Let's Make a Miracle

Yesterday I felt stretched in Dwaleni.

It wasn’t because I was chopping a bucket of onions with a butter knife.

It wasn’t because I had to come to terms that I simply CANNOT count to 10 in SiSwati.

And it wasn’t because I was covered in other people’s sweat and knew I was coming home to a base without water.

That’s pretty normal stuff.

I was stretched because I felt God challenging me to do my part the way HE wanted me to on that particular Thursday afternoon.

I think I always get to be a part of God’s work in the hugging, kissing and uncontrollable love department. And I always get to spend time teaching teams the culture and the ministry. But there are some moments where He requires more. Moments when God gives a gut-check and says, “LOOK AROUND YOU AND RESPOND!” 

Kinda like Mom’s famous brake-slamming seatbelt checks on Mustang Road.

I've been checked. And here's my response...

We started feeding in Dwaleni over a year and a half ago. We went from a handful of hungry kids to hundreds.  Orphaned and vulnerable children are flooding into the small property we feed from in tattered school uniforms, starving for spiritual, emotional and physical nourishment. I’ve never seen need that goes so deep as I see every week in Dwaleni.

My first visit to Dwaleni in January 2010, I was shocked to see over 100 children climbing on and playing around the big avocado tree. Last week, we were overwhelmed when about 250 children poured in with bottomless stomachs and hearts.

This week, we had way over 300 children. I typically assign myself to the gate they walk through to enter the property to welcome them, hug them kiss them and make sure each child knows he or she was noticed. Today I didn’t get to greet, much less see every child’s face as the waves of school uniforms just kept rolling in throughout the feeding.

Hope spreads. Home is contagious. Something is going right.

The group I’m here with, Ten Thousand Homes, is a non-profit organization that raises support for feeding programs, house-building and other opportunities to instill Hope and Homes in South Africa’s orphaned and vulnerable children. We pray every week for God’s protection on the children and communities we serve, and trust in Him to provide for the “least of these” with the resources we have been given.

Last week when the huge group of children showed up, they were welcomed Home by a loving, faithful team from New Hope Church in Wiley, Texas. After seeing the amount of children rushing in and the amount of food prepared, the New Hope team began praying and counting on a miracle of multiplication. Jesus used what His people had around Him, a few loaves of bread and fish, to feed thousands – with leftovers! Why wouldn’t He do that for these dirty, worn-down, abused, orphaned yet perfectly loved children?

He DID!

We filled every belly to the brim and sent children home with mincemeat moustaches and leftovers! It was a miracle! We’ve NEVER had leftovers before and we had never had that many children!

This week there were SO many more children.

And there was no multiplication miracle.

We ran completely out of food and had 67 empty mouths and tummies.

I was devastated. Speechless. I realized I was rocking the sleeping baby on my shoulder to soothe myself as I looked around and saw the ever-hopeful and never-complaining faces of the children who hadn’t been served and the patient volunteers praying with the children.

Hands and leftover change came together to buy enough bread to serve the 67 so no one left without receiving. It wasn’t the kind of miracle we saw last week, and I didn’t dance out of Dwaleni like King David was known to do. I was cringing on the inside and out, even while the children were filling my cheeks full of kisses and my hands with letters they had written me as they said goodbye.

Why, God?

Why would you send over 300 children when there’s not enough?

Why not another miracle?

Seatbelt check.

He IS Enough.

And there IS a miracle for Dwaleni that’s better than a “Remember that one time Jesus multiplied the food….” story. (If it gets better than THAT, I want some!)

I serve a God who has the power to do ALL things.

He can count every star while He’s blindfolded.

He can rearrange the Rockies with His hands tied behind His back.

The miracle for the orphaned and vulnerable children in Dwaleni is the power of the hands and feet He gave us coming together to provide.

God was at the drawing board- dreaming, speaking and breathing us into His most precious and prized piece of creation. He didn’t plan on some people having enough and some people having not enough. We have enough to make miracles.

The power in the Body of Christ coming together the way it was intended IS a miracle.

