evolution: "a process of gradual, peaceful, progressive change or development..."; "a motion incomplete in itself, but combining with coordinated motions to produce a single action..." LIFE
everyday is full of unplanned adventure, profound conversations and spiritual & intellectual challenges, and every moment is part of an evolution of my mind and faith... so, since i'm finding it difficult to capture it in a story or moment in time, i will merely list the series of recent events (in South Africa) in my journey of faith.
• heartbreak: letting go of the past
• theophostics session with cecile: uncovering and forgiving my past through prayer, finding a completeness in God
• nieu communities: intentional living, getting to know God, creating relationships as ministry, and finding some peace
• networking: God-incidentally (not coincidentally), we're discovering an incredible web of new friends and family... beginning with meeting our new south african friend karien murray at iSight (an EPC mission church in Black Mountain, NC) a week before we left the States. through her we've thankfully met so many others:
-her sister & brother-in-law (Joburg) -> SAAWE -> Kids Games -> SCAS & ISLS (Stellenbosch) -> 60 beautiful people involved in sports ministry from 30 different countries all over the world;
-colin, retief and alycia from 13th Floor (Pretoria)
-her brother & sister-in-law -> an inner-city mission to love and listen to Durban's homeless
• God continues to use us in so many other ways to plant seeds of hope, to love unconditionally, to give time and attention to everyone, and to connect new people we meet with people that we've already met along the way.
• challenged by privilege vs pain, blessing vs circumstance, faith vs fearful discrimination, humility vs stubborn pride/arrogance
• films: beat the drum and shooting dogs... pain and sacrifice
• question: where is God in suffering, disease, genocide, poverty, oppression and unfounded prejudice? how could it be in God's will that all this exist?
• walk in the light: truly feeling the presence of God (from the moment we arrived until the moment we said goodbye), hearing God speak to me through prayer and in conversation with their leaders, then directly confronted with (and challenged by) the reality of SO MANY Africans -- AIDS... Heather describes our experience on her blog.
(then a small break to catch my breath in Cape Town...)
• film: faith like potatoes
• cultural sensitivity training at the International Sports Leadership School in stellenbosch: experiencing God... and also discussing the barriers to knowing God? -- historical (and recent) oppression, the first missionaries, the crusades, the war, the institution of the church, the misperception that Christ is "western God," pluralism, and the caste system (i.e. Christians fall below the "untouchables" in India), among innumerous obstacles... how could anyone (including me) overcome these obstacles?
• attending a memorial of a seventeen-year-old girl who was raped and murdered just two weeks before, friends & family sing Xhosa gospel songs, question: again where is God in this tragedy?, epiphany: many more people will be moved by the Spirit stirring in and around this memorial, than there will be lost by her death.
• AIDS is an unfathomable problem: pride & shame are huge issues, men don't want to use protection, women have no say in the matter, morals are lost, families don't talk about it, people just say it's a "sickness" without discussing the causes, preventions or realities of it, people don't want to test because they'd rather live in ignorance, even those people who get as far as receiving medication have trouble taking the meds on a consistent basis... there are no boundaries, especially amid fatalistic circumstances (watch beat the drum and read 28: stories of AIDS in africa by Stephanie Nolen)
• aftermath of apartheid (or "murder" as someone told us today): racial prejudice is rampant and ingrained in the culture, White vs. Black vs. Asian (mostly Indian) vs. "Colored" (south Africa's label for "mixed race"), the government went from white supremacy to black superiority but continues to deny the gravity of this recent history as well as the rights of "coloreds" and asians... i can't claim to ever really understand fully, but it's extremely troubling to talk with people from each group and hear their stories, their fears, their misperceptions, their anger, their animosity, their hatred and their pain concerning each other.
• we are not alone, we are nothing alone -- there is always hope in God and in the profound completeness of Christ's love and sacrifice.
(finally, another small break to catch my breath and taste some wine at vineyards around Paarl...)
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