"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not depend on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6



To begin this last blog of the 2006 World Race year, I want to thank all of my prayer supporters, financial supporters, friends and family members. Without you, I know that the Lord could not have done the work that He wanted to do through me. I truly am forever grateful for your hearts, your thoughts and for your Love.

This year has been a year that is basically the beginning of my life. I have been through 26 years of ups and downs, tears, joy, happiness, relationships, college and a career. But, my 27^th year will go down as the year that the veil to the world was lifted off of my face. I was so sheltered in my life, I didn't realize the extent of what our world faces. I didn't see the true need for people to step outside of their boxes and take hold of the calling that the Lord has for their lives.

When we were in India, Dr. Samuel Thomas (founder of the orphanage) said something that I will never forget. He said that the Western church is a dedicated church. They will go to church on Sundays, cell groups during the week and read their bibles. He then said something that will challenge me for the rest of my life. He said that the church of the East is a surrendered church. They live in a life of persecution, they see people die because of what they believe and they surrender to the will that God has for their lives.

This year has been an ongoing challenge to realize how to be surrendered. How do I know what my purpose is in life? How can I possibly make a difference in this life? God has given me a glimpse into this world as to where he wants me to begin to find out. He has shown me the need for the gospel in Mexico. He has let me touch families that have suffered from hurricanes in Guatemala. He has brought me into Buddhist monk's lives to show them the destructive path of Hell that they are following. He has let me live amongst the lost at a Buddhist monastery in Thailand. He has shown me the life of persecuted orphans in India. He has shown me a revival in the Catholic church of Poland. He has shown me a love for Christ in the Coptic Orthodox church of Egypt. He has shown me hundreds crying out for Christ to come into their lives in Uganda and He has shown me what AIDS is doing to the entire continent of Africa while in South Africa.

I will never be the same. I never want to be the same. Why would I want to live a life that is not on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ? Why would I not want to do what Jesus did while he was on earth and pour love on to people? Why would I not want to show the only way for us to get to Heaven. I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through the Son (John 14:6). Why would I not want to tell the world that the Lord wants everyone to repent and be saved? Why wouldn't I want to share to the world that they are being lied to by a fallen Angel that is condemned to Hell and he wants to take everyone with him? Why wouldn't I want to share that the only way to get to heaven is to be born again in the Spirit of Jesus Christ? To accept him as your personal savior of your life and to be rid of the sinful lives that everyone on this planet has been born into.

We have been lied to in this life and have been told that money, sex, power and materialism will make us happy in life. Well, I know that I am not called to that life. I am called to a life that shows that there is a hope in this life. A hope that is called Jesus Christ and if you ask Him to come into your life, then you can live a life that has true meaning. A life with true assurance of knowing where you will go if you die. An eternity in Heaven and not Hell if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and BELIEVE in your heart that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9).

“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4

I woke up to the beautiful view of little children running around with not a care in the world. I saw in their eyes what the Lord wants us all to see in life and that is the beauty of Joy and Love. I knew that even though these little kids had it hard in life the Lord was watching over them and wanting everyone of us to see the joy of life through them.

After seeing the kids off we were told that we were going to visit an HIV/AIDS community living house. We pulled up and I immediately felt like we were intruding with the amount of people that we were bringing to this house. The house looked like a four bedroom home with no more than 15-20 people and we were a group of 23. I prayed as I walked around the house and asked the Lord to speak to my heart.

As I walked in the back yard it was as if the Lord was guiding me to the exact places where he wanted me to go. I felt the Lord put compassion in my heart as I walked through the opening of the door. I pealed off down one hallway as I saw about 4 beds lying in the living room. One lady with full blown AIDS was lying in bed while others walked in and out. My heart broke at that moment for these people and all I wanted to do was love on them and tell them how much the Lord loved them.

