From Addicts to Disciples

It’s Wednesday afternoon and the inmates from G-1 Block are gathering for the weekly From Addict to Disciple Group in Lancaster County Prison led by David Hain and myself. The meeting is opened with prayer then there is an opportunity to share prayer requests and praise reports. This gives the guys an opportunity to share what is happening in their lives, their struggles, their victories and concerns for families, court dates, and whatever else is on their mind. Often we play music that draws our hearts to God’s love and grace in our lives.

Then comes the main part of our group session; discussing what God has to say through his word about addiction and how to overcome it. Currently we are working through the Gospel of John, chapter by chapter, so see what Jesus has to say about the subject. After watching the chapter on the Visual Bible DVD, the men share what stood out to them and spoke to their heart. This past week we were discussing in Chapter 14 how Jesus and the Father want to make their home in us. We agreed that if we could live in that reality, our lives would be transformed. After 2 hours, the meeting is ended with prayer. In addition to this group, David holds another men’s group on Friday morning and David and Kathy Paxton hold a group for women on Wednesdays.

Dave and I consider it an opportunity to share our hearts with these men as they are on their journey to freedom. Their honesty, desperation and desire for change is refreshing. Because of the consequences of their addiction, they are forced to look at what has controlled and destroyed their lives. Unlike many of us, they cannot hide who they really are. It is out open for all to see.

Gerald May describes addiction as a state of compulsion, obsession or preoccupation that enslaves a person’s will and desire. Addictions include things such as drugs, alcohol, pornography, gambling, food, shopping, just to name just a few. We believe that addiction is a spiritual battle. Our particular addiction is medicating a wound or hurt that is in our lives. Instead of looking to God to meet all of our needs, we try to fill the void with other things. Often as a result of these wounds, we end up believing lies about ourselves, God, and life and make bad choices. In the groups and one-on-one sessions, we look to identify these wounds and ask God to bring healing to our hearts. We talk about what it means to be a godly man and how to make godly choices. We also discuss the importance of true fellowship; finding five godly men who will speak honestly and lovingly into their lives.

On Tuesday evenings, two From Addict to Disciple Groups (one for the men and one for the women) are held at the Etsah Ministries offices in Leola, PA. Etsah is an addictions ministry that meets the state’s requirement for drug and alcohol counseling and fulfills the requirements of parole and probation. The goal of this group is to provide folks with an opportunity for fellowship and a safe place to be honest about their journey. Often families of addicts attend to understand what is happening in the lives of their loved ones.

Recently David, the founder and director of Etsah Ministries, had the opportunity to take the From Addict to Disciple Program to South Africa. Over 200 prisons are open and wanting to get involved. For more information: www.etsahministries.org/

Back in the US, Back in the US, Back in the US..A

Just a play on an old song title to see if anyone catches it.

We landed at Dulles Airport a little after 6AM on the 31st of July. Our processing through baggage claim took a while as Isaac's bag is lost and we had to file the claim and fill out the forms. Shawn's parents picked us up and drove us home. SO with a stop off for breakfast we were home before noon. Jetlag and the time difference began to settle in and by suppertime we were ready for bed.

Our last week in South Africa was awesome. The service on Sunday July 26th in Tembisa township was a real blessing to all of us. Pastor Vincent Mathews and his wife Cheryl and 8 of their 10 kids (missionaries from Detroit) minister at Tabernacle COGIC Church. They have a permanent building for offices and Sunday School and a big tent for the sanctuary. It's easy to preach in a setting where everyone is full of life and energy and praisin' Jesus!

That evening we were treated to a variety of Indian food as guest's at the home of a family from Acts Christian Church. It was fabulous and their hospitality was amazing! They gave us generous amounts to take home as leftovers and then made another dish we hadn't tried and delivered it to us on Tuesday!

The last week in Krugersdorp and Leeukop prisons each of the groups were special. Men came forward to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, men shared testimonies of how their lives had changed, new men joined the groups and stated "I had to come and see what was going on when I saw how much these guys had changed!", and one man shared his vision for taking the From Addict to Disciple group approach back into the communities when he gets released! The officials at Krugersdorp have agreed to take some pictures of the group and email them to me.

On Friday the 24th of July, Jordan and Isaac ministered in another preschool in Tembisa township. What a delight for me as their dad to watch them share their love for Jesus, a skit, a song, several stories and a craft with 35 smiling and laughing young children loving every minute of it!

