Rain in Belize

by | Jul 4, 2017 | Belize

I am loving rainy season here! The weather has cooled off a lot compared to when I got here. I am adjusting more to the different culture. I spent one afternoon with my host family dancing to YouTube videos. It was hilarious for my host brother to try and teach his mom how to do the whip(the dance move). These past couple of weeks have been very busy here. I assisted a mission team from Florida that held a Vacation Bible School  at the school I am helping out with in Georgeville. I was put in charge of one of the younger classrooms.  Once the kids finally started listening to me it was a lot of fun. I led the classroom with an older lady from Florida. The theme of the VBS was the Armor of God. We did a bible story time, crafts time, and sports time, with all the activities centered on different pieces of the armor of God. We went on house visits that week and one of the younger lay ministers joined me, Father David, and Mary Beth. The home visits have been a lot of fun. I am starting to be able to understand Spanish more, thanks to my Spanish lessons and visiting houses that only speak Spanish. We go on house visits in San Ignacio about twice a week and in Georgeville about once a week. Going on the home visits has allowed me to experience a lot of different aspects of Belizean culture.

 

It has been a great experience getting to spend time in the classrooms here. I have spent most of my time in the Infant 2 classroom at St. Hilda’s. This is similar to our 1st grade. The way they teach is pretty different. The students don’t respond to just talking to them so I have had to yell a lot because that’s what they are used to. But I am loving my students in that class and they listen to me much better than they did when I first started out in their classroom. I have also been working on the VBS for St. Andrew’s Church with a lady from the church. It has been coming together well. The VBS will be in a week and the theme is the Great Commission. I will be helping to lead the Bible Story station and I am looking forward to it. It is hard to believe that the time is flying by and I will leave in a few weeks.

 

A couple of weeks ago Mary Beth and David took me to Flores, Guatemala. It looked so different than it does here. I saw some chain restaurants like McDonald’s and Burger King and I can’t believe how excited I got about seeing these restaurants considering I don’t even eat there when I am in the States. Now I can’t imagine how weird it is going to be when I get back to the States. I also was super excited to go to the mall! When I got on the escalator at the mall, I tripped getting on so David said I should write about how I have been here so long I forgot how to ride an escalator. We also went to see a movie, they don’t have movie theaters here in Belize. The movie we saw was Everything, Everything in Spanish so I didn’t always know what was happening but it was worth it just to sit in the air conditioning. My time in Flores was a lot of fun but I realized I actually missed being in Belize and was excited to get back even though we were only gone one night.

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Flores

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Mary Beth and I in Flores

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Xunantunich Mayan Ruins

Trip to the Eastern Cape: Day 12

by | Jul 4, 2017 | Health, South Africa

One of the favourite games Louise and I have played on this trip is the game of dodgem…dodgem taxis, dodgem people, dodgem animals, and, our all time favourite, dodgem potholes. We left Molteno at 7 AM, which doesn’t sound early, but it is still not quite light at that time…so it was hard to spot potholes until you were right on top of them…unless, of course, some thoughtful person had painted a white line around the potholes…no kidding. They erect signs warning you of potholes and they paint around them with white paint, but they don’t fix them. Go figure…

I can well understand why our ancestors wanted to settle in this area in spite of the awful winters. -1 this morning! But the landscape is simply stunning…the valleys and the hills…the flora and the fauna…add in the mist over the dams and lakes and rivers…add in the golden hues of pinks and lilacs of sunrise…and you have magic.

Our first stop today was in a town named after Queen Victoria…Queenstown. This is one of two Dioceses in which we have struggled to get appointments, but a dear gentleman by the name of Siphiwo requested to see us today…which, in turned out, was his birthday!
He wanted to know what we were doing so that he can pass on the information to the Bishop and the rest of the Diocese…but, more importantly, he wants us to train his parishioners how to disciple others. We did the introductory presentation with him and the Diocesan secretary and prayed with them. He showed us around the cavernous Cathedral of St Michaels and All Angels. Gorgeous building…and really interesting decor…among the typical stained glass windows and stone carvings, they have a brown Jesus behind the altar.

Then we had to push on to East London for our first meeting at St Mark’s, Cambridge, at 12:30. East London is part of the Diocese of Grahamstown, but these folks are chomping at the bit…they are so ready for the disciple-making training, the only repeated, almost urgent question was when do we do this? There were 24 at this introductory session…other than Mthatha, this was the largest group we have addressed. They are all excitement and so we set a tentative date, subject, of course to the approval of their Bishop.

