Live a Life Worthy of the Calling

I have been studying the relationship of Paul and Barnabas lately. What an intriguing friendship. I've also had the opportunity to listen to a few speakers and pastors in the past few months speak on these men in the Bible. These men are examples to me of what it means to live a missional lifestyle.

I ask myself the question on numerous occasions, How to we 'recruit' missionaries? or How do I get people on board? How can we create passion for Christ and spreading the message? I think that if we look at the lives of Paul and Barnabas we find our answer. Paul was a 'developer of people'. He took Barnabas and helped rekindle, refine, and refocus him to be a better missionary.
In Turn:
1. Barnabas listened to Paul's story to become a better missionary. I need to listen to this generation's story to gain perspective.
2. Barnabas looked beyond Paul's past to see the future. I need to look beyond, not ignore, but to see the potential of individuals.
3. Barnabas linked with Paul to serve with others. Just look at them in Antioch. I need to look for individuals who have a passion for the ministry that I serve in. Link with them. Train them up. Learn from them.
Live a life worthy of the calling. Rekindle. Refine. Refocus. On Jesus.

Building a South African Playground

Last summer('06) I was part of a team that worked in a township outside of Cape Town, South Africa. We accomplished what we thought was going to be impossible. We built a playground for the local, township pre-school. The plan was to build a balance beam, a monkey bar set, and a swing set. We also built a fence to go around the playground area. I came across some short clips that may give you an idea of the work we did.

After we had just cleared the ground of trash, rocks and other unnecessary things, we measured out the playground area. After we had done that, we started digging holes for the posts. Once the holes were dug, we began getting the supplies together to make the playground pieces.

This clip is an example of how we had to drill ever hole to attach our pipes and other pieces of wood together.

In this clip we are trying to get the metal poles to stay in the holes we have drilled for the monkey bars. It's not as easy as 1,2,3.

The next clip is after we got the monkey bars up. I am sawing off the metal pieces to make it safe for the kids. Rachael is taking a piece of lumbar to get drilled.

We had to mix our own concrete to fill the holes. The clip below shows a few township boys who showed up to help us work. This is a great thing! Typically the teenage township boys are into so much trouble or are very lazy. These two boys decided to help us and it made a big difference in the community, as they acted as examples to the other kids.

Our completed swing looked like this-(we actually used tires for the seats):
Here are the famous monkey bars:

We also built the balance beam and the fence, put a brick walk way in, and built a roof on a store.
The time that wasn't used for labor was used for love. We ran kid's camps and loved on the kids in two different townships.

Local Newspaper recognizes Widow's Might Ministries

A local Michigan newspaper wrote a great article on the ministry that I work with, Widow's Might Ministries, Int'l. The focus was on the ministry and the Garden Walk Fundraiser. You can read the article online by clicking here.