On Monday and Tuesday we checked out two Christian schools in the area and toured their facilities. This was very helpful as we have a real understanding of options for Jordan and Isaac in case we move there.

On Tuesday evening group at Acts Christian Church had a braai (barbecue) where we all got to share Afrikaan boerwors (sausage). One man's mom brought some Indian food and all the guys brought a variety of snacks and beverages. It was a great night of fellowship and ended with sharing of testimonies.

Wednesday evening we had a wonderful meal and family time of fellowhip with Pastor Vincent and Cheryl and their family at their home. It was a fitting ending to our month to spend time with an American missionary family who had lived their for 5 years. We got to ask many of our questions about long term visas, health insurance, etc. as well as compare notes on American sports with a family of Detroit Lions fans!

We have so many people to thank for how they blessed us during our month in Midrand, South Africa. Rod & Sharon, Gerard and Tiana, Pastor Peter, Pastor Vincet & Cheryl, Kyle, Mark, Dhaneshree's family and all of our new friends at Acts Christian Church, Tabernacle COGIC Church, and at the prisons. Also thanks to all of you who have been faithful prayer warriors for us as we have been in South Africa.

Prayer Requests 23 July 2009

A quick update for prayer requests:
1) Keep Steve Martin and Kathy Paxton in prayer as they continue the ministry in Lancaster, PA while we're in South Africa.
2) Our office in Leola, PA was broken into a couple of days ago. Pray that God stirs in the mind and heart of whoever broke in. Pray that God draws them closer to Him with His love.
3) Jordan and Isaac will be ministering at another preschool in Tembisa on Friday July 24th.
4) Dave will be teaching a 3 hour workshop for Christian counselors in the area on Saturday July 25th.
5) Dave will be preaching at Tabernacle COGIC Church in Tembisa on Sunday July 26th.
6) Ongoing ministry at the prisons on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and the group at Acts Christian Church on Tuesday night.

Preaching 4 services plus in South Africa

Wow!! What an awesome experience to preach 4 services in a weekend. One Saturday night at 6 PM, then three on Sunday at 8AM, 9:30AM and 11AM. It was amazing the way God moved. I prayed for God's heart for the congregation at Acts Christian Church and felt strong about there Scriptures that He took me to.

At the Saturday evening service I shared my testimony and then preached the Word that God had given me. His presence was evident as over 30 people came forward for prayer to be set free from addictions! I woke up Sunday morning and expected the same as Saturday night. Boy was I surprised!

Each service was different in the exact content of what I shared and in the response! It all fit in the same theme but I was awestruck at God's heart to tweak His message to fit the people at each service. The last service really blew me away! God's presence and anointing was so heavy. There were about 600 people there and about 2/3 were in tears with many sobbing vocally. PRAISE GOD for His love for us!

Just an incredible side note about the move of God at Acts Christian Church in Midrand. They are a church with cell groups for everyone and every cell group focused on outreach and evangelism. As a result they have had over 400 people accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior on the streets this year and more than 300 are now members of their church and activley involved in new believer cell groups!!! How's that for taking Jesus to your city and taking your city for Jesus??

More family fun

We're about half way through our trip to South Africa now. The length of time has been so nice because we have not been rushed with anything. We are able to take time just to relax or for the boys just to play here with their friends. The two girls who live where we're staying are off school now until we leave. They are home schooled and their Mother has decided that since they and our boys are playing so nicely they can take a break from school while we're here. So they are together playing almost all day long.

We have done many fun things with this family. They our showing us many wonderful places to go. Last night around 8:00 we went to a restaurant with a star show. It was so unique and amazing. First of all, the dinner was delicious and the restaurant was warm and cozy with a fire burning. But the unique part was each table took turns going outside and looking through an old Nasa telescope while getting a lesson from an astronomer about what you were looking at. We went out about five times to look at different stars and planets. We all really enjoyed it.

This morning we went to Mandella square to celebrate Nelson Mandella's 91st birthday. They had a free 67 minute concert to celebrate the 67 years of service he gave to this country. The concert was fun. We sat on bean bag chairs during the concert. They had face painting, jugglers, and other fun stuff for the kids including making Mandella a birthday card.

I can hardly believe the ways that we have been blessed while here. The place that we are staying is amazing and having friends for the boys to play with is such an unexpected and wonderful blessing. We are really being taken care of by people here. We have a car to drive, a GPS to use (thank goodness, we had no idea how helpful they were), we have friends who are willing to drop what they would do and take us sightseeing (Rod and Sharon have been amazing).
A few days ago we had lunch with friends at a Medditeranian restaurant. For 7 Rand they would bring you a plate to break. Jordan took advantage of that and got many cheers as he broke his plate right where we were all eating.
All in all we've had great food, good latte's, wonderful friendships, and many fun adventures. We are really looking forward to the rest of the trip.

