Busy Days for the Lord

I’ve failed to blog the last ten days because we’ve been so very busy.  Last Friday night’s concert was “my” big project for the trip.  It was an emotional day for me because I had leaned too much on my own abilities and not enough on the work of God…and my abilities fell far short of what I thought was needed for the evening.  I arrived at school to discover that only three students were present.  Thursday had been “Women’s Day” in South Africa…a national holiday and day off from school.  In typical South African tradition, the majority of the students decided that it should be a two-day holiday making for a long weekend.  I had planned on the choir participating in our concert - and now I had no choir.  Only one of the students had talked to me about being away, and I took everyone’s absence personally and felt like a failure.  This was a horrible issue of pride in my heart.  I spent a lot of time alone with God that morning working out Who was supposed to be in charge and why things had fallen apart so horribly.  The concert now became stressful in my heart.  Could Dan and I carry off a two-hour concert without the student involvement?  There were some tears shed on my part - tears of fear…tears of shame… tears of regret.  And then I put on the belt of Truth.  Truth told me that satan was interfering and trying to discourage me…for our God does not discourage His children.  Truth told me that my pride was in the way…and our God does not honor a prideful heart.  Truth told me it was time to dedicate the concert to the One it was intended for.  God calmed my soul and I knew He would accept the offering of our concert because it was now coming from a broken and contrite heart.  But satan wasn’t through with interfering yet.

We arrived at Ebenezer Church in Komlass, about a 45-minute drive from Marcie’s home.  The church was a beautiful facility and we arrived to a gorgeous South African sunset of brilliant oranges, reds and blues.  Our host was the head of the DBC Board.  Interference #1 showed up in the absence of a keyboard.  We had arrived early to practice…but the keyboard was “on the way” we were told.  A meal was prepared and we sat down to eat with about two dozen people.  We did have 3 students who had traveled with us and 3 more would show up during the night.  Our meal was interesting.  I’ve eaten a lot of “typical” Indian food, but this night the “typical” was outside my comfort zone when I served up the breyanni on my plate (a rice and potato and vege and meat mixture…spiced with curry).  This evening the meat was chicken…my favorite meat!!!  However…the piece that ended up on my plate was the chicken foot.  FOOT!!!  There was a foot on my plate.  I tried to calmly put the foot back in the bowl, but one of the servers caught me doing so and laughed and great attention was drawn to the fact that I had never tried a chicken foot.  And guess what!  I never will!  I punished myself for my rudeness by not eating any of the chicken…but the meal was still delicious despite my gaffaw! 

We finished dinner and moved to the sanctuary at about 6:45.  The concert had been announced to start at 6:30.  There was still no keyboard.  At two different times I was told the keyboard was on its way and should be there in about five minutes.  But apparently there was a mix-up at the home where the keyboard resided…the two brothers thought the other brother was taking it to the church.  So about 7:00 the keyboard arrived and the concert started immediately.  Before the evening was over the audience would swell over 100…several youth groups had come for the evening.

And still satan wanted to disrupt.  Halfway through the program, the keyboard suddenly quit working.  But the timing was okay because the offering was being taken and we could lead the congregation in beautiful acapella singing of “Alleluia”.  While we were singing a wonderful young man named Jodi attended to the keyboard and got it working again.  I just love when satan’s plans get thwarted.

The three young men who’d come from the college with us had graciously agreed that they would sing a special number or two and it was their turn on the stage.  Thabani, Mlungisi and Sicelo are all Zulu and they sang and danced to Zulu choruses, much to the delight of the young people in the room.  These three guys  were such a blessing to me.  I love their unreserved and unpredictable worship…it’s full of joy and excitement.  Yesterday I was working on a project with Sicelo when he asked me if we danced in our church during worship.  He was shocked to learn that a worship service could take place without dancing.  I even noticed him last night during the mission conference unable to sit still in his chair during some of the music…his feet were moving back and forth and his body looked like it was about to jump from the chair and start dancing.  The Lord is definitely the joy of Sicelo’s life.

