My Insane Stability...

Everest and Budu not shown.  Everest has kittens in the oven and is as grumpy as ever.
Budu's a snake and I don't want him anywhere near me.

Perhaps it IS a little much.  3 dogs, however many cats, a snake, and the 4 of us.  It's been called, "the Danforth Farm" and "the Danforth Zoo" and we love it. 

Why this craziness?  With all the transitions we've been through in the last year, why add animal insanity to the list?  

As Children of Change, Transient Ones, MKs, TCK's, Purple Kids, whatever you want to call it, life has been one big move for Sam and I.  An exhilarating adventure for sure, but with lots and lots of moves.  Multiply that by marrying one of your own kind, planning your entire adult lives around getting back overseas and BLAM, you've got the perfect environment conducive for non-pet people.  

But somehow, our parents did it.  My parents let me get a dog.  And a cat.  We took that dog all OVER the place with us.  All of us kids piled in the back of the Nissan Patrol and the dog scrunched under my mom's feet as a faux co-pilot.  My dad would have less wrinkles and gray hair if he had had his way and been dogless.  But those added wrinkles and early gray hairs from Scout are a sure sign of self-sacrificial love for us kids.  And being a mom now, I can tell you how much I would NOT go for a big lab squashed under my feet for a quarterly 10 hour drive to the capital city.  But my mom is my mom, the planet's sweetest servant, what can I say?  

Sam never had a dog or a cat, but let's not even start on his crocodile farm, pet python, bush baby, owl, rabbits, guinea pigs...

But back to why in the world we choose this insanity, not in tidbits, but in Jolly Giant size.  

Who owns pets?  Stable people.  Stable people with stable lives and stable jobs whose 5 year goals for success make sense and who clock in and out of work to achieve that end.  What do pets actually mean?  Stability.  Or a grasp at it.  I don't know that our lives will EVER make earthly sense as long as we're serious about following God wherever He sends us on this crazy planet, but we do grasp at earthly stability in this transient life.  So we're up to our eyeballs in animals.  What may seem like insanity to someone else is for us a sign of stability, permanence, and a choice to put down roots in this place He has called us to.  As long as God has us here, we're here to stay, folks.  Bring on the zoo.

Sam the Maintenance Guy...

Someone asked recently, "What does a typical day for Sam look like at Genesis?".  We have not yet had a "typical day" and this line of work is definitely not a "clock in, clock out" kind of deal.  BUT, here is an idea of work at Genesis for Sam the Maintenance Guy.

First, a little background on Genesis.  6 years ago, Pastor Trevor Downham (our pastor here) found the body of an AIDS victim on the steps of our church.  His heart was broken and he asked the church, "What would happen if our church doors closed tomorrow?  Would this community even know that we were ever here?".  That spurred a whole movement within the church to start taking "church" outside the walls of our building and INTO the community.  They began by responding to physical needs, the greatest immediate need being AIDS victims who were dying rejected, alone, and without hope.  The church started an AIDS and TB hospice.  The staff at the hospice introduce each patient to the Lord and many come to know Him.  It's an incredible outpouring of Christ's love to the community, especially to the most neglected of people.  The church began to look beyond this immediate need and started thinking about how to invest in the community through preventative care.  

Genesis now has several community centers within half an hour of each other around the area.  The centers exist in response to needs in the community with the primary purpose of using these platforms to share the Gospel.  The centers have things like a gym, music academy, training center (teaching women to make crafts to sell), library, VBS, youth groups and Bible studies for urban kids, a hospice, computer training, leadership training, a school for autistic kids, a rugby academy, etc.  Each ministry we have seen so far has been effective at maintaining its focus on Christ.  The people who come are introduced to Christ and are mentored, discipled, and invested in on both a physical and spiritual level.  All of these buildings have no one to maintain them, so that is Sam's job.  He's the Genesis Maintenance Guy.  He loves his job because he gets to work at each center and SEE how God is at work through our local church.  Some of his jobs are really simple, like fixing broken windows, and others are more complicated, like reworking the entire water system for one of the centers.   

Murchison Center windows 

Sam doesn't have a "typical" day.  For example, the other day, he met in the morning with our pastor to figure out the direction of a new ministry that is being started at Genesis.  Then the hospice called him because they were out of water.  He worked on their water system, got it running again, and met with a few of their staff to try teach them how to conserve water more diligently.  After this, he got a call from one of our more rural centers where there had recently been riots.  A few of their windows were broken, so he drove out there, got the materials, and repaired them.  

