(The picture is of a giraffe blocking the road and we couldn't get by. Looks like he is playing chicken with us! )

This will be my last post for this amazing mission in Africa. As I am typing this, I am packing to head to the airport. I am so happy to be going home to see my family, friends, and to remember why I am an American. Ha! (i.e. unlimited access to cell phones, internet, and free refills!)

I have missed everyone so dearly and especially cannot wait to see Brownie and the kids! Spend 3 weeks away from your wife and you'll be reminded why Adam said WOW when he saw Eve. Spend 3 weeks away from your children and you'll be reminded why you are blessed when your quiver is full. I am so blessed to have the family I have. I could not do the Lord's work without the same calling on their lives. After 3 weeks in Africa I have no doubt what God has in store for our family. Everyone of us are called to share the gospel no matter where we are, what we have done, or who we are talking to. We are to live our lives denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Jesus. There is no doubt in my mind, no doubt in my praying, and no doubt in my actions, God is going to us to do just that.

While I am certainly going to love coming home, I have only traded one emptiness with another. While the hole in my heart that my family will once again fill, will not fill in the hole that is now there for South Africa and her people! I will dearly miss them until God sees fit to send us back. I have no doubt as well, I will not come back alone either. I believe God has made a great connection between the local churches here and us. We will be coming back!

I thank God for the 16,000 people that came to our mission and over 1200 souls that gave their lives to Christ. Thank God for the university. For the 27 students that gave their lives to Christ there, the ones that found freedom from their evil family traditions of ancestry worship, and the ones who found physical healing from the great physician!

I also want to thank my God for his fortress around me the whole time. There were many times I was in danger and yet He protected me. There were many times I was outnumbered and yet I was in the majority with the presence of God there. I consider it a blessing to be able to go in His name and represent His people. May we all have the priviledge of saying that at least more than once in our lives. I pray we leave this planet better than we found it! Thanks to the cross of Jesus Christ for the good things and the bad things that have been turned to good! Knees To The Earth!

Joey

Still speaking at the university this week. (See pic) Yesterday was a full and crazy day. I woke up, had breakfast, and was out the door. My first stop was a speaking engagement at a local business called "Clicks." It would be equivalent to say a CVS pharmacy back in Birmingham. I spoke to their employees before they opened up. There were 11 people there and we met in their back office. 4 of them gave their lives to Christ and one of them rededicated their life. After that I met up with the rest of the team who had been out and we got to tour the FIFA soccer stadium. (See my facebook for Photos) Wow, to think that the world cup was just here is amazing. We as a team dreamed about the possibilities of filling up this place in the future for a crusade. I suggested we bring groups from America the next time we come back and do a Pathfinders here! We could see thousands get saved! Join us as we pray over that for the future! I then had to go to a reporting meeting where I gave my report to African Enterprise! After that I prepared for the evening where I was whisked away in a car and after changing vehicles two more times, I arrived at the tent meeting in the middle, to be honest, I have no idea where I was last night. All I know is that I was told to keep my head down and get inside the tent as quickly as possible. Once inside I found about 160 people worshipping and praising God. They were dancing all over the place. I felt like I was at my prom again. : ) I quickly was brought to the front where I met 7 of the other pastors in the area and we joined in on the worship. After the worship and offering was taken, me and my translator stepped up to the pulpit. One very interesting thing happened before I was brought up, they asked me for my Bible, in which one man carried the Word of God and laid it on the pulpit in such a way I have never seen. There is such respect for the Word of God. I learned later that they do not look kindly on someone who throws around the Word of God like a rag and especially if you put it on the ground! They treat it as if it is a Holy book. Go figure! After my translator and I delivered the message, over 40 people came down to give their lives to Christ. I prayed with nearly 100 people last night. Many of them struggling with witchcraft and demons. Many of them wanting healing in their bodies. And many of them wanting protection from the evil in their communities. I do have to say that my box has been stretched a bit to say the least. The one thing I did notice, is how many of these people are becoming followers of Christ and they do not have a Bible. Please pray that Bibles flood South Africa! We are so blessed in America. I challenge you to get yours and start reading through it! It's like what your mother always said when you didn't finish your food, "You better eat that food, there are starving children in Africa who would kill to have that kind of food on their plate." I'm just saying...

