Taking a Stand

South Africa 6 - Hoërskool Sentraal, Bloemfontein

One of the most inspiring moments of my latest South African Tour came on a Thursday morning at Hoërskool Sentraal, in Bloemfontein.  

My manager Helena had felt prompted by God to try to put me in two High Schools while I was there.  God made the way, and both went extremely well!  (In one of my next posts, I'll tell a story that flows from the first school, J.F.)

But this morning, during the assembly, I had chosen to tell the story of my mom's funeral, the first time I every heard worship, and the prayers of a dying mother that have now been answered.  We also presented the song that I have written about this, called "There's a Place of Immeasurable Blessing", off the Broken & Complete CD.

As we went into the song, I closed my eyes as I most often do during a deep devotional song, and kept them closed the entire time.  The Band played it skillfully, and I invited the kids to sing the "Hallelujah, Amen" parts.  As the song wound down, I felt prompted to sing the last "Hallelujah" a cappella.  The shock came when I opened up my eyes:

All 1,000 students were on their feet.

Here's how one of the students explained it to me after the chapel:  "Well, during your song, after you had invited us to sing with you, two young women just stood up in the middle of the hall, ignoring the spectacle others might have thought they were making of themselves.  The reaction was immediate, as many others then stood with them in an attitude of dedication - deciding against peer pressure, and taking a stand in worship.  Over the course of a minute, the entire hall was standing up - sure, some of us now standing in the peer-pressure of the moment: to appear to NOT stand in respect and worship of the God that was being honored in that moment."

The Principle, a gracious and godly man, came up afterward, tears, emotional, and so encouraging.  He expressed that in his many years at the school, he could not remember a more powerful chapel - it touched him so deeply, and he implored us to come back again someday.

I finally got to hear from one of the girls who first stood - and she explained that in that moment, in that space, God was so holy, so awesome, so worthy of adoration - how could she not stand?

Exactly.

Hakuna Matata

I don't know about you, but I like Pumba's character in the Lion King.  Funny, affable, just an all around great guy.  "Hakuna Matata - such a wonderful phrase..."

Well, after a very hectic few days of ministry, my South African Pastor friend, Danilo, was asked by my manager, Helena, to give me a "day off" with "no worries"!  Danilo is from Kimberley, South Africa, and his wife Suzette, and awesome family Simonae and Dianlo, basically lavished on me a "death by hospitality" experience.  This included Danilo's version of a "no worries day off" - visiting a very cool farm with large, predatory cats, and then off to shoot a Wart Hog.  Wow.

I thoroughly enjoyed the large Cats, especially the Cheetah and Caracul.  They are amazing creatures!

And FYI, I didn't shoot the Wart Hog - Danilo did, and he field-dressed it on the spot, and gave the meat to some of his African work-mates.   

By the way, the Wart Hog no longer has any worries.

Sometimes you have to lose something to gain something too!

South Africa 4 - Bloemfontein

One of the hazards of living out of a suitcase for a month is the fact that things you normally have time or facility for, like a haircut for example, can become a bit more inconvenient, or at least out of your comfort zone!  Fortunately I have a manager in South Africa who knows how to quickly organize such things!

Alyssa is training to be a hairdresser.  And I hadn't had a haircut in 4 weeks / things were getting a bit wooly!  She started by asking me if I wanted a number 1, 2, or 3.  I chose 3, and out came the trimmer.  BUZZ.  Wow.  A few more skillful cuts with the clippers, and voila - job done!

There was hair everywhere on the floor. My hair grows fast anyway, but this was ridiculous.  And not to force the analogy, but it did remind me of the parable of the vinedresser...

Pruning seems to be a truth in the larger remit of the Kingdom - it is necessary to keep things from getting out of hand.  I mean, things grow. And things left to themselves and unattended rarely or never get better - they either corrupt, become unruly, and then deteriorate.

Hence the discipline of pruning.

