The Final Update

I'm back! And with a proper internet connection, I can now let you all know how South Africa went. In one cliché word: amazing. I wish I could think of a better word, but my vocabulary is limited. Thesauraus.com suggested I use prodigious, which means the same thing, but in more syllables. So, yes, my experience in South Africa was prodigious.

In a more serious note, South Africa was a huge life event that I will never forget. Many things about myself were defined and solidified in such a short time. How? Because God was working every single aspect of the trip from the very first day I decided to go (December 8th, 2012) to the final goodbyes our team said at Denver Airport on July 31st, 2013. In fact, I would argue God planned this event from my birth on March 20th, 1991 as a integral part of my life. You could even go further back and say that God planned this event from my conception of around June, 1990. The point I am making in this long and drawn out explanation is that God is so incredibly and beautifully sovereign. This is a truth I have struggled with quite a bit before (as I am sure many of you have struggled with it too). But God showed up in so many ways showing me how wrong I was to, even for a second, to doubt His hand in everything. God imprinted on my heart to read Habakkuk and Job, both of which show His sovereignty in clearest light.

The theme and teaching lesson of this mission trip was God's sovereignty. Get use to that word being used in this post, because it is critical to understanding how this entire trip went for me.

The first week in Cape Town, the American team helped with Northpine Baptist Church with the South African team. This South African team was comprised of about 30 highschool aged kids, who ran the Holiday Club (VBS) for the Northpine area of Cape Town. Unlike VBS in America, the Holiday Club at Northpine wasn't ran from a curriculum but from the minds of the students themselves. This means that they would come up with the memory verses, the stories, the crafts, the plays and the programs. As the American team, our jaws were dropped to see all the work they put into this Holiday Club. I mean, they took sharing the gospel with the younger kids so seriously that it made me almost feel ashamed with how we treat VBS in America. Did I tell you they also spent the night that entire week at the church too? That way they could always be around each other working on the Holiday Club. And I promise you, they worked the entire time (i.e. very little down time)! They considered 6 hours of sleep a restful night. It might just be me (actually it isn't), but I have never seen such fervor and zeal from such a young group to just teach the gospel to the kids. Never before. Of course, God was at work through this all, demonstrating how He will enact His will through whomever He needed to, including highschool kids who had such a divine understanding of the power of the Gospel. I was incredibly blessed to have seen the Northpine Youth at work that first week!

The second week was probably the most challenging. I went to Khayelitsha with about half our team to run a holiday club, by ourselves. On top of this, Khayelitsha is a part of Cape Town that we would consider the slums (they called it townships there). Finally, most of the children didn't speak English. They spoke Xhosa, which is one of the clicking languages (and turns out you couldn't just do any click; there are right and wrong clicks!). We did have translators, but it was still very cumbersome to teach the kids anything about the Bible. We were relegated to only teaching about the Bible for about 15 minutes of the three hours we had the Holiday Club. Needless to say, that night I was slightly frustrated. I wasn't sure how we were ever going to teach these kids the gospel with such a barrier. Then it became clear to me. These kids just need to feel the love of Christ. Many of them grew up never knowing their father (I was asked several times how many children I had). I don't even know how that would feel. Just touching the kids would put the biggest smile on their face and they would then hug my leg and not leg go. Why? Because they have never felt that sort of care and affection before in their lives. This is where God taught me, once again, His sovereignty. Sure we weren't able to communicate very well with them the gospel, but God was reminding us that His love can be demonstrated cross-culturally and that's all that was required of us now. In essence, we were planting the seed so that down the road the kids can think back to when the Americans came all the way to little impoverished Khayelitsha just to show them love, care and affection and wonder why we would do that. What gave us such joy? And hopefully they would research that question and come to the conclusion that it is Christ that gives us such joy.

