hey ya’all!

My friends, please forgive me for the past week of being lazy with writing on here.  It seems to have been kind of hectic the last few days.  I think also that i’m still trying to get over that weekend.  Ronnie and Sybil have been in
Cape Town since last Wednesday and will get back Friday, and Mama was there Friday through Monday.  Just lots of stuff to do.  That’s a good thing though.  Keeps me busy and feels good.  I’ve actually been getting tired at night. 

Things are looking good here with the Child Sponsorship stuff.  I’m getting really excited to see what all is going to happen with it over the next month or so.  I heard that there was over 1100 people at the Run for Mercy last Saturday that Oceans of Mercy put on.  I know my brother participated and i’m sure a bunch of you guys did as well.  But the plan was that after the Run, the Child Sponsorship would be ready to get rolling.  Tomorrow morning, Mama and I are meeting with the supervisor/manager of the store we want to work with.  We are going to kind of present what we would like to see happen with the two organizations.  So if you could be praying for that that would be great.  The meeting is at 10AM our time so if you want to get up at 3AM your time to be praying for us while we are having the meeting that would be great! JUST KIDDING! But if you happen to wake up around that time, raise a prayer up for us, please!

 

I’m going to put myself out on a limb here and tell you guys about some things that i have been feeling lately.  Some things that i probably wouldn’t mention regularly but i know that we are in this as a family and i need you guys now! I’m going to just write what i wrote in my journal.

 

April 23

- My heart is not right.  I need to rid myself of my pride.  It’s bringing me down.  Selfishness is burying me so deep that i can’t see the light and can’t feel or see my God.  You keep breaking me everywhere i am.  Even now you are speaking to me, guiding me, teaching me, and inspiring me.  Romans 12:16 “Live in harmony with one another.  Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not think you are superior.”  That verse hit the spot, a bulls-eye, exactly what i’m talking about.  I’m tired of relearning things over and over again.  It’s past time to learn, it’s time to do, time to live what i know and have learned.  Stop hiding behind my pride!

 

April 24

-Over the past week or so, probably even longer than that, i have been treating the kids horribly.  I’m not saying that i have beating them or even yelling at them.  I’ve been finding myself getting angry or frustrated a lot.  Quite often when they ask me questions, I act as if they’re bothering me or as if I’m better than them and don’t or shouldn’t even give them the respect they deserve.  I don’t know what to do.  I know how i should treat them.  I’m supposed to be setting an example for these kids. 

I pray that i grow to be a bigger and stronger man.  These kids deserve someone better than me.  They deserve so much more than i can give them.  I know God that I’m not here to do my will, even though it seems like that’s all I do.  I’m here to do your will.  Your PERFECT will.  I trust that you have given me or will give me what i need to reach these kids.  When your son was here on earth, he loved children.  He knew how to talk to them and how to be affectionate with them.  Help me be able to be more like Christ!

 

The kids have been doing great though.  Even while my heart seems to be at the wrong place, some cool things have been happening here.  Some of the girls have been opening up to me lately.  Talking to me about things that go on at school, boys they like, and all kinds of stuff.  There’s lots of laughter and fun and life being shared. 

Phumlani told me tonight that he liked going to church now.  He did before but when he went he would just sit there and listen, not talking to anyone.  Now he goes and talks to some specific guys and other people as well.  When i ask him why he doesn’t just go and talk to people, he’ll usually say “because i don’t want to.  I don’t care.”  Tonight he was telling me that he doesn’t know why he doesn’t talk to people and he doesn’t know how to get around that or how to get more comfortable talking with people that he might not know very well or at all.  Anybody have any advice on what i could tell him.  I think he’s becoming more and more eager and wants to but he doesn’t know how.  Pray for him guys. 

 

I love you all very much!

