Johanneburg News

So today I was sad because I have no idea where I have stuck my head for the last two weeks, but this morning was the first I heard about the racial violence in South Africa.
Strangely, last night before I found out I had this super strong sense to pray for Joseph Project in Johannesburg, and as I thought about the children there I actually started crying right in the middle of the Friday night service.
Then today I chatted online to a couple of my friends there and the violence is worse than I thought when I first heard about it. Some kids from the Joseph Project centre have had to take refuge in the local police station, more have been evacuated as Fox street (1 street behind the project and where many of the kids live) has had looting and the police moved in with rubber bullets. The staff are volunteering at the refuge centres.
The violence is mainly Zulus against other african immigrants and is concentrated in the townships. The government is responding like in apartheid days - sending in the tank-trucks to the townships. Armed mobs are on the streets and refugees are fleeing back to the countries they left - even Zimbabweans!
I'll end with a quote from Dylan at http://www.mr-boohiss.blogspot.com
My Zim friends made a humorous (I admire their resiliency), but incredibly sad comment. “We Zimbabweans, where can we run? Mugabe, violence and beatings at home. Racist South Africans beating, robbing, and killing us here. Hmm… I guess here is the best then. I would rather be beat on a full stomach than beat on and empty stomach.”

Indonesia!

So I find myself miles down the road from my last post, although I'm back where I was when I last wrote. I've been to Indonesia for 5 weeks, filmed 3 movies and gotten really really sick.
How do I summarise Indonesia? Let me say the work, the people and the landscapes we went through were amazing, but the spiritual warfare terribly harsh. I don't think I've ever felt more awful on any mission trip, even though I was doing what I love. But maybe that's cause the outcome of these video projects could be amazing.
Jakarta was warm, wild taxi rides to meetings all over, mega malls contrasting horrific slums and we would visit both in a day with the teams. Bandung and Ciwidey were calm rice paddies, villages of excited children, walking along the alleys of the kampoengs saying 'pagi!', sleeping in damp concrete rooms and misty hills everywhere.

Ywam Perth! Arggh!

So sorry for the super delayed update, blame the hecticness of moving home from the UK to Sydney, going on holidays to Victoria, then packing all up again to come to Perth for 6 months!
Okay, here's the impressions so far...
I arrived in Perth and met my school the next day. One of my first thoughts was 'oh thank goodness, we're going to get along' cause we were all laughing wildly on our first night together. And actually we do have some seriously funny people within our group of 6 students.
Then I realised Perth was ridiculously hectic. Maybe because my DTS was all about children and in Africa, so basically love and children were the lowest common denominator, it seems so cruisy now compared to this base. My average work day begins at 8am with work chores and we can have classes till 9pm at night. I only have one night free a week and that's tuesday. The lowest common denominator here is probably vision and drive, but it makes it much less comfortable to live with.
However, I do have great news. There were two parts of my week that I hated facing every time and this week they were redeemed from the pits. the background of the first is this; I have two leaders - Ben is the main one and Katie is assisting leading - and a one-on-one is normally where I would meet with a leader to talk about my week, but actually mine was a two-on-one which felt more like the Gestapo. I already have trouble sharing deeply when I know it's going to be dissected and fed back to me, and to have it twice over was just painful. But hooray! this week it was just Katie and we actually chatted for 2 hours even though she was lying on the couch in pain.
The other thing is thursday night evangelism. This is where teams go out and talk to people on the street about God. My team went up to Midland, where I disliked every week cause I feel ineffectual and often can't even find anyone to talk to. So the first night we went, I popped into an old folk's home and asked is we could come back and tonight we finally did! we just sang a lot of the old hymns like amazing grace, then chatted to people. I spoke to a feisty old lady from Yorkshire in England who told me about how she biffed her sister. Katie sang a solo - his eye is on the sparrow - then spoke about Abraham and how no one is ever too old for God to care about or use. I thought that so many of the people were too far gone in dementia to understand what she was saying, but at the end I look across and one old lady was crying!
The most touching part of the night was when we went into a ward where a lady was so far gone in dementia that she was extremely unresponsive and sort of frozen. We were told to try with her especially cause she had been a very active Christian and they hoped the music would get through. So we sang 'Amazing Grace' and 'How great thou art' and she kind of smiled, her eyes began following us and she began moving. At the end she wouldn't let go of Katie and we had to pry her out of her grip!
So I am learning, and although the adjustment was fairly hard, it's getting better.

Brilliant News!

I recieved my budget from Thailand today - what I need per month to live as a missionary there. And you know what? Once I converted it from the incomprehensible Thai Baht to the Aussie dollar I realised that I really should aim to have $1100 in support pledged per month before I go. Yay! I'm going!
To see my super accounting skills (not) click here to view my budget breakdown.