Today I spoke at two services at the university. The morning service was incredible and even though my time was limited, I could tell God wanted to do something in the lives of these students! The evening service was not held on the campus but at their resident dorm. They had about 30 people show up for the service which I understand is good since only about 70 live in that dorm. I had more time to share the Word of God and we had two students come forward to give their lives to Christ! Praise God. One young lady who bravely stepped out among all her friends and walked down in front of everybody and prayed the prayer of salvation aloud for all to hear. WOW! Also, we had a young man come down that we had to deal with some things in his life. Pray for these South Africans. They are still into Ancestral Worship and they struggle with Jesus verses worshipping their ancestors. This is where a lot of black magic and witch doctoring comes from. Many of these students have this kind of background with their parents and they come to school trying to leave it behind but it follows them. Many Christian churches here allow worship of Jesus and worship of their ancestors to go on! So their is a tug of war going on for these kids spiritual lives. That was the case in this young man's life. We pray he is free and we pray that God is going to do great things with his life! He prayed to give his life as well to Christ! Praise God!

African Worship Service

Well today we finally got into the churches! Got to experience a true african worship service. I uploaded a video where at the end they turned it loose! Can I bring this home to High Point? hahaha! They love their music and they love to dance. I did not speak at this one, Scott Dawson did and we had 32 people come down to give their lives to Christ. To God be the glory! We left from there to do a 2 pm opening rally in the township of Kanyamazane. Very cool! Pray for me tomorrow I will be speaking at the university 3 times and possibly a rally tomorrow night. Thanks for all your prayers and all your help with my family. Love you all!

Worked with the Tshewane University’s campus ministry team to get ready for next week. I will be speaking to them at a prayer b-fast, a lunch hour service, and in the evening they will have an open forum where the students can take turns asking me questions. Pray I represent the Lord Jesus Christ with the utmost respect and preparedness! I love the fact that as I am dealing with this it is so much similar to the way students are back in the states. These guys are wanting to do great things on their campus but struggle with how to do it. Life is so much different over here and what works in the states is a roll of the dice if it works over here. So pray that I encourage them in the right manner. In the picture is Me, Lunga, Amanda, and Rose. Lunga is the African Enterprise representative in charge of organizing campus outreach for the universities. Amanda and Rose are leaders in the Christian Campus Outreach at Tshewane. They are wanting to start small bible study groups that meet once a month and I am coaching them on how to do it. Please pray for them. One idea I gave them is the project High Point has adopted called Project 333. Where you set your phone to go off at 3:33 pm to pray. Based on Jeremiah 33:3. They loved it and are going to do it. So looks like Project 333 has gone global now! Tonight we will do a prayer rally where Scott Lenning is speaking! Sunday we will have 2 large opening rally in two different Townships of Barberton and KaNymazane. Then Monday it is roughly 50 evangelistic meetings a day. There are only about 25-30 evangelists, so pray for those of us who have to speak a lot. One last thing to note for prayer, right now there is a stand off between the local labor unions and the South African Govt. It is a country wide issue and it affects schools, hospitals, and businesses. Picket Lines are drawn even in front of schools. Teachers are striking and students are not in school because of it. Pray this get’s resolved this weekend! If not, our speaking in the schools is done for. Also, if they can’t reach an agreement, they are expecting rioting and confrontation. Because we are registered with the U.S. Consulate here in SA, we are getting updates warning US citizens to avoid public places where confrontation is expected! Pray that God’s work will be done no matter what it takes and that we can use this strife as a tool to bring people to Christ!

