Thin places in the Kingdom...

At this moment I’m suddenly encouraged by thoughts of the kingdom.

That may seem like a weird statement (when I read it I think it is) but I’ve come to find that in my life I have these bizarre moments where my heart feels warm and I realize that I’m in one of those “thin places” where the kingdom of God is so near that I feel as if I could just reach through and step into it.

Maybe I’ve had too many cups of coffee, maybe it’s just a combination music, reading blogs, looking at pictures, and thinking about my own emotional state that just create this moment. I honestly don’t know. I do believe, however, that God is near. He is so very near, at every moment, and that there are just some moments that He knows we need Him to touch our hearts. It’s like when a significant other spontaneously says that thing you love to hear or just gently touches you at the right moment and you feel the love that you crave when you weren’t even expecting it. We’ve done nothing in that moment to deserve/ask for this love, but they freely give it because of their mysterious love for us (mysterious because I sometimes wonder why anyone would ever or could ever love me).

I’ve actually been experiencing love in a new way this week. I dove off a cliff (metaphorically speaking) into a new realm of community, laying bare my heart in scary, embarrassing, intimate ways. I sometimes still feel strange when I look around at people who now know my heart more than some ever will and feel extremely vulnerable. There are people who now have the knowledge and power to hurt me at the very core of who I am. They can throw salt into and rip open a wound that has been healing for years (and isn’t quite healed yet.

Their response, love.

They have loved me and continue to see me through this time. When you live in that tension of being able to be hurt by anyone by no one does it community reaches a whole new dimension. The question was asked, and is still being asked, what if this is what community always looked like?

I believe that this is what the kingdom looks like, a place where we experience it not just in serving and intentional times of seeking, but in the random (or not so random) moments when we feel unloved and abandoned, moments where we least expect to feel the touch of God. It’s in those moments, too, that the kingdom is near.

March Against Xenophobia

Today was Africa Day, a day to celebrate the forming of the Organization of African Unity (now the African Union, or AU). Normally it's a day to celebrate African independence and pride, but today was different. Africans here in South Africa decided that it was time to take a stand against Xenophobic attacks happening right here in our province. Zimbabweans, Congolese, Malawians, Mozambicans, and more have been subject to violence in the name of fear and hatred. On this day they decided to march, and we marched with them. In the past I've really wondered what a march could accomplish. I know that even America's history is marked with different marches for independence, rights, and freedom. But in this day and age, is that effective anymore? Well, I still don't have the answers to that, but to see the hope in peoples faces, to hear the songs for freedom, to march along side Africans in their hope for a better future, this is something I see as worth it. So Brian, Doug, Mariah, Manasseh (a friend from Zimbabwe), and myself went out. These are the pictures from this time. It was an amazing time, even when the rain hit. We sang, we danced, and we created hope for the future.
















At the end of the March there were a few speeches. One given by a woman who traveled down for this march from Zimbabwe. She spoke of many marches being had up there, and every time being beaten and sometimes imprisoned for the hope they have for a new nation. After several more speakers, one of the youth from Zimbabwe read a letter written to President Mbeki (the South African president). In essence, the letter stated that what has been happening to foreigners in South Africa was unacceptable and that whatever the government is doing to help is simply not enough. It also spoke about the South African governments lack of involvement in the political situation in Zimbabwe and how this country needs to help to step in and mediate for a better outcome. They listed the hopes and demands of the people, most of which I couldn't really hear over the crowd and through the rain. In the end the document was signed by several of the leaders of organizations present for the march and handed over to the Presidents aid who promised that it would make it into his hands. We finished the day singing the South African National Anthem (well, they sang, I listened). It was a good day and a hopeful day.






Here are a couple of videos from the march. Possibly more to come!