The concert then continued without benefit of a sustain pedal on the keyboard.  For a pianist, this can be almost disastrous, especially on a keyboard (versus a piano).  The music becomes very choppy sounding unless the keyboardist works really hard to make it flow.  I felt like I was having a workout during that portion of the service.  And you might be wondering…was God getting any glory during the concert?  Was He even on the mind of the worshippers?  All of the songs we’d chosen were helping people to worship (despite technical problems and occasional wrong notes on our parts).  It really turned into a beautiful evening, and the people seemed to appreciate our presence and willingness to share the music with them.  There were several compliments afterwards.  I recently read that the best thing to do with those compliments is to accept them, gather them together like a bouquet and later present them to Christ.  I had a nice bouquet to give him that evening.  But I have to tell about my favorite compliment.  Several people were standing in a group in the middle of the sanctuary as I started to pass by.  A young man reached out to shake my hand and tell me how much he had appreciated the beautiful young music.  When he got through I looked at the young girl standing next to him.  She was about 10 years old.  I asked, “Did you like the music?”  She threw her arms around me in a wonderful hug and said, “I love the way you sing.”  It was one of the nicest hugs…and compliments…I’ve ever received.  I have to believe God felt hugged too…it was a BIG hug!

Julian Ramulu and his parents were at the concert.  Julian is a former student…wonderful friend to Marcie…and one of the students I had the pleasure of knowing four years ago when I was here.  He came home with us that evening and brought his guitar.  We sat up singing for a little while and then I think we all collapsed and slept well that night.  Saturday was a “recovery” day.  Melissa, who I’d also met four years ago, joined us that evening for more singing and fellowship and to help prepare for the next days events.

Sunday started with another wonderful service at Marcie’s church.  I was again blessed with how loving and accepting the people of her church are – so many hugs and handshakes.  Pastor Bertie continued his series on the gospel armor, talking about the breastplate of righteousness and the importance of righteousness in fighting off the attacks of satan.  Our righteousness, of course, comes from Christ living in us, for nothing about us is righteous without Him.  It was a challenging and encouraging message.  We then went back to Marcie’s where we were joined by Tasha and Chanelle, students I’d worked with four years ago.  Ashbie, Pearl, Abbie and Sneha joined us a little later.  Julian was the official brai-master (meaning he did the cooking on the grill) and we had a delicious picnic outside.  Dan’s mashed potatoes were a huge success…I don’t know how to explain how many compliments he got for mashed potatoes.  But I am blessed because he does know how to make them taste delicious.  Abbie and Sneha are the 8-yr-old and 6-yr-old daughters of Ashbie and Pearl.  Both girls are precious.  They sang for us…even had some original songs they’d made up during their family devotional times.  Both girls already know how to share the plan of salvation and they talk often with their friends about the need to know Christ as their Savior.  They were totally fascinated later in the afternoon when I pulled out my iPad to show everyone some of the games we use with our grandsons.  It was just a full, wonderful afternoon and evening with fellowship that really blessed.  Marcie left about nine to deliver the older ones home and stayed the night with the Ramulus who live on the other side of Durban.  She was able to sleep in a little on Monday morning…which was very good for her.

I spent Monday preparing for the week at school.  This past week was easy for me because I was using the class periods to let my students work on their term papers that are due this coming Tuesday.  Everyone appeared in shock Tuesday when I told them their papers were due in a week.  I had to laugh.  Every week since the beginning of the course I’ve let them know when the papers were due and reminded them not to wait till the last minute to do them, but it was evident that most of the guys hadn’t started on their papers yet by the expressions on their faces.  So they spent the four hours of class time in the library this week…I feel really good about giving them this time to work.  They’ve finished the course work already that was in their texts so it was easy to make time for term paper preparation.  I’ll get those papers  this Tuesday and hope to have them graded by week’s end so that I have only their finals to grade the following week.  It seems so hard to believe that I’m down to my last week of teaching.  We’ll be reviewing for the final on Tuesday and Thursday and then I’m through with the students.  My final test is proctored by Dr. Thomas the following Monday.  I may see the students a final time when I return the tests and their final grades to the school that last Friday.  Wow!  The time seems to have flown by since school started.