We then went to the Guest House where we will spend the night. The building belongs to a member of St Mark’s Church, but he is a St Thomas Christian from Kerela. They trace their origins to the evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the First Century. How fortuitous that we should be staying in a house owned by a man who is a Christian today because of the obedience of one of Jesus’ original disciples…to make disciples of all nations…even if that meant crossing land and sea and cultures and languages to do so…not to mention, lose his life in the process.

After a short rest we returned to St Mark’s for the second session.
This was not so well attended, but some key people were there with key ideas and key questions. It really only take one or two…that’s the beauty of disciple-making. You don’t need huge numbers, huge budgets, huge buildings, huge anything…you just need huge hearts filled with love for God and for people. It is that simple…

Tomorrow will be the longest drive yet…so it is time to find a pillow and get some shut-eye. Nighty night world…

Trip to the Eastern Cape: Day 11

by | Jul 3, 2017 | Health, South Africa

We had quite an early start today as we had quite a way to drive! But…we didn’t take into consideration how long we would have to wait at roadblocks…the particular road we travelled on today was under construction – all the way! The only thing worse than sitting waiting for the STOP sign to turn to GO is doing the job itself…it must be brain numbing to stand hour after hour waving a red flag to unsympathetic motorists or turning a sign over or pulling the plastic roadblock out of the way. We always greet everyone with a wave and a smile and they respond with the same every time.

As we have been going non stop since leaving Cape Town, we rewarded ourselves by taking the day off today. So we headed down memory lane, stopping off at another mission my great-grandfather had on his list. Dortrecht. The church in which he served as Rector is now in a sad state of disrepair…but the rest of the town doesn’t look all that hot either. Sad, really.

Next, we headed off towards Molteno, a tiny town in the Eastern Cape where Louise’s Dutch ancestors were friends with my British ancestors three generations ago. At the time, the British and Boers were not that happy with each other and a huge battle was fought right on Louise’s grandfather’s farm, Klipfontein.

Old man van Zyl thought thieves were trying to steal his sheep so he let rip with his rifle…unbeknownst to him, the trespassers were British soldiers trying to get some sleep in his barn – their mistake was that they didn’t ask his permission first. When they heard the gun shots, they thought they were surrounded by Boer soldiers and they ran for the hills. In the end, it was a Boer victory, so maybe Old man van Zyl could take a pat on the back.

Louise’s father was also born in Molteno in a small house just off main street – because there was no hospital back then. He also went to school here and ought to have inherited one of Old Man van Zyl’s farms, but…well, it is a long and convoluted family story. There were coal mines here at one time, but after the war, they discovered that the grade of coal was inferior, so they closed the mines…the town had a brief boom period, but it quickly declined as residents left seeking their fortunes elsewhere.

One such resident was my great-uncle Ambrose Lomax. Ambrose was a chemist and amateur photographer. We visited his old shop today which has been converted into a Magistrate’s Court, a library and a wee museum. In the museum we saw a photograph – a self-portrait – of Ambrose as well as a newspaper from April 1910 in which my grandfather is listed as having won a tennis match. My great-grandfather, Arthur, died in December 1910…I wonder if he was present when his son won this match?

We did visit the grave sites of both my great-grandfather and my great-grandmother Mary Ellen as well as Louise’s father’s grave…the former in Steynsburg, the latter in Molteno. Always strange visiting grave sites and wishing one could somehow tell them what is happening in our lives and hear what they had to say about that…maybe that is better left unsaid and unheard.

 Tonight we are staying over in a lovely Guest house called Olive’s Cottage. On our way today, we received a call from the owner to say her husband had had a heart attack and they were in East London – he was having emergency heart surgery…but we could still get into the Cottage via a kind neighbour. We told her we would be praying and we called her just a wee while ago to hear how he is doing. Apparently everything went well…he is in recovery. Thank You Jesus.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day. From Molteno we drive to Queenstown to meet with the coordinator of GtC in the Kahlamba Diocese. We meet him at 8 AM…so we will have to leave a freezing (literally) Molteno no later than 7 AM. Then on to East London for two meetings at St Mark’s Cambridge, the first at 12H30 and the second at 17H30. So, it is an early night again tonight for us!