Just as I was about to sit in that room Jacques called me down the hall to the men’s ward. As I walked in, I saw in a room no bigger than 12 by 12, three beds with three men lying in them. Paul, Jacques, Lloyd, Lloyd’s brother, our translator Nicholas and I crammed in this room. I stood near the door and all I could feel was that I needed to get closer to these guys. There was a chair in the corner of the room next to one of the sickest guys, so I went for it.

As I sat in the chair I knew that the Lord had chosen me to speak to these guys. I was the one positioned right next to them and the translator looked at me and said that I can begin. At that moment I knew that I was talking with men that had very little hope in their eyes. They were at level 4 AIDS; which is the highest level of the disease; and their life expectancy was questionable as to how much longer they would live.

At that moment I felt that the Lord wanted me to speak about Heaven and its beauty. I went into detail on what Heaven is going to be like and how there will be no more death, no more hate, no more destruction, no more war and no more disease. I told them that there will be a day that every single one of us in this world will die but there is a hope for us in this world no matter our present situation. The hope is Jesus Christ and by confessing that Jesus is Lord and BELIEVING that God raised him from the dead you can be saved. I told them that I believed that the Lord had sent us to them that very day to share with them the hope of Jesus Christ and that the Lord wanted them to know that their was a better place and that place is called Heaven.

I did not know if these men were saved or not but I trusted that the Lord had us there for a reason. I asked if any of the men would like to accept Jesus into their hearts and one of the men sitting right next to me (Bongani, who could barely speak) raised his hand and wanted to pray with me. The two other men said that they already new the Lord but we could see that one of them repeated the prayer as we said it.

As I reached around Bongani and felt the bones push out from his shirt, tears built up in my eyes. All I could think about was that the Lord brings hope to the hopeless. Here was a man that had no hope in life. He lay there on his bed in pain and suffering waiting for his day of death but the Lord decided to use us this very day. He decided to send us to this house and share the love that Jesus brings, the hope that there is more to this life than this present world and that believing in Jesus Christ was the answer to all questions. Knowing that Jesus lives in his heart he can speak to Jesus as he lay on that bed, that he is not alone and that the creator of this world wants an intimate relationship with him. That is true and pure HOPE.

Lord please bless Bongani the rest of his days on this earth.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” 1^st Peter 5:8-9

The world that I am caught up in at the moment is probably the most action packed of the year. We bounce from school to school preaching and then we are off to a kid’s camp for the weekend. We were told that we were supposed to design a camp completely from scratch for seventy 7^th grade kids. With 48 hours the Lord did amazing things.

The journey was called Quest and the kids were about to learn about the unseen war going on in the spiritual realm and what their role was. This was quite a heavy topic for these kids but this was exactly what the Lord put on our hearts and from the very beginning the Lord was moving.

The kids arrived we divided them up into ten different colored teams. My team was the blue team and my kids were Musa, Kanya, Lwando, Gama, Shane, Songezo & Rawande. The first night started out in worship and we praised God together dedicating the weekend to Him. We then went into the first sermon which Gary preached on the unseen war. I then took my boys and talked about this complex topic that our world faces.

Saturday was slammed from the morning on. We began with worship and then went into the second sermon on who we all were in Christ and how we were created. Then the fun came of three hours of games, games, games. I just so happened to be volunteered to be a human water balloon target. I laughed when I heard about it because I thought that there was no way these kids could hit me, then the girls said that I would be blindfolded. It was hilarious and the kids pelted me pretty good a couple of times.

Saturday night was the highlight of the weekend because the sermon was the Gospel. We started off with two of our dramas called Thief and Set Me Free. We could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit over the entire meeting and we knew that the Lord was going to work. Gary then shared the Gospel and when the opportunity to truly accept Jesus Christ into their hearts, every kid except one girl who already new Christ came forward to say the sinners prayer. It was a very emotional time for all of us because this was a new beginning for all of these children. Praise God.

Sunday morning I closed with the last sermon on the Whole Armor of God. Gary prayed over me and we asked the Holy Spirit to guide me. I led off with who we were when we have the Holy Spirit and who each one of them was in Christ Jesus. This is a topic that I am so passionate about because if grasped this is the key to our walk with Christ. Everything revolves around the pieces of the Armor of God. I then had the kids stand up and put on the Armor of the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of piece, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation the sword of the spirit.

