Until All Have Heard!

God is good--New blog site

2010-05-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

Man it has been a great semester at UTA. God has really opened a lot of doors and done some cool stuff.

The 10 second version:

-We had evangelism going on twice a week pretty much every week this Spring. Literally hundreds were talked to.

-We had 60 hours of continuous prayer in the middle of campus and many ministries were connected.

-I'm going to Thailand to do mission work this summer and have actually started a new blog entirely, which is where I will be updating now. You can link to it by clicking here.

-Nate

Can These Bones Live?

2008-09-19T21:04:00.000-07:00

I wanted to start with something I have been thinking about more and more lately. Every time I share the gospel with someone I feel more and more like Ezekiel standing in the valley of dried bones. In short, what I mean by that is that every time I share the gospel, I know to a greater degree that there is no way for people to be saved apart from God resurrecting those dead bones. God raises the question in the passage- "can these dead (and dry-absolutely no life, no marrow-nothing) bones live"? I know that unless He shows up, nothing is going to happen. There is complete and utter dependence on Him, and that's the only way anything will ever happen.
Here is the passage:

1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. 2 He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. 3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, You know.” 4 Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.’ 5 “Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. 6 ‘I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the LORD.’”7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.”’” 10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

Another quick thought: Lost people don't experience relationship with God. They don't get to know His Love. They miss out on the greatest thing in the Universe, and the reason they were created. God hit me pretty hard with that after talking with a Hindu guy from India tonight.

Our task and our call is so important, too important to be neglected.

So a month later...

2008-09-12T11:10:00.000-07:00

Life is much busier than I thought it would be. Here's what's up:

I am back at home, living at home and going to University of Texas at Arlington on scholarship. I am pursuing a Civil Engineering degree and a minor in Business that I plan to use to help people in Africa get clean water. Should take about 4 years. In the meantime, I'll be busying myself in varied things and organizations and activities around here, such as getting more involved at church and school and going evangelizing. I also intend on using the summers to do very outreaches. I'm looking at doing a series of seminars about farming/sustainable agriculture, water technologies, and aquaculture, followed by an outreach to a foreign country to apply what we learned. As well as work to some degree with Missions during the summer. But that is in the future, and we'll see. I will keep all of you posted.

I'm sure many of you would like to hear about many of the things that happened over the last year, and I would love to share them. I'll talk about a different location every other Friday with a story and a picture-if i have a picture (and hopefully throw some other stuff in occasionally during the week). I'll start officially next week with the first location-Nashville, then Chicago, etc.

For now, just maybe a short snippet of travel:

So here is what my view was most of the time on the road. This or the back of heads. As well as a lot of the country. (It's really green up north esp.) You bond really well with people you sit next to over a bunch of hours. This may not be the most exciting picture, but then again, it illustrates the fact that 8-28 hours in a car at one time is not always the most exciting thing ever.

We started out with good 13 hour drive and got to Nashville. Everywhere we went we drove in a mini van, a 12 passenger, and a suburban which the band rode in. We covered a couple thousand miles in all up and down the east coast area, and were on outreach from June till August. This came after the lecture phase, which was spent entirely in Orlando learning, getting training and "practicing" (in a sense) for outreach.

There's no place like home.

2008-08-20T20:42:00.000-07:00

Wow, back in Texas. Being home is a little strange, but really good. I will be filling in more of everything that is going on here soon, and will be putting more info on here as I have more time now! Please keep checking back.

Prayers por favor

2008-08-08T15:22:00.000-07:00

Hey all,
I am in Tampa now, and quite busy(will update longer soon), but did want to ask all of you for some prayers. A few others and myself will be doing a series of teachings on evangelism to some youth and I am starting to get sick. But Praise God!

So please be praying for those times and for the times we take the team out into the city to evangelize.

-Nate

Update from D.C.

2008-07-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

Hello all,
It's been awhile I know, and I apologize.
We've been to many places and spoken to many, many people.

So far we've been to Nashville, Chicago, a small town in Michigan, Boston, New York City, towns in Connecticut and New Jersey, Washington D.C. and a town in Maryland.

We still have Atlanta, Tampa, and Orlando to go!

To give you an idea of some of what we've been doing:
We've done manual labor and helped out with larger projects for churches. We've run services at churches, done tons of evangelism (particularly in the downtown areas of the different larger cities), ran prayer stations in subways, and done lots of praying for different people and for the cities as a whole.

It's been nuts how fast it seems to be going by. I suppose that happens when you're busy and having fun.

A few highlights thus far:

In Boston (the city I was leading-with two others as well), we focused predominantly on Evangelism. I was able to talk with this homeless guy for a long while. I bought him some stuff to eat and afterwards got to hear his story. I was able to help bring some clarity to some of what the gospel says. He was open to Christ and wanted Him. It was awesome how up front both of us were with one another, at and the end I told him what I tell everyone I go through the gospel with-"Get alone with God and cry out to Him, and don't stop until He saves you." But I did pray for the guy, and also to his shock and surprise, gave him a huge hug. When he went to shake my hand I just told him "Man, come give me a hug." to which he responded "You sure you wanna hug me?" Pointing to his dirty shirt, I simply responded "Man, I don't care about your shirt, come here". I gave him a huge hug and boy did it filled him up. His visage had changed noticeably from "Today sucks man" to a smiling "Thanks for everything." I felt like we were old friends when we left, and to be honest, I hope and pray to see him again.

