SO… unofficially, I graduated from Indiana Wesleyan (meaning I finished my thesis, turned it in, and the prof graded it already with a passing grade). Not knowing what to do with myself regarding reading, then my eye caught the glimpse of my bookshelf. I picked up and have been slowly working my way back through Brennan Manning’s “Ruthless Trust”.

Timely… on a LOT of fronts.

Granted, I constantly struggle to really trust God with my family, finances, etc… That’s not okay, but that’s an old story. But it seems like there’s a common issue among so many people in my life (teammates, family/friends back in the US, people I get to work with and do my life with in SA… everyone I know really). That word… trust…

“Craving clarity we attempt to eliminate the risk of trusting God”

I feel like a bulk of what we try to do in ministry is help bring clarity to people and to ourselves. Maybe we’re doing a disservice to both by not simply asking one another why we don’t trust what we’ve already been given.

SO MUCH FEAR in trusting… it’s easier to DO theology than to live a life trusting a God in the end our minds will never fully comprehend anyway. That’s a fuller salvation… I think what Jesus came to reveal to us… we can trust Him.

I don’t know why or how exactly you go about trusting Him (I think the 3 step sermons really can’t explain it fully either)… I’m trying not to sort that all out anymore… life is more fun catching waves than being stiff pole in the sea that marks territory. I guess clarity really isn’t the goal… trusting is.

Okay… so to preface this, it’s the middle of our summer here.  Air conditioning is NOT common place in homes here, and my wife is about to pop this baby ANY minute now.  So already we’re having a blast !!!  Hitting the pool every evening (sometimes the afternoon as well).

For Christmas in the summer (much like that whole “Christmas in July” stuff I never understood in the States), well, it’s just weird!  Most of our friends take their vacation time at this time in the year and go to the ocean.  With our baby about to arrive, we’re in Pretoria still.  So here’s the game plan for the Reeds Christmas 2009 in SA.

1.  Picking up in laws (Nat’s folks) from the airport.  Nat’s mom is going to be here for about a month to help with the final days of the pregnancy.

2.  Get some nice thick steaks from Maders (the best butchery on the planet)… and cheap

3.  Lots of coal (we’ll be braaing a few nights this weekend).

4.  Eat, sleep, laugh, watch the kids run around in their swimming costumes (what they call swimming suits here).

5.  Remember the snow and ice that falls from the sky in Indiana… and not miss it very much

Have a great Christmas everyone!

This past week, my boss, Rob Yackley sent out this update on Nieu Communities.  This update featured our team, so I thought I’d add it here.  Enjoy!

