adventures of USA: Phase two

Can you believe that I have been in the United States for almost 3 months already?? no, neither can I. It has been a whirlwind. So much has happened in life in the past few months, I don’t even know where to start.

there are two times in my life where I can say I’ve felt frozen in shyness. the first was when I was merely a kid, and asked to go the bathroom in swaziland when 300 schoolkids -who had never seen a white boy- enthusiastically mobbed me and took me to a long drop.(needless to say, I got there and told them 'I don't need the bathroom anymore'. the second time was the day I arrived at springhill. No joke. I was overwhelmed by everything. I always saw myself as pretty wild and energetically crazy, but these people were 500 times crazier. I walked into the Dining hall and I felt like a kid in the movies on his first day at school. totally small and lost and overwhelmed. 3 food stations with different hot food options, a salad bar, a sandwich bar, and a couple of desert options. not to mention chocolate milk, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and fruit juice all "on-tap". Completely freaked out by this new world, I sat at a table and quietly ate a small sandwich. not because I wasn’t hungry, but because I my body was in shock mode. 

Now I sit at the end of the summer with friendships that I believe will last for years. I feel like that dining hall is my home and I attack that foodline with intent. I’ve stood on stage dressed like a pirate with a South African flag and proudly danced to ‘waka waka’ by Shakira. I’ve lead kids to the Lord, and had some incredible conversations with young men about life and their struggles. So what has happened from that first day of camp training to today? 

I don’t really know. Yes, the 'making friends' part isn’t so difficult when you have a really cool South African accent, but that isn’t it. all I know is that I have been used by God, and God has used others in my life. I feel such a connection to this camp, the people here, and the work that is going on.

I guess I have really learned what it means to rely on God. To fit in to a new environment, for strength, and to trust him for what I need. Lets be honest, 22 hours a day, 5 days a week in a new country with frustrating pre-teens isn’t easy! I’ve relied a lot on God, and the people around me to get me through those tough times.

A few weeks ago, I got a skype call that one of my close friends from South Africa was killed. I thought I was done. there was no way I could put up with kids for a whole week with no personal space to break down and wrestle with God. And not only did God comfort me through that pain, he gave me the joy of being an area director that very week,! an incredible week in a new position at camp. Along with that was hanging out with some awesome people who really helped me out and prayed for and with me. I’ve just realized how God provides what we need at those critical moments. and I am so blessed. 

Sometimes relying on God for what you need is difficult to grasp, but it's the only way. I feel like coming to the states and following that call has been so rewarding. I don’t know what the rest of my america journey’s will hold, and heading to Nashville NEXT WEEK (!!!!!!!!) for college is incredibly scary. I feel like starting there will be somewhat similar to starting here at camp, but I’m looking forward to it, because following God has been incredibly rewarding so far.

In my last post, I spoke about being used by God, and expecting to be used by Him. He succeeded in that. I learnt a LOT. If I summed up phase 2 of my journey in one sentence... When things in your life get completely changed up, cling to God, and he will provide.  What more could I ask for in a summer?

I miss you all!

and Mike, I love and miss you bru. so much.

adventures of USA: Phase one

Greetings! Hi. Howzit. 'sup. ja
I have been in the US for 11 days... It has been a great 11 days. its weird to think not long ago, I was in Durban; sitting on bronze beach with good friends and swimming in the warm, salty Indian ocean. Now I am in Michigan. With a beautiful clean saltless ocean (okay fine, its a lake) that people claim has waves, none of which reached above my shins.

Here I sit at the end of “Phase one” of my journey. Phase one is what I called my ‘holiday phase’. I spent some time in wonderful Chicago- and even though it was raining most of the time, we did some cool touristy things for the long weekend before I got on a train to Michigan where I’ve been able to spend time with family and help out at their church on the weekend!

Being a tourist has been fun. I'd say I've done some pretty cool things. I've eaten some good ‘local’ food, seen cool sights, watched a live baseball game at Wrigley field, snuck into an NFL football stadium, been up a 96 story building, took pics at 'the bean', jumped in a river and a lot of other rad things.

These things have made the past 10 or 11 days fun- but the adventure has been a lot to do with the people. Usually when I come to the states, I shadow my parents and do whatever they do. But this time I have met and hung out with people (closer to my own age) that I have a lot in common with.

