Zambia Quick Hits

Thankfully, we can go into town to get internet once a week here, but since it is SOO slow I am just going to write a really short blog.

The bus ride out here was brutal. 52 hours long which spanned two nights of me getting maybe 4 hours of sleep total. But thankfully, we made it!

This is the first time in my life that I don't have access to food 24/7. It's actually been kinda brutal. I have been very tired all week. Probably a mix of eating a lot less than normal, eating no sugar, and being out in the hot sun all day. At least I'm getting tan!

I've been able to run every morning which is a huge blessing! Thankfully, I haven't seen any dangerous animals although we have had some minor problems with crocodiles and hippos near our village. I get to see the sun rise every morning during my run, and no matter how hard I try, I can't get the opening song of Lion King out of my head.

There aren't any mirrors in the village. So today was pretty exciting getting to see my face again after 8 days.

This week we just mainly walked to different villages to start building relationships with people. This next week we are hoping to do the same thing, and hopefully be able to get some small Bible studies started up.

God's grace has been so apparent to me. This week could have very easily been miserable. Even though it was pretty tough, I am just blown away at how God gave me so many awesome blessings. For example, we ate a lot of rice this week. Although it's very plain, I swear that the Lord gave me different taste buds this week because it tasted almost like ice cream to me! And every night was so great as well. As a team we sat around a fire under the brightest stars I have ever seen and just talked and sang some worship songs. So awesome.

Headin' to the Big Z!

Tomorrow morning I will be leaving for Zambia by bus with six other team members! Our team includes a couple from South Africa, a couple from Wales, a guy from Zimbabwe, a guy from South Africa, and me. We will drive right through the Namib desert and into Windhoek, Namibia. We will get there at 6AM on Monday where we will have a 9 hour layover, then we will get on another bus and head for Livingstone, Zambia. We should finally reach our village by Tuesday night. I honestly wasn't very excited until yesterday when we prayed as a class for all the different outreach teams. After the prayer I felt a big weight of worry lifted off my heart, so thank you Lord! The three main areas that I'm still a little anxious about are sleep, food, and running. I'm not sure how well I will be able to sleep in a tent that is within spitting distance of hippos and crocodiles. And like I stated last week, it will be interesting to see how my body functions without my daily sugar fix of ice cream and chocolate. I guess these are just two minor sacrifices that I will have to put up with for two months.

Running has been a major issue that I've put a lot of prayer into while out here. Admittedly, running has consumed much of my life for the past 10 years and has thus become a pretty major idol in my life. It has always been obvious to me that running is an idol, but it wasn't until after last year's Twin Cities Marathon debacle that I realized how big of an idol it had become. So when I felt God leading me out to South Africa I figured that I wouldn't be running for awhile, which got me pretty down. Once I got here I started praying a lot about what God's will is with my running, and I sought out a few older guys for their advice. And thankfully, I haven't felt that God wants me to give it up, but rather just be very intentional about putting Him before my running. I still need to figure out what that looks like exactly, but I do feel like I have found a much better balance while I've been out here. The awesome thing is, ever since I have felt like God has allowed me to continue running, I have never felt so joyful while out on a run like I have these last couple of weeks! It's given me a whole new appreciation for it. But now that I'm about to head off to Zambia I am beginning to feel all of my normal running worries resurface, such as "What if I can't run as much as I'd like to/what if I can't run at all/what if I get out of shape?" So my prayer for these next couple months will be that I worry more about advancing God's Kingdom than getting my daily run in.

One last thing- I don't know why, but there are very few things in life that I like better than free samples at the grocery store. And since I've been out here I haven't seen ANY free samples even though I've checked religiously every time I go into a store. I think it's just a habit that I've developed. But that all changed when I walked into the local grocery store last week and saw free samples of bread! To say I was excited would be an understatement. My friend Matt, who was with me at the time, seemed very confused as to why I would get so excited about free bread. To be honest, it wasn't even that good, but I made sure to take advantage of it and ended up grabbing four pieces. It totally made my day.

Hopefully I can keep blogging while in Zambia. We will be heading into town one day a week so that we can get internet access. So if I have time, I will definitely keep cranking them out to keep all of you in the loop. Thanks again for the continued prayers!