I’m trying to live a life worthy of the calling and to do my job well here – so I was planning on writing this blog about fundraising for a car. But, even without a seatbelt to call my own, God is giving me a seatbelt check.

The volunteers at the feeding were doing their job and living fully for the Kingdom yesterday. The kids were doing their job and living fully for the Kingdom yesterday.

Today my job is to respond with words and tell you about the miracle of provision He has set the table for…

You are the hands.

photo by Carly B

You are the feet.

photo by Carly B

 You are the back.

photo by Carly B

 You are the arms.

 You are the lips.

We are the Body of Christ.

When we all bring what we have to the table, there is enough.

What are you bringing?

It only costs $5 to feed a child for a month.

It only costs $500 to provide for a weekly feeding program for a month.

We are praying for a fence around the yard for their protection and provision for a playground to make a space for them to act like children and for an increase in food supply weekly.

Pray for Dwaleni.

Tell your friends, family, coworkers, church groups and neighbors.

Sponsor a child for a month.

Sponsor a feeding for a month.

Come meet the children and extend God’s love tangibly.

Build a fence.

Build a playground.

I hope this is a seatbelt check. And you’ll ask God how to respond.

Let’s make a miracle.  

The Wordy Truth

What you say matters. 


I've been called hopelessly optimistic, Pollyanna and lots of other things I could always find the bright side of. But the truth is, your words shape your reality. The words you drape around your circumstances shape what you believe, how you interact, and your personal reality. 


Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all circumstances are pretty or should be made light of. But what if we spoke Light into them? 


Jesus saw it all. And He encountered a worse circumstance than any of us ever will. And he always spoke Truth.


He came here to become like us - light walking into darkness and changing everything with his words. He came looking for the dark so He could shine his light. 


Jesus didn't accept resumes or interview for "most qualified disciple". He chose everyday guys. He even chose the slimiest, grimiest, vilest "legal" criminal of the time - a tax collector - to be one of his main men. When the holy-rolling, rule-following Pharisees of the time heard about Jesus having dinner at the tax collector, Matthew's house with a bunch of his low-life, schmoozing, sinful buddies, they did not have the most pleasant things to say. Jesus spoke Truth in response. Only Truth. "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick... For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Matthew 9:12,14) He didn't slam the Pharisees. He didn't go sterilize his hands in the bathroom after eating a meal saturated by sinful company. He spoke Truth. No one could doubt he loved all the way. And he couldn't help but love both Pharisees and tax-collectors when he was speaking life into 
One time, he encountered a Samaritan woman drawing water from a well and asked for a drink. First of all, it was out of line for a man to speak to a woman in public and for a Jew to speak to a Samaritan. (Those legalistic, black-and-white lines are so Old Testament anyway.) Samaritans were social outcasts. This one in particular was stained with a shoddy love life and was not the kind of gal you might think you'd want your savior hanging out with. She didn't have to say anything about it. He knew it all. (John 4:17-18) She tries to give him an out like any decent social outcast would, and Jesus responds, again, with Truth, love and an invitation to salvation. "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." (John 4:10)


What you say matters.


Right now, Ten Thousand Homes is working on building two houses in Mbonisweni, as well as bringing hope and a sense of home to the houses through relationship-building. I hope to have more of a story and photos to share with you soon, but one of the house is for five orphaned teenage boys. They are scared, living unprotected and exposed in a mud house that disappears a little with each heavy rain. They are clinging to ancestral beliefs in witchcraft because they don't know anything else and because they are longing for a sense of power and protection. They believe the spirit of a sangoma, or a witchdoctor, lives in the body of the 17 year-old and practice rituals to please the sangoma. 


I've found that when we are talking about the sites in Mbonisweni, we use key words to distinguish between the houses. I find myself saying the "orphan house" or the "sangoma house" when talking about this construction site. 


Today I started thinking about how important words are to God. He spoke and creation was formed. Names too. When God spoke Truth, He often attached a name. 


