Many setbacks and much progress

Well i usually give some lame excuse for why i haven't submitted a post in a while. This time i believe my excuse is much more valid. A little under a month ago, my laptop was stolen from the church office. If you have been keeping up with my update emails or other posts, you might not even be surprised by this because of the pattern of crime surrounding our ministries. The tally is now up to 2 cars stolen, 2 more cars damaged from attempted theft, a car radio stolen, the youth group's money till used for the snack shop, a memory stick, bookbags including a wallet stolen from our bus while doing an outreach in a township called Ratanda, and about 50 soccer cones and 2 soccer balls stolen during the same outreach. That's all i could remember anyways...

Based on that paragraph it would seem that my 3 and a half months spent in South Africa so far have been filled with more heartache than heart development, and more problems that successes, but i dont think that is the case. Let me give you another list...

5 soccer balls given to the church, $500 donated towards helping me purchase a new laptop, $2000 donated towards helping build a soccer field, 1 person offered to sell us their car for about 1/4 the market price, and another person offered to pay for it. Oh and did i mention that people are being saved?

I'd say we are winning, and satan is racking up a large tab that God is making him pay back with interest.

Here are some more victories. Remember Sam from my last post? He was the prisoner on our soccer team at Leeuwkop Correctional Facility that is trying to reconnect with and forgive his dad. He has since spoken with his dad on the phone at least once and has expressed to me that things are going very very well. Thanks for your prayers.

Personally, i have recently been exposed to God in a motivatingly new way. It's difficult to describe, but God has honored my requests to connect with him more clearly by explicitly telling me things through Bible passages, prayer, and situations that have blown the ceiling off of what i thought God was capable of doing in my life. The main tangible difference is that i can now experience the Holy Spirit without any emotional fluctuations. It might seem trivial to some, or even counter productive to others, but anyone who has clinical depression like i do understands how much of a monumental step this is for me. Unstable emotions are not what im looking for, and going to camps or worship conferences that thrive off of emotionally soaring experiences end in emotional crashes for people like me. My faith has stabilized significantly which allows me to operate on a level which makes a practical difference in the lives of the people that i am minsitering to.

God rocks. If you don't believe me, read Psalm 34:8 "Taste and see that the Lord is good."
Here's the Greg paraphrase...
God says to us "TRY ME! i am so confident that if you give me a chance to show you who i am, and what i can do, and how much i love you, then the only response you will be capable of, is loving me back. Try me."



Hopefully more updates to come. Sorry for no new pictures, they were on my laptop...sad face