In New York, we went to the busy Subway station and set up little prayer stations (which I wasn't crazy about at first) but when we got there and started it was awesome. I loved it, and it is one of my favorite things we've done. I got to pray for a bunch of people, and got into an awesome conversation with these two people. They reminded me of two awesome people back home-Laura and Will. You know when you just meet people and you think "wow, I wish these people and I were good friends". You just click and it's awesome you know? Thats what it was like. The girl-Vanessa- especially had this interest and hunger to know more about some things in Christianity, and was just about to leave to teach English in South Korea for a year. The guy had just got back from India and was writing a book on it. They both were kind of under the impression that Christianity was just another way to get to the same God. But in reality, there is one major thing that completely and totally separates it from all others-That it is not on our own merit that we are put back into right relationship with God. It was an awesome conversation, but at the end of it my heart hurt. Badly. Here I was meeting these awesome people, but at the end of the conversation they were still lost. I know God desires each person to come to repentance, and that it takes far more than any of my words to save a person. It's just that when I meet people that I know, really know and get to see a part of their original design from God, and yet aren't really walking in the life that will ultimately matter in the end. It hurts. It's interesting how much and often my heart has hurt-been torn for people. It's rough at times, but I have hope for them. I pray and trust God.

I hope all are doing well.

May God bless you and the remainder of your summer. Hopefully another update will happen in Atlanta.

-Nate

Chicago and Boston

2008-07-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

Hey all,
I was finally able to hop onto the internet long enough to post something! I hope everybody reading this is doing well.

So first of all, the team is now on outreach. We've been to Nashville, Chicago, a town in Michigan, and are just about to leave Boston. We are heading to New York City, Maryland/D.C area, and Atlanta.

We stay in each location for about 8 days or so, and do a variety of things, but the two main things are practical work and a lot of evangelism. It's absolutely nuts to see how much I am learning about evangelism, about people, about myself, and more recently, about leadership.

In Chicago, we did a lot of prayer-walks. Which to be totally honest, I used to think were lame. But it blows me away how much of a heart you can get for a place being in it while interceding for it. In the last year, my mind has definitely been changed about those. But the highlight was going to the gay pride parade. There were 500,000 homosexuals (men and women) in a couple of square blocks. I will never forget what I saw there and how it broke my heart. The majority down there were drunk or high, and many were semi-nude and all over each other. I've never been in a place that got as gross that area-and predominantly everything the homosexuality is what made it that way (alcohol, drugs, sex). After looking past the preliminary stuff, I almost cried because I looked around and saw a depth to a brokenness, I saw all of these people who all have a horrible story of something that happened to them, some reason they are where they are, and to see how far they have fallen from who they were created to be was hard to watch. I won't go into the depths of what God did in me in Chicago, but it was huge. We went down and 20 of us passed out 2200 water bottles for free and told people we were Christians and wanted to bless them, and that although we agree or support what they are doing there, we love them. I was able to have some really good, long conversations there as well. The next day we helped clean up the streets where the parade had gone.

I will tag on this one last thing about the gay pride parade. The thing that upset me the most the whole day it took place was the other Christians there. There were two groups. The first all were yelling and telling them they were going to hell and they needed to repent-and while it is true they need to repent, and apart from true salvation through Christ, eternal separation from God is their punishment; they were not lovingly conveying that message at all, and in doing so were just a resounding gong (biblically speaking). However, shortly after all the repent signs and yelling Christians passed by, a really raunchy float passed by followed by 50 Churches in the Chicago area alone who were part of the parade and supported the Gay movement and were known as "Gay Churches". 50 CHURCHES. In the Chicago area alone. I mean I know that the church has well established a history of hating Gays, and that needs to be dealt with. But I had no idea that any church would honestly preach that God created some people Gay and God wants Gays to stay Gay. That is in direct opposition with the bible, and against the entire message of what the gospel says one must do with anything the bible calls sin.

Needless to say, Chicago exposed a lot of things to me that I had no idea were legitimate problems.

In Michigan we worked with a Church there for two days, did a good deal of manual labor and ran a church service until a storm knocked out the power.

I was on the team that led the Boston portion of the outreach, and it was a great time in this city. We did have a lot of opposition getting here-starting with a journey that turned from a 15 hour drive with food stops to a 24 hour straight drive with food on the road. But once here, we did a lot of evangelism, and I will hopefully will be able to throw a few stories up here soon. I am continuing to be broken by God and remade into what I know I have to become for God to get the glory He deserves out of my life. I've still got tons to learn, but God's being faithful to finish what He has started in me.

Thanks for the prayers, We-And especially me, need them.
We are heading to New York, and that's been a piece of work too, so please continue praying.

Love,
-Nate

Nashville and Chicago!

2008-06-24T18:28:00.000-07:00

Hello all, we had an awesome few days in Nashville working with a church there. We just arrived in Chicago and will be here for a little over a week, we are about to go to the place we are staying(we just stopped to eat) but I will be able to update more later.

Slowly coming to where I need to be & Evangelism

2008-06-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

It's been a good week. By good, I don't necessarily mean happy or flowery, but rather stretching and painful. Good not in the "how i felt about the last week" but rather "good for me" kind-particularly in the long run.

