Nutrition programs, after-school care, tutoring, job skills training, emergency relief. Fighting to make the next generation less marginalized than this one. This is the hard work of those who care for orphans and vulnerable children. But what about tools to manage their work? How can they evaluate whether they are making a difference? What about financial management, budgeting, and cost accounting? This overhead--the necessary indirect labor--can complicate caring for South Africa's neediest children. That's where the James 1:27 Trust steps in. Collaborating with Microsoft In October, Mike and Rudi, the CEO of the James 1:27 Trust, met together with training representatives from Microsoft and several other organizations at Microsoft's Southern African headquarters in Johannesburg, exploring how we can partner with Microsoft to help nonprofits in Southern Africa. The Trust has been working to build systems that empower care for 15 years, and now we have a formidable ally. Already, Microsoft is allowing the Trust to use its Azure platform to build solutions for orphan care, donating resources that would normally cost a company about sixteen thousand dollars a year. Now, one of Microsoft's "MVPs" is working directly with us so that we can deliver our solutions more quickly. Exciting things are coming! Empowering Care Together This year, through Mike's work at James, we've empowered care by building databases to manage child and family care, migrating email from outdated, expensive systems to Microsoft's free state-of-the-art service, moving years of organizational history to Microsoft's cloud backup, and dozens of ad hoc moments that would normally cost an average of $30/hour. All of this is possible because of our friends and family who keep us on the ground in South Africa with your prayer and financial support. Together, we are empowering care!
The sun rose over Pretoria West on August 5, and BK arose wearily. He grabbed his backpack and started walking. East, towards the rising sun. Why he was walking, and why east, he didn't know. He was just delaying things. The Sunday morning traffic was light as he left the Church Street bridge behind. He'd been sleeping there for a while, because the ditch nearby had running water where one can wash his clothes. Work is hard for anybody to find in South Africa, much less for someone with his record. Two and a half hours later, he was still walking. East, the sun climbing higher and chasing the overnight chill of late winter. He saw the multi-peaked roof of Menlyn Park Shopping Centre. He had walked twelve kilometers. Walking past Menlyn, he remembered his aunt who'd passed away last year. Back when he stayed with her, she attended a church near Menlyn. Near where he was now. Why not? He'd walk a little further east, to his aunt's old church. He would swallow those pills later that night. Sitting in Hatfield Christian Church, BK was moved by the pastor's message. The warm rays of hope reaching for his heart, he chose to wait at the altar. Hopefully in the busy altar, someone would be able to speak with him. To pray with him. Could he dare to hope again? He saw Chandra entertaining one of the pastor's children. All the other leaders were busy in the altar. When the children left, he called out to her.
God left glorious, perfect heaven to come to this sin-wrecked planet and live among violent, hateful people, and to die to pay for our sins. Why? To win something back for Himself: you. You. You are worth the very life of God Himself, according to His own actions. Do you understand how valuable you are to him? We prayed with BK. He eagerly surrendered his life to Christ. His posture and disposition shifted noticeably. We invited him for lunch at the church's coffee shop and shared more about Christ's life in us. We offered to connect him with a local rehabilitation ministry that provides housing and meals while offering work and skills training. He asked to speak to them immediately. He interviewed over the phone and arranged to meet with them at Hatfield the next morning. Walking out to our car, BK said to us, "I feel so light!" When I think of his smile, I think of that sunrise he was walking toward that morning. Towards hope. The next morning, Chandra was waiting at Hatfield Christian Church when BK arrived, having gathered some possessions from nearby the Church Street bridge and walked all the way back: embracing his opportunity with both hands and a lighter soul. Will you join us in praying for BK? The journey of discipleship requires the same thing as that initial surrender of salvation: complete cooperation with God as He works in us. Pray that he is not sidetracked, distracted, or discouraged. Pray that he stays the course and enters into everything God has for his future. We celebrate BK's new life in Christ and his discovery of his value to God. Do you understand how valuable you are to him? Update: as of October 2018, we've lost touch with BK. While our hearts are sad to not be connected with him, we trust the Lord to continue what He began in BK's heart, and we continue to pray for him.