 

daniel

Out Of The Ordinary

Guys i missed your comments and emails so much this past weekend! I most importantly missed my church family this Easter! I will never forget this past weekend. The camping was great. The people there were awesome. I have never met so many people in a span of 5 days. We played a ton of volleyball and i am going to get to play every Tuesday night now on the beach with some guys from the church. I guess they thought i was good enough to invite to the “good players night of volleyball.” I really did have a great time with the people and all the activities and the sports, hanging out at night telling jokes (i wasn’t of course because i for some reason never get the punch line right, i’m not a very humorous guy), eating a bunch of new foods. Great time! I think that Phumlani did too. I hated doing this but i started ignoring him a little bit just so he would be forced to go and talk to other people and make new friends. I think to some degree it worked. He was hanging out with a couple of guys the majority of the time. They were a little bit younger than him and they seemed to goof around a lot which is always good for teenage guys!

And then came the meetings. WOW! I’m glad Phumlani came but i wish we both could have missed that part of the camp. They had 5 guests from Canada come and one of them did the speaking at the meetings. Every day we met in the morning and at night to have meetings. The meetings consisted of 5 or so songs at the beginning and then the speaker from Canada. I love the way these people worship in music. I absolutely love it! They dance, sing loud, sing quiet, jump up and down, and hold hands. Last night they played some songs that were fun and just upbeat and everyone was dancing. Not just in front of their chair but in the aisles and all around the stage. Then someone started a conga chain and had about 40 or so people going around the room dancing and shouting. I love it! I love the way they worship God in song. It’s perfect. It’s the way it’s supposed to be. Then comes the speaker. This guy, Reed, real nice guy, gets up and introduces himself, tells us that he’s going to be speaking about Grace over the period of the camp. Throughout the camp meetings the four people that came with Reed, three girls and a guy, during the message and during prayer would start screaming, yelling, gasping, throwing their arms in the air, falling on the ground, and to anyone that would have walked in off the street would have said they looked possessed. These people practiced speaking in tongues. Now i don’t know if all of you know what that is and if you don’t, don’t worry because i still don’t either. These people scared me. If i had my eyes closed, i would have thought just by the sounds that i was in the middle of an Indian attack. They believe in intercession between the Holy Spirit and us. The whole week was probably the biggest spiritual battle i have ever faced. Not only was i confused by the whole thing, and for some reason that i haven’t figured out yet, it made me angry to see them doing it. Now i believe that not everybody worships God the same way. What i had to come to realize was that even though i found it different, God was still working in these people. People were getting saved and then baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit. The last night, Reed seemed to be pushing the whole speaking in tongues thing. Kind of like he is trying to get everyone that doesn’t do it to join in on the party for people with turrets (sp?). The last night we had a meeting they asked if there was anyone that had never spoken in tongues. Myself and 10 or so other people raised our hands. Then he asked if any of us wanted to learn how to. I was the only one of the 10 that didn’t raise my hand. I felt REALLY good about standing up for what i believe. I believe that some people do have the gift of speaking in tongues but i don’t think that you can teach someone to speak in tongues. Plus i can speak just fine to God the normal way. But these people honestly seemed like they had turrets though. Some were even bursting out into hysterical laughing while everyone was quiet. Now while all that was happening there were also people passing out or fainting or something. I’m not really sure what all was going on so forgive me for my jumbled description. One of the strangest things that happened was with Michael. I’ve mentioned him a couple times in posts over the past week or two. But the second to last night we were there, we were all standing and then he just fell straight to the ground. He laid there shaking for probably an hour at least. The next time i saw him i asked him if he was ok and he didn’t say anything. It was night time so he borrowed someone’s flash light and shined it at his hand. It read “I can’t talk.” Now, i knew exactly what it meant because he had told me of some things that supposedly happened to him in the past but what he was telling everyone was that the Holy Spirit had taken away his ability to talk and God told him that he couldn’t speak until his 20th birthday which is the 14th of May. 1 MONTH! Now this is all what he told me, or rather wrote down on a piece of paper cause he “can’t talk.” I personally am extremely skeptical. Part of me wants to just reach out and smack him across the face and tell him that he CAN talk, but the rest of me has no idea what’s going on and wants to be there for him through this period of his life if it really is true. I think that God is just trying to teach me to be more tolerant. To realize that people worship God in different ways. To understand that just because i don’t have a certain gift that doesn’t mean that other people don’t. I have never seen or heard someone speaking in tongues and it scared me. Because i have never experienced that, i am very one-sided towards the whole thing. Over the past week i had never felt so alone in what i believe though. Now i’m seeing that God is just teaching me new things. Things that maybe He can only teach us when we are alone and away from everyone else.

