Final Blog Post

Unfinished Mid Illovo Building

Closing:
Time to bring the blog to a close. A special thanks to all who helped us visit there. The picture to the right is an unfinished church building, appropriate because of the unfinished nature of the church in South Africa. So much to be done. With a high percentage of it's pastors not having Biblical training the church mixes various beliefs and needs a great deal of training. So, like this building there is still much to be done. 

Building:
Regarding the building itself this would be a great project to help finish. This church in the Mid Illovo area is doing a great job in its community but lacks the $6000 to finish the roof, windows, doors and chairs to put this to use for God's glory. 

Highlights:

The trip out and back. 45hrs of travel each way. What a backside burner to sit in a seat that feels like a piece of hard wood with a 1/4" of foam rubber with no lumbar support on it for that long. Not sure why a multimillion dollar airplane cant' be fitting with seats as comfortable as my pickup truck but there it is. Still all was done with smooth connections and without difficulty.

Visit to Mozambique. Crazy drive up there. Adventurous drive to return without all the required documentation to get in and out. Still God gave us favor at the border and we were allowed to pass saving hours of delay.

Swaziland Pastors conference. What a fantastic experience to see how God's principles are universal and to know these humble servants. 

Kellie sharing with the Swazi women and participating in some local outreach. She had a great impact and learned of there reality, humbling...

Being with our good friends Bud, Teresa, and Luke Diener. Truly Godly and fun people. To see Bud in action right in the wheelhouse of his gifting. It's inspiring to see him thriving in what God has called him to do. Seeing Teresa and Luke supporting Bud in what God has called him to do and making an impact in their own relationships. Great fun hangin with the Dieners!

Seeing the potential for ministry. Meeting Bud's contacts and beginning to understand their needs first hand.  If anything the trip was too short. This was all the time we could spare at this time but it's definitely in the works to return again for a longer stay to develop more relationships and then... God only knows what might happen :)

Getting an up close view of the African landscape and famous African animals. Things you usually only see on TV or the movies.  Viewing them and being there brought an indescribable sense of peace.

Only God knows what the future holds but we could see much potential for ministry. An incredible need, and incredible harvest, workers are few...

Philippians 1:9-11 (New American Standard Bible)

 ⁹And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,
 ¹⁰so that you may approve the things that are excellent (best),

Looking for the best...

Thanks for following, 

Love Craig and Kellie

Video gallery

Links to various videos

This is a video of Sifiso translating Craig, what a fantastic job he did. It's the first time I have taught being on the English end of the translation.
Click to view Craig teaching

The pastors of Swaziland sing their hearts out. Great voices and great harmonies.
Click here for the pastors video


This peace loving warthog attacks my wife, go figure...
Click here for warthog Rush...


Here's a video for animal lovers, Giraffes...
All Giraffe lovers click here...

Leaving on a jet plane...

Traditional Zuli Dance

Someone somewhere said that all things must come to an end I guess as long as we are here on earth that may be true. We are always in transition in one way or another. So, we've come to our last day, it's a long plane ride back. Uggg... Kellie and I bring back a treasure of memories. Swazi pastors singing, a precious family in Mozambique, young pastors struggling to lead their congregations, Bible college students struggling to master the concepts of hermeneutics, the sense of Christ's love in these lovely believers. We take it all back with us. We also take back a deep sense of gratefulness, to those who have faithfully prayed for us and enabled us to make this trip with financial gifts. Gratefulness to the Dieners; Bud, Teresa and Luke who have graciously hosted us in their home, allowing us to participate, taxiing us around, and letting us tag along, introducing us to so many wonderful people.

Thanks Bud, Teresa and Luke

To you all we are most certainly thankful and can say along with the Apostle Paul "  I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus." I Cor 1:4   Most of all we thank God because by His grace we are what we are and we do what we do, He has certainly been gracious.  There huge needs here which seem to be as overwhelming as the tsunami that swept Japan yesterday. Yet we serve a God who is greater than all our needs. We pray to him that he would cause a renewal of commitment within His church here to be faithful to His Word because it is the only solid basis upon which it can stand against the challenges that it faces and those that are to come. 

Thanks for reading, thanks for following this. 

