"Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.." ~ Psalm 127:1
Today we visited our new church here in Cape Town, King of Kings. In the middle of their Family Month, today's sermon was from Psalm 127 and focused on the importance of having a loving home rather than simply having a house to live. Being newlyweds and looking forward to raising our own family (no, we aren't pregnant), this sermon was really encouraging and honestly got me very excited to have a family one day. However, it was the first verse of this Psalm that we studied today that has constantly been in my mind all day long, and as Claudia and I start this new season of life in ministry, this verse hit home on so many levels, no pun intended. This flat in Noordhoek is our first home together, and we know the importance of having Christ as the center of our family, but this also hit me on a broader scale. In ministry in general, if the work we do isn't God-ordained and God-inspired, then our work is in vain. Without God, all skill, strength, and effort is worthless - this definition of vain that the pastor used today just rocked me and Claudia and I had quite the gut-check moment. It was such a great reminder of why we're here. It's through that lens that we will gain perspective on all our work here, whether planning or singing and dancing with our little ones, we must continue to rely on the Holy Spirit for the remainder of our journey.
This was our second week of Kids and Teens Clubs, and our second full week to work alongside Lumka and Kennedy and the other LSE's. I can't begin to describe how amazing it is to work alongside brothers and sisters from across the world who have the common goal of making Christ known to the kids, teens and parents of their community. It's truly a privilege to get to partner with them in ministry, and when you listen to the hurts and cries of their hearts for the lost kids in their communities, you can't help but be encouraged because regardless of where they are in life, they are sold out to making God magnified in their communities.
In Kids Club this week, we continued to focus on watching our words. "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer" Psalm 19:4 was our memory verse this week. We wanted the kids to see how their words are important and should be used to lift others up and not tear them down. The highlight of the Kids Club for me was seeing my wife read The Little Engine That Could to these little ones. For 15 minutes, you could hear a pin drop in a room where every other minute is organized chaos. These kids were completely fixed on every word and picture on every page. It's humbling to think that most of these kids don't get read to before bed every night like I and many of you were when we were their age. It was the most beautiful picture in the world, getting to see Claudia make many of these kids' days by just taking time to read them a story.
Our goal this week for Teens Club was to encourage them to Finish Strong. This time of year school is winding down for them, and we wanted to just give them a push to finish the race with momentum. But also, we wanted to gain momentum into this week, which is our Wait 4 Me event (we called this True Love Waits). We read in Matthew 12 where Jesus said "out of the abundance of the heard the mouth speaks." We talked about how the things we put into our hearts and minds are what will ultimately be how we speak and act. Much like kids in the USA, these teens are exposed to so much more than I was as a teen, and with the technology that they do have, they have access to much more than was available 10 years ago. But even with all this evil surrounding them, there were glimpses of hope. One girl asked "So if I think about sex, does that mean that my heart and mind aren't pure?" Claudia was able to share with her that though we may have bad thoughts, that doesn't mean we're impure, and even though we are sinful humans, we were bought by Jesus' blood on the cross, and we don't have to live in bondage to these desires. God is moving in these teens!! Please continue to pray for opportunities like this one to proclaim Christ to these hurting kids and teens.
Our weekend was very relaxing, and Claudia and I got to spend time getting Christmas presents for our families and also spending time with Matt, one of the new volunteers here. We went on a date Friday night and caught up on laundry on Saturday. I already shared about church today, but we had a great time experiencing community this weekend, and we're looking forward to the relationships we'll make here. As I wrap up this post, I just want to let you in on some ways to continue to be in prayer. First of all, our landlord, Dieter, had a heart attack on Friday night and has been in the hospital for 2 nights. I'm not sure just yet if he and his wife are believers, but I was able to pray and offer condolences to Jennifer. She said he'd had a heart attack once or twice before, but the doctors were even more afraid this time because it seemed he had a stroke as well. Keep Dieter and Jennifer in your prayers this week for healing and strength. Pray that Claudia and I could be a positive influence in their lives as well. Along the same lines, John Thomas, the senior pastor at King of Kings and founder of Living Hope is having surgery tomorrow morning. I'm not certain on all the details of the surgery, but I know it's serious. Pray for his family, Avril his wife, and children. Pray also for the doctors and nurses and surgeons who will be with him tomorrow. Finally, we're still fundraising for this rest of this year and next year, and I'm anxious to see how God provides. He's blown us away in the last month with generous gifts from friends and family and even people who don't know us, but support God's mobilization of his people.
Thank you all so much for your texts, messages, and emails. It is so encouraging to hear from you all and your support has been so meaningful to us as we continue to venture on this journey.
Cheers
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