Day/Morning number 1 in the US I spent giving clothes to needy people in the Chicago area. Since my body does not have the word ‘jetlag’ in its internal vocabulary, I went along with a friend and helped out at the church. It was so interesting to hear these peoples stories, and to learn that Africa does not have the only poor people in the world- and Africa is not the only place that needs Jesus to intervene, and people to share love. 

Spending a weekend with my cousin and his friends in Grand Rapids, Michigan was pretty interesting. I taught them the meaning of a ‘bring-and-braai’ and tried to explain why I call girls ‘bru’-but they taught me a lot too. Not only do they have a community of young Christians living simple lives together as a family, but they have loved their neighbourhood as their friends and family and are spreading the love of Christ to their little ghetto-town! I felt like I was in the ‘blue like jazz’ book or something.

On my last day in GR we took a kid with us on our adventures to the river. 5 year old Meechie. (I have no idea how you spell his name). Meechie comes from a really tough home-life, and.... had never been swimming!! WHAT?! so we took him out for a day of fun. He was going crazy. It was so great to see a kid experience so much joy out of things we take for granted!

and yes, my cousin matt took me dumpster diving. (google it). so maybe I was petrified of getting 'caught', and we didn’t find much in the dumpsters, but it was an interesting and good bonding experience none-the-less. 

So what have I learnt here in the first few weeks in the US? that people are pretty much the same everywhere. We all need love, we all need a friend, and we all need Jesus. I feel content about being here because I have realised that I can make an impact wherever I am, not just in the typical ‘missionary’ areas of the world. I miss Africa, but am excited for what I can learn and who I can be in these phases of my life.

Now begins phase two. tomorrow morning I drive up to SpringHill Camps in Michigan! (Along with my awesome film camera that my cousin gave to me for the summer! [what a good ou]) I will be working at SpringHill Summer Camps which is just an hour or two away from where I am now. if you were to ask me how I’m feeling, I’m slightly nervous about it all, seeing as I will literally know no one, but really excited! I will do my best to keep my jord-in-a-blog friends up to date with whats happening.

God Speed my friends
cheers

Africa, I will be back...

I cannot believe that the day of my departure is really almost here... It feels like I was just saying ‘Im leaving next year’ then, ‘I’m leaving in 2 months’ and now ‘goodbye. I’m leaving on thursday’... The last few weeks have been crazy! that’s pretty much the only way to describe it. Amongst all the terrible goodbye’s, there have also been some great times. great times with friends, with family, and my Grace Youth family. I’m so grateful for those moments! I guess it starting to hit me. I am going... forever. or for now?

I'm sure you saw my last post about the Watoto Choir. (pronounced. wa-toe-toe. not why-toe-toe, or wa-tooo-tooo! ha!) So since I wrote that post, I got connected with the organizers of the tour. Totally a God thing. And basically I said to the ladies in charge that I will do everything and anything they need me to do- JUST to be near these choir and spend some time with them. I started off by being a security guard at a merchandise table! Me? security guard? I know, right!

I was honestly like a star stuttered fan who would do anything just to be near the kids. I would offer to carry boxes to the bus, in a hope that I would have to put the box IN the bus, and thus getting to see the kids... Eventually, I didn’t have to celebrity stalk them anymore- I got to meet all of them! listen to their stories, play games, drive them around and just be in their presence. If I wrote all that is on my mind about these kids, you would be here reading this for days. no kidding. every little moment has become a story, every funny line from one of the little guys is worth a long laugh, and every cute smile from a favourite kid is a paragraph. I am now known as 'uncle jorda' (apparently there is no 'n' in my name) who is the brother of 'Aunty Carita' (because we have the same kind of hair!)

This is about to get very deep and soppy [I apologise]... I’ve seen a glimpse of Jesus in these kids and the adults around them. I have experienced love from them that I don’t think they themselves know that they are capable of giving! They have affected me in the deepest places in my heart. Kids who may have had no parents, no hope and nothing to give, have given me everything.

It’s really hard to explain what has changed in me, but one thing I can explain: My passion for Africa, and for kids- has been renewed, revived, revitalized, resurrected, reinvigorated (I can't pick one). Even though I wish I could move to Uganda right now to be with these kids and others like them, I understand that going to the US is what I believe God’s calling is for me right now. and the great thing is that I know I will be back! The passion for Africa and the unloved has grown in me HUGELY over the past 2 weeks, and I thank these incredible kids for the role they played!