"As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations... "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her." (Genesis 17:4-5, 15-16) 


Every time Sarah called Abraham in for dinner, she was proclaiming him to be the "father or many". Speaking out Truth shapes our reality from one of what we can see to one that turns to our faith in the unseen. (Hebrews 11:1)


I don't want to speak out over this new HOME we are creating that this is a place for orphans or for witchcraft. I want to speak promises - that these five young men were created to be sons in the Family of God. That they are not orphans and they belong to a Father who loves them perfectly. I want to speak of the REAL power surrounding them and the REAL security they have. 


As you watch this slideshow of the construction site today, pray for a seal of Truth, hope and promise on this house. Pray for God's presence to break through and change this house into a Home. Pray for a name for this house so that we can speak God's Promise out every time we reference a job site, a load of cement or introduce a new team into the hands and feet part. 

It's like doing a handstand...

By my senior year of college, I had mastered the perfect study routine. As a recovering over-achiever, I decided it was best to not even think about test materials until 2am the night before. Collegiate logic at its finest, right?

My roommate, Lacie and our neighbor, Matt pulled all-nighters together during midterms and finals. So many memorable moments while we soaked up knowledge, sugar and caffeine in apartment 4204!

One night, during a 4am popsicle break, Matt said, “HEY! Did you know you can’t frown when you are doing a handstand?” We spent the next half hour taking turns doing handstands and trying to frown. We really couldn’t do it.

(Ok, I’ll wait here while you try… go ahead… you’re thinking about it.)

Being upside-down changes things: your perspective, your posture, your countenance and sometimes your blood flow. 

I had a mountain of moments pile up this week that made me wiggle in my worldview.

Why do I spend so much time trying to do things the “right way” when I'm supposed to be living for an upside-down King?

For the last two weeks, we’ve hosted a missions team from New Hope Church in Wiley, Texas. They weren’t just any team. They came into South Africa doing handstands.

The team came in to serve the servants and love the unloved. And, from their upside-down perspective, they saw different servants and different unloved people than most.

Tuesday night they sent us to our rooms to transform our pavilion into a fine-dining restaurant featuring a full wait-staff, entertainment and life-changing TexMex. The team read letters of encouragement to each of us, gave us gifts and finished the evening with a dance party! They didn’t just give us a meal, they honored us in every detail of the evening. They lavished love on us freely.

They did the same thing in the communities.

They didn’t just pass out meals to hungry young adults and orphans. They prepared feasts and prayed for protection and provision with every plate they served. They believed in God's best. 

They didn’t just host a Sunday School program, pass out Bibles and call it ministry. They vulnerably poured their hearts into discipling the next generations of leaders through personal relationships with them and encounters with the Holy Spirit. They made everything personal. 

The New Hope team had a magnetic love on them, created by their unity, their faith and their hope in this upside-down Kingdom.

One evening Lynn said, “I’ve never felt that loved by another person. And I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never felt that kind of love.” That’s how Jesus loves us.

Shelby stammered that even though she didn’t know the name of the little girl on her lap and couldn’t speak her language, the exchange of love was immeasurably powerful. A knowing, authentic and penetrating love. That’s how Jesus loves us.

Ken was surrounded by orphans and, with one on his hip and tears in his eyes, said, “You just can’t help but love them.” They’d done nothing to “deserve” love. That’s how Jesus loves us.

Tears soaked through boxes of Kleenex every evening as they worshiped and poured out stories of being so loved by God and feeling that love through those around them.

But they were the ones who came here to do the loving. To pour out. They poured and poured and poured. And I’ve never seen a team so full.

The more love they poured out, the more they drank in and were filled.

They had a real taste of the upside-down Kingdom we live for.

An upside-down Kingdom is one brought to earth through a single mom opening her chaste womb in a flea-ridden pile of hay to let the glory of God change daily life forever.

An upside-down Kingdom is one brought to earth by a homeless carpenter with a bunch of his vagabond buddies who had something to say and lived by it.

An upside-down Kingdom is one brought to earth by a guy who has the power to move mountains and destroy dynasties, but chose to use it to love the untouchables and the voiceless.