Class was shorter last week (approximately 12 hours in class) due to the long weekend. This week in class we went over communication. How to communicate, some don't and do's etc. And needless to say it wasn't in class that most of the growing and learning came from. Though class was helpful this week. We learned and put into practice things that have already been beneficial to me in regards to communication.

One of my purposes in coming to this school was to make myself totally available for God to further develop me into the man I know I need to become. I see areas of my life that require growth to do what God is calling me to do, and so that God can get all the glory out of my life that He can. I almost want to laugh at how often I come to a fork in the road. One path leading to the easier way, and the other, a narrow, hardly traversed way. I admit that I don't always choose the way my soul knows it should because it is not easy. To take captive thoughts, to die to yourself, to choose to Love and to choose to keep going deeper with God and farther from our human nature so prone to depravity is not easy. Satan doesn't like the progress, I don't like the process, but God's pretty smart and not only does He know what He is doing, He does it because to become what I need to be, it's what it takes.

I hope that is a clear thought. It made sense to me anyway.

Other things that have been up lately:

We went evangelizing in downtown Orlando again on Friday night (like pretty much every Friday). The picture above is of what we do when we first get there-Worship and prayer. We do it on top of the parking garage where all the vehicle meet and park. From there we partner up or get in small groups and head out to downtown. This last Friday we went out and each group was given money to go and reach out to all the homeless people downtown. One thing I learned from watching my friend Bobby who has been here for years is not to ignore the homeless. It's so easy to just walk by them and not even say hello. So we went down, bought them food, and listened to their stories-and many of them have such complex stories. We didn't just go to pat them on the back and say here you go, that's it. We went down to both share the gospel (or rather help speak truth to them because many "know" the gospel), and to just give them love and attention. I spoke with a guy named Lee who is originally from Kentucky. He had casts on his left arm and left leg, still had his hospital tag on his wrist from a few days earlier, and was just sitting hating life, trying to hold and flip through a magazine with one hand because the other one was broken also. One of the first things he told me was "To be honest, I wish I were dead". How that killed my heart. He couldn't really walk, so He just sat while I talked with him for over one and a half hours. Deep down I saw he was kind and sensitive, but He had walls built 10 miles high around his heart. So much truth had been exchanged for lies in this mans life, and it seemed like He saw so little light.

He knew much about Christ but He has never had a relationship with God. He believed in Him, even knew what to say about repenting and the like, but there was no transformation, no encounter, and no real relationship with God. I spoke all the love into Him I could, I was open and real with him and he was straightforward with me, but even over an hour and a half, I couldn't break through the walls he had around his heart (not that it is my job exactly). I know however that God's word never returns void. I know that sitting down with him while others had attacked him, yelled at him, mocked him, cursed him (even earlier that night) made a difference.

This is how it is in the lives of so many of the "untouchables" of Orlando. I find myself thinking often of how Jesus would have responded to them. Probably wouldn't just pass them by and ignore their hellos, despite many of their alterior motives. Some lie, some buy booze, some buy drugs, and it's always a balance between using discernment and being foolish in every situation. But Love, choosing to invest and help a change in each of them through process of love is such a balance. And more and more, I am learning that everything in life is a balance-a fine line that has to be tread carefully. Never too much or too little.

God's definitely using our team through evangelism here. There have been several times that I've personally been a part of intense conversations that because of a breakthrough that happens and God moving, end in my partner and I challenging who we've been talking to go, get before God and cry out to him to save them. Often people in this category have "prayed the prayer" before, and it's not at all about simply saying a few words and then being declared "saved" by men. While I have no idea the number currently of people that have accepted Christ through our evangelism, I know that people I have encountered have left the conversation hearing the true gospel and having truth spoken to them. I have learned from my past mistakes-that being to eager to get someone to "pray the prayer" to become "saved" is horribly misguided. If they are really ready to make that commitment to Christ, I will not be able to stop them from doing so. So I will be real with people, because past any sympathetic, truth dodging answers that is what they deserve, and what they truly need to hear. All of this I'm still working on and applying and striving towards.

Anyway, like I said, it's been a stretching week and a good week.

In other news, the outreach planning for Boston is going slowly, and we still gotta get a lot done in the 2 weeks before we leave for outreach! Yikes! The last two months have been such a blur. It'll be August before I know it I'm sure.

Thanks for all your prayers and support!

-Nate

Learning a ton in SOME

2008-05-19T16:36:00.000-07:00

It's incredible how fast time flies when you are busy. Well, it has been an incredible last-month I guess.

So, some stuff that has happened lately:

We held a basketball tournament for a neighborhood that has a lot of crime, and in serious need of change. The tournament went pretty well, and other than having to step in between a few people who were ready to fight, overall it had a positive effect and was able to bring part of the community there together.

Evangelizing is still a weekly thing (we go at least once). That has been tough but good lately. I was able to have a good conversation with a Muslim from Africa. I was even able to take a few people out who had never been before and show them how evangelism can look, as well as impart some of the knowledge I have learned from my own experiences downtown.

This brings me to something a little deeper. Going downtown and going amongst colleges and other places and applying what I've learned is completely necessary. To learn all that I am and be so fed and not go out, try to make a difference among the people who desperately need to have the gospel restored to what it is would be a crime against them and against God. God has begun to speak to me about carrying this back to Texas in some form while I go to University. I would love to do that.