Today was a great day. The rest of our team finally got here. Scott Dawson, Mike Greer, and Gina Handley. We picked them up at the airport and basically got them settled in. Teaching them some new African phrases! So glad they are here now. Gina wasn't in her room but about 5 minutes before she was put online to make facebook fan pages for the event. Scott Lenning is a slave driver in these parts. hahaha! Be sure to check us out on facebook to follow me doing campus ministry at the university. Type in Mbombela Campus Outreach in the search bar.

We finish up tonight on two rounds of counselor training. Songe Chibambo our African Enterprise connection is leading the training. See picture! Tomorrow we are taking a day with the team and soaking up the local culture. We are going to the open air markets. I'm glad since Brownie gave me a long list of things to buy and that just includes the things for her. hahaha We start our first rounds of evangelistic meetings this weekend. So please pray for us!

Today I was in the township called KaNyamazane, South Africa. All I can say is wow! So many people, so few churches. Anyone want to come here and plant a church? High Point will back you. :) We can call it High Point South Africa. :)

We met with all the local pastors who gathered together in one of the churches. They had some concerns about the mission and we had to go in a calm things down. Funny, even in South Africa churches have a hard time coming together and working as one. Plus you still have alot of leftover feelings from the Apartheid. Here you have black Africans, then you have Indian (from India), then Coloreds (Black and Indian mixed), AfriKaans (Dutch German white people), and then you have the British white people. Then they all live in their respective communities and struggle with race relations! The township of KaNyamazane is a Black African township. In this town ship alone they will do 4 meetings each night because the township is divided into four sections. So each section will do a nightly tent revival and then a big rally at the end of the week in their local soccer stadium. Please pray that these churches will come together and do great things for God! I attached the photo of the van, they call them buses here. My partner Scott Lenning has been driving it. They drive on the left side of the road. Everytime we come to an intersection I just close my eyes and pray. hahaha! He is doing a great job for an Americanas! :) Pray for our safety as we travel throughout the region. Love you all!

We arrived at the first border patrol from Nelspruit to Swaziland. I see the United States on my passport as I am standing in line and thinking, how blessed we are that we can cross state lines rather than country borders! Today I will have been in 3 different countries! We made it through the border patrol to leave Nelspruit to go about 20 yards and stop for the Swaziland border. We made it through there and then had to do the same thing again to get into Mozambique. It is nothing to see soldiers with ak47’s on their shoulders watching and staring you down! In fact our vehicle was stopped by a truck of 7 soldiers and their captain to interrogate us. Thankfully our guide is sharp on her feet. We could have easily found ourselves in jail. She got us off because she told them we were missionaries here to pray for the people of Mozambique! We made it all the way through to the city of Mapotu. It is here we stopped for some bread called pao cooked over a stone fire. WOW! We then went onto catch our ferry to the island where we got to see the Indian Ocean. I got in it and man was it cold! Honestly it was cold I never got over knee deep! After eating some Mozambique style chicken we headed back into the city to hit the marketplace. Negotiating is an understatement for this place. I still have a headache trying to figure out US dollars into Rand and then into Mozambique money that I will call Mets for short! The transfer rates were spinning in my head while I had 5 guys selling me 5 different things! Uhhhggg! I did negotiate one item that my wife wanted so bad. And she is getting it and I feel like a hunter who went out and killed it! Hahaha! After that, we had to get back to Nelspruit! Back through all the borders again to finally eat dinner at the pastor of one of the churches house. He had another guest pastor their from Pretoria, South Africa. I had an interesting conversation with him that I will reveal to the church next Sunday in the prerecorded message I will do right here from South Africa. You will have to attend church to find out what it was!

Wow what a day yesterday. It started at 5:30 am this morning when our ride to Mozambique showed up to transport us and give us the tour of South Africa.