Supporting thoughts

These last couple of days I've been trying to throw my heart over the concept of support raising. It was an online chat conversation with my future team leader in Thailand that brought this all up. Nearly every time I speak to her she manages to slip in a 'So when are you coming over?'. I finish my last training by the 22nd June 2008. However the School that I hope to staff begins in July 2008! That's an extremely short time to wrap up, say goodbye to everyone in Sydney and move to Thailand. It's also a really short time to make sure I have enough financial partnerships in place to actually be able to go!
I was heartbroken at being run out of Zimbabwe and having to abandon our plans for ministry there. I think I would be even more incredibly disappointed with myself if I had to leave the ministry project halfway in Thailand for lack of funding. So hence - I have begun thinking about support raising.
Firstly, I thought 'this is really weird'. Fact is, till this whole mission thing came up, the only people I've ever asked to give me money are my parents. Sponging off your parents probably comes naturally to every child. It's a whole new ball game when you realise that God wants you to depend on His and the generosity of other people to live. In Matthew 6:24 Jesus is rather blunt about the fact "you cannot serve both God and money". Having probably shot my career in the neck by resigning and stepping out of commercial design, it's a case of serve God first, and leave the money up to Him to provide.
So I began to read this book called 'Funding the family business' by Myles Wilson. He had been supporter of his brother, who was a missionary with Campus Crusade for many years. Then eventually he and his wife decided to take the step to become missionaries themselves. He pointed out that it was strange that the missionaries he talked to felt burdened with the task of asking for support, when actually he had found giving extremely enjoyable. And thinking back, when I was working I did quite enjoy giving to mission and hearing back about what that money has acheived - it was always fun to see. So I guess it should always be enjoyable - both being the giver and being the reciever because both positions are in an opportunity to bless the other...

Lightning Crashes

This morning, I was cranky on my way into work because two of my buses pulled up to the stop but then only let people off and wouldn't take on passengers - so I was late and ended up walking part of the way there. As I rounded the last corner on the Kings Rd in Chelsea I realised why - a police cordon was re-directing people around the wreckage of a silver car. As I passed it I heard a female cop say "one dead in the silver car, the driver of the taxi in critical condition". It's a little bit small town around here cause of the council housing estate opposite so people have been dropping in with rumours of up to three dead in the silver car, and that they were joyriders.
Anyway, feeling cranky about public transport being late seems a bit callous in the light of this.
Then I received an email saying that one of the youngest children I had taught in the preschool in Joburg died a month ago, but they'd thought he had just moved back to Mozambique. Fernando was quite cuddly and had the world's biggest smile, but he was sick in the last weeks while I was there, listless and sleepy all the time. Apparently his father took him to a witch doctor and then he died. This total waste of a young life just makes me angry - I think that there's probably a good chance he would still be living if he had been medicated properly.
However, also over email came the great news that one of my friends, Corrine, is pregnant! She's had scans (you can almost see facial features) and it's all very exciting!
So this morning has just been like the Live song, 'Lightning Crashes'...

lightning crashes, a new mother cries
her placenta falls to the floor
the angel opens her eyes
the confusion sets in
before the doctor can even close the door

lightning crashes, an old mother dies
her intentions fall to the floor
the angel closes her eyes
the confusion that was hers
belongs now, to the baby down the hall

oh now feel it comin' back again
like a rollin' thunder chasing the wind
forces pullin' from the center of the earth again
I can feel it.

lightning crashes, a new mother cries
this moment she's been waiting for
the angel opens her eyes
pale blue colored iris,
presents the circle
and puts the glory out to hide, hide

Cold and damp...ahh the english winter

Well, that pretty much will summarise my weather for the next few months. Onto other topics!
I've been working doing web design for a bike shop. I slave away over my computer in the dungeon downstairs beneath the shopfront and pop up every so often to blink in the sunlight (wait, what am I saying, there hasn't been any sunshine to blink at!). My boss is lovely, if rather rough around the edges being a biker and all, and the hours are great. The only problem is, seeing as he lives a biker lifestyle and takes off on random roadtrips fairly suddenly, I work completely random days and I never know how much money I might earn in a week.
Enter God's answer - moving in with the Parnhams. Not only do I save money, but I do love their family and they have a TV! I know that shouldn't factor in my decision to move, but it is a rather exciting bonus after years without.
Also, I've been playing tennis at the free courts on the hill beside where I live. It's sooooo good to get back into the game, even if I am incredibly rusty. And I scored a free lesson in backhand from one of my playing partners...
My thoughts are already turning to Australia (maybe cause I miss the beach and sun), especially after finding out that I have been accepted into the School of Frontier Media in Perth, come January (Hooray!). Apparently I was accepted a while ago but no one told me so I've been sitting here getting rather nervous till I heard. Anyway, on an otherwise frustrating friday, I managed to book a cheap plane ticket to Perth and so am out of Sydney on the 5th Jan!
Although I am really enjoying my time here, it's also exciting to know what I'll be going on into...and I can't wait till Thailand!