Any good Orchard keeper will tell you that unpruned trees don't produce near as much fruit as pruned ones, and are much more prone to disease and branch- breakage than trees that are properly pruned.  Hairdressers say the same about split ends and unwashed or unconditioned hair, but being a man, I'm not near as up on that as my wife and daughters, who could most likely lecture on the subject!

But I do know, that as with many areas of life, godly discipline is a healthy thing that keeps things from growing out of control and from making a mess, whether its politics, economics, spirituality, stuff in my garage, or on my own body!

I am fascinated that a chore as simple as getting a haircut can remind us that we probably need to regularly do a "pruning inventory" - what needs to get trimmed off so that I can reduce the clutter in my personal, my physical, and my spiritual life?  It's a discipline well-worth the engagement, as it will make much more room for fruit in the long run.

Flat Tires

South Africa 3 - The Karoo

Bummer. Somewhere between Capetown and Bloemfontein we got a flat.  If this wasn't nowhere, we could see it from there!  (found out later it was near Richmond, a concrete loading dock in the middle of nowhere where a train stops once in a blue moon!)

This is one of the many parts of touring that are quite unglamorous - right up there with keyboards breaking, and 3:00am wake up calls!

Harry and I got it fixed, while Helena and Benjamin (their 9 year old son) waited by the fence in the brush. It's in a part of South Africa called the Karoo - WIDE open spaces man.  Wow.

Then we found out later from our sound equipment provider, Rocco, that there were an inordinate amount of flats on that section of motorway, and the local authorities believe it might be the work of a local tire company in need of some extra business. Hmm.

But the first item of importance in a world full of "bad things that happen", is: how will you respond?  Freak-Out?  Get cynical?  Become despondent?  In fact, if you think about it, it's the ONLY thing we can control - how we respond.

Truth be told, this is probably one of the best definitions of worship I think I've ever heard - "a proper response to God".  Of course then comes a million definitions of "proper", but suffice to say, Micah 6:8 is a good place to start!

I guess a final thought would be how God Himself responded to a fallen world.  John 3:16, Romans 5:6-8, and Philippians 2:5-8 give us a good idea...

Harry and Helena responded great, took it in stride, and we were on our way.

Resurrection

South Africa 2 - Fishoek

Paulus came home from work and found that Donnie had hung himself. Donnie had been sexually assaulted by boys at his school, and had returned home, incapable of handling what had just happened to him, and decided to end it.

Paulus was a paramedic at the time, and reckoned that Donnie had been dead for at least 20 minutes.  He cut him down, called for an ambulance, and began CPR.  Believing in his heart that his son was dead, Paulus could not bring himself to stop CPR, and in his own words "received the shock of my life when the dead breathed."  Donnie came back from the dead.

Today the loving family open their home to visiting ministers, guests, etc. who minister in Fishoek Baptist Church, and it was such a blessing to be at the receiving end of their hospitality.  Bernice should open a restaurant the food was so awesome, and Paulus could not give me enough hot chocolate, coffee, cake, etc., whilest sitting me in front of his warm fire, and blessing me with his company.

Donnie is unfortunately impaired from the lack of oxygen to his brain for so long, but dutifully helps his father around the house, and in the garden.  He welcomed me quietly, and took my suitcases from me with strong arms.  He gets up early every day to read his bible, and on Sundays always puts on a jacket to go to church.  Solid and faithful, he was a true blessing.

All of us have a story.  All of us who are in Christ are a resurrection underway, as the Lord changes us from Glory to Glory, and renews our minds, soul, and spirit.  It was a blessing to intersect these precious lives, and be blessed by them, especially when I thought I had come so far to bring a blessing.

"I'm in Missions because of you!"

South Africa 1 - Pretoria

And now to one of the most awesome countries on earth, South Africa!  I have had the privilege of being here 20 times, and am so blessed to be here again.

The main reason from coming was an OM Senior Leadership conference, hosted by a number of OM Leaders in South Africa, including Reinhold Titus from Namibia.  It was such a blessing to be with him, and that got even more special when he told me that one of my songs had a big part in him getting into Mission.

