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Helping South Africa

After my > South African Adventure II Blog, Jason wrote to ask about how people might give to the need here. Her’s his comment:

I am overwhelmed by your accounts of Africa and the dire circumstances of so many. This has made such an impression on me (a sad one). However, for believers, pain and suffering are limited to this life only and that provides the hope that we desperately need.

Wayne, with so many agencies that need money to run, could you please help us know which ones are legitimate and are focussed on the people of Africa? Also, how else can we help these people in a way that matters? Perhaps you do not have the answers, but perhaps you could tell us who to contact to find how we could help.

There are obviously lots of agencies, but I am convinced that God works through relationships and connects us with people he wants us to know and through whom we can channel our giving. The poverty and AIDs pandemic in Africa is not an easy problem to sort out. You just can’t throw lots of money at it and fix it.

I know some people now who work on the front lines of care in the township of Tzuma near Durban and some people near Ladysmith who help feed families whose provider is no longer alive. If anyone wants to help them you can send money to Lifestream and we’ll ensure that it gets to Africa and that it will be used to care for those who are suffering and that these people do it with the love of the father and not by manipulating people into religious constructs. While we were in Durban we saw people combine their funds to buy a truck for the outreach in Tzuma. They had no way to get around to help people, in a township of 500,000 people or to get people to medical care or gather supplies to feed the children that they feed weekly. If you’d like to direct any money to that group of people, please designate it for Tzuma and we will be able to pass it along. It will be greatly appreciated.

Or perhaps God has given you other contacts—people to support or food to buy. Don’t think God has related you to anyone by accident. Through those he has given you, freely share his abundance that we all in the West so easily take for granted.

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A South African Adventure IV

In my first few days in Johannesburg I got to know a couple from Zimbabwe who had come down to meet me during my stay. They are an older couple, hot on the path of living out the life of Jesus and we enjoyed so much swapping stories and the things God has shown us in our journeys. They were such a joy to be with, especially given the dire circumstances where they live.

The revolution in Zimbabwe has been devastating. Now run by a dictator who bulldozes the homes of anyone who disagrees with him, the economy has collapsed. Crime is rampant and today the Zimbabwe dollar trades for $30,000.00 US and it costs more than a million dollars just to go get groceries and food is incredibly scarce. Over 90% of the white population has fled the country in recent years to find better conditions elsewhere.

They told me a story about a friend of theirs, a dentist that had moved to Australia some years earlier as the country was collapsing. After he was there a few years he felt God ask him, “Why are you here?” As he thought about the trouble in his home country and the better life he was able to make for his family in Australia. Then the Lord continue to speak to him. “You can live in a first-world country naturally but spiritually it is a third world country. Or you can live in a third-world country in the natural but in actuality is a first world country spiritually.” Within a few months he moved back to Zimbabwe where he remains today.

The courage and passion of people who are led by God to stay in a country so broken, when most of their friends have fled was inspiring to me. Pray for them and others throughout Zimbabwe who live in the midst of such incredible need yet continue to grow so deeply in the life of Jesus.

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The Gospel Jesus Preached

Our latest edition of The God Journey entitled The Gospel Jesus Preached has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com. This was recorded before Wayne left for South Africa

So many of our institutional approaches to the life of Jesus are formulated around a truncated gospel—one that is incomplete and thus focused on the wrong priorities. Jesus didn’t preach the gospel of the church or even a gospel of salvation. He taught the gospel of the kingdom—where his Father reigns over all. When we lose sight of that we end up with incomplete pictures of his work in us and the world and invest our time and energies into that which matters little. We introduced you to Tom Mohn in our fourth podcast and in this one we use more of Wayne’s interview with Tom to help us focus our hearts on that which counts most. I think you’ll really enjoy this!

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A South African Adventure III

I’ve moved on from Ladysmith and am spending my last six days in South Africa in Johannesburg and Pretoria with a lot of different groups of believers who are in various stages in this journey. If the taste yesterday is any indication, I’m in for a lovely time.

I love the grace God gives for me to be away from family for times like this. But every day I think of Sara and going home. I miss her terribly and can’t wait to be ‘at home’ once again with her. I’ve taking to telling people who ask where my home is, that it is wherever Sara is. And that’s true. If she were in South Africa right now, this would be home. But she’s not, so I anxiously anticipate my arrival there next Monday.

