Wow. What a weekend. Started thursday with normal running around, classes and such. Friday was Toby's big drama night at school. Each grade (1&2, 3&4 and 5-7) did a skit as well as some of the older students reciting poems and famous speeches. It was a nice time to see the kids and parents as well. Saturday was nuts for Cami. She went out to teach at the orphanage of friends of ours (http://victorandchristina.blogspot.com/) at 7:30 am, came home at 9:45 and taught a neighbor how to make pancakes, prepared food for the party, and ran out the door to the 4th of July party with the kids. We actually had a party with some other Americans and folks who simply wanted to get in on a party! I showed up late after teaching from 9am until 3:30 with a run in the middle to help a buddy with his open air crusade in town.



Sunday we were up early again to go to a 'bush-church' visit. Which means it is off the main road. It was fun. The church was planted last year by a student of mine and now he has walked another 1 1/2 hours further into the bush and started another church.

They both came together and it was encouraging to see a 'healthy', young church even if the service was 3.5 hours!. What was especially nice was Cami and the kids went with me (a rarity due to logistics and simply it doesn't make sense to drag the boys to different churches every week!).


Toby loved getting out town. He kept saying how much he wanted to live out there. It was less than an hour into the bush but you feel like you are days away. No electricity, no piped water (we had to drive through their water source! The river)...i think Toby would not like it for very long.

I think Cami is going to post some video of the trip on you tube...stay tuned.

Then after a quick break at home Cami ran into town on the motorbike to film some of the crusade while i prepared some snack, gathered stuff, bathed the boys and got them ready for our "English Fellowship' church Sunday evening. It was a special time of the youth presenting the ten week Sunday school program they had just finished with each kids sharing a little. Then we decided we would go 'out' to eat and stopped by our local shwarma/chicken/pizza dive and had dinner with new friends working with Save the Children in town.

A very good weekend. Bless you all.
K

New....
As you may have noticed i changed the 'look' of my blog (here) and some stuff here and there. This is because Cami has done a great job on our other blog (here---http://camikevinupdate.blogspot.com---)and created a pic blog (here---http://zwartphotostoshare.blogspot.com/---you can go to to see newish stuff (like Toby's impressive black eye!). I also changed the name of this one because it is purely me...good, bad and ugly. The other blog has more of Cami's writings about life here with my contributions form time to time!

Happy reading.

peace in everything
K



Even in 3 inch long Golden Orb spiders!

Was off this morning on a trip to help a friend whose truck broke down about 50 miles from town. I was glad for the opportunity to be alone and listen to music (loud) and think/pray about some stuff...like my tendency to be selfish...my tendency to be weak...and well, sinful.

So after picking up the needed parts in town (8 stores later), dropped off some Tylenol and malaria meds for a friend i headed out to "da socoro", (give rescue) to my buddy. Wasn't bad and my last repair on my car seems to be holding up! We managed to get his rear brakes back working to some degree (minus a few non essential parts)and he was on his way home to his new baby and wife in Malawi.

But what stuck me as i drove home, dodging pot holes and at times driving completely off the road...was the same grace which saved me from eternal damnation and separation from God is available for me every moment of this life. Hmm. The same love i was shown when i accepted Christ as my savior is available for me to show others...daily. Moment by moment...tot he beggars and the 30 kids gathered around us as we worked on his car along the road.


The same grace. The same love. The same peace. Wow. This was quite a revelation for me. We (who call ourselves Christians) talk about the great love of God which saves us. We talk about the grace which He so freely bestows on us...while yet sinners...Yet daily we live as if we are on our own again. Again and again and again we live as if the grace and love and (dare i say) power of God only applies to our conversion 9moment of acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Savior) but not our sanctification (the daily working out of Him as our Lord and Savior). We are a strange breed are we not?

So this also jumps back to my worst kind of love...in that, alone, in our own strength and power we are pitiful. I am a disaster. Yes, you are too. Sorry. But it is true. But with believing and accepting that to love this world with His power, with His love and with His grace...well....

There is no telling what will happen.

Go change your world brothers and sisters. Start with the first person you meet, and love them.

