The WORST Missionaries

August 28, 2014

In my recent trip to the United States it became glaringly clear that the Prince family are LITERALLY the WORST MISSIONARIES in the world.  We are starting a list to document it because it is just comical.

We take simple tasks and make them difficult.  We are embarrassingly complicated and disastrous.  We are late, disorganized, and clumsily stumble into every situation on our path.

FOR EXAMPLE.  In July Kieren and I went to the USA to speak at two weeks of a youth camp and we almost DIDN’T MAKE IT THERE because we never thought to CHECK THE EXPIRATION OF KIEREN’S PASSPORT.  We showed up at the airport like a group of dopes and couldn’t board the plane because of her.  Sweet faced little Kieren just sat there innocently and completely oblivious as we discussed her fate.  Luckily the American Embassy in South Africa was super gracious to us the next day and quickly made us an emergency passport for us and MANY MANY dollars later we had new plane tickets and were on our way.  MANY DOLLARS and MANY TEARS later.  WHY??  Normal people would have checked her passport for the date of its expiration.  Normal MISSIONARIES (who often *travel*) would have checked her passport for the date of its expiration.  BUT NO.  WE are the WORST MISSIONARIES possible and so we didn’t check and almost didn’t make it out of Africa…

We made it to camp but that story is a perfect illustration for our entire lives as missionaries.  We get by, but it’s clumsy and disorganized and a bit disastrous.  it’s by the skin of our teeth.  EVERY TIME.

We are seriously the WORRSSTT…

We sing it all the time to ourselves like this:

I didn’t know missionaries growing up so I had no idea what this life would look like, but I definitely didn’t think it would be this… ummm… chaotic??

We are seriously the most incompetent missionaries to walk into South Africa and this is a humbling truth that God reminds us of daily.  I honestly have NO IDEA how we make this life work, and some days it is miraculous that we get out of the house at all.  However, we are here not for our own glory but for the GLORY OF GOD and so we live through Him completely.

“God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.  As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.” -1 Corinthians 1:28-29

Somehow in the midst of our inadequacy God continues to show up because we SHOW UP and He uses us.  He uses us, He blesses us, He speaks through us, and He does a work IN us.  It’s crazy and I only believe it because I am living it.

God uses us ALL for His glory, even the WORST of us.  Maybe that is partly the point.  He uses the bottom of the barrel to prove to the world that the miracles we see have NOTHING to do with us and EVERYTHING to do with Him.

Creating a HOME

What a GREAT season at Ubuntu Football!  We are in the midst of remodeling a home we have been able to purchase to have an academy house for some of our boys!  About ten of the Ubuntu boys live too far away from our area to come in each morning for a full day of school and training and need to live in our area.  They have all been living with host families but we have dreamed for a long time of having a home where they could live together and be mentored deeper.  Our dream is slowly becoming a reality!!

This house needs a LOT of work, and there a couple other structures on the property that also need a great deal of work, but the construction is underway and every week we are seeing big changes!

There is even some open land on our property to DREAM AHEAD of all that could be built there in the future.  We have exciting dreams and know that our God will do even MORE than we could hope or imagine.

Join us in praying over this construction and all God wants to do in the Ubuntu Academy home.  For more pictures and descriptions on the construction see Eric and Melissa Hall’s blog (the future HOUSE PARENTS) at: http://halls4hope.com/this-old-house/.

The Other Side of the Mission Trip

Last week we finished up our #Mission2Missionaries, which you can read more about here.

It is strange to be on the other side of a mission trip!

It was an incredible and exhausting week.  It took us a couple days of processing to even figure out what had actually happened after it ended!  Bethany was incredible in our home and empowered us to take on every part of Keller’s life as therapy for him.  He is actually loving it and really enjoys the growth and challenges.  We watch him to see when it gets too much but we know we need to push him daily.  He is doing awesome.  We had two incredible community workshops about autism and special needs that were very well attended and are still getting ‘rave reviews.’  People were given knowledge and steps in how to engage people in need wherever they are at.  It was brilliant.  Bethany met with the principal at the special needs school here in Ocean View and even met with one mother who had a recent autism diagnosis of her son.  Amazing.

