Bafana! Bafana!

We are leaving Joburg tomorrow!!!! We will have one week of debrief before all the tears and the goodbyes - The ZamFam is dispersing around the world!

We had one last fun night out in Joburg this week. We went to cheer on Bafana Bafana - the South African soccer team in a World Cup practice game against Colombia. It was AWESOME!

I can't even imagine what the excitement level will be like in the next weeks when the World Cup actually starts!

ZamFam!

A Mob of Spirit Walking Down the Street!

Joburg Sunset

Soccer City in Soweto! World Cup's largest stadium. This is where the opening and the finals will be.

BAFANA! BAFANA!

My HeRo! Two friends I am so thankful to have met here in Joburg!

Traffic Jam

I canʼt believe how at home I feel here at The Joseph Project and how quickly weʼve settled in. The Joseph Project is a YWAM base in the inner-city of Joburg.

We are staying together in close quarters (3-high bunks and 2 showers for 30 of us!) in the safely barred gates of this old house. We donʼt leave after dark and walk everywhere in groups when we go by day. If we werenʼt close before, we are now! Upon arrival at The Joseph Project, the director warned us of the spirit of independence in the city and that we have to pray against it creeping into our team. Weʼve definitely
experienced some of that and have been making intentional efforts to move in the opposite spirit - to support one another as we spend our last two weeks together, and be a part of solidifying and encouraging one anotherʼs growth in our new identities in Christ and making what weʼve learned real in every part of our lives.

In the mornings, several members of our team have been going to local schools to raise awareness for human trafficking. The World Cup is just a few weeks away, and The Joseph Project is in walking distance to one stadium and a short ride away from several more. Thousands of travelers from all over the world will be pouring in soon!

There is SO much excitement around South Africa for the 2010 World Cup - countdowns, t-shirts, flags, and anything and everything you can think of. The whole continent is excited. Imagine how the capital of South Africa feels!

I wish I could give you a picture of the emotions Iʼve experienced since being here in Joburg and meeting many of the children. Iʼm overwhelmed by the excitement and some of the painful realities behind the excitement. Africa is vulnerable. And with the nations flooding in, there is so much more at risk. The
children will be out of school for the five weeks of the World Cup - left to wander around unsupervised and create their own fun.

Weʼve spoken to 2,600 students in the past week. They hadnʼt heard of human trafficking before. One group showed up at a school only to find out theyʼd had a child kidnapped the day before and there was another girl kidnapped a week before.

We tell the children what human trafficking is - people selling children into slavery to use for pornography, prostitution, to sell drugs, to work on farms or factories, and to sell their organs. We tell them how real it is right where they live - that 600,000 African children are trafficked each year.

And then we tell them they were created in the image of God, unique, precious and designed to dream and to be free. We teach them about human rights, give them tools to protect themselves, empower them and practice with them. We even perform a drama for them to help them understand. (hope to post a video soon)

Every single time I have to manage my emotions and not let my mind wander to the possibilities. Every single time at least one child comes up to us at the end and tell us a story of someone trying to traffic him or her. When we pray with the students at the end, we feel a real need and a real presence of the Holy Spirit.

Weʼve learned about the growing and oppressive demand for child slaves with the World Cup approaching. There are already brothels being set up and tickets being sold... TICKETS... promising patrons tickets to a few games and then a few children after to meet their needs in whatever way they see fit. TICKETS to these fearfully and wonderfully made images of God.

There are more stories and more devastating statistics everyday.Throughout this process, Iʼve loved working with the Justice ACTS material and doing my part in the Kingdom for now by educating and empowering the
children. Itʼs been a gift to be a part of His work.

Itʼs also weighed heavily on me.

Godʼs been teaching me about His freedom. He created us in with abundant and unconditional love - to be free. Jesus came and paid the price for full freedom and full grace. It doesnʼt matter what our stories are, where weʼve come from or what we see when we look in the mirror. We all are given and designed to experience the same freedom and grace.