We wanted to write a blog post about the suffering we see in the lives of those we get to walk with here in Pretoria. Chandra and I chatted about our thoughts, and I took some notes. I sat down to do some research and attempt to write. I didn't get very far. I wrote down my prayer, and I'm sharing it with you. Father, I feel out of place--no, presumptuous--to write about anyone's suffering in this beautiful nation. I haven't experienced this exclusion. I haven't known systemic ostracism and intentional societal marginalisation. I haven't watched loved ones die simply because the resources to care for them were kept from us, even though they are so close by. So, I'm trying to study on what exactly is a "theology of suffering" so that I can write something with some sort of academic or at least devotional integrity, and I'm distracted by this tenderness. I can't place it. But it seems as if it's Your tenderness I'm feeling. That You see this suffering. That every marginalised human being's experience, all over this sin-ravaged planet, is not lost on You. You see every violent act in every home. You see every child starving, five miles from a restaurant throwing out uneaten food from the $20 plates of the privileged. And it matters to You. So, I'm trying to write, but I'm broken. My little article might be seen by about a few dozen people. Maybe it will inspire them. But what will it change for Xolisa? Or Sephiwe*? Nothing. No practical gift or act of service could make it right. We can't fix this. But we can be present. I'm so captured by the fact that You see. Thank You that we can at least be present, for at least a few. In our presence, Father, please be present. You're the one who really sees. You're the one we all need. * these names have been changed
Why I'm still amazed at the CrossWhen I survey the wondrous Cross, where my Saviour died... Jesus paid it all... It is the most influential event in human history. It is one of the most discussed, studied, reenacted, sung about, and poetically lauded ideas in human literature, its theme of personal mortal sacrifice being echoed countless times. It is the centerpiece of human relationship with the divine. There's never been anything like the Cross of Christ. There never will be again. It towers over time and eternity, the inescapable emblem of love, sacrifice, wrath, redemption, and victory. Someone giving himself to save others is a universally appealing idea. It runs like a golden thread through literature in every age and every culture—perhaps because we're made in His image, and the ethic of laying one's life down for others appeals to some shred of His character, still latent in us after the Fall. The magic of Easter first captured me as a young child, attending a Southern Baptist church with my mother. All these years later, I still tear up "when I survey the wondrous Cross". I'm listening to a song called, "It Took a Lamb" as I write here in a coffee shop in Pretoria, and I'm barely keeping myself together. Honestly, I'm still shattered. Overcome. Overwhelmed. Awed. Flattened. It simply never gets old. Why am I still amazed by the Cross? It's so personal.Really. If I were the only human, Jesus would have come to earth and died to pay for my sin. Just. For. Me. This is historical fact: the Son of the living God came to earth and lived a smashingly successful and unprecedented blameless life. Right in His prime, He allowed a political and religious conflict to sweep Him into a public execution--which was His intention the entire time. It's why He came! Think for just a minute what it cost Him to even come down here (yes, Christmas still gets to me, too). Then to remain focused and undistracted by the success and popularity of His ministry of teaching and miracles. He didn't come to build a ministry. He came with one thing in mind: you. What a Savior! It's so devastating.I like it when my team wins. I really like it when my team wins big. I'm a lifetime Houston Astros fan (still drunk from the 2017 World Series!!). I remember the first time my team (finally) won a playoff game. It was 2004. We were playing the Braves--those Braves that knocked us out three times in previous years. I hated the Braves. Game 1, 2004 NLDS. I listened to most of the game in my truck, running errands for work. This was no 2-1 or 1-0 nailbiter. They destroyed those Braves. 9 to 3. It was so awesome. I was screaming in my truck. That game was amazing! At the Cross, Jesus completely ended sin's authority in our lives. In satisfying the requirements of God's wrath, He not only enabled our escape from its consequences, but then He placed back in our hands all authority on the earth over sin and the powers of hell. Then, to top it off, He rose from the dead, and shared his victory over death and the grave with us, too. There's no bloodier battleground than the Cross, and there's no champion bigger than Christ. What a Savior! It's so all-encompassing.I remember singing in that Southern Baptist church: Jesus paid all! Revelation 13 describes Christ as the Lamb who was "slain from the foundation of the world." The Cross is actually an eternal event: although we have a specific point in our historical timeline where it "happened", there is an eternal aspect in which God made His decision and laid down His life before He created the universe (in much the same way he chose you and me for Himself before creation, see Ephesians 1:4). What does that mean? Before you or I ever made one choice for wrong or right, Jesus paid for our sin. All of it. My sin. Yours. Hendrick Verwoerd's sin. Ted Bundy's sin. Adolf Hitler's sin. All of it. Every. Sin. In human history. So that for any one of us who wants to reconcile with our Father who created us and chose us, all that is required is to acknowledge what He did and surrender to Him as Lord. Jesus paid it all. Isn't it amazing enough that He paid for all our sins against Him? But He didn't stop there. In Paul's letters, several times he points out that in Christ there are no more divisions. No more Jew and Gentile. No more male and female. No more slave and free. In one of these passages, where he is specifically discussing Jew and Gentile, Paul says this: For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall... He Himself is our peace! What has He done? He has paid for all our sins against one another! Individuals have hurt one another. Whole people groups in our past and recent history have committed evil, violence, and unspeakable atrocities against other people groups. How can anyone ever pay for that? Can we punish anyone enough to make up for what happened? Who can make it right? Jesus. Paid. It ALL! He has paid the price! Because of Him, we can come to the Cross, all of us on this big beautiful planet, and we can be one. He Himself is our peace! What a Savior! I'll never get over it. Jesus is my hero. The Cross is the most amazing event in history. Happy Easter!