But for us as a family her time here goes beyond what words can express.

It touched us deeply.

Through our hours of conversation, learning, and engaging in EVERY part of our life, we somehow now find ourselves in a different world with autism.  I feel like before autism was hovering over me like a dark cloud, making everything dreary and impossibly sad.  NOW I feel like I am bigger and stronger than autism and looking down on it like a challenge but one I know we will overcome.  I think Casey would say he learned a lot and understands it all more.  Can you tell who is the feeler of the two of us?

Truly, something shifted in both of us over the week, and I can only give the glory and honor to God for that.  God moved within us and helped us to see everything from a different perspective.  We can do this and we will do this.  Keller is excelling but it goes beyond the physical and palpable signs of growth.  God is in our midst and He will do amazing things.  We are ready to see miracles and looking for every single little miracle He gives us.

In Bethany and her husband Eric we have made new life-long friends.  We are now family.  In our community of Ocean View (and beyond) we are now known as a special needs family who is passionately and loudly advocating for those who were previously overlooked.  We are in it together and we are dragging a BUNCH of people along with us on this crazy ride.  Casey and I are good, we are strong, we are one, and we are THANKFUL.

All the glory and honor and praise to our MIGHTY GOD!

Oh, and it seems that being on the receiving end of a mission trip can be good.  Really, REALLY good.  Amen.

#Mission2Missionaries

We are in the middle of a crazy nine days.  It is what I call #Mission2Missionaries.  We have an incredible new friend, Bethany Covington, who is here all the way from Scottland dong a MISSION TRIP in our own home.  A mission trip to the missionaries.  She works for the Brent Woodall Foundation for Exceptional Kids, located in Texas, but helps direct their international outreach to families all over the world who have kids with autism.  Bethany is training our family in how to do therapy with Keller at all times and has introduced a new therapy this week to us called PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System).  It. Is. AMAZING.  But IT. IS. EXHAUSTING.

We are spending every waking minute with Keller trying to push him in these therapies so he can advance and then we can learn the next stage while Bethany is here all week.  It’s all based around play, so he is having a blast in all of it!  The therapies are very specific and complex so we are also continually talking through them and making sure we are doing it right.  Casey always remembers the details.  I can tell you a story about how I FEEL about the details… does that help?

Part of Bethany’s mission here is to do workshops and reach out to our communities here as those with special needs often don’t have the abundance of resources found in the USA.  It has been super heartwarming for me to see so many people come out and learn about autism.  Last Thursday night we had our first workshop on autism and developmental disorders here at the Ocean View Methodist Church and 45 parents, teachers, and community members attended.  It was insane.  I was overwhelmed with emotion because two months ago I wouldn’t have been at such a workshop and now autism is rocking my world.  It was beautiful.  Then on Friday, Bethany and I went to the School for Disabilities in Ocean View to meet more with the incredible principal who has been working there proudly for 25 years.  She is a mighty woman and I loved seeing more of the school and hearing about their vision.  These teachers are living and working and serving in a world that is all new to me, and I am in awe of them.  Every day my worldview and what I value is being challenged and these people are my new heroes.

So we find ourselves in the middle of #Mission2Missionaries and I have learned that we missionaries still need a lot of change and mission in our own hearts and lives.  I am so thankful for a God who is in the changing business and loves us enough change our hearts.  And as we are changed I can only pray that we can change others.

“Even the smallest person can change the course of the world.” -JRR Tolkein

Always a Conquerer

This weekend I was scheduled to preach at Ocean View Methodist Church once again, something I am privileged to do every month.  It is something I look forward to every month as I love teaching an building God’s word into my church community.  But this month I was a little nervous about it.