What a day…it has been a trip down memory lane and it has been fun.

Ambrose Lomax’s Chemist and Photographic Studio

Thoughts on Healing Many…

by | Jul 3, 2017 | Ethiopia

Thoughts on Healing

Many years ago I had a discussion with African theological students. “Western medicine shows how you get malaria,” I was saying. “Yes,” one replied, “but it does not tell you who sent the mosquito!” Together we were exploring worldview and how it shapes our view of health and disease; how it shapes both what we do for healing and how we pray for it. It was fascinating to see how our cultural insights into these issues reflected biblical principles.

In general, the Africans tended to view disease as resulting from a disruption or a break in relationship. Traditionally, to seek healing, one went to a witch doctor who would do something to restore relationship. Healing, restoration of relationship, was costly. Therefore healing usually involved the sacrifice of an animal – a transaction that is both costly and binding. (Africans understand covenant). There was a shared belief, that although the spiritual realm was well populated with many entities (including the ancestors), there was only one God. They believed this God to be so far away as to be unreachable. Therefore sacrifice would be made to the ancestors, or to other spiritual beings, as they were considered to be closer to the one God, and perhaps able to move His heart in their favour. When they learnt that God Himself had opened the door to restored relationship, providing the costly sacrifice of His own Son, then they said, “Now we can open our hearts to God. He has provided the Way.” 
The traditional western medical view of health and disease is also resonant with principles set forth in Genesis: we were to “have dominion” [Gen 1:26]; we were to “tend the garden”[Gen 2:15]. We were to take charge of and to take care of creation. As a medical student, I remember disease being described as a disruption of, or a disorder in the normal functioning of the body. At that time, the focus of healing was restoration of normal function. To study and to wisely use creation was foundational to traditional medical practice.

I have found there to be a depth of hunger to learn about and to put into practice the full scope of healing ministry – from community outreach through health teaching, to healing prayer for physical, inner and generational healing, deliverance and freedom from curses, to how to start a healing ministry in the local church. My sense is that teaching on healing has all too often been fragmentary, confusing, and in a way, passive. Healing prayer and health interventions have been perceived merely as things to be received rather than also to be given. There is a quality of joy when African saints are “equipped for ministry”, and it is a privilege to be a part of it.
Wendy

Notes on the Horn of Africa
Over the last five years of newsletter we have spent most of our ink telling stories of Gambella – and especially in the Anglican churches there. With good reason – when we came there were fifty Anglican churches in the region; now there are one hundred and twenty-five including our Assosa region. We have conservative estimates of 15,000 worshipers on Sunday mornings. The church cuts across ethnic divides: although most churches have one language group worshiping together on Sunday mornings, a good number have several language groups meeting together to pray and learn.
But the Anglican church in the Horn of Africa is not just Gambella. St Matthew’s Church in Addis, founded as a chaplaincy church for British ex-pats has been around since the 1920s. St Matthew’s in Addis continues to hold services in English – but not just for Brits – congregants come from every corner of the world these days and on most Sundays at the two English services there will 20 first languages represented. At the beginning of May a very joyful confirmation service saw young people and adults confirming their faith in Jesus.

But St Matthew’s has become a home for other Anglicans as well. On Sunday afternoon a group of Nuer and Dinka Anglicans are worshiping together – a miracle given that Nuer and Dinka are killing each other in South Sudan. At the end of May this ‘Nilotic’ congregation will have its own confirmation service. Once a month a group of ‘Equatorians’ – South Sudanese from the southernmost part of the country – gather for fellowship. They use some English and some ‘Juba Arabic’ as there languages are many (Bari, More, Zande). And in a classroom in another part of the compound a small fellowship of Amharic believers is now meeting on Sunday mornings while the English congregation uses the church. Meanwhile, in another part of the city, Christ for All Nations Anglican Church, also known as the Saris Centre, is the home for a small Somali congregation.

Outside of Addis one of our clergy has recently travelled to Bahir Dar near Lake Tana to help found and organise a student-led church in that town. Most of the members are Gambellans, but there are students there from many countries studying in English. In another town near the city of Ambo an independent Oromo congregation has been meeting for some time. The pastor would like the congregation to be less ‘independent’ – to be related to a wider body of believers. So we are meeting and going slowly to see if perhaps the Anglican Church might be the right place for them. We have hopes that other Oromo congregations might emerge near the Kenyan border with the help of the Diocese of Marsabit in Kenya.
Pray for these developments and for other possibilities developing in Djibouti and Somaliland. Pray for St George’s Church (called All Souls’ at first) in Asmara Eritrea, started in 1941. St George’s continues to function in an extremely difficult and confusing situation. And please pray for Egypt and for North Africa. May the light of God’s love shine.
+Grant
Good Samaritan icon – Egypt

Update: Wendy’s Health

~ It’s not cancer!!!