Sacrifice and Sugar

This past week was really challenging. We had a guy named Jim Yost come talk to us. Jim has been on the mission field for the past 35 years in some of the most remote tribes and in some of the most dangerous places in the world. He had some amazing stories about God's goodness and faithfulness through all the difficult times he has faced over the years. Apart from being inspired by his stories, I also felt a little bit guilty. I couldn't believe how this guy had virtually given up everything for the Gospel, while I on the other hand, find it extremely difficult to sacrifice running for a day if it means reaching out to someone. After processing my thoughts with a few other guys I realized that the point of his stories wasn't to make us feel guilty, but rather to challenge us to be willing to lay down anything for the sake of the Gospel. This is definitely not easy, but Jim mentioned that for this to happen you have to continually remind yourself that God is good and he isn't trying to make your life miserable. I still have a long way to go in this area, but I have been very encouraged to know that God loves us and wants the very best for us.

I went to my first Rugby game with Jay, Matt, and some other African guys this past weekend. It was super fun because all the fans were REALLY into the game. We just picked a team to cheer for and and went nuts the whole game. I kinda hit the wall and got pretty tired in the second half from cheering so much during the first half. But our team ended up getting the W, so it was all good!

I have been liking the African food out here, but it really seems to lack one major ingredient: sugar. I always find myself going to grab the jar of sugar for every meal. So finally this past week I decided that since I will be heading to Zambia in 2 weeks, where I probably won't be eating much sugar, I should start dwindling down on my sugar intake so that I won't have sugar withdrawals while I'm out there. So I told myself that I would try to give up chocolate and ice cream for a week. Well the first 20 hours went great, but once 8pm hit, I couldn't take it anymore, so I went and got a big chocolate bar. I'm actually legitimately worried that I won't be able to function without some sort of candy-type thing everyday while I'm out there.

I hung out with two good friends, Jarvis and Emily Jelen, this past weekend. I knew them from back in the States, but I hadn't seen them in 2 years since they have been living in South Africa. They ended up making a visit to Cape Town so we hung out all weekend and ended up having a great time. It was super refreshing to get away from Africa House (where I'm living) for the weekend and not have to worry about chores and sleeping difficulties.

My parents just sent me some Swedish fish in the mail (my favorite candy)! My goal is to try and save them for Zambia. But to be honest, I will be shocked if they make it to see next week.

And lastly, the Twins kick off their 2012 season in about 5.5 hours! I'm pretty pumped. As I keep looking through our schedule, I just don't see us losing a game this year (with the possible exception of the trip to Anaheim at the end of this month now that they have Pujols). But I'm gonna go ahead and predict 162-0. Go Twins!

Sidwell and Spiritual Warfare

This past weekend was both encouraging and exciting during our local outreach time in the township of Masiphumelele (Masi). It was encouraging because our group hasn't seen much spiritual fruit during our times walking around in Masi, and exciting because I was able to see and experience some spiritual warfare! (Picture: Me, Sidwell, Matt, Sidwell's brother, and Jay)

I had never really seen a demon manifest itself in someone until this past weekend. My friend Jay and I were walking out of Masi one day when a guy asked us for some money. We told him that we didn't have any but that we could pray for him, so we did. Right after we finished praying for him we saw a woman making a bee-line for us. She was an older woman and was kind of hunched over. When she reached us she started telling us all of her problems and the trouble she had been having with her family, her finances, and her health. After she finished talking I thought she was going to ask for money, but to my surprise she just asked us to pray for her. We happily agreed and Jay started praying for her. As he started praying I could feel her start to shake so I just figured she was getting emotional or something. She continued to shake more violently until Jay finished and I started praying. When I started praying she fell into Jay and I so that we both had to hold her up. She was still shaking pretty hard and even started foaming from her mouth so that her saliva started falling to the ground. At this point I finally realized it was probably a demon. I had no clue what to do so I just kept praying. We were praying for her on a busy sidewalk so there were lots of people looking at us not sure what was going on. There was part of me that just wanted to lay her down and run away but I knew that was foolish. After praying for a couple of minutes she stopped shaking and stood up straight(!), said thank you, and walked away. It was pretty crazy.