Words & Music by Mike Noviskie & Dan Erickson (When I Survey the Wondrous Cross written by Isaac Watts, 1707) Verse 1When I survey the wondrous Cross Where my Savior died My richest gain I count as loss and throw away my pride I see from Your head, Your hands and feet Sorrow and love pour down Here perfect love and sorrow meet and thorns make a Victor's crown Chorus 1I am free from the shadow of my sin You've won it all You've won it all Your victory is where I start again You've won it all You've won it all You've won it all Verse 2Here at the Cross our seas of pain Forever drain away Oceans of war and waves of hate All break on Jesus' name Chorus 2We are free from the shadow of our sin You've won it all You've won it all Your victory is where we start again You've won it all You've won it all BridgeGreater than all our shame
Deeper than all our pain Your Cross is big enough Your Cross is strong enough You've won it all You've won it all Unmatched. Unequaled. Boundless. Deep. We run out of words to describe the love of God. His love is the superlative to end all superlatives, and the more we encounter it, the more we grasp for a picture that can begin to do it justice. Several thousand years ago, the psalmist wrote, "...your love is better than life." Over the intervening centuries, hundreds of songwriters have grappled with the limits of their languages to capture the immeasurable, inexplicable love of God. The crescendo continues in the 20th century. Kathy Troccoli famously released a song called, "Stubborn Love." David Meece tried to capture the great lengths of God's love with "We Are the Reason." Chris Bowater, one of the fathers of modern worship in the United Kingdom, wrote, "Oh, the deep, deep, love of Jesus! Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free. Rolling like a mighty ocean in its fullness over me." Of late, songwriters are more overwhelmed than ever. "Heaven meets earth like a sloppy, wet kiss, and my heart turns violently inside of my chest," cries John Mark McMillan. Chris Tomlin, trying to capture the boundless power and volume of God's love, writes, "Your love is like a waterfall, running wild and free!" Cory Asbury is beside himself experiencing God's love: "Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God! How it chases me down, fights til I'm found, leaves the ninety-nine!" What is it about this love that captivates us so? I could go on forever, but here are three things, for me.
Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers that they "may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge..." I pray that you experience His love in deeper ways than ever before. Go ahead: surrender to His indescribable, reckless love. Let it wash over you and embrace you. It's okay to be beside yourself. He has that affect on us. What is it about God's love that captivates you?
Just over a week ago I landed in Johannesburg after fifteen weeks in Texas. Thank you to everyone we got to spend time with during our fund raising season. It was wonderful to reconnect. It's great to be back at work doing what we love to do! Chandra has begun a ladies' Bible study for the community surrounding Berakah, and we're looking at starting a men's study with Mike in the near future. Pray for great fruit to come from these times of intimate discipleship! Thanks to everyone who makes our work possible, and especially to those of you who are new to our sending team! You are a powerful team of givers making a powerful difference in South Africa. We love what we get to do, and you are here with us, every step. New equipment, health, and safer play
Watch this space :-)We've just had our first meeting with The Bigger Picture, the newly founded ministry birthed out of our recent trips to other nations. We are planning to revisit the church networks in the DRC, Angola, and Mozambique with deeper training for pastors and leaders. Starting small and dreaming big!
We are trusting God for great things in 2018! Here's how you can pray with us in the new year.
"I like to come to Berakah because there is a gate and a fence."
Recently Chandra interviewed some of Berakah's children with the question, "What do you like about coming to Berakah?"
There were outtakes, shy grins, and giggles. One little girl said she likes to come because there are white people. Several said they like the playground, games, or activities. One child said she liked ma'am because she is ma'am. We compiled some of the responses into a video on our Facebook page.
We posted the kids' video on our Facebook page. Our friend Meleney, who leads an amazing community upliftment center about 5 miles from Berakah, commented that teenagers "just want to walk from home to school and back without being raped and molested."
I'm reminded of an old Fred Hammond song, "Jesus Be a Fence Around Me". While serving Him doesn't necessarily bring with it a guarantee of physical safety, He does "put a fence" around our hearts and minds, guarding us from predatory fears, prejudices, and other wicked thought patterns.
As we thank the Lord for His protection around our lives today, won't you join us in asking Him to guard the children of Mamelodi?
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Mike & Chandra Noviskie,
missionaries to South Africa CCF Missions is a ministry of Christian City Fellowship. |