Prayer Requests

We've decided to begin using the blog as our spot for timely prayer requests. We will delete the old ones as we put on new ones.

Here's some as of Friday 17th of July from South Africa:
1) Dave preaches four sermons this weekend at Acts Christian Church in Midrand, South Africa.
2) Dave preaches at Tabernacle Church of God in Christ (COGIC) in Tembisa township, South Africa on Sunday July 26th.
3) Ongoing ministry for Shawn and the boys at the townships.
4) Wisdom and ears to hear as we sift through the contacts, opportunities, open doors, and relationships we have in South Africa and search for God's will for our family.

Thanks for your prayers,
Dave, Shawn, Jordan and Isaac

A Stomach Bug Meets a Loving Wife

During supper on July 9th I began to feel sick. I hardly ate anything at all. I ended up going to bed early and figured I'd feel better in the morning. Boy was I wrong!

When I woke up on the 10th of July I was achey, weak, my fever was up to 103.9F, I had diarrhea, felt nauseas and could not eat anything! That lasted all day Friday the 10th and Saturday the 11th. My fever would go up to 104F and then down to 95.3F. (I didn't even know it could go that low!) I alternated between moaning and groaning, crying out to God to heal me, pleading with Jesus to touch me and falling asleep to a variety of crazy dreams and purple light shows!!

Shawn and the boys took turns praying for me. Rod came by and prayed for me and brought some "lemon-med," sort of like Theraflu I think. It would knock the fever down for a few hours at a time. I prayed for me. Then on Saturday evening while everyone was off at church, Gerard, (the man who lives in the main house of the estate, aka our host) came busting into our cottage and said "Shawn has given me permission to take you to the doctor!"

The next minute we were off to the doctor's office. Within minutes he was checking me out and putting me on an IV drip to deal with my dehydration. He gave me a homeopathic thing and sent Gerard to buy some electrolyte drinks to get me boosted in that way. Then he wrote two prescriptions, one for an antibiotic for the "stomach bug" and one for a probiotic for the diarrhea. He asked me to hold off on the scripts til Sunday afternoon as he felt I should respond well without them.

I went home still weak, but hopeful for maybe the first time in 48 hours. I had a fairly restful evening but was not really getting any better. Then on Sunday Shawn and the boys had a fairly full day scheduled with our host family so off they went. I assured Shawn that I would be fine. Well as soon as they left I began to feel worse. Another day in bed with crazy dreams, purple lights, diarrhea, etc. The doctor called and instructed me to begin the prescriptions.

I began to pray again "But God I need to be healed to be able to minister here in Africa." "God are you listening?" But it seemed like I was getting worse with each prayer. "God do you even care?" Self-pity and despair were deepening. Finally I felt like just giving up on all I was doing, the prayer, the rehydrating fluids, etc. and to wait for God to do what He wanted to do whenver He got around to it. (I know it's not pretty, but it's honest!)

Just then Shawn came in the bedroom. I told her what was going on. She left and quickly returned with the laptop computer. As she gently held my hand, she began to play a playlist of music for me that she was picking on the spot. First was When I Don't Know What to Do by Tommy Walker. Well the next thing I knew I had tears in my eyes as I raised a hand in worship to my Lord and Savior. Shawn assured me that I would begin to feel better in the morning.

God had sent His answer in the form of love, a loving wife to show His love. She gave me the personal touch, the words of encouragement, and the music to lift my spirit. Later that evening God took me to Proverbs 18:22 "He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord." I praised God and thanked him for my wife. Then He took me to Matthew 19:16-17 "Now behold, one came and said to Him, 'Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?' So He said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.' "

And God assured me that I had found a God thing when He sent me Shawn as my wife and that He will continue to pour out His love for me through her!! Amen!

Needless to say, I was beginning to feel better as I awoke on Monday. Still very weak but better. My fever was gone and I felt some strength coming back into my body. God made me strong enough to go to the prisons on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, coming home and taking long naps both afternoons. Also I was able to go to the Addict to Disciple group at Acts Christian Church on Tuesday night. PRAISE THE LORD for His faithfulness!

I've gotten stronger each day and I can say I now feel fully recovered. So, if you ever get a strange stomach bug...introduce him to a loving wife!