That song, Haunting Eyes - was my first ever missions song.  I wrote it in Mexico back in the 1980s, and recorded it the first time on an old cassette called "Living in the DMZ".  More recently is has appeared on "Seasons & Souvenirs", and my Missions Compilation CD, "Send Me".  Reinhold told me that it was while listening to that song, that he made the final commitment to the Lord to commit his life to world mission.

At the end of the conference, I met Dodo from Switzerland - who proceeded to introduce herself to my by saying, "I'm in missions because of you!"  I had done a bit of ministry at a Christian Arts School on the Boden Sea a few years ago, and remembered wondering if it had made any impact.  Well, watching Dodo lead around 40 students from the OM South Africa Training Program in an awesome musical showcase left me with no doubt - this young woman was "bringing it" in a big way here in South Africa!  And I literally just got this from her in an email - SUCH a blessing!

"Hi Bill,

T'was really cool to meet you! wow… that is already a week ago!

hope you enjoyed the long african style Graduation ;-)

Keep up your amazing ministry, cus that is what God used to call me into missions :)  Thanks again for that!

blessings, Dodo" 

I then flew down to Capetown to start the tour, marveling at how in just a few short days I had been so blessed to see fruit from sowing ministry in years past - that a young Namibian and a young Swiss are now in Mission and making a huge impact because of obedience in the past.  I'm grateful that God allowed me to experience that, remembering that the smallest of deeds is of infinite more value than the greatest of intentions.

The Guestbook

Serbia - Final

As we were closing our time in Serbia, Zsolti, the pastor who helped to organize much of our tour there, asked me something in Hungarian, and handed me a book.  With the Hungarian letters decorating the front of it, and Hungarian and Cyrillic written inside it, there was no way I could have made out what it actually was! 

Turns out it was a guestbook, and he wanted us to sign it.  No worries, me and the band began to fill in a few pages, giving our thanks, blessings, greetings, hopes for them, and then signing it with a scripture verse underneath.  It was cool to be able to leave something tangible behind…

And then it hit me - we just piled up some stones in the middle of the Jordan.

Memorials are cool things.  Firstly, they remind us that "We made it here".  I wrote a small inscription on top of Mt. Shasta in Northern California when I was a teenager, the only one of a party of 3 to actually make it.  The other two were my dad, and my High School friend and drummer, Dan Wilson.  Both have since passed away prematurely.  But as humans, there is a sense of accomplishment when we have arrived at a critical destination, especially having travelled so far, or worked so hard to get there.  Certainly our tour in Serbia would fit that definition!

Secondly, memorials remind us that "We have left something behind".  Sure, this can be self-aggrandizing, or gratuitous man-pleasing, but it can also be a legitimate thing - to leave a piece of yourself in a place where you have made great investment, or sacrifice.  It was an honor to write in that book for Pastor Zsolti in Serbia, who is obviously making greater sacrifices than we, and yet he extended to us the grace to write in his book - a tool that marks his journey, his progress of life as he lives out on God's altar there in Serbia.

But thirdly, and to me so much more importantly, is that memorials mark that "God has done something here".  And in that, with our tour in Serbia, there was no doubt.  God so worked miracles there, from supplying a sound-system from literally "nothing" for that first venue when our Sound Equipment didn't make it over the border from Hungary, to the "Great Cloud of Witnesses" (See previous Blog-post) who cheered us on as we played for what we thought was only an audience of seven.  But nothing compares to the joy in heaven, and the joy in our hearts, that people committed their hearts and lives to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior in that short time we were there, and that lasts forever.

There's another "Guest-book" in heaven.  It's called the "Lamb's book of Life".  Only we don't sign it.  Jesus does.  And he uses a crimson signature.  And isn't this, in so many ways, what it's all about on this side of eternity - extending an opportunity for Jesus to autograph lives?