~ “Slowly by slowly” the back is healing from fractures (5 vertebrae and 1 rib)! The full saying is, “Slowly by slowly the egg learns to walk” – an excellent saying and one that is applicable to most things African and otherwise!
~ Wendy has been diagnosed with multifocal bronchiectasis with bilateral pulmonary nodules. Medically, bronchiectasis is irreversible, but I am in the hands of the One who was wounded for my healing. Please pray for healing of the lungs, and protection from strain on the heart.
~ Apparently lots of calcium, vitamin D and good exercise wasn’t quite enough to keep my bones from developing severe osteoporosis. I’m dwelling in the words of Psalm 6:2, “Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled”! There’s actually quite a lot about bones in the Psalms. Here’s my favourite:   “..My soul will rejoice in the Lord, exulting in His salvation. All my bones shall say, “O Lord, who is like You…”  Psalm 35:10


 

~ Please Pray with us ~
 

~ For a new Dean for St Frumentius’ Anglican Theological College

~ For our newest faculty member,  Moses Hoth, a Nuer Gambellan now graduated with a Masters degree from the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology in Addis..

~ For safety and blessing on the new babies soon to be born in our Gambella Anglican Centre community; Bless the families of Chris and Suzy Wilson, and Josh and Jenny Smolders as they prepare for our newest and littlest members.

~ For peace in South Sudan. One thousand new refugees continue to arrive daily into the Gambella Region.  Food is scarce in South Sudan due to the conflict having prevented the planting of crops for this rainy season.

~ For ministry opportunities opening in Somaliland, Djibouti, and the university towns of Ethiopia.

~ With thanksgiving for the plans and purposes that God has for us personally and for those we dearly love in Gambella as we walk through this season of decision and discernment regarding stewardship of health issues and future ministry.

 

Thoughts on HealingMany years ago…

by | Jul 3, 2017 | Ethiopia

Thoughts on Healing

Many years ago I had a discussion with African theological students. “Western medicine shows how you get malaria,” I was saying. “Yes,” one replied, “but it does not tell you who sent the mosquito!” Together we were exploring worldview and how it shapes our view of health and disease; how it shapes both what we do for healing and how we pray for it. It was fascinating to see how our cultural insights into these issues reflected biblical principles.

In general, the Africans tended to view disease as resulting from a disruption or a break in relationship. Traditionally, to seek healing, one went to a witch doctor who would do something to restore relationship. Healing, restoration of relationship, was costly. Therefore healing usually involved the sacrifice of an animal – a transaction that is both costly and binding. (Africans understand covenant). There was a shared belief, that although the spiritual realm was well populated with many entities (including the ancestors), there was only one God. They believed this God to be so far away as to be unreachable. Therefore sacrifice would be made to the ancestors, or to other spiritual beings, as they were considered to be closer to the one God, and perhaps able to move His heart in their favour. When they learnt that God Himself had opened the door to restored relationship, providing the costly sacrifice of His own Son, then they said, “Now we can open our hearts to God. He has provided the Way.” 
The traditional western medical view of health and disease is also resonant with principles set forth in Genesis: we were to “have dominion” [Gen 1:26]; we were to “tend the garden”[Gen 2:15]. We were to take charge of and to take care of creation. As a medical student, I remember disease being described as a disruption of, or a disorder in the normal functioning of the body. At that time, the focus of healing was restoration of normal function. To study and to wisely use creation was foundational to traditional medical practice.