I want to share with you a letter I received Sunday from a woman in Ladysmith. She read it to me first and then gave me a copy. It brought tears to my eyes and I share it here for two reasons. One, it captures the passion of my heart and says volumes about why I do the travel I do. I am so grateful that Father touches people in this way as I travel about. But also, I know others who read this may just share her struggle and might be encouraged by her discovery to find him in their life as well:

Dear Wayne,

I had a wonderful revelation of what a Father figure was from your talk yesterday. You see my father lost his father at the age of six months. I lost my father when I was four years old and my three daughters’ father was killed when they were under nine years old. So none of us ever knew how a father could love his kids, but we knew what our Heavenly Father was like and I know what a husband he has been to me.

I only realized this closeness and goodness of our Heavenly Father yesterday. So thank you! I have much to mediate on even at the age of 87!!! Also on the oneness in Christ—you explained that so well! God bless and keep strong.

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Then Ten or the Two?

I am continually amazed and blessed by the people allows me to meet as I journey through this life. On this trip I have met many believers who are finding freedom from religious obligation and learning to live in Christ’s life. Some are just beginning that journey, and others are far along it. I love the insights I gain from all of them and the greater appreciation I have for God to make himself known in the world to whomever wants to know him in truth and follow him no matter where that might lead them.

On Wednesday I met a young man who is just finding some freedom from obligation to meetings and activities that was not nurturing his life in Jesus, but actually distracting from it. He told me something wonderful that God had showed him. He was expressing his concern to Jesus that he used to have far more people to fellowship with than he has now. God reminded him of the story of the 12 spies Moses sent into Canaan and then asked him. Would you rather have fellowship with the 10 spies who were captured by their fears and unwilling to follow God, or Joshua and Caleb who had seen the great trouble in the land, but knew a God greater than them all?

What a lovely picture. Of course, most of us would rather have 10 people willing to keep walking in God’s things than two, but if there are only two, then enjoy those two. Jesus hasn’t called us to live with the majority, but to walk with him and whomever he gives us at the time—whether a lot or a little! If you need a lot of people around you to affirm your walk, you are in the wrong kingdom. Enjoy what he gives you, even if for a time it is only a couple of others. Because our focus is not on how many are going too, but which way is he leading us.

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A South African Adventure II

I’ve moved on. I finished up my class on Thursday morning. I couldn’t have been more thrilled at how the reality of the cross was received. The questions they asked and the freedom I saw in their faces was all I needed to know. The conversations with individuals assured me that Father had made himself known and invited many along the journey of his gracious life.

On Friday morning we were all back in the township of Ntzuma. It really is a bit overwhelming to see such poverty and brokenness. But the people are so amazing, the children so full of joy and life. And the people God has raised up to work among them demonstrating his life are some of the greatest treasures in his family. It was a day of contrasts to be sure. To witness such great pain and suffering and injustice and despair was an eye-opener. These are people just like us, with the same hopes and aspirations and yet they are suffering because their land was stolen and they’ve been held captive for generations by those who thought themselves superior. Most of that was justified by religion, by those who lived with luxury and privilege right alongside their brothers and sisters and couldn’t see the horror of it all. It is so incredibly sad.

And yet in every home we entered the power and life of Jesus made himself known in the most broken places. To watch young people suffering with AIDs laugh and grandmas cry in joy that we had come was amazing. Our God is truly amazing and his love truly holds no limits. May God bring justice and wisdom and compassion to bear in the suffering nations of Africa.

Now I’ve headed on to Ladysmith and have found myself among some brothers and sisters who are sorting through a very similar journey to my own. It was so fun to share with them last night and to be with them for the weekend. We talked a lot about how it is that we move on in this life in Jesus—that he doesn’t just want to free us from the system of religious obligation, but to take us on to greater heights and depths of his life and glory. I’m really, really blessed and honored to be among people like that.

This morning my host and I stole out to a game preserve and drove among the unique animals of Africa. Then we pulled into a breakfast place that looked over the wild bush. We could hear the birds as we ate and discussed the things that are close to our Father’s heart! What a refreshing morning. These are the moments I enjoy the most—unhurried moments were we are talking through the reality of this journey and refreshing each other why we do it.

I told you this is a land of great contrasts just like our own journeys—times of immense need and pain and times of absolute joy and refreshing. Our God is truly amazing.

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A South African Journey I

My South African Journey
I’ve been in South Africa for almost four days now. It has truly been an absolute joy. I have met so many wonderful people and had so many experiences it is hard to sort through it all as I finally have a chance today to fill you in a bit.
I spent the first weekend about forty-five minutes outside of Durban in Pietermaritzburg with some lovely people who are sorting out what it means to live outside the box. We had a fabulous time sharing our pieces of the journey and they certainly had the fragrance of Father about their lives and their fellowship. I was greatly encouraged by their journeys which have taken them on a different path than most folks would understand. But they are enjoying the fruit of doing so.

