Hyena Ruthlessly Mauls Giant Guinea Fowl

I thought my titles might not be catchy enough--not enough action perhaps. So here's an active one--although it may not hold up to other journalistic requisites.

The following is a short exerpt from Piper's, "Let The Nations Be Glad!" (pages 47-48):

God has given us prayer because Jesus has given us a mission. We are on this earth to press back the forces of darkness, and we are given access to headquarters by prayer to advance this cause. When we try to turn it into a civilian intercom to increase our conveniences, it stops working, and our faith begins to falter. We have so domesticated prayer that for many of us it is no longer what it was designed to be--a wartime walkie-talkie for the accomplishment of Christ's mission.

We simply must seek for ourselves and for our people a wartime mentality. otherwise the Biblical teaching about the urgency of prayer, and the vigilance of prayer, and the watching in prayer and the perceverance of prayer, and the danger of abandoning prayer will make no sense and find no resonance in our hearts. Until we feel the desperation of a bombing raid, or the thrill of a new trategic offensive for the gospel, we will not pray in the spirit of Jesus.

I’m feeling the juxtaposition or rather the paradox of the differing feelings that Piper says will elicit prayer--the thrill of the upcoming Summer camp (Dec. 5-8) versus the struggle against discouragement. We've got a sweet oportunity to have a total blast with the orphan kids that we've been ministering to over the past three months. I am so excited for the great conversations we'll be having and the deepening of sweet friendships. Please pray for us and the rest of our team as we are in the final stages of frantic preparation. Pray specifically for our hearts--that God would encourage us, and fill us--that we would be ready to just unload a massive dose of God's love and grace into their lives. Pray for me (Matthew) that God would get me out of bed early each morning despite the business--that he would meet me each morning and give me a joy that will infect others.

God's Special Forces

“Beware that you don’t look down on ay of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father." Matthew 18:10

I love this verse. My take is that this means that heaven's special forces (the celestial SAS, SWAT, Rangers-Delta Force-Green Baret-Seals, or Tanzanian FFU) are all assigned to kids. They apparently have special access to the throne. This is vividly and tangibly encouraging to me during times when I feel anxious about how increadibly vulnerable the orphans in Philippi are!

God's P for the O

All through the Bible God speaks in tender as well as intensely passionate language about children and orphans particularly. Periodically I'll just throw up a verse or two. It'll be a running "P for the O" series revealing God's preference for the orphan.

"Father to the fatherless, defender of widows—this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy."—Psalm 68:5-6

Table Mountain

(pic fm:http://www.tanap.net/_resources/images/

activities_KaapseResoluties/d_table_mountain_groot.jpg)

We got to hike Table Mountain this weekend. What a beautiful and strange mountain--and the view from the top was stunning. We could see clear across the cape flats ( this is where the airport is, various industries, and the sea of tin shacks of which Philippi is a part) to the Helderberg, Simonsberg and Stellenbosch Mountains. The crisp, salty sea air was blasting at high speeds up on top as well.

A great historical novel that gives awesome context to Cape Town is "The Covenant" by James Michener. That top picture reminds me of the novel and Mitchner's description of the old shipping days of the Royal Dutch East Indie Company...

(pic fm: http://www.go2africa.com/south-africa/images/locations/loc_2.jpg)

What other major international city has four national parks/preserves within the city limits?!

(pic fm. http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/22517/cape_town_waterfront_20000212.jpg)

This is a pic of the waterfront. There's shopping, eating, entertainment blah blah blah. From here, however, you can catch a ferry boat out to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison. "Long Walk To Freedom" by Mandela is a most worthy read.

Today's Top Four Songs

I’m really not one for favorites. But I was thinking…I’d like to know what my friends are listening to. So in case any of you were interested, here are our top four songs of the day. (See, adding “of the day” doesn’t restrict me—thus I avoid the exclusivity “favorite” necessitates.)

Matthew’s:
Derek Webb, “Better Than Wine”
Paul Simon, “Peaceful As A Hurricane Eye”
Jamie Cullum, “All At Sea”
Cold Play, “Til Kingdom Come”

Melinda’s:
Alison Krauss, “Lucky One”
Chris Tomlin, “Mighty Is The Power Of The Cross”
Jamie Cullum, “Music In The Night”
Black Eyed Peas, “Where Is The Love?”