An upside-down Kingdom is one brought to earth on a splintered, blood-stained piece of wood with a King whose crown was bejeweled with thorns to save the skin on our backs.

An upside-down Kingdom is one whose membership comes through ripped veils, resurrection and accepting a gift you could never pay for.

It doesn’t have to make sense. You only have to believe it, accept it and it’s yours.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped paying attention to the upside-down part. It’s hard to know how to balance caring for yourself and caring for others when you live here all the time. It’s hard enough trying to know how to raise support to sustain myself while being confronted by endless needs around me.

Rather than figuring out equations, I choose to spend my time doing handstands.

Jesus, change my perspective. Give me an upside-down outlook. I want to serve my leaders whole-heartedly, to lift-up the tiniest, and give freely as I have been given rather than have control over my countenance. You can’t frown upside-down. And I have a feeling you can’t get love poorly that way either.

So there you have it….

The Kingdom of God is like doing a handstand.

All photos by Carly B

There is no room for sorrow when you are loving in that perfectly perspective-shifting way Jesus taught us about. I believe that, when turned upside-down, that sorrow is transformed into the active verb: compassion of Christ.

Callin' It Like I See It

This year’s a different year.

Last year my head was spinning.

I didn’t plan on STAYING in Africa. I didn’t plan on having to learn how to live in Africa, how to become a missionary, how to navigate culture shock to live out Kingdom culture, and how to learn new ways to love and be loved.

It came with tears of loneliness, confusion and joy… sometimes all at the same time. It came with obsessive reading of Matthew 10 and seeking Him in how to understand family when I was hurting my own back in the States. It came with falling in love with a 3 year old in a way I didn’t know I was capable of. And it came with being adopted into an African family in Mbonisweni, a spiritual family at Ten Thousand Homes and being completely supported by family and friends back in the States… while stumbling into my calling to live in and be a voice for the Family of God.

This year as I traveled through the States and was loved by so many of my Home people, I felt God shaping my story.

This year is going to be more intentional in ministry. Deeper. More impactful. He’s giving me a voice on a more specific calling – to be an advocate for strengthening families.

If we have strong families, we end the orphan crisis. We stop producing orphans and we create home for the existing orphans.

I’m kinda into that family thing… you know… in my past life (just over a year ago) I was a Marriage and Family Therapist.

I’ve had the training. I have the passion. And family is my filter… I understand people and the Kingdom of God from a family perspective. And I want everyone to feel welcomed into the Family.

When I finally lost the battle with God and realized I was staying in Africa, I had to grieve leaving my career. The things I knew how to do that worked there didn’t work here. Different language. Different culture. Different everything.

In America, we know we have a lot of broken families. But we can only know that because we are aware of at least some sort of picture of a whole family. We can sense a need or a deep-down desire to be part of something whole, to belong in a family. It’s the way we were designed… by the God Who exists in family.

In Africa, there’s not a language or, for the most part, an awareness for family. There are fuzzy lines that create community and a sense of belonging just because you’re there… but not that speak worth. Nothing that says you were meant to be known and designed in unique and valuable ways by your Maker.

This year it’s time to put on my big girl pants… or below-the-knee skirt, perhaps… and walk out my calling, my gifts and in the Truth that God has called me an Ambassador for Family.

I’ve been given unheard of and undeserved favor in my African church. My pastor asked me to speak once a month for the next year to teach the church family. He believes in it. He knows there’s something missing. He shouldn’t know there’s something missing… His culture doesn’t teach that.

The church picked up on it too when I broke every cultural norm with Lifa… pouring unconditional love, unending kisses and unceasing attention into an invisible little boy. Family love.

Family love brought Lifa to life. From invisible to un-missable.

The congregation started to respond to me differently and realized that maybe there is something to this kind of family love. So they’ve welcomed me on their stage as a mother and a sister in the community. They’ve welcomed me to speak family, not because I have a master’s degree or a license. Besides my pastor, they don’t even know that part. They’ve welcomed me because it’s real, it works and they’ve seen it. And because I’m family.