Then on Monday I started my class in the HIV School at the YWAM Base in Durban. The class is being translated into Zulu, which takes a bit more work and doesn’t always allow for an ease of interaction. But we are working through it with the help of an excellent translator. It is quite a mix of people, but judging by the questions people are asking, I think it is really opening some doors for some people. Tomorrow morning I will take them for a journey of the cross and your prayers for a revelation of the cross in each person’s life will be mostly appreciated.

Through all that I’ve also had some absolutely incredible experiences. The first day I was here I went with ten people through a game reserve. It was incredible being just a few feet away from giraffes, hippos, zebras, rhinos and many other animals in the wild.

I also met a woman who was a breeder queen for a Satanist group. Against her will she was impregnated 13 times and bore 13 children. She was forced to watch 10 of them sacrificed as part of their rituals, one her 33-year-old son crucified upside down on a cross. She had escaped numerous times, but was soon abducted and returned to the coven. She has been out now for a couple of years and has been blessed with relationships with some incredible people who have walked her through an immense deliverance over 18 months and are now helping her learn to live as one of God’s kids in the earth… Amazing! Pray for her. She has so much to sort out but is doing incredibly well. Sometimes the evil in the world astounds me, but I am so grateful God is bigger still. Pray for her. She has much to sort out.

Yesterday after class I went with some of the staff into a township of 500,000 people to help a seven-month-old baby girl find the care she needed. She has AIDs. Her mom has already died of it and she lives with her grandma who was in real despair. She went to a clinic on Friday, for TB and a boil on her neck. They would not treat her since she has AIDs and want to save money on the medicine. I can’t tell you how sad this was. For a lack of $15.00 she was sent home to die. I have a granddaughter about that age and it breaks my heart to see her little life so ravaged by pain and disease and be unable to get care. She’s hardly eaten in two months and was quite lethargic today. We managed to get her into a private doctor, who was willing to help for cash payment. She is in ICU today at the hospital and we have no idea how it will sort out. Her hold on life is very fragile at this stage. Please pray for her too and her grandma!

We also visited a pregnant woman who is in the late stages of AIDs and is now separated from her three young children. There is misery at every turn here. Fifty percent of the people in that township have AIDs. But there are some incredible people here giving of their lives to care for them and share the life of Jesus. I’ll be here until Friday, when I make my way to Ladysmith for the weekend.

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The Joy of Family

At 12:40 past midnight tonight, I will leave LAX and head for South Africa. After a brief stop in Atlanta, I will continue on an 18 hour flight to Johannesburg, then connect for a short flight out to Durban. I hate these long flights, but am looking forward to my time among the people of South Africa. In addition to teaching at the YWAM school in Durban, I will also be meeting with believers in Pietermaritzburg, Ladysmith, Johannesburg and Pretoria. It should be a fascinating journey. I’ve never been to the continent of Africa before and am excited about this opportunity. Please keep me in your prayers if you think about it.

So today is a day of preparation and good-byes. I’ll be gone almost 3 weeks and since Sara isn’t going I’ll miss her terribly. I just had some Aimee time in today. My daughter brought over my only grandchild to say good-bye. We had a great time playing on the floor. She’s very expressive these days and spending time with both of them is one of the great joys in my life. That’s her on the left. She is eight months old today.

Also today is my father’s 80th birthday. He doesn’t like to make a big deal of such things, but he’s the best. If you want to read the greeting I sent him, you can find it here.
It’s on days like this that I’m reminded the best joys in this life are the simplest ones. The family I leave here is a sheer delight, as I’m sure will be the extended family I’ll be spending time with in South Africa. So hug your spouse and kids a bit tighter tonight and let them know how much you cherish them.

I’ll try to put in some updates as I travel about South Africa, but am never sure on the road how much time I’ll get for that. If you want to get your orders for books and CDs serviced faster, it will help to send them directly to the office at our new office email: office@lifestream.org.

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Giving Outside the Box

It’s one of the most often-asked questions I get, but Holly asked me again this morning and I thought I’d take this opportunity to answer it for others who have the same question she does:

We are to give, although tithe is and old testament rule, we are to in fact give. My concern is where I recommend people send their tithe/giving when they are experiencing such a new found freedom in living a life outside of the organized religion?

My response to Hollly: I find people who are following Jesus have no end of opportunities and desire to give freely and generously to those in need, to those whom God has asked them to support who labor to extend his kingdom to others, and to groups that are doing relief work around the world.