On that same day while walking through Masi, Jay and I bumped into a guy named Sidwell who we had ran into once before. According to some of the locals, Sidwell is one of the most dangerous guys in Masi. The first time we had met him he told us that he kills white people if he thinks they have money. So I was immediately pretty frightened when he grabbed us and told us to come to his house. He was visibly drunk and also seemed demon-possessed because he was very angry and stern with us and would occasionally go into fits of swearing. Thankfully, there were some local guys with us and they eventually convinced Sidwell that if he wanted to hang out with Jay and I that he would have to come with us to our prayer shack in Masi. I still felt pretty uneasy as us three made our way to the prayer shack. I really wasn't sure what we were gonna do when we got to the prayer shack so I prayed in my head as we walked over there. After finally arriving at the prayer shack we walked in and Sidwell's facial expression immediately changed. He went from having an angry, drunk look to a calm, peaceful look. Once we sat down we started talking with him, asking him questions about his life. He was quick in telling us that he could hear demons, and my first thought was "oh great, why does he have to have demons?!" But thankfully, God really gave me a peace as he reminded me that he is control and that with the power of the Holy Spirit we have authority over the demons. So after he finished speaking, Jay and I started praying. I prayed with my eyes open because I was worried that he might pull a knife or that his demons would start manifesting themselves. Thankfully, nothing crazy happened and we ended up just praying over him for about 10 minutes. Afterwards he told us that he felt the demons fleeing while we prayed! He went onto tell us that he could see a light in us that he really wanted for himself. I was shocked. It was such an awesome display of God's power by producing such a radical change in him in such a short time! When it was time for us to leave, he kept asking when we could get together again. As of now, we have hung out with him around 4 times in the past week and he is so hungry for the Lord! He hasn't drank or smoked in the last week and he hasn't had any demonic oppression either. We have just been praying and reading through the Bible with him and he is just drinking it in. After one night of hanging with him I started feeling convicted because I don't know if I have ever hungered for the Word of God like Sidwell, even though I need God just as much as Sidwell does. We are going to continue discipling and empowering Sidwell until he feels ready to start sharing the Gospel in Masi.

I am so thankful that God has allowed me to be part of Sidwell's story, because it has built up my faith so much in the reality of how God can change lives. Sidwell saw God's light and wanted it, and now he has been completely transformed by God's love. Crazy stuff.

On a different note, Louisville upset Michigan State yesterday so I was super pumped about that. I have never picked the correct winner on my March Madness bracket, so maybe this is my year. Hopefully they can hold off the Gators in a few hours to get that Final Four berth!

Zambia?!

I'm not expecting to get much sleep this weekend since I might be pulling a few all-nighters to watch the NCAA Basketball tourney and to get score updates on the NCAA Wrestling Tournament. I went out on a limb this year with my March Madness picks by picking a 4 seed, Louisville, to win it all. Thus naming my bracket Greeno's Pitino's (Louisville's head coach is Rick Pitino). So yeah, I'm pretty excited for a crazy, sports filled weekend!

In class this week are talking about leadership in the church and what that should look like. It has been pretty interesting, but the main thing I want to write about is the two month outreach we will be starting in mid-April. The outreach locations were announced last week. The options were: India, Madagascar, Zambia, Malawi, and staying local working in the townships that we are currently working in. We then turned in our top two choices to the leaders. Mine were: #1 India, #2 Zambia. I wanted India mainly because it was the farthest thing away from an African village. I chose Zambia as #2 mainly because it is close to Victoria Falls which is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World! Well, I ended up getting chosen to go on the Zambia trip which will be as African village-y as it gets. We will be sleeping in tents and there will be no electricity or water. A little rewind on my life quick. Ever since I've been young, one of the last places on Earth I wanted to go would be an African village. When African missionaries would come to our church when I was younger, I would be so adamant that I would never go to an African village because it looked pretty awful. So God had to give me a major change of heart just to come out to South Africa. So when I found out I was going to Zambia I'm ashamed to admit that I had a little pity party. I figured that since God had me put running on hold for awhile, then why not drag me out to the last place on Earth I want to go (I feel awful writing this, but this is how I initially felt). Then I figured things would just continue to get worse. I would probably end up moving to a village in the Congo for the rest of my life where no one speaks English, where I would be sleeping in a mud puddle, eating grass, feeding ostriches for a living (I hate ostriches), married to a woman I'm not attracted to, and would never run another step in my life.

I had this lie in my head that God was just out to make my life miserable. But thankfully, like always, God showed His amazing grace by placing some extremely uplifting and encouraging people in my path throughout the next day that helped me get my head back on straight. Both these guys are older than me and were able to share about the times in their life when they had no clue why God was calling them to sacrifice certain comforts. Eventually, they both came to realize that God worked what they thought were negative circumstances into amazing events that would change their lives for much better than if they had never sacrificed those comforts. One verse they told me which really spoke to me was Isaiah 55:8-9: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth , so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." So I guess all I need to do is trust that God is good and that he knows what he's doing.