Well i am in every way DRAINED! So i think i am going to go to bed and sleep on a nice comfortable bed that is too small for me! YES!

I LOVE YOU GUYS!

daniel

this weekend!

hey everyone…i just wanted to let you all know that tomorrow morning Phumlani and i are leaving to go to the Easter Camp event with the church we go to. It’s a 4-5 day campout and we will be back monday so look for a new update then!
Please pray for us this weekend that God will bless this time we have together to fellowship and that he will keep us safe and that Phumlani will have a great time!

love you guys
daniel

New Day

Well hellllloooooo everyone! Boy has it been a crazy day! Very eventful. But there is one thing that happened that i would like to tell you about…

Another thing happened today to prove to me how crazy things are here. Mama and i were dropping to of the kids off at the taxi stop to go and see some of their family in another town. We parked around the corner from there and Mama walked them to their taxi that would take them to where they wanted to go. As they were driving off another taxi pulled out and hit Mama and knocked her over and ended up running over her foot. Actually that would have been better but it actually stopped on her foot. The Volkswagen taxi van knocked her over and stopped on top of her foot. She tried to get the driver to move but he kept saying “there’s something blocking my way” so it took 15 seconds or so to get the car off her foot. 15 seconds is a long time when you’re wearing sandals and it’s a big car. Two people came running over to me and had me pull our car up and pick her up. The driver gave her 120 rand which is only $20 or so and his information. We left as soon as we could to find a place that could see her foot because she was in a lot of pain. We ended up at a hospital and it took us 3 hours before we were able to leave.
Mama was telling me that she was very fortunate because taxi drivers don’t care about you at all. They would rather you be dead than injured. If you’re dead they know that no one will say anything about it but if you’re injured they have to worry about taken care of it. Isn’t that pathetic?
The hospital was horrible though. We sat for 2 hours before we even so a doctor and that’s the emergency room. Some of the people that were coming in there were pretty sick though. Some you could just see were really sick with aids. There was one guy there that was really skinny like one of those guys you see that are dying of starvation. Then some guy was wheeled next to me. I looked over at this guy and he was pretty skinny as well. A white guy who hadn’t shave for days. He had a bucket in his lap, i guess he was having some stomach issues. As we were waiting, patiently i might add, i looked over and all of a sudden this guy is putting his middle finger down his throat and shoving it in there and then he just loses it in the bucket. This guy is sitting RIGHT next to me. he already smelled but now he really smells.
Poor Mama was really hurting by this point because of all the pain. The x-rays showed that nothing was broken and that all the pain was probably due to the bruising and swelling. You can’t see much bruising and the swelling has probably gone up by now. All they were able to do was put a wrap on her foot and give her some pain medicine.
She will probably be off her feet and in bed or around the house for the next couple days, giving it some time to get better.
Thank you Lord for looking after Mama today. She could have gotten hurt much more and we thank you for protecting her.

Lord you’ve won my heart…
Yes you’ve won my heart!!!

daniel

Welcome Today

I have the worst titles cause i have no idea what to write.  It’s always boring like today…”welcome today.” BOOORRRRIIINGGG!

Anyways, how is everyone today? Good i hope! How are your families? How is school for all the students that read this?  Work?  I hope everyone is enjoying their family and loving on them all day long because we are all fortunate to have a family!!! So make sure your family knows that today!  And tell them all i love them too!

Boy it’s hot here! Today it got to 33^oC, i don’t really know how hot that is but i know it FELT really hot. So of course we had to go to the beach.  I’m still not used to being that close to the beach each and every day which means i want to go there all the time.  It’s a good thing the kids do too. 