This would be my first sermon at OV Methodist since D-DAY (Keller’s diagnosis day) and I was unsure of my steps.  I have wondered in the past two months on many occasions if I would get up to speak or lead at something and just fall into an overwhelming crying spell in the middle of a sentence.  It hasn’t happened, but I have wondered… I wasn’t sure if I could get through an entire sermon, but more I wasn’t sure I had the emotional energy to listen to God’s voice for my church and then write a sermon.  It takes a lot of my heart and mind and emotional space and I take it very seriously.  But in praying about this sermon I felt led to move forward and began praying through the sermon.

I felt two things should be said.  I first knew that I should just tell Keller’s story and confess where we were emotionally.  We had told our church of Keller’s diagnosis but not much else, and I wanted to share.  The facts of the diagnosis are important but I also wanted them to know of their pastor’s broken heart and unsteady future.  But second I felt God wanted me to share His simple truth that He is with us in dark days and difficult times.

Sharing my story of Keller’s diagnosis of autism NOW is hard because the story isn’t finished.  We don’t know the last chapter and I have no idea if it will ever be tied up in a nice bow.  I hate telling stories in the middle when they are still hard.  I like the finished version where it’s OVER and I am DONE and my heart is put back together.  But this weekend I felt God telling me to tell the story now.  Tell it from the darkness.

From the ‘not yet.’  From the wanting and waiting place.  From today.

However, even in the dark, there are many things to claim and celebrate, and God led me to the end of Romans 8 in preparing to share my story.  In these days though, Romans 8 is hard to believe at times.

Paul writes, “ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” -Romans 8:37

I don’t feel much like a conquerer these days.  I feel like a survivor.  I feel like a crying mess.  I feel like a barely making it momma.  I feel like we are getting by.  But a CONQUERER?  Where is the conquering and victory in TODAY??   The tomorrows might have victory stories, but TODAY?

God has simply laid it on my soul that the victory in today is HIM.  HE is the victory.  HE is the conquering of my situation.  No matter how dark it feels and look HE is with me.  He is loving me, fighting for me, and blessing me with his presence.  

HE IS THE TREASURE.  HE IS THE PRIZE.  HE IS THE VICTORY.

Where are you needing a conquering spirit in your life?  Because Jesus says we are MORE than conquerers because He is with us.

Hallelujah and AMEN.

(See full sermon notes below)

Always a Conquerer Sermon

The RISK of Love

There is such a great risk in loving.  We all choose to love people in our own ways, wherever God has planted us.  But it is difficult and messy and RISKY.

I love brownies but there is no risk in that.  They always love me back with their chocolatey goodness.  I know what I am getting.  People are not like brownies.

When we love we put ourselves out there and we never know what we will receive.  But TRUE love is loving and giving all without knowing what will come back.

This week our Ubuntu son Zakhe who has been living with us for the past three months has moved out.  I will not belabor the details out of respect for him, but it did not end well with us, and he was happy to move out of our home.  He made mistakes, we made mistakes, and in the end our family was just too much pressure for him and not the right space.

So if you are counting we have taken in two kids from other communities (Ntokozo and Zakhe) over our four years here and invited them into our homes and families.  Both started great and both ended in a fiery disastrous crash.

I loved Ntokozo deeply and when she left our home in 2011 I was devastated.  Now we have an incredibly deep relationship with her and are ‘family’ for sure even though she doesn’t live with us.  God has completely redeemed that story.  We love her and she loves us.

With Zakhe I am not sure how the story will end.  I know that we love him very much, but he is working through many things and isn’t sure how he feels.  We hope that by moving him into the black township in our area with another coach he will feel less pressure and be able to become a healthy and vibrant part of the Ubuntu community.  The story is still being written right now.

I will say that personally this journey with Zakhe has been exhausting and devastating.  God told me to take in one of the boys in January and Zakhe was placed with us.  I tried not to have hopes in him or our relationship but fell in love with him and it’s not a good relationship at this moment.  I am heartbroken and confused.

However, in my heartbreak haze there are a few things I know.  I know that God loves ME and I know that I love because of the love of Jesus deep in my soul.  We don’t love because it’s deserved or returned.  We just love because we are loved.