So there are 7 total people on our team going to Zambia. I am the only American, so it will be a new challenge to live with people from all different cultures. We will leave Cape Town in a van on April 21st and probably won't get there until the 23rd. I'm not quite sure what we will be doing yet, but I think we will be working with orphans while trying to start house churches in the villages we will be working in. Apparently, there are lots of hippos, crocodiles, and snakes where we will be going which is kinda scary. I also don't have a clue whether or not I will be able to run. Thankfully, we will be driving into Livingstone on the weekends where there will be internet cafes and grocery stores. This will allow me to stay in touch with all my peeps from back home! Overall, this trip will definitely be tough, but I know it will force me to rely on God rather than my daily comforts am I used to. I'm just praying they have ice cream where we're staying...

Thanks for your continued prayers, everyone. They are very much appreciated. Go Louisville!

March Madness!

I was feeling a little homesick for the US this week because March is my favorite month for sports. Although I can still see scores and results online, I still feel like I will be missing out on all of the big sporting events. These include: Minnesota State HS wrestling tournament, NCAA wrestling tournament, NBA action starting to heat up (Wolves continue to roll!), NCAA conference basketball tournaments, NCAA Indoor Track, Baseball spring training, and of course, NCAA March Madness! Not to mention, there are no shamrock shakes out here...WHAT?!

Anyway, I have a few quick updates since my last blog:

• I got re-baptized in the Indian Ocean last week! I was reading in Acts 2, and when I came to verse 38 I just felt a tug at my heart, so I decided I would get re-baptized. I was baptized when I was about 14, and though I was sincere about my decision, I don't think I understood 100% what it meant at the time. Overall, it was a great experience and I was glad to have some awesome people there to share the experience with me.
• I have finally been able to get around to some Cape Town tourism these past 2 weeks during our days off. I hiked Chapman's Peak (pictured above) and Skeleton Gorge, and then I went and visited Boulder Beach with Matt and Jay yesterday. All three of them were pretty awesome. Skeleton Gorge had a blood-red lake on top of it which we swam in. Boulder Beach had a ton of penguins which was cool to see, although I didn't like them too much. Sadly, I don't have much of a soft spot for animals in my heart.
• I ran a half marathon this past weekend. A few of the guys from our CPX group were doing it, and since it had prize money, I figured I'd give it a shot. This was probably the first time in 6 years that I've raced while not in race shape, so I had no clue what to expect. With no workouts since Club Cross Nationals in December, I decided just to race for the win and not for time. I felt pretty awkward the first 10k, even though the pace was pretty slow at a little over 34 minutes. At this point I decided to pick it up. I ran some 5:10's and got the lead pack down to four guys- me and three Africans. With about 2 miles to go, the lead biker took a wrong turn that ended up taking me out of the lead. I ended up pressing pretty hard to catch the leaders, but just jogged it in the last mile when I realized I wouldn't catch them. So I ended up 4th in 1:10:38. I was definitely bummed since, a. I lost, b. I was 4+ minutes off a PR, and c. I ran a similar time 6 years ago just after graduating from high school. There was one encouraging thing from the race. I was very surprised with myself by how positive my attitude was. I used to be one of the worst sports out there, so it was cool to see how far God has brought me in this area over the past few years!

This past week's theme was discipleship. Some of the main topics were characteristics of a disciple, how to make disciples, and the importance of having discipling relationships. I was convicted when they talked about the importance of having discipling relationships with people more spiritually advanced, with people at similar spiritual levels, and with those not as spiritually mature as you are. I have 3-4 "accountability partners" that are at a similar level spiritually, but I am not being discipled by someone more advanced, and I'm not really discipling anyone either. Both of those are something I'm currently working on.

The main thing the Lord has been working on my heart lately is learning to completely surrender to the Lord's will. I had a close friend say that he could tell I was very hungry for God, but he didn't feel like I was completely surrendering to God's will. As hard as it was to admit, he was completely right. I have been very hungry and excited to learn what God's will is for my life these past few months. But I haven't surrendered a few things. One of those things is where I will live. I have been telling God lately that I will be on fire for Him and do what He wants me to do as long as I end up back in the Twin Cities. But I have felt very strongly that He wants me to surrender that and be open to wherever He leads me to. To be honest, overseas missions scares the heck out of me. But it is something that I am at least trying to be open to.