We saw an amazing sunrise as the sun rose over the Drackensburg Mountains. The first thing I noticed was the endless fields of sugar cane and banana trees! Workers in the fields using primitive tools to harvest the crops. I got my first glimpse of the different townships that I will be doing street preaching in. I will be at bus stops and different marketplaces around the township to share the gospel. All I can say is “I was not ready for the impoverish living conditions mixed in with the occasional western culture . You will see hundreds of thousands of people living in mud huts, straw shacks, and tin boxes. Then you drive down the road a few kilometers and you will see great mansions encased in fences lined with barbwire. I was taken back and honestly I am crying as I type this! Trying to make sense of it all! I saw so many people unaware of the conditions in which they live. Our guide showed us the river where so many who don’t have a place to sleep will sleep on the river banks and she said it is nothing for crocodiles in the river to snatch them up in the middle of the night! It is pretty much a heart opening experience. I uploaded a few photos on facebook of our trip to Mozambique. I have a bunch more but it is late and I have to get them off of my other camera and Scott’s camera!

Landed in Nelspruit, South Africa today. Finally met up with one of team members Scott Lenning. It was good to see a familiar face and a friend. Scott caught me up on everything he had been involved in while he was in Tanzania. Amazing stuff. Thousands of people made a commitment for Christ. I have uploaded a picture of me at the Nelspruit airport. It sits on top of a mountain that has had the top cut off and leveled out. It is a very cool airport. We met up with our contact with Mission Africa Enterprise, Mrs Kathy. We got settled in our lodge and then we went out to eat in the city. Met up with one other contact who went to eat with us, his name is Lunga. He is 26 years old and will be traveling with me to speak at the universities. I leave in the morning at 5:30 am for Mozimbique where I will get to dip in the Indian Ocean and power kite. So tomorrow is all play no work! :)

Well I landed in Johannesburg this evening after an 18 hour flight over the Atlantic and a very hard good bye to Brownie and the kids. It was real hard to turn and walk away towards the plane. The trip over was rough with a lot of turbulence, but nonetheless I enjoyed the people sitting next to me and I did get caught up on some movies and books! I did read in one book about taking a risk for the cause of Christ. Piper the author said, "Because we do not know what will happen tomorrow, all of life is but a risk. Don't waste your life on menial risks, make them count for Christ!" That is my prayer on this journey! One nice lady that sat next to me was from Zambia, SA and after sharing with her it turned out she is a believer and we had a real nice talk about Jesus in America verses Jesus in South Africa. I do have jet lag and the fact that I had dinner on the plane when we left Atlanta and dinner again on the plain about an hour out, really works on the ole noodle. I will adjust though. Tomorrow I will get back on a plane for Nelspruit and will get to meet up with Scott Lenning one of our team members. Looking forward to seeing a familiar face. Well that is all I have at this point since it is midnight here and only 4:30pm back home. Keep checking back as I log this entire Journey!

Tonight I was surprised by the men of our church who came by to pray over me and the family. It was a sweet time and intimate time with God. This must have been what it felt like for the Apostle Paul to have the elders of Ephesus lay their hands on him as he was leaving. Paul said it was a sad but sweet time. After the men of High Point left I could sense a relief that came over the family! Everyone is somber but at peace with God's will through this! We covet your prayers! Thank you High Point for being the greatest church in the world!

Before I leave!!!

It is August 10th the night before I leave for Nelspruit, South Africa! just in case you are not sure where that is, here is a map.

I am having to rush to get everything done from packing everything to doing bills and filling out back to school registration forms. The kids are going back to school the day I fly out! Gotta love it!

The mood among the family is what you would expect! Everyone is busy going on with their lives but there is an elephant in the room and you can see it on Brownie's face every time we look at each other!

I would be lying if I told you I was not worried a bit! But I guess that is because I am here with time to think about it all.

It is going to be 3 weeks of speaking like crazy with a crazy schedule. I was told I will have time to play a bit. I might even get to go power kiting in Mozambique. That would be on the coast of the Indian Ocean!!! Youtube it if you have never seen it. Very cool and very fun!

Thanks for reading my blog, I will update it every night except for tomorrow night maybe. Tomorrow night might be difficult since I am flying out at 5pm and will be on a plane for nearly 20 hours!!! I will let you know what books I read and if God reveals anything. :)

I will post pictures and everything here!