For His glory,

Craig and Kellie

God's people in Northdale

Pastor Richard Pillay

10 AM Local time.

Yesterday, It was my very great privileged to meet a group of pastors of East Indian descent who are primarily from a area called Northdale. The "Pastors Fraternal" meets to discuss how to encourage one another in the ministry and be of mutual support. We arrived to the sound of English Worship songs, a first since being in SA. English is their first language which is spoken with and east Indian accent. This is marked difference to the Zulus who's first language is Zulu and their English is a bit harder to understand. 

Among them was Richard Pillay, a pastor who my friend Bud is discipling and training personally in the ministry. He is a person of vision, initiative, and sensitivity to God's leading. He has a strong desire for the church to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. At the church facility you can see a Hindu temple and while we were there the Muslim call to prayer could be heard. To be sure there is a great diversity of religion and culture. The lesson for the day was apologetics, specifically with regard to Hinduism. It's amazing how many of the points of the lesson apply to people I know in the states who wouldn't consider themselves specifically Hindu but are influences by some of its teaching. 

Hindu Temple

Another pastor was also present named Moses, he has both black African and east Indian grandparents and "colored" facial features.  He speaks perfect English with little accent, was bright and sharp, he readily grasped the concepts being taught. Moses related to us how he had shared Christ with Hindus and over a period of time see them come to the truth of the gospel. If you look closely at the bottom left corner of the flag in front of the Hindu Temple there is a swastika, I'm not sure what that means but it can't be good. It's Friday morning here in SA, we leave to return tomorrow, the time has flown, sad to think of leaving...

Class day

Rondovel

Click for photos of the students...

Click for photos of local housing...

Yesterday I (Craig) had a great day of visiting classes and personal discipleship sessions that Bud does. This "shadowing" was vital for me to get an idea of what Bud does on a daily basis and to learn some things about how to disciple Zulus. They are a proud people and "Eddie" didn't quite feel like he did well on his homework assignment so he didn't want to show it to Bud while I was there. Bud graciously decided to cover some other material and leave off the homework for the next week. This allowed Eddie to save face. Great day and great experience! Kellie chilled with Teresa, got caught up with laundry, grocery shopping etc. More info to come!

Swaziland, land that we love...

Click to view pics of the game reserve...
Click to view photos of the conference...
Click to view photos of Swaziland...

Humbled, thrilled, energized, amazed, moved, I don't have enough words to express the blessing and privilege it was to participate in the conference on Biblical counseling. With about 45 pastors and wives attending the Word of God was shared and God supplied the power. I have to say that I believe the biggest impact was not on those who listened but on me. As I was sharing, talking, walking, knowing and eating with these humbled servants of the Lord, I came to have a deep love and affection for them. These Swazi believers have a sweetness of spirit in them that impacts your heart, the beauty of their souls match the amazing quite wondrous, peaceful beauty of the countryside. All this puts you at ease and makes you forget about the harried life back is the USA. I was honored by being called “baba” a term of respect and affection. And as if that was not enough there was the singing. What beautiful voices, someone leads out, the congregation answers, the room fills with alto, baritone and bass harmonies which reverberate deep into your heart and produces a peace that is hard to describe, it's Ubunto, our interrelationship to each other and our God.

And just to make our cup of blessing overflow, There were the reactions an comments of the pastors to the teaching. On the last morning I was running late. Bud, Teresa and Kellie were patiently waiting in the car ready to go. I was still shaving, holding up the group much to my pena (embarrassment) but God has a purpose even in the small things... After we were underway and just before turning for the climb up to the conference center, and just at the perfect time, we noticed that Nhlanhla, one of the pastors, was being dropped off at the bottom of the hill. We were pleased to give him a lift up, and as soon as he sat in the car he gave the most amazing testimony about the conference. “This is just what we need, this is what we need to know, it's a shame that we can't continue longer or come back next week and hear more, so we have to cherish every moment...” Wow... what do you say to that except that God is truly great and gracious to have allow us to participate in this.

Kellie's comments... ( actually “Mrs. Craig” at the conference): What a delight to break out into a session with the women at the conference. As we talked about how the biblical role of women transcends all cultures, it was very interesting to hear from them: “If my husband uses all of my earnings to support the children of his other family, how do I handle this?” Elizabeth, a godly woman with 4 children, and the mother of our translator, has adopted little Simon, a 6 year old boy who has lost both of mother and father. These situations are a result of the high death rate in Africa which results in multiple families being cared for by others outside of blood relatives...another example of Ubuntu. It can also be an example of polygamy which is still practiced in the indigenous cultures. We ended our time together by passing out a calligraphy “gift” that I made of Psalms 143 “Let me hear Thy lovingkindness in the morning...”. It is a joy for me to know that God's word, written in love, will be hanging in many homes after the conference...