Thanks again to everyone who has been so supportive financially, prayerfully, and encouragingly. I am so grateful for all of you!

Holy Spirit Week

A few quick hits before I get started:

- I am now a regular at the McDonalds. I walked in this week and the cashier immediately said “Ice cream!” I was pretty pumped because I have never been at a regular at a restaurant before!

- A few of us guys watched Lion King this week. We figured it was appropriate since we’re in Africa. I forgot how good of a movie that is since it’s been over 10 years.

- I finally found a place to do pull ups this week, which is a relief! There are some monkey bars on a jungle gym behind the house that we are staying in. I was worried that my arms would turn to mush if I didn’t do any p-ups for 5 months. But now I don’t have to worry about that. Thanks Lord.

Well this past week was pretty crazy to say the least. The theme for the week was Holy Spirit week. We had a guy named Joe Ewen, from Scotland, come speak to us. After this week, I have a whole new view of the Holy Spirit and the power we have through the Holy Spirit. I have always had some doubt when in it comes to the spiritual gifts of prophesying and miraculous healing. I can be quick to think that that kind of stuff only happened in the Bible, but not anymore. So this week completely blew my mind when I not only witnessed those things, but also experienced them myself! I could write a ton on all the crazy stuff I saw this week, but I will just touch on a few of them.

- I was prophesied over more times this week, than I ever have been in my life! And what I loved about it was that it was so encouraging each time. And all of them seemed to have common themes, which shows me that they were truly from God. Some of the common themes I got were that God has finally got my full attention and will really start to blossom my faith now that He has it. I have been very laid-back about my faith, but this is a season to intensify my faith so I can take on a leadership role later on down the road. I also got three or four different prophecies talking about how I will be a spiritual father to many children from lots of different nations. (I have no clue what that’s all about.)

- We were also encouraged to try prophesying for others to encourage them and also to strengthen our own faith muscle. So I was prophesying for an awesome missionary guy from another country (I don’t think I can say where because of safety reasons), and as I was praying over him I got a vision of a river flowing between two islands. Gradually the river rose until it covered both islands. I honestly thought it was the dumbest thing, so I didn’t tell him but just kept praying. About a minute later, I got the same vision again so I sheepishly told him my vision. Later that evening he approached me and thanked me for the vision (“haha seriously?” was my first thought) and said that is spoke clearly to him. He said he had been debating about crossing a certain river to start planting house churches in a certain neighboring country, and that this vision made it clear that he should go! I was pretty pumped. It was super cool to think that God could use someone like ME to speak to a missionary.

- I was super impressed by Joe Ewen’s child-like faith in the Lord. One of the quotes he used all week was, “Whatever God reveals; He heals.” So whenever he would be in the middle of teaching and get a sudden ache in his right shoulder, he wouldn’t reach for the medicine cabinet, but he would stop teaching and ask who in the room has been dealing with right shoulder pain. I thought it was pretty weird at first, but there was always someone that stood up. So we would lay hands on that person and pray for them, and then they would be healed! It was insane. During one teaching session this week, Joe stopped what he was teaching and decided that there were lots of physical ailments in the room so we just needed a time for healing. So he told us to all start praying. Immediately my stomach got gripped with pain, and so I stood up and asked who was dealing with stomach pain. Sure enough, there was one girl, so we prayed for her and I’m pretty sure she is healed now (I haven’t talked with her yet). As the session rolled on, my stomach started feeling worse and worse, to the point of having to puke. So after trying to be a tough guy for 10 minutes, I finally set aside my pride and asked some people to pray for me. As they were praying for me, my stomach ache completely vanished! One of the first things I felt I had to do was ask the Lord to forgive me for doubting his power for so many years.

So like I said, this week was pretty mind-boggling for me (although it shouldn’t be, because all this stuff is in the Bible). I have never really had first hand witness of God’s power like I have this week, so it was very edifying for me. I’m very thankful the Lord allowed me to experience so much this week, and I’m hoping this will be a spring board for my faith in the years to come. I need to continue working on praying in the Spirit and learning to declare the authority and power we have in Jesus’ name. I’m super excited to see how far God’s power can reach when we have a child-like faith and trust in Him!