 'Revivalists and Reformers' with Sam Youngren; it is excellent too. The last couple of days we studied Martin Luther, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and William Carey; some of the greatest men in the history of the Christian Church. The rest of the week should be more than awesome as we get into Charles Finney, Aimee Semple McPherson, and others.

In other (less dramatic) news work has been good. I'm doing full time custodial duties at NCC, and am working at WalMart on the weekends. On top of Bible College it has been a heavy workload, but it has been good. Josh Heymans and I have booked a ticket out to Redding, California for a week following graduation to visit Bill Johnson's church. That should be an awesome time. I know a few fellow HoGi's that are attending the Bethel Supernatural School of Ministry there.

In other more exciting news, I got an email from Iris Ministries hospitality in Pemba asking if I would like to come over and help staff the Holy Given 5: International School of Missions this summer. Sweet!! It would be a perfect opportunity to get back into the swing of things (seeing I've been off the foreign field for 2 yrs!!!) and I could likely stay on afterwards and springboard to Zimpeto, Sudan, or wherever. So that is like super cool. I am all fired up again. Good times. I want to get back to the foreign mission field REAL bad. It's something that is constant in my thoughts. Neverending. I love it.
.......................................................more to come.