Whose Kingdom?

WOW!
So I never ever thought I would be in south Africa...ever.  And just in case I didn't stress that enough, I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD EVER BE HERE!
But alas, here I am.  This is my first time ever doing a blog so i should be quite interesting.  I feel like it may be tough for me because everything I would right downin this blog I just right down in my journal.  SO, to remedy this internal conflict I have decided to do some videos to blog as well.  I will put up the first one my good buddy Adam and I made the other day.

Anyway, this place is absolutely lekker.  This means cool.  I discovered it last night when a group of us APU kids went to a church with a bunch of youth from the church we went to in the morning.  And speaking of church North Hills church (the one I went to sunday) is soo good.  It's a semi-charismatic church and I love it.  The people are so free in worship and praise.  And I also love that it is mixed with blacks, whites and coloureds.

NOTE: Don't get offended about race stuff because here in South Africa people call each other what they really are.  There is no caucasion, african american, asian kinda thing like we americans try to pull with our political correctness.  There are four main races here.  White, Black, Coloured, and Indian.  The coloured people simply have a white parent and a black parent.  Simple.

However, it is insanely amazing how that actually happens now.  We learned a ton about the apartheid era which characterized South Africa from it's early beginning.  Although the word apartheid (meaning separate) was not given until the National Party seriously began the extreme segregation of races from 1948 until the destruction of apartheid in 1994.  I think I could write about this all day actually because I have learned so much just from one class of History & Culture, and from our visit to the apartheid museum in Johannesburg (JoBurg).

But seriously, I feel my heart and mind being transformed by this place.  Ever since the Dutch and British first came here they oppressed and moved out the original Afikaners and trekkboers.  For years, the people had no rights.  I can not write with words nor express in a video how terrible the many years of apartheid were.  And what amazes me and everyone else in this country is that when election time came in 1994, when the blacks and coloureds should have had revenge, there was none.  I will have to write more about this topic later because there is a man coming to speak to us today about how God moved in the country for reconciliation.  IT'S INSANE

Gosh, some of the other dudes over here and I have been doing some sweet runs through the nature reserve right next to campus.  They are filled with Zebra, antelope (which are called buck) and this stupid annoying birds that are fat and dumb and make tons of noise.  The campus here is so cool.  We have a waterfall, two streams, a swimming hole, radical prayer chapel, super cool rooms, and we can explore anywhere we want anytime we want!!

Chapel this morning was excellent.  Reg Codrington is the director of the place, we call him papa Reg, and he is such an awesome man.  I can't even explain his level of coolness.  He was reminding us that we are not here to establish ourselves or to gain anything for ourselves.  We are on borrowed time and this is HIS KINGDOM, not ours.  We are here to do kingdom work.  If Jesus were to stroll right onto campus and said, "Let's go do some kingdom work," we wouldn't stay on campus.  We would go down the road to Grey's Hospital and touch the untouchables, those who don't have family and are in need of the Father's love.  We would go to Haniville, a local township and be with the poorest of the poor.  We would go across the border to Zimbabwe and be with some seriously oppressed people.  We would work for the Kingdom, not trying to fix social situations without bring the good news.  Because what would happen if we merely threw money at the problem or simply brought just food without the gospel?  We would have millions of well fed, well kept sinners going straight to hell.

One cannot approach a situation like this just with money.  However, it is extremely hard to pay attention to any sort of message when you don't know if you will even last the night?    James says in chapter 2, "If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?"  Both of these things are needed.  Jesus' message is to clothe the needy and poor, look after orphans and widows but to also speak truth to all nations.

THIS IS HIS KINGDOM