Last night i proved to the girls that the WWE (world wrestling something or other i don’t know) is all fake.  You’re probably asking yourself, “how did he do that?”  don’t worry i will tell you.  Phumlani thought that it was ok to “pick” on me a little bit.  He would do little things over and over again i think just to see what my boundaries are and how far he could push me before i would explode.  First, i was sitting on the life guard chair, the ones that are way off the ground and he started shaking it while i was on it and told him he’d better stop or i would make him eat sand.  “i don’t care” was his response and he kept doing it.  So i got down, chased him across the beach and then pinned him to the ground to where the side of his face was in the sand.  He stood up spitting sand out of his mouth.  As we were walking to the cars to leave he felt like he could push me so he did.  Since it wasn’t a big deal i kept saying “OK OK.”  After he continued to push me and grab me by the arm and throw me around, all i said was “OK OK.” he did it all the way to the car. We got back to the house and i decided to show him what would happen when people try to continuously pick on me.  We started wrestling and fighting in the living room.  The girls were loving it.  They were all circled around us yelling “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT” as if we were in a school yard fight.  I had warned them before, even Phumlani, that i don’t like to playfully wrestle because i get worked up really fast and then my adrenaline gets going and the next thing you going crazy.  So like i had predicted, we ended up really going at it (Johnny that was for you).  Fists were flying, not towards the face of course, pointy and bony elbows and knees were going all over the place.  It was a lot of fun though.  We even stopped a few times and then kept going.  We could have charged the girls because we gave them a good show.  I don’t think i gave Phumlani any bruises but i know he’s scared of me now.  He actually was able to give me some weird fight marks.  I had a rug burn on my knee due to the carpet obviously, and a couple other marks as well.  I wasn’t wearing a shirt though so that’s the only reason why i have those marks. 

I feel like sharing with you guys what God has been teaching me recently.  He has really been showing me what it is to be faithful and what that means.  He’s showing me that faith isn’t believing in God and that there is a God but actually trusting in God.  We can so easily go through our “walk with God” doing the normal things like going to church and fellowshipping with other Christians, praying and having a quiet time each day, and even tithing, but until we trust in God he won’t be able to actually use us.  Until then, we are no good to him.  If we don’t trust him, how can he show us what he has planned for our lives?  If we can’t or don’t trust him, how can he trust us with his will for our lives.  Besides, what reason is there that we shouldn’t trust God?  I pray that all of us will be able to understand that concept and understand what faith really is and that he is calling each and everyone of us to live a life with complete faith in him!

 

Hope you guys have a great day!

 

daniel

Good Week!

Dear friends, how are you all doing? I have been thinking about all of you a lot lately and praying for you because you are all dear to me. Some really cool things are happening here. God is really opening a lot of doors for me in this community. Not all specifically through Oceans of Mercy but just a whole bunch of stuff. I have been getting more and more involved with the church that we go to every Sunday. It’s called Fountain Vineyard Church. Typically i don’t feel comfortable at any other church other than Westside cause i have been there my whole life pretty much but i have been really enjoying this church and the people there. The music is great, the speaking is a little difficult because it’s kind of rough and just different i guess. I’m so used to seeing my dad on the stage that it’s weird when someone else is up there. But God has blessed me with a friendship with a guy in the church. He’s 20 years old and works at the church with the students and worship team. His name’s Michael. We really do have a lot in common and seem to be going through a lot of the same things at this point in life. I think God’s going to bless that friendship over the next year! Then the child sponsorship work and planning is rolling and picking up fast. Oceans of Mercy has their annual Run For Mercy on April 22nd i believe which i hope you all will participate in. While the group i came here with was here, we were able to get close to 200 people signed up for the child sponsorship so soon we will be having the program going. Keep in mind that this is all new to me and to Oceans of Mercy at the same time. They have done child sponsorship before but they did it through another organization. I am their first attempt to do the program on their own. So be praying for me that i will be making wise choices for everything from what stores we’re going to be partnering with to what day of the month we’ll have the people pick up the parcels. Pray for the whole process that i will be able to stay focused and that not my will but that his will be done. Next week Phumlani and i get to go camping with the church. Every year the church has an even that they call Easter Camp. The whole church participates in this 4-5 day campout on a high school rugby field. It’s supposed to bring over 500 people from a few different churches. I’m not sure how many. It’s a time of fellowship and there will be lots of sports going on…volleyball, cricket, and rugby…so i will be coming back with a broken nose from trying to play rugby. I’ve actually been watching a lot of it and cricket with Ronnie. He loves them and has been trying to explain them to me. Whelp…it’s after 12:30 at night here so i had better be going. Love you all! daniel