The main obstacle in this is that most of the things I have learned here I haven't spent enough time coherently forming how to communicate it. I learn something (either in class or from God or others), check to see if it lines up with scripture and examine if it is true, and if it is, begin to apply it to my life as best as I can. For those of you praying back at home, I believe that this is something that God earnestly desires me to grasp while here. So, something those of you praying at home could pray for is that I am able to
1)Fully get everything about the restoration of the gospel that God has for me here& 2)That I am able to coherently form what I am learning into a solid communicable form so as to share this truth with others.

I have been reading a lot lately, all books I enjoy greatly such as Letters from a Skeptic, and Repenting of Religion (based off of some of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's writings), but one in particular I am loving is a fictional book called The Shack. I am about half way through and it has been presenting a view of God that is totally new at different points and is totally biblical. I love it so far and have found it hard to put down, and I highly recommend it to those who would like to get a fresh view of God.

In other news, I did celebrate my birthday this month (May 3). I am another year older. The last year has been good. It certainly had it's ups and downs, but has flown by ridiculously fast. I love where God has been taking me, and where He is spurring me towards.

Here is a picture of the leadership team for Boston during one of our planning meetings for outreach. We are in charge of everything, from transportation, budget and housing to ministry. The other two people here are Michael and Sarah. They are pretty cool.

Love you all,
-Nate

Back in Orlando

2008-04-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

Well, the last week was spent in Miami being taught by a guy named Bob Felder, as well as going out and evangelizing on college campuses there. I've found that college campuses are a much easier place to share the gospel with people than downtown Orlando on Friday and Saturday nights. Apart from the fact that all the people I've encountered on college campuses are sober, they are generally much more open to a conversation. Bob has spent many years working at Miami Dade college, which has about 100,000 commuter students between it's two campuses. He shared with us about what Mormons and Jehovah's witnesses believe, as well as some approaches He uses to get into a conversation and share the gospel. The majority of the time in Miami however, was spent going and doing various things-all involving evangelism. It was an extremely good week in which we were able to speak with and share the gospel with more than two hundred people in a personal setting.

When I say evangelism, let me share what that can look like. When I go out to evangelize, I go and strike up a conversation with people in the most real, normal way I am capable of. If they want to talk, great. If not, I pray for them as they or I walk away. I use a variety of approaches, but my end goal is not necessarily to get them to pray a prayer. Everyone in downtown Orlando on Friday and Saturday nights getting drunk or trying to get laid is a "Christian". People honestly believe because they walked down an aisle one time and prayed a prayer that it means they are going to heaven. A true "born-again" Christian life will be changed, it will be different. How can an encounter with Almighty God, creator of the universe not change a person. It is absolutely impossible for such to be the case. And while lack of discipleship, even backsliding exist, there should be a difference between them and non-Christians. The bible says "you will know them by their fruit". These are some of the things God has been showing me lately. So, the end result for me is to share the truth of the gospel with people and destroy the view of God so much of America has. It's incredibly how many people forget that because God is loving He is also Just. So I go, and my goal is ultimately to help bring a restoration of what the bible says apposed to the misconceptions many have. And if I do this, people will see that they need God not by what I say or do, but by the very revelation scripture brings. It makes the concept of "this is how many people were saved by this message etc" seem so trite and even wrong, because of an inaccurate portrayal of what it truly means to be "born-again".

So God is showing me a whole ton of stuff lately, including misconceptions I have held that now-to be frank-make me sick. And while I by no means know everything, or even a lot, I have a passion to grow and seek truth. God's also been giving me a heart for the people here in America, which I have struggled with some after coming back from Africa. How can a place that so vehemently claims to be Christian be so lost? I pray that God will bring about a turning away from the watered down gospel and misconceptions that many believe, and will do my best to help that. Thank you all for all your support and prayers. Together we are changing lives eternally.

-Nate

Off to Miami for some more training!

2008-04-13T08:59:00.001-07:00

Well, the last two weeks have already been incredibly down here and i have learned a ton. My school is actually driving down to Miami for a week to meet with a church and a teacher there and learn from him, as well as do a whole lot of evangelism on a college campuses there. I will try to find a place to update more in depth in Miami, but if thats not possibly then I will just update upon my return. Thanks for your prayers! I love you all and will update when I get a chance, but now I gotta go pack for Miami.

-Nate

Back at YWAM Orlando!

2008-04-02T18:55:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing awesome! Well, i am back in Orlando again! To those that are out of the loop, i apologize, as well as the length of time it took to update again. However, instead of updating here, i wrote out a pretty spiffy update letter, and if you haven't received one and would like one just let me know and i will mail it to you asap.

Well, first of all, Africa was incredible. It changed my life forever. It gave me a really different view of life and gave me a focus that i likelynever would have gotten had i not done this. (Save if God chose to do it another way). My life is not my own. Just that statement has been my cry to God. I found myself just breaking down crying over the astronomical needs of this world, and begging God to use my life to save the lives of others. Physical needs of course, but emotional, psychological, and most importantly-spiritual. There are still countless people in areas that have never even heard the gospel, yet we are spoiled enough to hear it 5 times, or 500 times here in America. In Mongolia for instance, we had a team there that did not have enough hours in the day to tell the gospel to people there. People there are just so hungry for it. If God wasn't leading me to go to college after this secondary school with YWAM, i would go be a missionary overseas...which brings me to my next point

Right now God has led me to do a secondary school with YWAM called the School of Ministry and Evangelism (SOME). It actually started this Monday and it is already awesome. The schools training consists of a lot of in depth study into the bible, but also focuses on evangelism a good amount. We get taught on a variety of things including the history of missions, styles of evangelism, apologetics of the bible. I am really excited to see what God does in this school. The school runs until mid-August, and I just found out that our outreach will stay in the United States, and focus on going to mostly locations and cities on the East coast doing things such as: evangelizing, working in a variety of ministries, and building up and encouraging churches and believers to list a few.