it’s their turn Back in 2001 when we were designing and birthing NieuCommunities, we felt that someday we would help birth other NieuCommunities-like communities in other countries, communities that would take on new shapes and be led by local leaders.  In 2010 we’re making a significant step towards that day when our community in South Africa shifts their focus from the development of expats to the development of South African leaders. That’s actually a shift that has been underway for the last couple of years as we’ve been assimilating more apprentices from Africa into our community.  But in 2010 we’ll be formalizing that shift as our community in Pretoria begins to reshape the apprenticeship to fit South Africans.  We still anticipate a handful of young expat leaders coming to be apprenticed, but now they’ll be coming to be apprenticed as missional leaders as we apprentice South Africans.  They will come to join our common mission to form South Africans to live missional lives. In making this shift, we felt like another move would be both imminent and critical.  We would need to move closer to where younger and more progressive people live in Pretoria.  Somewhere downtown.  Somewhere closer to the University.  Somewhere where blacks and whites live side-by-side and are engaging the significant challenges that face them and their country.  Somewhere beyond Pangani. Pangani has been a wonderful home for us these past 7 years, but as we focus on South African leaders, we think it would be better utilized as an off-site training venue; a place we occasionally use for workshops, seminars, intensives, and retreats rather than as a home-away-from-home for staff and apprentices.  We also think it could be a valuable source of revenue to help fund the development of young local leaders.  To help make that happen we are in discussions with Enterprise International to lease Pangani from NieuCommunities and run it as a for-profit guesthouse and conference centre. Our staff—when they all get back from their furloughs in February–will begin the hunt for a new neighborhood and begin setting up home in downtown Pretoria. well done good and faithful servants As a mentoring and sending community, we know people are supposed to say goodbye and go where God is calling them, but that doesn’t make it any easier when they do.  It’s especially hard when those leaving have been around since the beginning.  Bryan and Daleen Ward were the founding leaders of our community in Pretoria and they have been at the heart of our community ever since.  They’ve served faithfully through eight years filled with challenges and adventure, times of joy, laughter, and tears; stretches of struggle and countless times of profound breakthroughs.  Eight years later the fruit of their labor is sprinkled across the globe and written on our hearts. In October the staff and apprentices in Pretoria showed Bryan and Daleen just how much they love and appreciate them by transforming Pangani into a living tribute to Bryan and Daleen.  Lining every wall were pieces of art created by our staff and apprentices over the years and photos that captured both the deep and lighter moments of the past eight years.  Poems were read, blessings were offered, dances were performed, and thanks were given. Thank you Bryan and Daleen for always being there for us…we love you and will miss you! leading the way Joe Reed, who has been with us the past year and a half, will be stepping up to take on the leadership of our community in Pretoria as we head into a new day.  Joe brings the community lots of enthusiasm and strong apostolic gifting which will serve us well as we pioneer new ground and new relationships.  We also want to extend a special welcome to Curtis Love and Chris Kamalski, two very gifted apprentices from this past year, who will be returning to join Joe and Natalie, Doug, and Sarah on the staff team as they move the community from its home in Pretoria North to its new home downtown.  Curtis is a South African with wisdom beyond his years, and Chris is a skilled spiritual formation leader.  Welcome aboard guys…it’s great to have you! Please pray for our staff in Pretoria as they make all these significant transitions in 2010. Pray that God would guide them to the perfect neighborhood and provide them all with flats and houses that would quickly become home. And pray for wisdom as we think about the rhythms and expressions of NieuCommunities that will fit this new context and new focus.

What’s more important? Kicking the ball with Ezra while Keziah changes into her 5th costume of the afternoon, OR meeting some stranger for a cup of gas station coffee? Look, I KNOW the answer to that question. I’ve BLOGGED on this before. Why does it keep coming up for me?

As I journey in these roles of parent and missionary, I constantly battle this internal lie that I’m here to work. I’m not here to work… I’m here to live.

Coupled with this lie is that spending time with my kids isn’t as productive as making that new contact, moving in that new direction, expanding the kingdom here or there. Look, those things ARE important. It IS part of it. But not committing myself to anything is not exactly MY problem. It’s recognizing balance and priorities.

This is on the blog… again… as a marker for myself in this journey of discovery, as well as a point of keeping myself accountable to our donors/family/friends/co-workers. Someone recently asked me why I was too busy to go out for coffee, and all I could say was I was playing with my kids. So I just said, “I had something come up” to save face… so I thought. Felt like playing with the kids so Natalie could do something wasn’t productive, just another way I was keeping my wife happy.

I’d like to take that phone call back and say I was too busy to meet for coffee because I was wrestling my son and having tea with my daughter. I would be out of commission for the afternoon, and my phone will be off.

What got me to this new awareness was the ludicrous-ness (is that a word) of my opening question when my friend just asked it to me in passing tonight. Pretend tea and a soccer ball or cold BP station coffee… hmmm…

I’ll have two purple sugar cubes and a GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here’s to LIVING overseas!

I am having difficulty putting into words what I experienced yesterday at the Voortrekker Monument.  Yesterday is currently called the “Day of Reconciliation,” but in the Afrikaaner culture, it is known as “geloftedag.”  The day is about remembering the vow the Afrikaaners made with God if he would deliver them from the Zulu army.  450 Afrikaaners vs. 10,000 + Zulus fought that day in the Battle of Blood River, and God spared the Afrikaaner (how it was told to me).

So yesterday, December 16, around 7000 Afrikaaners came to the Vortrekker monument to remember how God spared them that day.  There was a LOT of singing and a sermon delivered.  Then around noon, the light at the top of the monument shined down on top of an altar inside.  On this altar was written the vow that the Afrikaaners made to God.  Every year on December 16 at noon (and only on this day at this time), the light shines directly in the center of this altar.  It’s pretty bizarre that they could design something with such precision.

