pray for south africa!

Violence in South Africa continues to escalate against people who “foreigners” in South Africa. Most of these people have come to South Africa from other African countries. There are many, many reasons. Many come to escape war, oppression, suffering, and poverty. Some of my South African friends in Cape Town use the term “xenophobic attacks” to describe what is happening (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophobia).

Here is the latest BBC article on the spread of the violence and tension in Cape Town today: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7416256.stm.

Please pray for The Warehouse (http://www.warehouse.org.za) and SHADE (http://www.shade.org.za) communities as they seek to respond and stand up against the violence, fear, and hate. I spent time with these communities when I was in Cape Town and learned so much from them. The Warehouse is now responding to provide shelter for people looking for safety and fearing attacks on themselves and families. It sounds like the situation is worsening by the hour, as families are being chased out of their homes.

Please join me in prayer!

new pad in la boca!

I have hesitated to share much about my new apartment, since you never know how things will go. But, as of today, it is looking like a pretty sure thing! (After the owner/landlord’s questions on why a norteamericano would choose to live in this low income neighborhood and wonder about my pay stub salary. ha!) We sign the contract tomorrow and I move in next Monday and Tuesday! Thank you, Lord! It is a great one bedroom apartment in the La Boca neighborhood. Both the Deans and the Forcattos are within 10-minute walking distance. It was the first place I looked at….thanks to Walter spotting it on the way to Cora’s school one day. I think it will be a nice place to make home and the location is perfect! The historic and colorful section of La Boca is a tourist destination here, but the Lonely Planet tourist guide is quick to warn tourists to stay safe by not straying off or exploring without an “experienced guide.”

Looking forward to all God has ahead in my new “hood”! I’ll post pictures after I am settled in.

The next few days will be busy getting some furniture and essentials for the apartment. It will probably take awhile to get phone and internet connected at the new place, so I imagine I will be even more MIA then usual. Hopefully, I will be back in the blogging game before too long.

PS - For a sneak peek at my June prayer letter...click here. Although it won't be a lot of new info to blog readers. :)

may prayer request

New Argentina community prayer requests for May have been posted on the WMF website.
Click here.

another saturday...

Has it really been two weeks since my last blog post? The weeks continue to zoom by. I have been fighting some kind of cold/bug these past couple of weeks, as well as a stomach bug last weekend. Prayerfully, I will begin this week ahead healthy with more energy!

This past week I found an apartment that seems ideal! It is a great one-bedroom place in La Boca, the same neighborhood where the Forcattos and Deans live. I will be within walking distance from them. (Right now, I allow 30-minutes by bus.) The paperwork and approval process has begun and will probably take a week or two. Pray that all goes smoothly! This apartment will be hard to beat! Now the fun (stress) begins in furnishing it with essentials….mattress, futon, fridge, stove/oven, kitchen supplies, and a space heater (for the winter cold ahead). Plus, a lot of other odds and ends I know I will need! Thankfully, furniture stores deliver here.

Tomorrow is Penetcost Sunday, when we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit after Jesus’ ascension to heaven. Once again, N.T. Wright has some good words from his book Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense. I will close this brief update with a few quotes…I’m off to shop for my new pad!

“The Holy Spirit and the task of the church. The two walk together, hand and hand. We can’t talk about them apart….But the point of the Spirit is to enable those who follow Jesus to take into all the world the news that he is Lord, that he has won the victory over the forces of evil, that a new world has opened up, that we are to make it happen.”

“The wind, fire, and the brooding bird are given to enable the church to be the church – in other words, to enable God’s people to be God’s people. This has a surprising and dramatic effect. The Spirit is given so that we ordinary mortals can become, in a measure, what Jesus himself was: part of God’s future arriving in the present; a place where heaven and earth meet; the means of God’s kingdom going ahead. The Spirit is given, in fact, so that the church can share in the life and continuing work of Jesus himself, now that he had gone into God’s dimension – that is heaven.”

“The Spirit is given to begin the work of making God’s future real in the present.”