Mpophomeni Family Center,
i left part of my heart with you.

treasure your children.
and if you don't have children, treasure someone else's.
children are precious little people that need to be held, need to be taught, need to be told they are beautifully made in the image of God, and need someone that loves them enough to teach them right from wrong and hold them accountable.
i went on home visits today and heard so many stories of children being abused and children being left by parents that couldn't care less what happened to them.
there is too much riding on them not to care or to treat them as disposable. they are precious gifts from God. let's live in that truth and treat them accordingly.

"Be mild, and cleave to gentle things, thy glory and thy happiness be there."
William Wordsworth

The older i get the truer this gets.

i lose my focus so often.
i get so enamored with the creation that i forget the greatness of the creator.
let's keep our eyes on the reality of heaven and the vastness of what is to come, because our glory and joy is there.

"For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come."
Hebrews 13:14

peace

this weekend we went on a battlefields tour. there have been so many battles over the land i am living on now- the zulus' named it land of heaven when they first got here and everyone after them had a similar opinion and were willing to kill to get it. it was really great to get off campus and do something different for a weekend and we had a ton of riding in the van time which i love. there is space for thinking when driving that is hard to find anywhere else.
all the wars we learned about happened well over a hundred years ago but being there and seeing the monuments and standing where you know men have died is a much different experience then reading about it in a book. and for most of it my heart was breaking a little for the futility of the exercise. nothing was gained in any of the battles we talked about and read accounts of. people just died.
at the final site this morning, on top of a mountain where the british were massacred, we sat in silence and looked out over the valley. being sunday there was church in session below us and a wind picked up the voices of the congregation and whispered their songs to me. praise the Lord for the promise of redemption and peace. we need peace.

we got to do home visits today to spend some time with the AIDS patients Ethembeni supports. we brought them food and read the bible and prayed with them. it was the first time i’ve ever been in any of these people’s homes. i’ve lived with them and talked to them and played with their children but i’d never seen where or how they lived until today. the homes were small- mostly just two room places filled with old furniture, with the floors covered in peeling wall paper. they were all so excited to welcome us in. the Zulu people are overwhelmingly gracious.

it was real. these people are facing real things. the restrictions of poverty, disease, and demons. there are major issues to wrestle and addictions to tear down in this community- in all communities- but we have a powerful God.

Be in prayer for the Christian church in Iraq right now. They are facing mighty persecution and need encouragement, especially after this recent attack.

Read here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/world/middleeast/02iraq.html?_r=1