Here’s a video of me two weeks ago speaking about family love. We are having a blast with creative teaching… and breakthroughs I don’t even know how to put words to.

Kacy Chaffin Speaking at Church in Mbonisweni, South Africa from carly beee productions on Vimeo.

First we had to recognize that we needed to know about family… that this was for them and for the Kingdom. And believing that God is going to use that church to end the orphan crisis in Mbonisweni.

Then, we spoke about God’s love being our model for loving our families. They came up with the definition of God’s in their own language – proving they already knew how to love their families well.

And last week we spoke about restoration. I shared the story of Joseph and that when God is the Restorer, he makes things better than before. He didn’t just restore Joseph after he was betrayed by his brothers, enslaved, imprisoned and forgotten… He restored his entire family to much better than they could have imagined. We were called up to testify in front of the church and God that we needed to be restored, and we would commit to restoring our families so that God could start in our families to make a difference in the families in the communities.

Today during testimony time was blown away by what I heard….

Here’s an excerpt from my journal this afternoon:

Then a GoGo got up – one of the ladies I don’t even know. She was talking about how sick she had been last week. She had so much pain in her body and was miserable. She had been praying and praying but couldn’t get rid of her pain. She managed to take a bath to get ready for church last week, but was in so much pain by the end of her bath. I was speaking in church – she mentioned me by name. I was speaking about restoration, and at the end, I had a jug of water. I encouraged people to take a drink of Living Water as a symbol of exchanging the sin we were born into to be restored to clean water that would never leave us thirsty. She came up to take a drink and prayed. She felt the pain leave her body.

She went home to rest and woke up with no pain.

Then she had a dream… this part was hard to understand.  I couldn’t follow completely… But at the end she said she had been completely healed!

She said she loved me so much and that she knew “God must love love love love love Kacy”. She said they all loved me and were so happy I was here. The church cheered and clapped and she came and hugged me. I told her I loved her in her ear, "Ngiyakutsandza" and she squealed.

Amazing. Incredible. Your power in me in spite of myself. Thank you.

Teach me more about the authority I have in you, Father. Teach me more. Show me how to walk in it. I’m listening.

I needed you to know about what’s happening in church in Mbonisweni. God’s ready to end the orphan crisis. We’re calling it out by name. We’re facing it and acknowledging the Great Restorer.

Pray for me to continue to be His voice. Pray for His power to increase in me. Pray for my family in Africa to be restored. Pray for Mbonisweni. Pray for the orphaned and vulnerable children. God’s got all of this in His hand… and He loves to hear our voices joining in on the song so close to His heart.

Today

Today is a day to celebrate life.

Today is my brother, Lennon's birthday. We sang, danced and celebrated his life just the way he likes it. With chicken and Michael Jackson.

To celebrate the works of Your hands.

The Pinnacle. Beautiful South Africa

To proclaim the glory in the story You’ve authored.

To believe what You say and to walk in Your promises.

That’s what today is.

Today is a day to take life for what it is and cling to The Way, The Truth and The Life. (John 14:6)

There are parts of today that hurt.

Today would have been my cousin Chaz's 27th birthday.  I made him his own cupcake, sang to him and celebrated how much I love him and miss him.

There are parts of today that bring joy.

I had the joy and honor today to be a part of a surprise for Nicki and the other volunteers in Dwaleni. A recent visitor saw a need and responded by purchasing tables and chairs so the women would have a nice place to prepare food as they serve over 200 orphaned and vulnerable children a week. They cried, sang and danced with joy in response to the generosity and love. 

Today is a day to be wrapped up in You.

All photos by Carly B

To be thankful for who You are and that You know and care about all the parts of today.

Today, I will celebrate who You are in my life and that You love enough to lose Yours for me.

I will celebrate that You called me worthy of full inheritance. Worthy of being part of Your family.

Family does it all together – the beautiful parts and the parts that hurt.

Today is a day to celebrate family.