After the School of Ministry and Evangelism comes to a close this August, I will be flying back to Texas and registering for classes at UTA, then starting the following week. I must note however: that my purpose in going to college is not to better myself or my future, but rather to be able to more effectively help other people. I will be pursuing a degree in Civil Engineering and at least a minor in Business Administration (though possibly a double major). With this (or these) degree(s), i will hopefully be able to launch a Organization that focuses on bringing aid (food, water-such as wells or water filtration/piping systems, etc) to impoverished and needy people. But further than that, this organization would (through micro-loans and education) empower people to rise up out of their poverty and become self-sustaining. I will be working on that concept possibility during my SOME. At the very least I will be using my degree to enable my entry into countries inaccessible to a "missionary".

So thats the plan right now-but I'm always open to wherever God leads. I want to do his plans, not mine.

Thank you so much for any and all who supported me through your prayers and/or finances in my Discipleship Training School. You helped change many lives eternally-including mine. And thank you for all those who have partnered with me and gotten me to this secondary school-You are making an eternal difference. On Africa-There is just so much to tell. Again feel free to ask for an update letter-it covers some of the awesome things that God did through our team there. You can just shoot me an email at christs.follower89@gmail.com or give me a call on my cell. If you don't have my number, leave me a comment and I will call you or get you my number.

Thanks and I love you all!
-Nate

2008-03-03T12:07:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

I am back home in Texas once again! It's good to be back, and i am getting used to America again after several months in Africa. Expect another full update in a few days!

Greetings from Muizenberg!

2008-02-03T09:58:00.000-08:00

Hello Again!

My time in South Africa is going incredibly well. We recently made the switch with our other team to Muizenberg-which is by Cape town, and are all doing well.

But first things first-Let me tell you about the first month that our team spent in Jeffreys Bay:
We arrived on the 1st of January, and proceeded to do a wide variety of ministry. The first few days were spent seeing the town and townships, getting accustommed to the town and getting over jetlag. With then dove right in to the ministry side and did a lot of street evangelism in town, as well as door to door ministry in the townships. By door to door ministry, I mean that we litterally went door to door in the township and went and talked to the people, asked them if they knew Jesus and praying for them. It was cool to see, because here people are much more open to talking about deeper and spiritual things, and are very hospitable-not hesitating to invite you into their homes. Here is a picture of what some of the areas we were ministering looked like:

One of the most easily noticed things was the division of the black and white communities. You moved from a fairly normal town to extremely contrasting slums very quickly. Most of the townships have concrete walls surrounding the sides closest to town to prevent further expansion inward, and expand out from the town for miles.

While we had services that we did for various churches, as well as multiple times we went and did street evangelism, the next week was spent primarily focused in one of the townships. While we were there we did a lot of door to door ministry, as well as kids programs every day and services at night. Here is a picture of me getting to play with some of the kids during one of the programs:

Kids here can get incredibly crazy, and loved to climb all over me. Sometimes I would be carrying around 4 even 5 kids on me! It really illustrates how starved for love the kids here are. They are desperate for attention, and may never know love except what we got to pour out into them. I was able to speak at the church where we did a lot of work. Here's a picture, but it's a little blurry:

During several of the services, I got to pray with several people-3 of whom came to Christ!

Some other things we got to do was work and minister to AIDS victims, visit clinics and hospitals and get to talk to and pray with people who were really in need. There was a woman in particular whose husband was in the terminal stages of AIDS and had Tuberculosis. He didn't have much life left in him and was going to be transported to the emergency hospital. One person on our team-Jessica, got to pray with the wife, who was in immense turmoil because of how lonely she was feeling. They had only been married 6 months.

We also were able to do a lot of practical work around the YWAM base, as well as in the townships some. Including digging up weeds for a garden, some cleanup(Some of which was the grossest work I've ever done in my life-rotting garbage and human feces were prominent). And fixing up/repairing and cleaning a playground for a kid's program center.

In short, we befriended many people in the community, the base and the city, and were extremely sad to leave JBay. And it is so true that when you come to Africa, you leave a part of your heart here. But our attention is now turned to Muizenberg, where we have had a rough start to say the least (i will elaborate further in my next post.) However, out of that came something beautiful, and we are incredibly pumped about getting to start ministry early tomorrow!

Please continue to pray! Myself and our team desperately desire your prayers!

Blessings and Love!

until ALL have heard!
-Nate

Greetings from ZA!