In case you did not hear, having a car in Mozambique is challenge. They constantly break and need repair. Due to the bad roads maintenance is a nearly weekly affair. So when we got here we bought the strongest must durable car we could...with the money we had.



So after working on our older Landcruiser this week and trying to find quality replacement parts (or any parts as it turned out) i had a few minutes on my way home from Rapale and stopped at the Toyota dealer in town....oh my.

TO replace our truck with a new one is ......$168,000. Yes, that is right a stripped down, 'NGO' type Landcruiser is over $150,000! In the states the more or less same new truck is $65,000. Oh well.

There are other options for half the price or a double cab pickup truck is $42,000.

So we will continue to enjoy our 1994 Landcruiser....i will gladly continue maintenance and repairs as much as i can and unless someone has a bucket of money....i will leave it all in the hands of God.

The worst kind of love.

Is the kind of love that calls you to do something you don't want to do. Tells you to be kind to the unlovely, the hurtful and stupid.

Recently i watched the movie 'Fireproof', and although not usually a big fan of 'Christian' movies as they tend to be lower quality and poorly written, this one had some profound truth which i can not only support but was moved to tears because i think it spoke of something God has been impressing on me lately.

It is this. Dump all your thoughts on religion and love people. Simple.

This would be great until we come across a person who has hurt us, it is easy when we get the response we want. It is easy when it doesn't call for sacrifice. Sacrifice hurts, sacrifice is giving something of ourselves, our time, our money, our energy, our pride...our perceived need for praise and appreciation. Our felt needs of self gratification. All these feelings and ideas are contrary to this love i am talking about.

The love i am talking about stems from the very character and person of God. Not some mushy feeling or contentedness even, but a state of being. In 1 John it says "God is love", not His business, not His predisposition but He IS...hmmm. So what does it look like? Well, it is patient (like with the Israelites) it is kind, (like with Hagar), it is long-suffering (like with the human race!). Love looks like it is described in 1 Cor. 13. BUT personified in God and on earth in His son, Jesus.
Take a second and read the list below. But put in Jesus every time you read love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

My reaction was wow! Jesus does personify what love is. So what does this mean for us...? Well it was a command of Jesus for his disciples as well as for us.

In John 13 we read about the disciples and Jesus and how Jesus gave them a new command in the midst of a pretty awful dinner party. Jesus had just told his friends, his closest disciples that he was going away. He had just alluded to being betrayed and sent Judas on his way without even a harsh word. And then he tells his buddies to....love one another. Not to seek revenge, not to overthrow those who would soon come and haul him away to be tortured and killed. No, Jesus said, 'love one another'. He said by doing so the world would know they were followers of Christ. Now listen, amidst the heartache and strife of that evening meal, knowing full well what lay ahead , Jesus commands them to love. Did they get it? Well, it appears they (as we are often as well) well very distracted and wanted answers, they wanted to know what was going to happen.

How often do we become distracted by wanting to know stuff. We want God to provide answers that in truth, aren't that important. When in truth he wants us to love.

When a young scribe approached Jesus and asked what he must do to inherit (gain/win) eternal life, what was Jesus' answer? 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind and all your strength..and love your neighbor as yourself' (ouch). Jesus was quoting the OT when Moses had just finished giving the ten commandments and to summerize as it ere, Moses said, just do this...and you'll get the rest.

Another recounting tells of someone asking Jesus what is the greatest commandment and he replies with the same answer. Love God and your neighbor as yourself. And if we look at the sermon--dialog on the mount Jesus says to even love your enemies. My enemies! GET OUT! But yes, these are the commands, the desires and the will of God for his people.

So what are we waiting for. Are we loving our spouses, our children, our annoying realitive, our neghbor, our mayor, our mailman, the homeless guy, the local crazy guy...what about the co-worker who slanders you or your spouse who you have been fighting with for over a year and you can't even remember what about...what about the sex addict down the street or the rapist around the corner.

This is not a easy love. This is not for faint hearted or those who only care to follo Jesus into the upper room but not out to Golgotha.

This is the message i am receiving. this is the message i am trying to live. First Corinthians 12 leads into the love chapter with the phrase, "And now I will show you the most excellent way." This most excellent way, this way which is far better than any gifting or ability is something we can all do.

So what is stopping you? Love...