History is relative to the one telling it isn’t it?  So I’m going to attempt avoiding my opinion on describing this day and instead present the questions that stirred up in my heart.  Honestly, they are questions I have of global humanity, and not really about the Afrikaaners at all.  Yesterday raised some hard questions for me… questions I don’t have answers for.

1.  Does God make vows with man at the expense of other human life (what if that other human life is a threat to other human lives, is it justified then)?

2.  Does it honor God to mix patriotism with worship of him?  What if that patriotism came at the expense of others’ freedom (Thinking the Confederate view of the civil war in America… they thought that was God honoring didn’t they?  Was it?)  Should patriotism and worship go together, should they be separate?  How are the related?  What is the proper/God honoring connection of the two?

3.  What are we to do with important holidays in our cultures if those days represent so much pain for another human life?  What role should those days play in our spiritual lives?

At the end of the day, the biggest question for me is whether God is honored or not.  How do we answer that question at a national level when I don’t even make it a habit in my own individual life to answer that question?  I think those three questions above are things I will wrestle with for  along time… but the core of my day to day living needs to be the positive response to the God honoring quest and question.

I just met this interesting guy named Johan.  See, we just bought a family car (had to get something bigger with this 3rd kid coming, so we traded in and up in size).  Anyway, the car we just bought was real cheap, hence this smell of dog urine.  So I took it to the cleaner for a good shampooing, and Johan was the owner.  I went to pick it up this morning, and here’s the unfolding of this “random” transformation story.

Johan used to work for the police, during the Apartheid era.  He got into the hectic nature of the work he was part of.  He told me he watched his partner get killed in front of him.  He told me about the plans he and other officers made to massacre over 350,000 black South Africans (I double checked that number, and I, unfortunately, heard him correctly).  The crazy thing is, this isn’t the first I’ve heard of similar plans people had made during the transition of power.  I just never met anyone who had the police force behind them!

Anyway, that’s the hectic part of his story.  Then something happened in this guys’ heart.  During the course of his planning, someone introduced him to Jesus.

Everything changed.

Quitting the police force, he opened a business that could employ the same people he was beating in the streets… young black women and men.  I asked him how he related to his employees, and he asked me my impressions.  See, the day before, I went to drop the car off and I was working with his manager, an older black woman who was running the entire shop floor.  He told me that they worked out salaries based on the profit of the business.  This is a pretty big deal car cleaner, so the workers are making pretty good money from what I could tell.  And all the employees were really happy, were joking with him when I came to fetch the car today, and did a knock out job.  In my estimate, this guy is getting the concept of reconciled relationships.

He went onto tell me that there’s not a day goes by he doesn’t seek ways to apologize to those he’s wronged in TANGIBLE ways (like giving twice the salary his competitors give).  He’s deeply remorseful and fighting for a way forward in a very hard section of Pretoria.

I deeply believe Jesus changes hearts… and those changed hearts WILL change societies, continents, and the globe.  This is beyond a hope… it’s the only way forward.

Just to preface, I’m not much of a movie critic. I either like a movie or I don’t, and my rationale is pretty random. The movie Invictus is dealing with the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Nelson Mandela, who had been elected president of the new South Africa the year before, called Francois Pienaar, the captain of the Springboks (the national team) to his office for a chat. The thought was that winning this world cup could do a lot to bring all South Africans together… but primarily, the Afrikaaners in accepting him as their leader.

To give you some insight from my perspective, I’ve noticed a handful of sub-categories in the Afrikaaner community. There are those who are frustrated about the end of Apartheid, not because they’re necessarily racists, but because they’re tired of having to apologize. Then there are those who are pretty fed up with the former group because all of the comforts that white South Africans have was built on the back of an oppressive system. Those are the extremes… then you have everyone in between (which honestly is quite a few people from what i’ve gathered).