I have found there to be a depth of hunger to learn about and to put into practice the full scope of healing ministry – from community outreach through health teaching, to healing prayer for physical, inner and generational healing, deliverance and freedom from curses, to how to start a healing ministry in the local church. My sense is that teaching on healing has all too often been fragmentary, confusing, and in a way, passive. Healing prayer and health interventions have been perceived merely as things to be received rather than also to be given. There is a quality of joy when African saints are “equipped for ministry”, and it is a privilege to be a part of it.
Wendy

Notes on the Horn of Africa
Over the last five years of newsletter we have spent most of our ink telling stories of Gambella – and especially in the Anglican churches there. With good reason – when we came there were fifty Anglican churches in the region; now there are one hundred and twenty-five including our Assosa region. We have conservative estimates of 15,000 worshipers on Sunday mornings. The church cuts across ethnic divides: although most churches have one language group worshiping together on Sunday mornings, a good number have several language groups meeting together to pray and learn.
But the Anglican church in the Horn of Africa is not just Gambella. St Matthew’s Church in Addis, founded as a chaplaincy church for British ex-pats has been around since the 1920s. St Matthew’s in Addis continues to hold services in English – but not just for Brits – congregants come from every corner of the world these days and on most Sundays at the two English services there will 20 first languages represented. At the beginning of May a very joyful confirmation service saw young people and adults confirming their faith in Jesus.

But St Matthew’s has become a home for other Anglicans as well. On Sunday afternoon a group of Nuer and Dinka Anglicans are worshiping together – a miracle given that Nuer and Dinka are killing each other in South Sudan. At the end of May this ‘Nilotic’ congregation will have its own confirmation service. Once a month a group of ‘Equatorians’ – South Sudanese from the southernmost part of the country – gather for fellowship. They use some English and some ‘Juba Arabic’ as there languages are many (Bari, More, Zande). And in a classroom in another part of the compound a small fellowship of Amharic believers is now meeting on Sunday mornings while the English congregation uses the church. Meanwhile, in another part of the city, Christ for All Nations Anglican Church, also known as the Saris Centre, is the home for a small Somali congregation.

Outside of Addis one of our clergy has recently travelled to Bahir Dar near Lake Tana to help found and organise a student-led church in that town. Most of the members are Gambellans, but there are students there from many countries studying in English. In another town near the city of Ambo an independent Oromo congregation has been meeting for some time. The pastor would like the congregation to be less ‘independent’ – to be related to a wider body of believers. So we are meeting and going slowly to see if perhaps the Anglican Church might be the right place for them. We have hopes that other Oromo congregations might emerge near the Kenyan border with the help of the Diocese of Marsabit in Kenya.
Pray for these developments and for other possibilities developing in Djibouti and Somaliland. Pray for St George’s Church (called All Souls’ at first) in Asmara Eritrea, started in 1941. St George’s continues to function in an extremely difficult and confusing situation. And please pray for Egypt and for North Africa. May the light of God’s love shine.
+Grant
Good Samaritan icon – Egypt

Update: Wendy’s Health

~ It’s not cancer!!!

~ “Slowly by slowly” the back is healing from fractures (5 vertebrae and 1 rib)! The full saying is, “Slowly by slowly the egg learns to walk” – an excellent saying and one that is applicable to most things African and otherwise!
~ Wendy has been diagnosed with multifocal bronchiectasis with bilateral pulmonary nodules. Medically, bronchiectasis is irreversible, but I am in the hands of the One who was wounded for my healing. Please pray for healing of the lungs, and protection from strain on the heart.
~ Apparently lots of calcium, vitamin D and good exercise wasn’t quite enough to keep my bones from developing severe osteoporosis. I’m dwelling in the words of Psalm 6:2, “Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled”! There’s actually quite a lot about bones in the Psalms. Here’s my favourite:   “..My soul will rejoice in the Lord, exulting in His salvation. All my bones shall say, “O Lord, who is like You…”  Psalm 35:10


 

~ Please Pray with us ~
 

~ For a new Dean for St Frumentius’ Anglican Theological College

~ For our newest faculty member,  Moses Hoth, a Nuer Gambellan now graduated with a Masters degree from the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology in Addis..

~ For safety and blessing on the new babies soon to be born in our Gambella Anglican Centre community; Bless the families of Chris and Suzy Wilson, and Josh and Jenny Smolders as they prepare for our newest and littlest members.

~ For peace in South Sudan. One thousand new refugees continue to arrive daily into the Gambella Region.  Food is scarce in South Sudan due to the conflict having prevented the planting of crops for this rainy season.

~ For ministry opportunities opening in Somaliland, Djibouti, and the university towns of Ethiopia.

~ With thanksgiving for the plans and purposes that God has for us personally and for those we dearly love in Gambella as we walk through this season of decision and discernment regarding stewardship of health issues and future ministry.