Hospice and Youth Center water system

Some days, he fixes cars that are used by our food programs to deliver food to poverty-stricken families. Other days, he meets with our pastor and others on the Genesis team as they work on the direction of various ministries.  Sometimes, he works on the toilets at the hospice centers.  One day, he removed and rebuilt a wall in one of our buildings to create a more effective working space.  It can sound a little chaotic, but basically, his job is to keep these buildings functional and efficient.  It has relieved the staff of each of the centers who until now have had to outsource the work and has eaten up their funding that we would rather see used for further ministry.    

Genesis vehicle 

South African Expert Novice...

Tomorrow marks one year that we've been in Africa's southern region.  Here are my expert novice thoughts on life down south:

1.  I love driving here.  Sure, it's on the "wrong" side of the road, but it's an exhilarating rush for horrid drivers like myself.  And for others on the road with me.

2.  Did I say that I love driving here?  Unlike the US, there is a lot more gray area in the driving etiquette arena.  Drivers in all parts of Africa are adept at adapting to the situation.  If say, a friend of a friend of a friend forgets that she's driving in South Africa and takes off pell mell down the wrong side of the highway, no one reacts with frantic honking and flashing of lights.  They simply adapt to her and merge out of her way, allowing her the gracious freedom to realize her mistake in her own sweet time. Much to far down the road.  But nonetheless, she realized her mistake.  Shame.

3.  "Shame" is one of South Africa's most commonly used words.  I can say this with all the experience of an expert novice.  There is no translation for "shame" in American, so I've gladly adopted the term as a new outlet of expression.  It can mean, "Isn't that cute?!" or "Dude, what a bummer!" or "How sad!" or "Awwww!" or "How embarrassing!" or....

4.  I think South Africans must teach their children that if they're going to do something for someone, they better do it with the jolliest attitude they can muster and say, "Pleasure!".  Guy takes my grocery cart to return it to the cart station and when I say, "Thanks!"  he grins with a, "Pleashah!".  New friends teach us how to make South African stew (poitje) and when I express gratitude, they grace me with a, "Pleashah".  I like this.

5.  If the driver in front of you is going slower than you would like, he'll pull over so you can pass him.  Brilliant system.  Once you've passed him, you flash your emergency lights as a "Thank you".  Then he'll flash his headlights as a "Pleashah!".

5.  "Lekker" means "cool".  And when you live on the coast with surfer dudes, EVERYTHING is lekker.  All the time.

6.  "7 for 7:30" is actually a saying when there is a meeting that is going to take place.  It means, "Show up at 7 if you want to socialize, but we're actually starting the meeting around 7:30".  I never did do well with time constraints in America.

7.  Everyone has dogs.  And everyone has at least one Jack Russell Terrier.

8.  Of everyone I have met at the grocery store and in shops, only one has guessed I'm American.  Everyone's first guess in Australian.  Guess number two is Canadian.  I don't think we get many 'muricans down in these parts.

9.  Our meat is organic and more free-range than you can imagine.  And my husband is one happy guy.  Lekker, dude.

10.  This is a land of gentlemen and ladies, but no pretense.  An incredibly fascinating culture for the anthropologically-minded and a thoroughly enjoyable one to live in for all.

Words of Life amidst Riots...

Yesterday, Sam took me to Murchison, one our more rural Genesis community centers.  There had been riots here for the last 3 days, possibly due to a lack of water.  The riots were over and Sam was on the job to fix some broken windows (not a result of the riots).  Murchison is home to a gym, music academy, training center, library, and feeding center.  Basically, it is a safe place for kids and youth to come and hear the Good News of Christ.

As Sam fixed windows, I took a look around.  The verse for the day on the front chalkboard was
Psalm 18:2,
"The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; 
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, 
my shield and the horn of my salvation, 
my stronghold."

I wondered if God would use these words today to breathe into a community that had recently suffered a lack of stability, safety, and access to the most basic of needs.  His Word has breathed life into me.  It has changed me from blindness, from self, from wrong direction.  And I know it has the power to do the same for anyone who seeks Him.  These life-altering truths are why we are here.