In closing we did something special with the kids by knighting each and every one of them. We hand made 70 cross necklaces and knighted them warriors in the army of Jesus Christ.

I pray that the Lord would truly touch each and every one of their hearts as they leave camp and protect them where ever they go. I pray that the true Love that Jesus shared on this earth would be shown through them to others. I will forever remember this experience.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13

When I heard that there was a chance to attend Beat the Drum for an additional week or go and paint a Bible College for our next ministry, I knew that the Lord wanted me to focus on Beat the Drum. I was overjoyed when I felt this calling because this was exactly what my heart desired. One more week teaching about Jesus Christ, HIV/AIDS and focusing on Abstinence, praise God.

The school was Lemakia High and Sarah Rinn and I had a class of thirty-six rambunctious tenth graders. The plan for the week was as follows. Show the movie Beat the Drum on Monday, teach class on Tuesday, show the movie In Your Face on Wednesday and present the abstinence commitment and the Gospel on Thursday.

After the movie on Monday Sarah and I dove into the class Tuesday with an ice-breaker and then followed the lesson plan. We both had it on our hearts to put a lot of time into the dear Francis box which is a box that the kids can put confidential questions or concerns in. This box gives us the best opportunity to know what is going on in the school as well as with our kids.

The responses were once again heartbreaking. Some of the kids openly confessed that they had AIDS and they were so happy that they could finally tell someone. Some of the kids said that they had been raped by their boyfriends and where scared of what they would do to them. Some of them asked questions like, if I sleep with a virgin will I get healed from AIDS? As you can tell our hearts were broken with every story.

Wednesday actually became a blessing because we were able to get the entire tenth grade class after the In your Face movie. We were only supposed to get them for the movie but because of a huge blessing from the Lord, we were able to split the guys and girls up and talk about sensitive issues.

Gary, Paul and myself took 66 guys off to a separate room. I opened up speaking on the hard facts that their culture is facing. I had six guys stand up and told them to stand in the corner. I then told the entire room that if all of us were sleeping around the statistics tell us that we will all be dead by 35 years old. Because of what the disease is doing throughout South Africa, 1 out of 10 boys that are sleeping around at the age of 15 will not live to see 35. This is a startling fact and that was the exact thing that I wanted them to feel.

Another issue that I spoke on was the importance of loving on those that do have HIV/AIDS. I knew that some of the boys (stats say one out of four) have AIDS. The decision that they had made or their parents had made is something that they are going to have to live with until they die. My heart poured out for them because I wanted these kids to know that if they lived a drug free and abstinent life, it was actually very hard to contract the disease. Based on the questions I could feel that so many had someone that they knew who had the disease.

After Paul ended with the true Hope of Jesus Christ, I faced something that I will never forget. A boy about sixteen years of age came up to me and pulled me to the side. He introduced himself and then began to speak to me in a very soft voice saying that he was HIV positive. He then told me that his girlfriend was also HIV positive. He wanted to know if he and his girlfriend had a child, would his child get the HIV virus. I was heartbroken when he said this to me because this was not a statistic anymore, this was real and right in front of me. I told him that unfortunately there was a high chance that his child would get the virus. When the words left my mouth it was as if the boy had just seen death.

I almost burst into tears right then and there but I continued to focus on the Hope in Jesus. He said that he had accepted Jesus and was attending the apostolic church so I asked him if I could pray for him. We then spent some time together in prayer that I will never forget.

Thursday morning Sarah and I started with prayer asking that the Lord would take control. That is exactly what He did. We got straight to the point and continued with the invitation of making a commitment to abstain until marriage. So many in the class responded and decided to share openly about it.

I then led into my testimony because before I knew Jesus Christ I had some scares in my life that sent me to the Doctor. I could relate in some ways to what we were talking on because there were times in my life where I envisioned my life going in two different directions. One direction was with diseases/HIV and the other direction was not. It was a scare that I will never forget and will forever be grateful to the Lord for the protection in my life before knowing Him.