There is so much “land” in my life that Iʼm not enjoying - places Iʼve not letʼs Godʼs grace and freedom flow through. Why do we let Truth only flow into parts of our lives? God is good all the time. And He has a heart for justice.

“Put your hope in the Lord. Travel steadily along his path. He will honor you by giving
you the land. You will see the wicket destroyed.” - Psalm 37:34

I believe God is calling me to live abundantly, to live in the freedom He already died for.And from that freedom comes more heart, more room and more ability to be a part of bringing His Kingdom to earth.

“Follow justice and justice along, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord
your God is giving you.” -Deut 16:20
 
Iʼve struggled a lot in the past week with feelings of oppression, doubt and fear as Iʼve wrestled with the reality of human trafficking all around me, heard stories of people hurting one another and divided houses back home. And Iʼve asked God, and Iʼm asking you to join me in praying to help me to move in the opposite spirit of oppression... Tolean into, walk in and delight in Godʼs freedom. Itʼs already been done.

Heʼs showing me, in a two-steps forward-one-step-back kinda way, that even if Iʼve been enslaved, even if spiritual attack is coming from every angle... Godʼs love is still free and it never leaves. Even if I was a slave, I could be free in Him. And Iʼm choosing that.

Please join me in prayer for the children of Joburg and all over the world. Pray against oppression, enslavement and for freedom and grace.

 I have so, so, so many more thoughts and stories about this and hope to blog more
about it later. Please pray.

We need your prayers here. Start with awareness, and make a night of it. Get your family and/or friends together to watch the movie Trade and pray for human trafficking.

A prayer from a book Iʼm reading:

Father in Heaven,
Teach me more about Your heart for Your people. You are might to save. You are brave and wonderful. And You have Your eye on me. Help me, Lord, to walk in the kind of bold faith that pleases You. Help me to fully embrace the truth of who I am and what Iʼm called to. May I have the courage to face the reality of our times, to stand in the gap, and to speak the truth even when it costs me, because thatʼs how You lived. Thatʼs how You loved. And I want to be like You.
And now, Lord, I pray for the 27 million slaves in our world today. Dear Father, bring justice and freedom to these people! Bring the truth of their imprisonment to light and provoke those in authority to put an end to this crime! Give your people the courage to stand in the gap and to prayerfully and financially support efforts to secure the freedom of these precious souls. Show me what my part is and then help me to do it.
In Jesusʼ name I pray,
Amen

(Embracing Your Freedom by Susie Larson)

 

Mobbed at the primary school! Can you find my white face... sinking into a crowd of children!?!

Say Uncle!

We are livin' large in Joburg! What a different world to be in the inner-city. I can't wait to share pictures of the village in Zambia where we stayed in comparison to this.

We don't know what to do with ourselves here! We had CORNFLAKES and REAL milk for breakfast! And if we want pizza... we can CALL and order it!  But apparently not after 9pm - last night was an epic fail with a bunch of crazed, hungry girls. :) (Did I mention we haven't had cheese for a month in Zambia?)

I love being here in Joburg and can't wait to fill you in on the anti-human trafficking training we've been participating in as we plan on taking it to local schools. But I also want to remember and share with you important and transforming moments in Zambia.

Mpulungu and the villages around Lake Tanganyika in Zambia are what you might picture when you think of Africa - babies running around half-clothed with distended stomaches poking out, beautiful land sprinkled with poverty and straw huts, crazy markets with live chickens running around and women and children carrying unbelievable loads on their heads. I LOVED it.

We were working with a ministry called Good News II, whose mission was to Light the Lake. They have several different areas of ministry based in Mpulungu, the "big city" around the lake apparently. Only 1% of villagers living around the lake are Christian and Good News II has missionaries living in some of the villages along to lake planting churches.

These villages... unbelievable.