Well!... Come

Philippi—soon to become renown as a model of change and true community for South Africa. This is our prayer anyhow—that the Church would lead our friends out of oppression, violence, unemployment, poverty, and spiritual death. And to be true, the first steps are already being taken. It’s not as if Philippi—even with its 80+% unemployment and violence—is a pit of perdition. By no means. There is a thriving and growing Church and we have new, dear friends there. There are orphans who, dispite severe loss, see God’s goodness and provision in their lives. There are people stepping up to selflessly care for the needs of others. Amazing. And to let you in on a dream of mine, I think the next president—or at least a member of parliament—will rise up from some of the folks we’re working with. MP, President, or not, the Church—present and future—is living, active and growing!

Beyond St. Paul’s Anglican Church—our base of operations, primary contacts and closest friends in Philippi, the community at large is hard to describe. [You can look at a few pictures and read more from this link. Yeah, it’s the same outdated site I linked to in “Two Worlds”] Philippi is a mishmash of cement block homes and tin-cardboard-scrap-shack homes at the heart of the Cape Flats—a 4 million-member mass of segregated poverty. The population in Philippi (contrary to the outdated website) is over 100,300 people. I can’t get any good estimates of the square kilometerage… my best guess is 18 sq. kilometers or 11 ¼ sq. miles. That’s some serious pop. density!

Most people actually carry a deed to their shack—or rather their roughly 10 square yards plot of land. They don’t owe taxes on their property—I guess this would be impossible to extort from the pennyless populous. And it’s not like their estate is worth much—many of the homes are ingeniously constructed from old rusted out cars, roofing, scrap wood, cardboard, scavenged windows and doors, and pounded flat barrels. The schools, library, clinic and other public features (rusted out dumpsters, collapsed bus stops, and sporadically lit traffic lights) are courtesy of the government.

Each area of the Cape Flats, like Philippi, has a City Council Member—elected every two years. They’re supposed to monitor the community’s needs (which can seem like a joke at times) and advocate for the people. If you want to build a shack on an uninhabited scratch of sand, for example, the Council Member is the one to talk to. From my understanding, they don’t carry any judicial power. Law enforcement is left up to the police who have the uncanny ability to take leave or close the office during moments of especially high crime.

So I guess that brings us back to the beginning. In all reality, nothing’s gonna change unless the Church gets their hands dirty here. No offense, but our Councilor isn’t gonna create 80,000 jobs in Philippi by squawking his head off at some annual meeting. Even if all South Africa’s diamond and gold mines caught some ridiculously philanthropic vision, there’d be no way their trillions would come close to supporting the millions of orphans that are about to hit this country like a tsunami. And that’s why it’s so awesome to be a part of this stuff! I get to work alongside, cheer on and empower amazing folks who are mobilizing their communities and equipping them for change. Real, forever change.

Kloofing

Kloo-fing: The “kloo” isn’t like “glue” with a “K”. This is important. It’s more like you got to sneak a really little short “i” sound in (i as in if). Kind of like clue-if-ing. But smoothed out and softened a bit—just a hint of “if”. Kloofing is the everyman’s extreme sport here. A kloof is a gorge. You pick a gorge and hike up it—or sometimes, if it’s steep enough and with enough radical waterfalls, you can only hike/jump/swim down it. (Suicide is the ultimate Kloofing experience we hear—we’ll let you know once we’ve conquered that one.) We got to go Kloofing the other day with a few experts—some South African friends we’ve met through the church we’ve been attending.

Teastale Kloof. An increadible canyon decorated with flowers of otherworldly jacaranda-ish purple, yellow, and deep reds. About 30 meters across at it’s widest, we came across lots of little waterfalls and dozens of gorgeous cascades. We stopped at 3 or 4 of the most beautiful pools—deep enough to jump off the smooth, massive boulders. As we’re just emerging from winter, the water was take-your-breath-away cold! But the sun was hot enough that it felt absolutely delicious and refreshing. These pools, and almost gaudily decorated surrounding cliff walls are tucked away behind a private wine farm. Very few know about this place. It was the third time for one of our friends and we still got lost on the tortuous dirt tracks snaking throughout the vineyards, trees, thick bush, and sandy river beds.

Kloofing the other day was another loud blast of God’s creative and beautiful genius. What a stunningly beautiful place! (Which reminds me, the picture isn’t a classic kloofing kloof or otherwise related to this post—just a cool shot a friend, Jordan or Belinda McOwen, took of the mountains right here near Stellenbosch.)