After my testimony I led into the greatest story ever told about Jesus Christ. I could feel the presence of the Lord swarming the class and the attention of the sixteen year olds was something that blew Sarah and me away. She stood in the background praying while I just asked the Lord to take control. I shared scripture after scripture letting the children know that abstinence was a very important decision but it wasn’t the most important. The most important decision of their life would be choosing to accept Jesus Christ into their hearts or not. I then invited them to boldly stand and accept the Lord into their hearts and all thirty six boys and girls shot up the minute I offered it. One of the thirty six was the boy that had come to me with the HIV virus.

Once again I am so humbled by what the Lord is doing throughout Africa. I am so thankful that the Lord would even consider using me for this wonderful opportunity and I give him all the Glory. I pray that these babies in Christ would be surrounded by His love and that Godly men and women would surround them. I pray that health would cover their lives and that the message of abstinence would truly reign in their lives.

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” 1^st Corinthians 6:19-20

God is so amazing! We pulled up in our city named Utenague and met our local contact at a Baptist church in the middle of town. We found out that all the girls were going to live in church members houses and all the guys would live in the church. We then found out that we would be split up into two groups and go to two schools. My group was picked to go to a school named McCarthy.

Monday morning we prayed together as a group and gave the week to the Lord. We found out that the school had a school assembly and they wanted to introduce us. We walked into the school meeting hall and I nearly started to cry when I saw what was taking place. The head master of the school had all the students begin the day with prayer. I immediately thought about 1972 when our country took prayer out of the schools. It was such a blessing to witness this and see how openly Jesus was talked about. I knew that the Lord was going to bless this week.

After the assembly we found out that the grade 12’s were taking their final exams so we would be focusing on the grade 8’s. I was overjoyed because this was the perfect grade to be reaching out to. Some have already engaged in pre-marital sex but a lot of them had not. We divided the classes up amongst the group and Este’ and myself were going to be teaching two classes with about 90 kids. Praise the Lord.

The week started off with showing the video to the entire grade 8’s. Everything seemed to be working against us that day if you know what I mean but the students did get to see the movie.

The next day Este and I got to meet our classes and begin with the program. We emphasized on what we call the dear Francis box which is a box that children can put confidential questions and concerns into. Our main objective was to know what was going on at the school so that we knew how to physically reach out to them.

We received some very heartbreaking letters talking about how some were raped as a little child by family members, concerns that they had about their boyfriends pressuring them about sex and even that a teacher had raped them and they were scared to talk about it. Through prayer we knew where and what we needed to focus on.

The next day we decided to show a video called In Your Face. This was a video that would make your stomach churn because it speaks the truth about HIV/AIDS, STD’s and other facts about South Africa. The kids viewed in utter amazement because they had never seen this before. They had never known that in South Africa if a fifteen year old is sexually active he has a one in ten chance of living to age thirty-five. They never new that the entire population of South Africa had a 25% HIV/AIDS rate. This video was amazing and would scare anyone who is sexually active to decide to follow what the Lord says to wait until marriage. Praise God!

I could probably speak for hours about this week because it touched me so much but I will jump to the best part of the week. Because this week was exam week for the school it was also award giving on Friday. This meant that we couldn’t share the most important day with our classes. We showed up at the school and the head master told us that we could get the grade 8’s all at once in one class before award giving. By the grace of God we got about 150 children. We decided to share testimonies, focus on the commitment to abstain until marriage and share the Gospel.

This was such a powerful moment because I could feel the Lord with us. I knew that He was going to do something that was going to blow us away. I gave my testimony along with Ashley and Lloyd. Lloyd then went into more detail and shared about the Lord. When it came to the time that he asked if anyone would like to accept Jesus Christ into their hearts I felt the Lord burden my heart. I sat praying on the stage and when nobody stood up I knew that the Lord wanted me to speak. I asked the Lord to take control and that is exactly what He did. I shared with them all week that one of the most important decisions that they would make in life would be to abstain until marriage but that wasn’t the most important decision. The most important decision would be to accept Jesus Christ into their hearts and begin the best relationship that we will ever have; the relationship that will guarantee us eternity in Heaven.