So I will continue to risk and continue to love.  I can do that because I am loved by the Greatest Love in the universe.  God’s love defines me and fills every part of my being.

“We love each other because he loved us first.” -1 John 4:19 NLT

Keep risking love.

“Every time we make the decision to love someone, we open ourselves to great suffering, because those we most love cause us not only great joy but also great pain. The greatest pain comes from leaving. When the child leaves home, when the husband or wife leaves for a long period of time or for good, when the beloved friend departs to another country or dies … the pain of the leaving can tear us apart.
Still, if we want to avoid the suffering of leaving, we will never experience the joy of loving. And love is stronger than fear, life stronger than death, hope stronger than despair. We have to trust that the risk of loving is always worth taking.”  -Henri Nouwen

White People in the Hood

In our ministry days in the States, Casey and I led many… MANY mission trips with both youth and adults.  MANY.

Before we moved here I was leading about 6 mission trips a year.  I LOVED being in other cultures and teaching people how to engage the poor and broken.  And I was slowly accepting that it was time to just move my butt over to Africa.

NOW we are on the OTHER side of mission trips.  Since we LIVE in Ocean View, a previously disadvantaged area, we see people in and out of this community doing various acts of ministry and service.  It feels DIFFERENT being on the other side of missions.

This past month we had a mission team visit our church in Ocean View from Anchorage, Alaska for a two week mission trip.  We weren’t able to participate in many of the activities, but I watched from afar and listened to the responses both from my Ocean View friends and our Alaskan visitors.  The trip was filled with projects and meetings and dinners and singing and LOTS of laughter.  The church from Alaska deeply blessed our Ocean View community and there will be lasting imprints left.

 However, not all missions begin and end with the right heart and vision.  I don’t know much, but just a few thoughts about what it SHOULD look like when you bring WHITE PEOPLE into the HOOD.

Top Five Tips on Bringing WHITE PEOPLE TO THE HOOD

1. The Poor Don’t NEED You To Save Them

When I first moved to Ocean View I was shocked when no one brought out the welcome wagon to greet us.  I mean here we were, the amazing Americans coming to save those in need in Ocean View!!  I can still hear the dramatic music in my head…  And… No one cared that we were there.  We only made them suspicious and confused.  They had only been hurt and oppressed by white people, so if anything, they had less inclination to let me into their world.  In their eyes, they were fine and didn’t need me to save them.  They still don’t need me. They need Jesus.  And actually people ALL OVER THE WORLD, from the richest of rich to the poorest of poor need Jesus.  They don’t need you.  So don’t be shocked when they don’t roll out the red carpet.  Your job is to roll out the red carpet for THEM.

2. Missions must be about RELATIONSHIPS

Often mission teams come in ready with projects and goals and only learn a little bit about the people and history.  I can relate, that is exactly what I use to be focused on as well.  You feel that God has blessed you with so much and you want to share as much as you can while you are on a mission trip.  But again , it’s not about you.  Maybe what the poor need isn’t your projects and your progress but YOU.  Be available, have conversations, ask questions.  People LOVE to talk about themselves all over the world.  Get to know them and even share about your own heart.

3. Ask the locals HOW TO DO IT.

When we come into a new environment as missionaries, we often insist on doing things OUR WAY.  This is how we build it, this is how we see it, this is what projects we want to do, and this is how it will all go.  What if you came into a mission environment and asked the people there FIRST what to do?  What do they want to see accomplished?  What are their dreams?  How do they usually fix problems?  How would they like you to handle a situation?  Not only will you engage the locals but you will also learn something new!  What works in America might not work all over the world!

4. CELEBRATE the relationships

Many mission trips have a celebration night at the end where praise is given to the volunteers and all the work they accomplished.  Often those serving stand up and share about how ‘difficult’ various parts of the trip were and how hard they worked.  What if you instead celebrated the people THERE?  For the Ocean View community, this last group of people came into their homes and shared two weeks of working and learning together.  To build relationships is hard, and when it happens it should be shared.  What if you celebrated the relationships made, how the people there served you, and what you learned about them.  Celebrate the people not the projects.  Celebrate THEM not you.