The lake is absolutely breathtaking, but has nothing on the people or the simple way they live. We were able to do a community stay and spend time getting to know the people and learning from the missionaries. Life is so different there.

While in Zambia, we had a "holiday", or a day off... There's not a lot to do in Mpulungu once you've swam in the lake (fully clothed), walked through the market with everyone staring at the mzungus (white people), and enjoyed a cold drink. So we set off on a 2 hour boat ride to a resort along the lake with trusty, loving and absolutely wonderful Uncle Reinwold driving the boat. (Sister, you would LOVE Uncle Reinwold. But maybe not as much as Rhonda Harvey would.)

Some of the team chose to relax on a sandy beach for the day and enjoying paddle boats. Sidenote: the entire time we were in Zambia it was HOT and we were very, very physically active. Lying on the beach sounded like heaven...

BUT... my mother raised me not to pass a good adventure! (I believe her words are, "I can sleep when I"m dead." but I'm striving to be a little more normal than her.)

So, the rest of us continued on in the boat for a few more minutes to a tiny beach village along the lake- where I immediately started dancing and playing Simon Says with a bunch of PRECIOUS children. We were setting out on a great adventure: Hiking Kalambo Falls! It's the second highest waterfall in Africa, and we were starting from the boat and going all the way up.

I thought I was going to die. After the first hour of climbing STRAIGHT up wobbly rocks, my lungs were heaving and my butt and thighs were ready to quit. And there, an HOUR STRAIGHT UP, was a village. A village!!!

I couldn't believe it. How did they get water? There was no way you could carry water up where we just came from and we were still an hour from the falls. What did they eat? (Only what they grow.) How did they sustain themselves? So many questions...

The children ran after us screaming, "Mzungu... sweeties?" They wanted candy. I realized they must only get to taste sugar or have a treat if white hikers happened to come by with something sweet to give.

So many thoughts and questions...

An hour later, the falls were UNBELIEVABLE! We had hiked to Tanzania! The other side of the falls - no wider than the Guadalupe River - was Tanzania! It was unbelievable! We swam in the falls and drank the water. So clean and beautiful.

We hiked down another way - STRAIGHT down through more similar and isolated mountain villages until we came to a beach village along the Tanzanian border. And there was Uncle Reinwold!

Later, I was chatting with Uncle Reinwold, hearing his story and his love for God. I shared with him my disbelief in seeing the villages half way up the Kalambo Falls hike. He shared with me that there are so many more villages in the mountains that don't have hiking trails through them. Some never see mzungus or anyone besides their own villagers. In fact, later that week, I visited a village whose mother brought children to look at my skin - some cried because they'd never seen white skin. (And, for the record, my arms were at their all-time most tan for the month we were in Zambia. Winter in Joburg is bringing me back to mzungu status, however.)

My mind was reeling with questions and disbelief. No wonder ancestory worship and witchcraft prevails and oppresses in Zambia, especially along the lake. That's all they know.

We base our realities off of what we see- cultures, world news, media, relationships. It feels like we have the whole world at our fingertips. (especially now that you have an iPhone, Sister!)

But what about them? Their reality is based off what they know - and they know nothing outside of their tiny village on Lake Tanganyika. Africans are incredible spiritual people - and all they know to worship is their ancestors.

What if you have never even had the option to hear the name Jesus Christ?

We can acquire as much knowledge or as much of anything as we want. But they can't.

We can raise the money. We can take a break from our jobs, our school and our delicious, delicious queso (mmmmmmm)... it's easy. They have to know!

Uncle Reinwold looked straight into my eyes on the boat ride and said, "I don't have money. It's my joy to serve the Lord by driving you on this boat. I can't do what you can do. Part of why you're here right now is to learn this lesson. To go tell people who can come to come. To go tell those villagers who Jesus is. You CAN tell them. They can know. There are so many who don't."