Walking out of the movie theater, it was really amazing to look at the faces of the older Afrikaaner men and women. Some looked as if they were in tears, others speechless. I can’t help but wonder how they were absorbing this film. Winning the rugby World Cup is a lot like how our friends and family in Indiana felt when the Colts schooled the Bears in the Super Bowl. But it’s even more impressive than that! This is DEEP in the culture here. And the move that Mandela made by initiating relationship with the team, going to the games, getting interviewed by sports stations… he was their biggest cheer leader. In so many ways, I think that single act helped bring peace to a nation on the verge of a civil war.

The coolest part for me was what it did for my heart. I’ve been to Loftus Stadium in Pretoria several times now. I’ve experienced the pride of the Afrikaaner (the Blou Bull Rugby experience really is something). The office of the president can be seen from the area of Pretoria we’re going to be moving into… I saw my home on the big screen with Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. I was moved to tears a few times thinking about what we get to be part of here. It’s special. It’s hard and complicated… but it’s a special thing.

As for the movie itself, if you don’t like rugby, I still think you’ll like the story line. Morgan Freeman was BRILLIANT, and I really think he should win an oscar for this performance. He nailed the role. For the story, I give it 2 thumbs up. For whole thing, I’d probably give it one up. I wish there had been more relational development between Madiba and Pienaar.

The FIFA World Cup is coming to South Africa very… VERY soon (June – July 2010).  It has been reported that during major sporting events, such as this, human trafficking (women being sold into the sex industry against their will) increases TREMENDOUSLY.

As you can imagine, there is a great deal of concern about this, and an even greater response from churches and other non-profit organizations.  Recently, we made a pretty sweet connection that I’d like to offer up as a point of prayer.

Nieu Communities has been pretty involved with the Tshwane (the new name of Pretoria) Leadership Foundation.  TLF is a coalition of ministries addressing needs in the city.  We plan to do quite a bit more with them when we move into the city next year.  Anyway, they are doing some amazing work in organizing a handful of people around the trafficking concern.  This is being spear headed by new friend Wilna de Beer.  She and her husband Stefan (the CEO of the organization) are doing so much good here.  It’s good to hold up their hands and partner tightly with them.

Anyway, I was having coffee with another friend of mine recently who happens to be very connected himself.  He’s a pastor in the Dutch Reform Church as well as very involved in Pretoria University.  Anyway, after telling him what was going on with TLF, his eyes lit up as he began telling me about a camp he has connections to using that could house over 100 women safely.  Needless to say, I made a quick introduction that afternoon.

Please continue to pray that connections like this will continue to happen and move towards reality well before the World Cup kick off.  We simply cannot allow this insanity to take place on our watch.

This post is funny, but at the time, I didn’t find it so.  The other night, I was driving back from the hospital meeting my new friend Luther, and the rain came down like I’ve never seen it in my life.  Of course, I needed to get petrol in my car during the massive storm, so I pulled into the BP.  After they filled my car up from empty, they tried to run my card to pay for it.  After the third attempt, the guy told me the bank must be offline from the storm.  Not carrying cash, I asked him what he suggested we do about it.  He told me he had to go with me to an ATM to get cash!

This is Africa!

We roll up to the first ATM, I put my card in, and after about 5 minutes of waiting, the whole machine started flashing a bright red light… with my card still inside!!!  At this point, I’m completely drenched, I look to the sky and laugh… you know that kinda laugh you put out so you don’t cry?  Then out of no where, the card came out!  SCORE… but still no cash.

I told them guy what happened, but he just told me where the next ATM was we could try.  I laughed and asked him if I could get reimbursed for the mileage I was taxiing him around.  He had a smile on his face at that point.  I was serious, but he thought I was joking .  FINALLY, got the cash, took the guy back, and then the process of waiting for change.

At this point, it’s been about a 45 minute process with the guy (normally takes a maximum of 10 minutes), so I gave him cash and told him to be blessed with a R5 tip (around $.75 ).

Oh yeah… and when I finally did get home, as soon as I closed the door, thunder roared and our electricity went off for about 10 minutes.  It’s funny now, but I had some confessing to do after that!

Last night I had the amazing privilege of being the first American to shake the hand of Luther du Plessis. Luther is the son of my good friends Pierre & Rialette.

Making his debut tonight from YouTube… weighing in a 4.05 kg (about 9 pounds)… LUTHER DU PLESSISSSSSSS