5.  Change your language.  Make your trip less of a ‘mission’ and more of a ‘pilgramage’

A pilgramage is “a journey, especially a long one, made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion.”  What if your trip was about journeying alongside the people you were serving?  Learning about their home, their lives, their hearts.  Just learning from them not giving to them.  What if you went looking for what God was already doing there rather than what you were going to do yourselves?  God is alive there and if you look for Him, He will blow you away.

So yeah, keep bringing the white people into the hood.  But make it NOT about the white people and ALL about the hood.  We all have so much to learn from one another.

Colour: Love is on the Way

“Relax, everything’s going to be all right; rest, everything’s coming together; open your hearts, love is on the way!” – Jude 1:2 (MSG)

COLOUR Twenty-14 was something. I’d been preparing for months in advance as we took ninety women from the township community of Ocean View.  I serve there as a pastor and community developer and have been privileged to build a relationship with Hillsong Church, who supports our ministries and enables us to do new things. This was the fourth COLOUR that we attended as a community and there was more expectation than ever before.  Our women were ready!

At the same time, I’ve been caught up in a storm in my personal life and, daily, I’ve just been trying to keep my head above the waves…

See more at: http://hillsong.co.za/colour-love-is-on-the-way/#sthash.Ed1LMzDV.zifJngL3.dpuf

Ocean View at COLOUR!

Hello friends!  Just wanted to share an update from the Hillsong Colour Conference!  The Ocean View community took 90 women (and some sweet kiddos) with us to the Colour Conference this year and joined almost 7,000 people worshipping Jesus.  It’s a short conference all packed into just over 24 hours but it was insanely rich and beautiful.

How do I put into words what happened over these 24 hours?  I cannot.  I hope to share more stories from women themselves from Ocean View who experienced a new revelation from God.  I felt Him so personally in my own heart and feel set free with new vision and life.  We laughed, we cried, we danced, we sang, and we WORSHIPPED.

We WORSHIPPED.  I think that is the way I would sum up all that happened.  In the midst of all the presentations and lights and preaching and fanfare of a conference such as this, something happens unexpectedly and you just come to Jesus in a new way.  You let go, you give up, you come just as you are.

In addition to some incredible worship, the Ocean View ladies just enjoyed being together.  And I feel so deeply privileged to shepherd and love them.  These women are extraordinary and they are my heroes.  Doing life with them is such a gift.

And still to come will be the sharing of how the seeds planted in this weekend will still bloom.  God has begun so many beautiful things in the hearts of these ladies and I can’t wait to walk it out in life with them.  Jesus may you give us the strength to be all you have created us to be!

Christmas in Africa

January 6, 2014

Christmas in Africa is pretty similar to Christmas anywhere else in the world I would suspect.  But ONE thing makes it really special and memorable for me.

THE PEOPLE.

Christmas in South Africa is all about family and community.  The day is packed with visits, and greetings, and presents, and eating, and gathering.  You see all the people you love and spend time together.

The longer we live here the more special Christmas becomes to me here.

Christmas day is hectic and honestly a blur to us, but something I cherish.  In Africa it’s very important for people to ‘greet’ one another by coming to visit, and so our home was filled for much of the day, and then we went to another family gathering with a home also filled to the brim.

Being in all these homes with people filled to the brim fills my HEART to the brim.  Our Christmas-time here reminds me that God has blessed us with an incredible community.

We share life, food, family, and Jesus.  It is rich and it is hard and it is SO GOOD.

Thank you Jesus for sending us your SON in the form of a small, vulnerable child.

Thank you for allowing us to celebrate that perfect and tiny gift.  Thank you for coming to us, and thank you that we can come to one another.

Thank you Jesus that you have come among us once again.