They don't have to live the same way we live. I'm glad they don't. But they can live with freedom from oppression of worshipping ancestral gods and putting hope in witchcraft. They can know the Ultimate Father who is their portion, their sustainer, their protection and their deliverer.

If we speak... If we let them KNOW... they'll never have iPhones, but they'll have HOPE. And an unconditional, everlasting LOVE and ETERNAL LIFE.

He's Got the Whole World (cup) In His Hands

Greetings from Jo'burg!

We're here right spank in the middle of the city staying at a YWAM base and a ministry called The Joseph Project. I'm no city girl, but I am absolutely thrilled to be in the inner-city for the next few weeks and felt my heart both swelling and breaking as we went on a prayer walk through the city this morning.

We are in walking distance to some of the World Cup arenas and a short drive to many others. In less than a month the nations will pour in and this city will fill up. We walked around the stadium and prayed this morning and now I'm inviting you to join me in prayer.

One of the issues I feel most compelled to share with you is on human trafficking. The government has decided to shut down schools for 5 weeks of the World Cup. So, while parents are still at work, their children will be walking around... laughing, playing and innocent targets for trafficking predators. The leader on base told us that there are already secret brothels being set up and tickets... TICKETS... being sold promising visitors a couple of games and a few children to keep them entertained in Jo'burg.

The school near the Joseph Project has allowed them to come in and train the 1700 children in what human trafficking is to raise awareness and has opened up the school to the ministry to use during the 5 weeks if they want to run a day program to keep the children safe. The ministry would love to and 600 children have expressed interest, but there are no workers! The ministry only has a staff of 15! Please pray that YWAM outreaches or other workers for His harvest will flood South Africa as the nations pour in.

This could be a chance for the light and love of Christ to flow through a nation that was once previously ripped about my prejudice and hatred, but the workers have to come! 

I am excited to learn more about Jo'burg, pray with you and tell you more as we go. Tomorrow we will continue praying over the city, tour a Jo'burg museum and prepare for outreach opportunities our team will participate in during the week. Tonight we're heading to a local church to speak on the Holy Spirit and are hoping to really connect with the church as we will be there several times this next couple of weeks. Our time here is short, so please pray that we are able to forge deep and meaningful relationships. 

I've been so grateful for this transitional week between Zambia and Jo'burg... I think I've been in some stage of culture shock since January, but what better place to rely on Jesus? He's shown me in this past week especially, that, for a girl whose felt homeless for the past 5 years, He's given me more of an experience of Home- belonging, being loved and known - than many people ever know. I am so thankful and feel like understanding that Truth... that Home is in me as the Holy Spirit dwells in me... has been monumental in adjusting to and learning to love each new place and all the new people we've encountered.

Thank you for being a part of my Home - for knowing me as I go on this crazy journey with God. Your following along, praying with me and for me, and just sharing in the stories with me means so much. I am so thankful for you in my life.

Hope to write more soon!

Love from Lusaka!

Ahhhh!

I'm just going to start with a scream because I know I'm going to want to scream in 12 minutes when my internet runs out. There are so many people to email, so many stories to share, pictures, faraway hugs... so many things!

Basics... let's stick to the basics...

I LOVE YOU! I've felt your prayers!

We've just had an incredible... AMAZING... WONDERFUL month in what I'm sure is the hottest and most beautiful part of Zambia. God never stopped speaking through His creation, His children and my team here.

Currently we are in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia, staying at a YWAM base until we fly to Jo-Burg, South Africa on Thursday morning. We hope to be able to connect again there, but will be there until May 31 (Lily's Happy Birthday!!!)

I wanted to thank you for your prayers and pass along what was one of the biggest joys to me once I trudged through 300 emails: My church Home is coming!

Thank you for your prayers and love. I can't wait to tell you more!

Please pray for our health and travel safety as we are recovering from a really intense month and preparing for two more week of intense outreach doing human sex trafficking awareness, street evangelism and a youth camp in South Africa's capital city.