The third and fourth weeks my team was at University of Cape Town (UCT). It is the best university on the continent of Africa, so it was fairly liberal. The whole purpose of these two weeks was to share the gospel with the students. This meant we would just walk right up to a person and ask if they had a few moments to listen to us. We would then share "The Four Spiritual Laws" booklet. In America, it isn't practical to be as straight-forward with a person when you want to discuss your faith, but in South Africa it is. Anyways, the team and I engaged in over 150 gospel conversations and had a handful of decisions for Christ (I don't have the exact number). One thing I began to realize when I talked to the other members on the team was that I was getting almost exclusively atheists when I talked to people. Most other people got Muslims, Hindus, or some form of Christianity. But no one was getting the proportion of atheists that I was getting. At first I thought it was some weird chance but then I realized the theme of the trip: God's sovereignty. I have a passion and a particular skill for Christian Apologetics (the reason why I believe in the Christian faith). The atheists would often ask the question "Why does a good God allow evil?" or "Who created God?" or "Why should we trust the Bible?" and so forth (if you don't know the answer to these or any other questions, just let me know. I love answering those questions). Because of my God-given talents, I could answer these questions right away with a thorough answer. I don't know how well other members on the team would have done, but I know that those questions are right in my areas of interest. Me running into almost exclusively atheists wasn't by chance, it was by design from a God who had this in His plan from the beginning of my life.

One of the last things we did was a Jesus Film outreach in Khayelitsha. What we did for this was show The Jesus Film on a screen via projector in an open place within the township. Anyone was welcomed and we had about 300 people show up. Of those 300, 150 of them gave their life to the Lord. It was a very exciting experience to see people change so much through a film that showed the gospel in Xhosa. It was a very fitting way to end the mission trip with such a reaffirming event of the power of God.

One of the most powerful things I learned from this trip that was happening the entire time was the power of a Christian community. I grew so very close to everyone on the trip and felt so comfortable with everyone. I truly understood the meaning of brothers and sisters in Christ. They are the people I shared some of the most incredible experiences of my life and they helped me understand and process a lot of what was going on and see the truths that God was teaching me (and I to them). I have had Christian community before, but never anything as intense as this. It gives me the standard to what kind of community I want to build with fellow Christians no matter where I go in life.

In summary, this summer was absolutely incredible. I want to thank everyone that supported me. I would never have been able to experience God in so many ways had it not been for everyone's financial support. The biggest thing I learned (and you are probably sick of reading this word by now) is that God is absolutely, positively, completely and thoroughly sovereign in every single instance of our life and for eternity. We often lose sight of that (as I did) in the here and now, but in the grand scheme of things, God has such a perfect and divine plan for each of us. We just need to be patient enough to see it.

I want to post about the fun things we did too, but this is getting incredibly long as it is (I really should split it up). I'll have to post another time.

Eric

First Thoughts of South Africa

I finally made it to Cape Town a little over a week ago! You may be wondering why I didn't post earlier about such a big thing and that's because internet connectivity is incredibly poor down here! I will only be able to connect about once per week to give updates and they will be small updates in themselves.

Anyways, it has been an exhausting week. With over 20 hours spent on a plane and 8 hours in an airport, the travel down to Cape Town has been quite the adventure. But I am excited! This week we are helping with Northpine Baptist Church with their Holiday Club (think Vacation Bible School or VBS). There are two things I have learned in this time: one, South Africans have a ton of energy and two, all South Africans just know how to do dance and do it well! Like everything else so far, it has been tiring, but I know it is the work of God and ultimately is for His kingdom!

I would like to point out some of the biggest differences I have noticed between America and South Africa so far:
1.) Everyone drives on the left side of the road (the first few days were terrifying at times)
2.) Free internet just isn't a thing. Many places require you to pay for their internet. And the places that don't require payment only give half an hour to an hour of internet.
3.) The toilets are tall. What I mean is the distance from the rim to the water is at least double that distance in the U.S.
4.) Power outlets are a rarity. In the U.S. it is hard to find a spot in a house that has zero access to an outlet. In SA, it is expected that a room will have only one outlet. In addition, the outlets here don't have two plugins, but only one and an ON/OFF switch. Reason being: the plugs are ridiculously huge! We have a tiny little lamp in our room and I swear the plug weighs more than the lamp itself!

Alright, those are my thoughts. I hope that this small glimpse into South African culture will be enough to last until next time! I would also like to make a note that I was able to get all my funding in on time! So a very big thank you to all my supporters!

Like always keep the ministry team and I in your prayers for strength, wisdom, courage, joy, peace etc., etc.

It reminds me of a verse in 2 Corinthians 12:9 - "But he said to me, 'My grave is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

Exactly One Week Away!