We had the Missions Conference last night.  The theme was “Enlarge My Vision”.  The students used the songs we’d been working on as presentations during the conference.  Marcie did a wonderful job choreographing “Giving My All”.  A panel of missionaries did a Q & A with a moderator that was very informative.  Two of the missionaries work in northern Indian…two in southern India…one in Botswana…and the final couple work with OM here in South Africa, but he has a real heart for the people of Afghanistan.  He shared the story of meeting another missionary during a visit to Afghanistan.  When he asked her who she worked for she said, “Orange Marmalade”…the same group he worked for!  (Code for OM)  He also shared that at 34 she was shot and killed by Taliban forces.  She was in Afghanistan loving children and helping families of those children who had been crippled during the war.  It hurt to hear about her sacrifice.  But seeds are being planted in places we might not think that God is working. 

It’s hard to ignore the call to missions when you are on the mission field.  It’s exciting to hear the stories and see the work … the real hands-on-feeding-the-hungry-casting-out-demons-winning-souls-do-Christ work that goes on here.  I am reminded of when I was a teenager and this type of work seemed to be happening in America…victorious work…life-changing work.  What’s happened to us?  Where has our zeal for winning the lost gone?  Maybe the correct question is what’s happened to me?  Where has my zeal for winning the lost gone?  Sometimes I like to think I’m a “good” Christian…and then other times I’m very, very aware of how deficient I am in kingdom work.

So it’s been a very busy two weeks and the rest of the days will fly by now.  This week I’ll teach my last two classes.  On Saturday, Dan will facilitate the “Lead Like Jesus” seminar for over 50 pastors and students.  The following Monday I think the “staff” are all going to uShaka, the local aquarium and waterpark, for a “fun day”.  Tuesday is the final for my class and that night Marcie wants us to hear a renowned mission’s speaker that will be presented at a local church.  On Wednesday we’re hoping to head up to the Draksburg Mountains to hear the boy’s choir that we were unable to hear earlier in the summer/winter.  I’ll be finishing up grading on Thursday and will turn everything in and say goodbye to the students on Friday.  On Saturday we’ll head to Kruger Park for our safari days and return on Tuesday with just enough time to get all packed up and prepared for home.  And that Thursday we’ll board the plane to join back to our children and grandchildren (can’t wait) on Friday.  So if I don’t blog again till it’s all over, I hope you’ll understand.  I do want to write about all the events, but it’s so hard to find the time.  Confession…I’ve spent a lot of time reading this summer too.  I’ve been through about twenty-five books since June.  This is the summer I consider myself blessed to have found loads of books with Christian characters.  It’s a joy to read how Christianity is lived out “practically” in the lives of others.  A walk of faith is an interesting walk because I long to do it “right”…but I’m not really even sure what “right” looks or feels like.  I can only trust that as I live to honor God that He is honored…and that would make it “right”.  He is the One I truly desire to love and please.  I believe He’s been pleased with our obedience to His call on our lives to serve this period at Durban Bible College.  This tiny college has had a profound impact in my heart…a measurable impact on South Africa…and I believe a worthy impact on the Kingdom of God.  Never let the size of something determine the impact.  Someone once wrote, “Good things come in small packages.”  DBC is a testimony to the truth of that statement.

We’ll be home three weeks from today…just in time for fall and football and school days.  I’m glad we’re going home to my favorite season.  Thanksgiving will take place from now until “the day” and long afterwards for the opportunity God has given us in this trip. 

I’ll write at least one more time about this trip…if not more.  Thank you to those of you who have faithfully read and kept up with our journey.