Saying goodbye to them was heart-breaking. I honestly don’t know if I will ever see them again. But I know that God has put them in my life over the last few weeks for a reason, and that is: to remind me why I love Africa, and to help me never forget that Africa is my home, and that God-willing... I WILL be back!

Let it ooze...

Last night at Grace Family Church, the incredibly awesome and talented Watoto Children's choir gave us a bit of a performance. When I say, a bit of a performance, I mean, they blew us away! If I were to make up a language, I would make the word ‘watoto’ mean ‘ENERGY’ because WOW these kids had a lot of it! The biggest smiling faces, the craziest dance moves and most energetic facial expressions I think I've ever seen. Did I mention this was their 5th performance in less than 24 hours? No matter, because when looking at the stage, all you see is JOY.

All of the children live at the Watoto Village in Uganda and each has lost one or both of their parents to violence in Uganda, AIDS or poverty. they were abandoned and alone, and seemingly had no hope in life. Each child has their own unique story of pain and hardships that they have lived - and I can tell you that there are no nice pretty childhood stories.

On Friday night when the choir arrived at our Church to relax and practice, I got to speak to a few of the boys from Watoto. I told them they were famous, and I wanted to be like them! they humbly disagreed and in said they were not at all famous and in fact I was famous. we laughed... In an attempt to continue the ‘famous’ topic of conversation, I asked a question. I said ‘who is the most famous person in the world to you? who is your favourite celebrity?’... I was expecting an answer like Chris Brown or some pop star that these kids might have heard. Instead 10-year-old  Ronald looked at me, and without any hesitation, in his beautiful accent he replies... ‘God’.

God is the only thing on these kids’ minds! He is really all that matters to them! Because through some incredible people at Watoto village, God has rescued them from their despair and given them life and hope. Now they are traveling the continent sharing their story. Boldly speaking to crowds and saying that Jesus is their saviour and their friend, singing worship songs to their God in front of large crowds. They don’t hang on to their past. they aren’t affected by their rough stories and don’t get interviewed on Carte Blanche. Why? They have found Jesus. They have hope! And despite their past, they know they are safe and loved.

I realised that the Joy that I saw in their faces was all Jesus. His love was ooozing out of them. and they sang to him with all they have.

It just made me realise what an impact that one person can have by merely living out God’s plan and calling. Not only are the kids lives changed, but they in turn make huge impact on the people that they get to sing to around the world (including me).

This gave a me a fresh reminder that we can each make an impact wherever we are. and I know that even though I’m going to Michigan to minister to a bunch of rich kids from a whole different world, I can still make an impact on their lives. because in actual fact, its not me making an impact. its the love of Jesus oozing out of me that can make the change.

“It is Jesus that has given me back my life... So I sing to Him”

Check out all that the watoto village is doing at www.watoto.com
If you’re in Durban, they have a partner village which is doing incredible things too! www.liv-village.com/home

Thank you to Watoto for coming to Durban and impacting us!

I don't understand...

I love knowing someones mind. to somehow get inside their head and figure out what they’re thinking- to be able to read their feeling and emotions. Especially the woman-kind... (but that’s a whole different blog!)

what about getting into God’s 'head'? I know we try! all the time! that’s why people write books and blogs and make nooma dvd’s and give hour-long sermons. We want to get to know God more, and we want to figure out what he’s about. in order to figure out what he’s about, we try to know what he’s thinking...

The greatest thing about God is... He isn’t an equation. He isn’t a section in a maths text book that I can just work out on a piece of paper and then understand! You can’t put him in a box. you can’t figure him out!

You see, if we could figure him out, then we would know everything he knows, and if we knew everything that he knows, that would make us equal to him- which would make US God and therefore we wouldn’t need God. But we do need God and we can’t be equal to him and we can’t understand him! Thats why HE is God and we aren't! Get it?

We can always get to know God more than we do right now, but we can never fully understand him.

Yes God tells us a lot about himself and his plans for us in the bible, but not everything. This is why I don’t like people who try to predict God. like the end times. I think God doesn’t give us a date for a reason! he wants us to realise that we can’t know everything because he is God and we’re not, and we have got to be ready, and trust that he has it under control and he has our best interest at heart.

The point where trying to figure out God becomes unhealthy, is the point at which we think we have figured him out!

I don’t know why God does things, and I love that! I don’t know whats coming next, and its exciting! The world could ‘end’ while you’re reading this, or in two thousand years time. I might have an awesome 2011 or the worst year of my life... but all I know is that I have a God who loves me, and he’s a God that I can trust!