2008-01-05T07:43:00.001-08:00

Hey all. I'm sitting in a internet cafe in South Africa! It's been awesome so far. It took 47 hours of travel to get out to here, but it has been awesome. The trip was long, but when you are traveling with those whose company you enjoy, it is fun. We spent new years in the middle of a 11.5 hour bus ride, and I got to pray a little for the new year. In two days of ministry 10 people have been saved and tons and tons have been prayed for. The first day we went evangelizing in the streets and in shops. I got to meet Mirium and Mario who worked at a butchers and pray with them it was awesome. I personally got to go to the community-the place where many people live in shacks the size of my room back home. We went with a cute little old lady named aunt matilda to work with and pray for the sick. One of the lady's whole life was just running on prayers. She was blind for two years before a person prayed for her and she saw again. She has AIDS though, and sometimes she gets really intense pain. However, everytime she gets into really bad pain, she says God sends her a group from overseas to pray for her. And she had not been sleeping the past few nights due to her pain, so she prayed one night for God to send a group, and the next morning, we got there and prayed for her. There are other things I've seen that are written on my heart, that I cant effectively write on here and convey how it affected me. I will say my beard has been handy-people here like it, and one man came up to me after we were done for the day and walking back to the base. He said he recognized my beard, and saw me praying yesterday for Mirium and Mario. He asked me to please come and bless his new home, and so Matthias(This guy from the J-Bay YWAM base here) and I went and prayed for him and his girlfriend and for their new home and his job-pretty much a ton of stuff. Specifically they also asked for me to pray for healing for Cindera's-his girlfriend-back and kidney, so I did, and she seems to be doing much better today(I visited her again). He also kept saying stuff like:how he saw that my team was full of God, how I shone of him and how I was a good man with a good spirit. It just shows how much we are watched in this town and how hungry people are for prayer. They thirst desperately for it. I've never seen such desire for prayer in my life.

It's funny how some people can lose their religion over a bad day, but here-A husband and an eldest son died, leaving a weak, older mother with AIDS with two small kids with no money, no food, and no way to get a job. The funeral for the son was today-he drowned on Christmas day. The father died in November from AIDS. All she had was those who come to give her prayer and God. She was so strong, and in spite of such a life-she knew God is good and that he will guard and keep her, and how that makes all the difference. It makes me hate the way we Americans are raised.

Please keep us in your prayers. Prayers make SUCH a difference. I've seen how they change this world and how God releases power when you pray. If you want to pray for specific things:
We are running a multiple hour church service tomorrow (the church services here can run all day long). Pray that God works in the hearts of those that come, and that he would guide all of our words and actions.

I gotta run here in a sec to keep preparing for the service, but I Love you all!

Until ALL have heard!
-Nate

Another update!

2007-11-03T15:02:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! It's been crazy busy the last two weeks, what with intense teachings and readings and intercession and an awesome halloween outreach.

So, here is what's been up lately.

First, our teacher this week was, Mary Sliter, or better known as crazy Mary. She talked about her life (which really was a crazy story) and how God delievered her from so much. Then she went on to talk about how she dealt with her junk and moved past it, as well as how to do that ourselves and help other people do it. Fridays here seem to be all about that kind of thing and getting freedom and moving past it and helping others do the same. She had some pretty interesting analogies of the old testament and tied them into how that looks in our lives. It was a spiritually stretching week-I guess I could say that about every week.

Ah, but more recently-HALLOWEEN! So in downtown Orlando, Halloween is pretty huge. They closed down a whole bunch of streets and it was packed with people-Drunk people, semi nude people, angry people, but just a whole lot of dressed up people having fun. So, what did we do? We went onto the busiest street in the city and went to tell people about Jesus. We go downtown or to the major mall here and just evangelize. However, on halloween with the streets being so packed with a bunch of people walking in darkness, we went to shine a little light. The main thing about 20 of us (out of 70ish) did was do dramas in the middle of the street to only music. In mine, we used Linkin Park's "In the End" and "Crawling". I played the role of Jesus, and the drama was about how people turn away from God to their demons (greed, bulimia, or cutting), yet Christ rescues them, but it is always the persons choice. I got to talk to a couple afterwards and tell them about Jesus, and I believe that they understood what I was trying to tell them (They were from Puerto Rico). I also got to talk to a Muslim man from Saudi Arabia who had never heard anything of Christ apart from that "He was a messenger". The Friday before Wednesday, I met a man who I spoke Croatian with, and I'll be seeing him again at some point. So I love doing it and I can't believe I haven't done it before. I love it. It's just another thing that I have learned and gotten a heart for here at DTS. Going downtown helps me to become bolder about actively rescuing the lost. God's presence is so thick here, its like He won't let me go through a day without learning something about Him or myself.

So on South Africa.I am so pumped about going now. I found out approximately how much it's going to cost and I'm around $1000 short. I know that God will provide, but if you could keep that in your prayers that would be much appreciated. I cannot wait to go there. We've begun to learn about South Africa during our outreach preps. and it's only throwing fuel on the flame. We also find out what the outreach teams are going to be on Monday, so I am definitely anticipating that.

I'm going to South Africa!

2007-10-19T11:49:00.000-07:00

About 20 minutes ago after we had some tests one of the staff, Carol was asked to come up to the front, and on her way up, I yelled "Carol, are you going to tell us our outreach location?" And she looked back at me and was like, "Yes". Everybody went crazy, but she told us that WE ARE GOING TO SOUTH AFRICA!!! Man, I am so pumped about it! Africa has totally been everywhere since we got here, so to be going there is going to be awesome!

Specifically, we are going to Capetown and Jeffreys bay.

I gotta go work here in a sec, but HECK YEAH!

I'm pumped.