Of Borders and Men

Photos later...

Prov 3:26 “The Lord will be your confidence and keep your foot from being caught.”

After the conference Bud had to return to Mozambique to pick up his son Luke who had been staying with some friends in the city of Maputo. Upon arriving at the border we were told that it was required to so the title to the vehicle. This was surprising because we had already entered and exited Mozambique previously and it had not been an issue. Bud and I appealed to the border guard and plead out case, we had to retriever Luke and we couldn't get even a copy of the title. And after many words and prayers the guard chose to allow us through much to our joy and relief. We arrived at the house of Bud's friends, Eva and Martinio without further difficulty and had a delightful visit. Martinio shared with us the needs for pastoral training. We were surprised to meet two gals from Sweden who were there to give talks about adoption and Eva was going to interprete for them. God is always doing something! 

Well then came part two of the adventure. While pulling out of the parking, Bud realized that he didn't have Luke's passport. How to cross the border back into Swaziland??? We'll long story short, the guard stopped us and asked if Luke had stamped out of the country. We had to confess that no he had not and his passport was with his mother, hours away. After many words and pleadings, Bud told the man he had been a pastor for 30 years and he would swear before God that these things were true. The guard asked Luke if Bud was really his father, with that testimony the guard let us through. Praying your way through border crossings is such a help, God gave us favour in the eyes of the border guards twice, AMAZING!

What a day!

The best laid plans of mice and men... Wow, what an adventure, we started out in Water Fall, SA at the Dieners house and set out for Mozambique to drop of Luke the Diener's son at a friends house then the idea was to continue on to Swaziland for the pastors conference. Now, this entailed crossing a border with all the paperwork etc. Little did we know that when we crossed over the next part of our journey would be done on a sandy track instead of a road. Opps an extra 4 hours of being bumped, and jostled and having our bones rattled. Then at the end the GPS, aka Zelda, told us that we had to cross over water on a ferry. Not a huge WA ST Ferry, but a small boat big enough only for about 10 cars. It was so fun to watch the walk on passengers, laughing, visiting and carrying on. Once across, in Maputo, Mozambique, we finally found the Dieners friend's apt and left off Luke for a visit while we proceeded to the border again hoping to cross over into Swaziland and on to our lodgings for the night. Upon arriving at 10PM we were kindly informed by a border guard that it was closed at 8PM. Your kidding right? Who knew! Just across the border 1 1/2 hours more was food, shower and a nice bed. Not to be had this night, so we back tracked and found a casino with a hotel. What an irony, headed for a pastor's conference and ending up at a casino for the night. Then we were informed that the restaurant was closed at, guess when, 8 PM. Luckily I had a back up of Peanut M and M's...

Click here to view today's photo's

Idol Competition

 

OK this is just for fun, here´s a guy who may be turning out for American Idol. Kellie and Teresa, "discovered him" while shopping. Post your comments to vote for him, AND first one to identify the song he´s singing will get a gift from SA...

Spent the day resting, seeing a few things, click below to see...

A few more pics click here!

Follow the link to see a few pics. We're tired now, going to bed.

Click here to see the pics...

Ready, set, go!

Our Lifegroup members prayed for us in the church lobby

Send off day!

Well we just went to church and feel completely energized. There was a full choir leading in worship was exceptional, completely and totally God directed. One song was especially fitting as it talked about how ALL that we are comes from and belongs to God: we belong to Him and we go where He wants us to. What a great encouragement it was to have members from both our Lifegroups gather around and send us off with prayer. This is the spirit in which we depart today for South Africa. We are His servants.

Here is a short list of things to pray about:

• God's protection and traveling mercies, that somehow the trip would seem short to us, and that we would arrive full of energy without the effects of jet lag.
• For Josiah while we are away.  He is 18 and looking forward to this independent two weeks.  Pray for his protection (and that he not burn the house down :)
• That we would be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, always looking for God's divine appointments and not worrying about fulfilling our own agenda.
• For wisdom,discernment, clarity of thought and God's specific leading in every situation.