The Lord began to work in a way that drew tears to my eyes. Here we were at a public school sharing the Word of Jesus Christ. Over 45 children came forward to accept Jesus into their hearts.

As I saw these kids begin their walk with the Lord I swelled up with emotion. There I was, seeing a desire fulfilled by the Lord and not only did I get to speak about one of my most favorite topics of abstinence, but I got to share about Him. I am once again floored at the power of the Lord and praise His name for what He has done.

As I got on the plane to South Africa almost one and a half years ago, I did not know that my life would never be the same. The trip that I went on was called Never Ending Gardens with Dream for Africa. This mission was to reach out to the communities and show Jesus’ love through planting gardens to provide nutrients to those who were sick with HIV/AIDS.

While on the trip I was fortunate to visit an orphanage that was viewing a movie called Beat the Drum. This movie was actually made to show what myths were out there about HIV/AIDS and to promote abstinence. I was touched by this video because it was a way to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and share one of the major ways to prevent the disease. I knew in my heart that this was something that I wanted to look into.

After returning to the states, I was a different person. People didn’t understand why I had changed so much. They didn’t know that the Lord had opened up my heart and put every hurt, need, orphan, widow and image in it that I would never forget. I was changed and saw the need in the world for the love of Jesus and missions.

Through these deep desires that I had in my heart the Lord directed me to the World Race and that leads me to where I am at this present moment; Jeffrey’s Bay South Africa.

The reason that I bring this up is because I am blown away by God. I want to ask those who are out there that doubt if there is a God to tell me the chances of this happening. The population of the world is a little over 5.5 billion people or around there.

When I got to Guatemala I met a lady by the name of Anna-Marie. Anna-Marie was going to be the World Race leader from the ground and she is actually the lady that received the vision from the Lord over ten years ago about the World Race. Anna-Marie expressed this vision to Seth Barnes and the Lord birthed the World Race through both of them.

Well here is the best part about this. When I got a chance to talk to Anna-Marie I learned that she worked with Dream for Africa. Anna-Marie was actually one of the head leaders for the program called Beat the Drum. I couldn’t believe it when I heard her. What are the odds of this happening?

Well, that desire that I had over a year ago is something that the Lord is giving me. I actually get to be a part of Beat the Drum for nearly two weeks. Beat the Drum is a program that focuses on two things. Jesus Christ and Abstinence. This program goes to schools all over Africa promoting abstinence and educating the public about AIDS.

I get to share over 10 hours with kids in one of the public school systems about Jesus and Abstinence. These are two subjects that I am so passionate about. I am so grateful to the Lord for touching my heart in a way that I know that I will never forget. I pray that He prepare me for the heartbreaking stories that I am about to encounter and that He would prepare the minds for all the children that are about to receive this great message.

"Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind.... and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:25-25

I will let the pictures explain it all.  I am safe and sound in Jeffrey's Bay South Africa.

1st Day

I arrived with my team at the airport three hours before departure. Everything was going very smoothly until I came to the ticket counter of South African Airways. The man asked me, “Do you have another passport”. I replied with the simple response of why? He told me that the two pages that I have remaining in my passport are amendment and endorsement pages which can not be used for Visa’s. Well, that was not pleasing words to my ears. I asked to see the manager because the problem wasn’t in Kenya but it would be in South Africa. They absolutely refused to let me get on the plane. They told me that I had to go to the US Embassy and get more pages in my passport.




















 

Well, I left my bag with the team and headed off to the US Embassy. When I arrived at the Embassy at 2:00pm I learned that it had closed at 12:00pm. I tried to plead with the Security guard that this was an emergency and that my flight was leaving in less than two hours. He told me that everyone from the office was gone and the only thing that I could do would be to come back on Monday morning. Wow.