In one week I will be on my way to Cape Town! It is hard to believe that this whole mission trip has been in the works since December -- just over 6 months at this point! I really can't contain my excitement very well, but it isn't a "all-at-once" excitement, but a gradual build up excitement. Think of yourself as a 7 year the night before Christmas. It is like that, but much more gradual yet higher total excitement!

One thing I would like to post here is that I won't be able to update this blog as compehensively as I previously thought. The reason being is that we are not allowed to take our laptops with us (I guess I could take it, but in all honesty, it will probably be more of a hassle than what it needs to be). However, I will have my phone and I just downloaded the Blogger app. Basically, what I think I will do upload shorter blog posts throughout the trip. Then, at the end when I am back home, I can post longer, more exhaustive blog posts!

Finally, an update on support raising: I am at $4,515 with $1,785 to go! I know God will provide somehow, someway! However, if you are reading this and would like to give, you can give on my Cru profile at https://give.cru.org/0691240.

And, as always, keep the ministry team and I in your prayer. It will be an exhausting five week period, but so rewarding and humbling at the same time. We need prayer just as much as the financial support!

Until next time,

Eric

The Home Stretch

This is it. The final run. I am leaving for Cape Town in 23 days! With that being said, I felt that I should update everyone on how I stand support wise.

At the moment, I have raised $4,215. That means I have $2,085 to reach my goal of $6,300. I trust in God that the support will come in these last few weeks. This is a very faith-stretching experience, and I know that I need to keep that in perspective. I want to thank all my supporters thus far no matter what you have given (prayer, money etc.). I can only trust that God will bring in the rest!

The Final Batch (hopefully!)

Hello Everyone,

Although this post is coming a little over a month from when I leave for South Africa, the journey to this point started way earlier! I decided on a Summer Project (what Cru calls mission trips) after the past four years, thinking they weren't for me. But God sure has a way of making you do things He desires. In a Jonah-like experience (you know, minus being swallowed by a fish for three days), I went from not even thinking about a Summer Project (SP for now on) to wanting to go on one no matter the cost (even if it is $6,300)! Regardless, I am happy with my decision and am in the final stages of South Africa preparation. Want to know what that looks like? Fortunately for you, I took a picture:


Yes, that is a Christmas tree poking up from the top. It's Nich's, my roommate. He is going on a SP too, but to cold Russia and you should follow his blog too here.

That is the last of support letters I need to send out, God willing. In total I have sent about 130 letters out. That means I have wrote my address

Eric Long
406 Packard St., Apt. 315
Ann Arbor, MI 48104

over 260 times (it is committed to memory now and forever). Seriously, I am starting to get a dent in my finger where I have been holding the pen. I have no idea how people did the support raising prior to computer printers. Lots of respect for them, lots of it.

Anyways, more seriously, this whole process has been very faith-stretching for me. I know God will provide. He absolutely will. But the question is how? Will he let all the support role in right away, that way I can sleep easy? Or will it come in very slowly over the entire time I'm sending out letters? Perhaps none of it will come until a week before I leave. Not ideal in my opinion, but I would trust God's opinion over mine any day. What if it simply doesn't come in? Like what if I am short $2000? What then? Am I not suppose to go on the SP? Maybe. But maybe God is building me up for something greater. Romans 5:3-5 succinctly explains my thought process on this:

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

No matter what happens, God is building character in me. Now I wouldn't really call support writing "suffering" (my hand will beg to differ!), but it definitely has been much more stressful than I was expecting, which easily qualifies as a trial. James 1:2 further hones in on this point:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

Therefore, I gladly count it joy. The results of support raising are far more important than the support itself.

I need to wrap this up soon (I'm sure you are getting bored). If you made it this far, keep reading because this is the good stuff: prayer! I need lots of it. I mean, lots. Doing God's work isn't straightforward and easy; it will be frustrating, difficult and exhausting. So a quick prayer list:

• Divine strength, stamina and wisdom for the ministry team and I
• God will soften the hearts of South Africans. Pray that they are extra prepared to hear us when we come
• That the final support I need will come in on time (I'm at about $2,200 of the $6,300 I need)

That is it. My simple, first post that marks (on the internet at least) the beginning of an amazing experience and journey! Check in every now and then. I plan to update this enough so that you have a general idea of what I am doing the entire trip! If you have any questions, please do so. This blog is here to give my supporters (and anyone who wants to read this, I won't discriminate) a chance to "be there" with me.