If God had facebook, and then I failed...

Last Friday was a sad day for South African citizens. yes, our beloved national cricket team, the protea’s, bowed out of the Cricket World Cup. They failed. Even thought they promised us that this world cup would be different. They choked! again

Straight after cricket I went on facebook. yes, of course I did. We love posting our reactions to sport on facebook- most status's looked something like this:  “CHOKERS. YOU SUCK PROTEA’S”... “That is why I don’t support South African Cricket”... “worst captain ever! We can’t even win an easy game!”... Now I’m not getting into those reactions, because, we all know how I feel about what it means to ‘support’ your team. Something else interested me in all of this...

One of my friends wrote a similar status. I challenged her with it and she made an interesting comment:

“I didn't give up on them, I am saying they aren’t performing and it upsets me- like when i sin, even tho God loves and forgives me, it still upsets him!”

Wow, suddenly a status about cricket has brought up an interesting debate about God’s grace ! Love it!
I thought about this long and hard, and what she said was true. We do mess up, and God is disappointed in our sin, because he loves us.

But lets just say God had a facebook account. His name is GOD. and he has something like 3 billion friends. He loves me and supports me. and I fail. what would he make his status?

Would he say, ‘JORDAN YOU SUCK!!’... ‘CHOKER!!!’... ‘so typical! one moment you promise me you wont mess up again, and the next moment you do! Ha! its pathetic really’.... ?

My opinion? ... Thats not what he would say. When people let us down, our initial reaction is anger. bitterness. and yes, disappointment too, but this disappointment turns in to anger anyway, we cant really escape it. because we’re human.

But the amazing thing about God is that his disappointment is out of love for us. He is saddened, but always loves us anyway, and doesn’t resent us for turning our back on him. He forgives us. and takes us back immediately, even though he knows we will fail again. and again. and again.

That is what makes God amazing.

Hebrews 8:12 says “And I will forgive their wickedness,
and I will never again remember their sins.”

As human beings, there is nothing more awesome than the fact that God won’t hold our ‘chokers tag’ against us.

this is the beauty of grace!


(Special thanks to Caryn for posting that comment, and encouraging me to blog about it . )

Hi, God...

The world is consumeristic. We are selfish beings. We want. we need. we want more. we need more. We always have more than we need... and then we get more. ‘I have something cool, but I want whats cooler.’ Our consumeristic nature has become a rash on our generation, and has entered the very fibre of our society. On top of this, I think we unknowingly and far too easily slip into this consumeristic mindset with God...

Lets be honest for a second. Everybody prays when they need/want something. Whether its help in a situation, or supernatural intervention. I totally understand this, because, I do it too! Its all too easy to pray when you’re desperate. Sometimes we see God as a lifeline. A genie in a bottle. A wish-granter that is there to make our lives more comfortable and easy. And then if God doesn’t answer prayers, we get angry at him. Pretty normal cycle for both Christ followers and people who don’t consider themselves ‘practicing Christians’.

Since Friday, when the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, #PrayforJapan has been a trending topic on twitter. (If you’re not on twitter, you should be. get with it. its awesome) That means that a VERY large percentage of the Social Networking world (literally millions of people) are tweeting about praying for Japan. I’m sure you’ve seen it around: every celebrity, president, and commoner has said something about ‘our thoughts and prayers go to Japan’...

This got me thinking... something terrible happens and suddenly the world in interested in prayer? I sometimes wonder what God is thinking in all this. I actually have no idea. But if I was God, listening to the voices of a world that loves to beat me down and hate my people, I’d probably say something like, ‘oh. So now you want to speak to me???!’... Thankfully, I am not God.

We give God so little of our time, and yet we expect Him to answer our every plea and fulfill our every desire.

Instead of making myself feel guilty about being a consumerist and ‘not praying enough’, I've tried to counter my consumeristic-ness [yes, I just made that a word]. IDEA: Every time we feel the need to pray for something out of ‘God I need this’ or ‘God, please’ (whether its personal or for something like the people of Japan or New Zealand) try spend more time in prayer than just asking for things. I started to realize how much I ask of God, and how little time I actually give him.

Don’t misread this: My heart really does go out to those in Japan, and prayer is HUGE in this situation! All of us really should be in prayer for them as often as we think about it. God answers prayer, but he also loves spending time with us. (as weird as that sounds)

I believe that our relationship with God could be so much more if we gave him more time than the 30 seconds it takes to ask him for help!