So, Africa and Evolution

2007-10-17T10:38:00.000-07:00

Howdy guys. Hope everyone is doing as good as I am! My "official" parents finally got back from support raising, and they are really awesome. Their names are Jessie and Kristen, they are married. (Jessie is the guy). And, like I said, they are really cool. Other than that, life is going really well. We are being taught by Walden Owen this week. He is covering Evolution, dinosaurs, the age of the earth, cavemen, and a plethora of other stuff. It's totally blowing my socks off. I actually missed most of lunch because I was asking him so many questions. A lot of what he is saying is really complicated, and I love it. I don't feel like I have been intellectually challenged for like 6 months, so having to think logically about a lot of concepts is pretty sweet. I love the people down here, and I'm getting to know some pretty well. And it is beautful down here.

So, Africa. Do you have any idea what some of the injustices are in that continent right now? Do you know how many Muslims there are, particually in North Africa? I didn't at all. Through a series of things, God has put this country, but particularly the children on my heart. The first week of class we learned about intercession, and it was amazing. Guess what we interceded for on the last day of class (where we applied all we learned). Africa, muslims, and the children in Africa. Two days later at the church I go to here, they were going to do a service about Exodus, but instead, they had a few people from Africa in town. One was a man who had been through a lot during the wars that have taken place there, the other two were orphan children who had been rescued from their circumstances. They all went on to share about Africa and how children don't have any reason or time to dream of becoming something because they are too worried about if they will get to eat tomorrow. It was like God put a face for what was on my heart. I believe God will use the kids in Africa to begin a huge movement for His name, and that many unreached people and muslims will come to know Him through children. I mean, they are the generation that will be leading Africa in about 10 years. Africa seems to keep popping up everywhere down here, and it has such huge problems that I can't help but not think about it often. Here are a few things I learned about some things going on in Africa:

Children soilders are forced into service every day across Africa, and are expected to number around 300,000. If they do not join they have limbs cut off or are killed.
Over 6500 people die per day from Aids in Africa, many of them parents of soon-to-be orphans.
The number of orphans in africa is well above a million.
Only 3 percent of children in Africa will get proper education.
AIDS can be prevented from spreading from mother to child, yet many women don't know this and pass it on to their children every day.
It is not uncommon for women to be raped multiple times in Africa throughout her life.
There is a myth in Africa, a widespread myth, that if a man with AIDS has sex with a virgin, he will be cleansed of it and she will get it.
This myth ties in with a belief that the younger the girl, the more potent the cure.
This leads men to rape girls below the age of 2, many of whom are 5 to 9 months. (example-a report of 6 men raping a 9 month old girl is not unheard of).
An average of 5 children are raped every hour of every day.

That's a big part of why Africa is on my heart. There is not education available to many to dispel these sick myths and to stop the spread of AIDS. This place needs help. I've never been so Idignant in my life. My heart breaks for the loss of innocence and all the atrocities that are being commited daily. I hate it, and I want to make a difference, because I know I can. A school, an orphanage, education for as many as possible. Anything that can help. They need help, but they also need Christ, because so many are living without any hope. Waking up knowing death and hunger and war and nothing else. They need hope. They need help.

Love you guys,
-Nate

Wowza, it's already been 3 weeks.

2007-10-10T13:10:00.000-07:00

Here's some pictures. Bear with me, it's my first attempt.

This is where we usually have class:
Here is some of my housemates being goofy:
Here are some people chilling at our house:

Anyway, yep, what the title says. Time seems to be flying here.
It's awesome to see everything God is doing here in this school, and to just be learning everything I am is sweet. The director of our base, Michael Berg, is teaching us this week about the father heart of God, forgiveness, and dealing with stuff from our past (The topic is called Biblical Restoration, but that isn't exactly the clearest title). Something awesome that I learned last week, and something that has been a huge breakthrough for me is learning how to hear God's voice and learning about intercession. But the greatest thing about being down here so far is this-that we not only learn about Godly principles, about God and how to live like Christ, we actually put everything into practice. We are consistently challenged and expected to carry out and live what we've learned, and it is changing my life.

Something awesome that we've been doing as well here is called a 24 hour prayer. Right now the Islamic tradition of Ramadan is going on. The purpose of this time is to draw closer to Allah they believe in. Muslims are also expected to put more effort into following the teachings of Islam and they refrain from a large list of things including: lying, stealing, anger, envy, greed, lust, sarcastic retorts, backbiting, gossip, obscene and irreligious sights and sounds, sexual activities during fasting hours. In particular, there is a night that is called the night of power, which was last night (Tuesday) during which Muslims believe and pray for God to reveal himself to them through dreams and visions. They believe this night to contain special purpose. So, here is what we did at our school:
We signed up for 1 hour slots (both students and staff) and each person or each small group of people commit to pray for that one hour. There is a room that many people go to in a shed-type building (with A/C) and only do not if they have no way of getting there (for example-no car and they are signed up for 3 am). We go there and use what we've learned about intercession and have been praying 24 hours a day continuously for a week now I think. It's incredible and I love it. I will never think of Muslims in the same way. The intensity of what is on God's heart and what he gives us here is awesome. I love going and praying even though it's exhausting at times, because I know that it changes the world. That's pretty bold to say I suppose, but it does, not just for me, but for everyone that is praying there. Yay God!

God has also put the children of Africa on my heart. That is a huge story in itself that I will not unpack right now because it would make this post way too long. I want to go there and love on them though-for a lot of reasons.