Well I guess the Lord wanted me to stay in Kibera Kenya another couple days. I jumped back in the taxi with my friend Mark that came with me and headed back to the AIM base. It was kind of a bummer that I sent my entire luggage but I had lived in the same clothes for three days before.

When I arrived at the AIM base, the First Year Missionaries that were staying there were a little surprised to see me. After a couple of explanations I just joined along with everything that they were doing. I was able to hear some of there testimonies and get to know some of the guys that I hadn’t had a chance to really talk to. I would now be living in their living room.

The time in Kibera has been actually a huge blessing. The FYM’rs took off for the day and I had the house to myself on Saturday. I was able to get some much needed work done as well as my support letter for next year. The greatest part is that I got to go back into Kibera and attend the Blue House Church one more time.

As I walked into the Slum of Kibera I thought to myself, I have been in these clothes for three days now but everyone that surrounded me had probably been in theirs for two weeks or more. Trash piled up in the streets as sewage flowed down every ally way. The smell was overbearing at some points but every little child that looked at me smiled like they were the happiest little kid in the whole wide world. I am so humbled every time that I touch foot into Kibera.

Attending church was once again a blessing because they treated me like family and welcomed me with open arms. They were so surprised to see me because I was supposed to be in South Africa. One of the Pastors named Mike said in front of the youth that Chad has staid because the Lord would not let him leave. He had no idea what had happened and this was his first response to me. It was actually quite powerful.

I will always remember Kibera and it will always have a special place in my heart. The people are so nice and those that know Jesus love Him with all of their hearts. I don’t think that this will be the last time that I see Kibera again.

I get my pages at the US Embassy tomorrow and head out to South Africa at 3:40pm.

God Bless.

When we arrived in Kenya, I thought that we would rest for a day or two and then head off to South Africa.   Well, that wasn’t quite the case.   The Brown and Red teams had made a great contact named Timothy who was the Pastor of Blue House Church.   This man was full of energy and had the Brown and Red teams doing open airs, dramas, door to door and teaching at the bible college.   They needed a little help.

Since we were only going to be here for three days we decided to take the following day off to complete some much needed internet time and then pick up on ministry for Wednesday and Thursday.   Well, when they talked about ministry I thought for sure that I would either be doing open airs, door to door or dramas.   What they needed me for wasn’t what I completely expected. They wanted me to teach at the bible college and to do door to door.

The Lord has completely blown me away this entire time in Africa.   I am completely humbled because this is not what I would ever think that I would have done.   I couldn’t even comprehend giving a pastors conference in Uganda to those who have been to bible college but the Lord guided the entire thing.   Now the Lord had called me to teach at the bible college.   I again was a little overwhelmed but in the end I just laughed because I knew that this was what He wanted me to do.

I prayed the night before and asked the Lord what He would have me teach for two hours on.   Well, since we have come to Kenya & Uganda to church plant, I felt that the Lord wanted me to pass that information along.  

When we got to the Bible College Casey (she taught two classes) and I looked at each other and laughed as we gazed at some of the literature on the book shelves.   Because they only needed two teachers for the first session Casey and Paul taught the two classes and I joined Paul’s class on the book of James.

Five o’clock rolled around and it was time to teach.  I asked the Lord to guide everything that I was about to speak on and to reveal truths to all of our hearts that we needed to know.   My class came in and it consisted of about three pastors and the rest looking to become pastors.   We prayed together and we were off.   It was awesome and the Lord truly took control.   I could tell that this was a topic that they were very interested in and I know that the Lord will use then in some way for Church Planting.

This was the first time that I have taught in front of a Bible College,LOL, and although I have so much to learn, I knew that this was something that the Lord wanted to push me in.   I am so thankful to our Father in Heaven for sitting right next to me and guiding me in every topic that we covered.

We head to South Africa tomorrow at 3:30.   I love and miss all my family, prayer supporters and friends.   May the Lord shower you with His Love this very moment.