It does take a bit of a shift in thinking to go from putting a gift in an offering every week where I receive the benefits of facility, staff, and fulfilling an obligation, to seeing where Jesus would want you to help be a blessing to others, but once done, the joy of giving is overwhelming.

For those who want more, I wrote an extended article on this topic for BodyLife titled Giving and Generosity in the Relational Church.

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Institionalized Children v. Those Raised in Families

A reader from Lifestream, currently living in the DC area, recently sent me an excerpt from an incredible article about a baby’s need for love. Being a recent grandfather I found this particularly appropriate. It is from an article entitled The Long Term Effects of Institutionalization on the Behavior of Children From Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union Research, Diagnoses, and Therapy Options and discusses the difference between babies who develop in families and those that develop in institutions.

Joshua, who sent me this article, said he came across it after being involved in a small-group discussion as to why Christian growth is so difficult. This is as clear a picture as I have seen about the difference between institutional environments and families, and why Jesus saw the body of Christ not as an institution that conforms the new believer, but as a family that nurtures their growth in him. What do you think? Here are some excerpts of that article (emphasis mine):

Babies are born helpless, knowing nothing of the world. Unable to regulate temperature or get food, they depend on consistent caregivers to protect, feed, and keep them warm. They know nothing about permanence, routines, or what to expect from the world to get their needs met. What they can do is grasp, suck, and cry. What can they learn from these experiences? If you cry, somebody picks you up and feeds you. If you suck, your tummy gets full and feels better. If you grab something, it stays stuck to your fingers until you let go. If you smile, somebody smiles back at you. Looking into somebody’s eyes is nice. If you make sounds, somebody makes sounds back at you, and you can carry on a little conversation. Babies soon realize that they have an effect on the world, an influence on their environment and people. They begin to recognize patterns of care. .

Between 6 and 9 months, babies begin to form selective attachments to consistent caregivers. These selective attachments affect emotional bonds, behavior and thought processes. Caregivers contribute to this by their responsiveness to the children. Through these attachments, children can learn about themselves, looking to the caregivers for safety and information about the world. If a child is feeling insecure and can seek proximity to the caregiver, they feel safer. Once they have a secure base, they can venture out in exploratory behavior. When they get worried or feel insecure, they can go back to the caregivers for a dose of security, then venture out again. They learn to use visual referencing, looking back to the caregivers for reactions and support. As they get older, they begin to use internal representations when they are not in sight of the caregivers; “What would she think if I do this?” These attachments teach children what to expect from future relationships. They help the children develop an identity, to know who they are, to have a sense of self.

Things are quite different in ‘ an institutional setting, especially if there are multiple caregivers, deprived conditions, and shortages of supplies and support personnel. If you cry, nothing happens. Bottles, diaper changes and baths happen on a schedule convenient to the staff. Crying doesn’t work, so the babies learn to shut down when distressed. Babies can prolong interactions by wiggling and grabbing; in this way they can get their needs for attention met. They do not have the opportunity to develop relationships with consistent caregivers; to have ‘conversations’ or to gaze in somebody’s eyes; to learn how to be held and cuddled. They become passive and shut down when distressed. They do not learn how to regulate their emotions or their interactions with others.

Parents of very young children adopted from institutions usually find that their child is quiet, unemotional, and less reactive than other children of the same age. They are relatively compliant and cooperative. But suddenly, at some point, they get wild. Some parents report that the problems do not begin until the child is 3 to 4 years old. Once given the chance to laugh, cry, make noise, throw toys, etc. they do! Frustration leads to tantrums and aggressive behavior, or withdrawal to an internal world. Nobody has taught them how to regulate their responses, how to take turns, how to ask for help or care. They may not know how to take cues from the responses of others to gauge how their behavior is being perceived. Everything smells different, sounds different, feels different. They have to make a total life adjustment.

Like tiny infants, they need to be taught how to regulate their emotions, how to use sounds and gestures as tools to get their needs met. The behavior that worked before in the institution doesn’t work for them now; the responses that were adaptive to institutional life are not adaptive to family life. The adjustment to family life will happen through multiple interactions between the parents and child. It isn’t a matter of fixing the child; everyone in the family needs to adjust. It is very much like learning music; sometimes you need to be alone to practice, other times you need the teacher there to help you. But you can’t just talk about the music you have to get in there and do it together. Learning new behavior happens through modeling; it is a collaborative effort. The children need to learn a new pattern of care; they need to learn to form and use selective attachments as a secure base from which to explore the world.

The applications of this to the body of Christ are obvious, and explains a lot about ‘institutionalized’ believers. It also gives a great recipe for the environment in which young believers might grow more freely in the life of Jesus in a family setting.

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