I myself am doing awesome, a little tired these past few days, but I will catch up on a little sleep soon enough. I am growing closer to everyone down here too, and it's awesome. Everyone has seemed a little more edgy and tired though, possibly because of the lack of sleep (for the 24 hour prayer, students usually pray during the nights-not every night though-because we cannot miss classroom time for prayer).
So please pray for the unity and closeness of the students as well as the relationships here to continue to deepen if you would, because that is a big need right now. Also, if you'd like to, please pray that we all remain healthy and are able to take care of our bodies here. It's a pretty busy life some days.

I'm gonna go write some postcards.
Love you guys.

I'm here, and it's awesome.

2007-10-03T10:38:00.000-07:00

Wow, so Florida. It's awesome, crazy, wonderful, deep, fun, hard, tiring, inspiring, and energizing. All the people that I am down here with are awesome too. It's incredible to see how God got us here. For all of us, it's almost always the same story-we really weren't sure if we wanted to or not, not even sure if we could come because of finances. But God was calling us. He got every one of us here. From Latvia, Jamaica, Finland, and all across the U.S. I know for sure that this is exactly where I am meant to be right now, and that God has a purpose for me and for everyone here through this DTS. There is nothing like knowing that you are in God's will. Nothing like it on earth. I am so pumped about everything we are doing here to. We have intense worship and intercession, small groups, and we do work for YWAM and all their stuff here-called community responsibilities (I am on the jack of all traits crew, and we are doing drywall, mudding, taping, and sanding right now. But today is my day off.) Joe and I are the main two right now working on the maintenance crew. My housemates, all 6 of them, are awesome, and I'll be putting up pictures up here as soon as John (another housemate) gets back over to the library I am at after his CR with his computer. The girls that live on our street (Jon Jon) are awesome too! In total there are 11 guys and 24 girls. They are like a family already.

We also have a guest teacher right now teaching on hearing the voice of God and on intercession. It is crazy intense. It's been three days and I am already learning so many awesome things and hearing tons of INCREDIBLE stories. God is so awesome!
We have had a few fun nights all ready and my house has been established as the place to be. Jake and Joe from the Chicago area drove down an Excursion that fits about 10 comfortable, but that fits 15 or so when needed. It gets 10.6 miles to the gallon. There's a random fact for you. The rooms are tight, but comfortable, and it's fun because I like all the people I live with. I'll be putting up a lot of pictures on Facebook, as well as a few here in a little while.
I have been crazy busy, what with all this learning and writing and getting settled and getting to know everyone. Plus these lame library folk weren't given us cards so we couldn't get Internet access until I put on a little bit of the ol' charm. Then we got are Internet. So I will write to some of you soon, but you can feel free to write me at:

Nate Phillips
September 2007 DTS
P.O. Box 620487
Orlando, FL 32862-0487

Or call me and leave a message. I have time some nights to talk.

Man, I love being here. It makes me come alive.

Florida!

2007-10-02T11:51:00.000-07:00

I am finally able to get access to the Internet! There was a lot of problems thus far with getting a library card, but we finally were able to. Florida has been amazing. God is working crazy strong down here, and I already feel like I have a family whom I am close with. I've been pretty busy, but I need way more time than the 15 min. I have before Community responsibilities (I'm on the maintenance crew and we are doing more drywall today). I should be able to tomorrow, so I am excited. Every second here is just awesome, and I love it. I will write more soon!

Thoughts

2007-09-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking about how it is less than a day until I will be in Florida. Then I received a letter. Then I started thinking about how many people have helped me be able to go on this trip.
It was a little overwhelming to be honest.
It's amazing how much it can move your heart by having people trust and believe in what you are doing, as well as wanting to bless and support you in it. People surprise you so much with the goodness in their hearts. It's times like these that you can clearly see that in the darkness this world is so often enshrouded there is much light. I can't tell you how awesome it is to see how God has provided and how people have just been such a blessing in my life. There is no way I could ever have done this without God, but its awesome to see how God uses people to do things and how people are essential to God's plans. I'm so privileged and glad that I get to go do this program, and I hope I can be as much of a blessing to those I go serve as so many people here have been to me.

T-Minus 6 days!

2007-09-17T16:56:00.000-07:00

It's weird to think that in less than 6 days from now I will be in Florida around people I have never met, starting a new life essentially. I'm pretty excited about it, especially as I am starting to buy some of the last things for going. The finances I still need are kinda stressing me out, but I know that God will provide. While I am down there, i think i'll be able to update this site once a week, but I won't be sure till I actually do get down there. I'll keep everybody posted.

The gears are in motion!

2007-09-06T15:59:00.000-07:00

It's amazing to see where I am now as apposed to a mere month ago. The support that God has blessed me with is enough to send me to the school portion! I'm getting more excited as it's getting closer, now it's only 2 and a half weeks until I head down to Orlando! I'm sending the last part of the tuition for the school today, and have already bought my plane tickets to Florida, so the anticipation is building!

Here's a little back ground about YWAM for your reading pleasure:
They've been doing missions work since about 1960, but the Orlando school I am going to opened in 1993. As a whole, YWAM has schools all over the world and send out a multitude of people every year. I'm doing a DTS as many of you know, which has 3 months of classroom training and a 2-3 month outreach phase. If you want a little more in depth look at YWAM, go here.

Well, hope everyone is doing well, and feel free to leave comments!