Baboon Invasion

When we went to the Cape of Good Hope at Cape Point, we had an interesting experience. We were driving the borrowed van of a local pastor. When we stopped and opened the door, a baboon charged into our van, jumped straight into the back seat and took the bags there and tore them open looking for food. Then he jumped into the front seat and sat down like he owned the car. At that point, I "felt led" to get out of the van immediately. It all happened so fast. I did think to grab my camera and take the shot on the bottom.

As we were driving out, we saw the procession of baboons in the top picture. There were about 30 of them walking down the street together.

While at the Point, I saw a baboon rush up to a man and grab a sack of snacks the guy had just brought out of the gift shop. The man tried to chase the baboon and take them away, but when he kicked the baboon and he bared his teeth and snarled at the man, the guy backed away, apparently deciding that he didn't want those potato chips so much after all. It was almost comical to watch the baboon sit down twenty feet in front of the man, open the potato chips and eat them right in front of him as if he were flaunting the fact that he won the battle of the stolen snacks.

Photos From The Village of Mafutseni

These photos were taken in the chiefdom of Mafutseni, where we met with Chief Ngalonkhulu Mabuza and his executive council. The reason I took so many pictures of the children is because they are what impacted me the most in Swaziland. There are over 70,000 orphans whose parents both died of AIDS. In addtion, there are many 13-14 year old children who are the head of their homes, rearing their younger siblings alone. Imagine being 13 and having to try to figure out how to feed your 3-4 year old brothers and sisters when you have nothing. Whatever one may think about how their parents contracted AIDS, these kids have done nothing wrong. They are innocent and suffering.

After we discussed the problems with the chief, I prayed for him. He is a good man who has a heart for those in his chiefdom and sincerely wants to help them. After we prayed, several on the executive council were wiping tears from their eyes. One man told me that "unless God intervenes, we will not survive."

After I return home and am certain of how God is leading me to proceed, I plan to become proactive in helping this village. Will you begin to pray about joining me in an expression of our Father's love toward these people?

I have watched many TV infomercials about hungry children, but having seen first-hand the tragedy of a hungry child who has only the clothes he wears, no medical care, no parents, etc. I cannot sit idly by and do nothing. I assured these people that I would be a voice for them. I will share more with you soon and invite you to participate together so that we can change these children's future. I'm reminded of James asking what good is does to tell people about God's love, then say "God bless you" (Be warmed and filled) without doing anything to help. The best way in the world to begin to help these people know our Father's love is to, not only tell them about it, but show them.

None of us can help everybody, but we can all help somebody. Together, our efforts will make a huge difference.

I can never be the same after seeing all that I have seen in Swaziland. I took a huge step of faith when I told the chief, the village leaders and even the church where I spoke on Sunday that we will do more than talk -- that we will help. It wasn't a knee-jerk emotional reaction to what I saw. We've seen lepers in India, persecuted Christians in China, poor people in many places, but I sensed God moving me to become directly involved in Swaziland by not just preaching Christ's love, but practicing it. I'm not sure exactly how it will look, but I'll give you more information after I've strategized and discussed it more with leaders there.

Arrived in Oslo

For the past few days I've been out of touch with the Internet. We were in Cape Town, where I spoke to a Pastor's Conference on Thursday morning. The group was very receptive to the message. In fact, several of the pastors came to me afterwards and expressed that they sensed the grace walk message is going to be transformational in their lives and ministries.

While in Cape Town, we drove down to Cape Point. It's a beautiful place. The weather forecast was for cold weather, but every day was beautiful. We saw it as a gift from God.

One interesting "story worth telling" is that when we stopped at the point and opened the door to the car, a wild baboon charged into the car, grabbed our bags and tore them open looking for food. I have a picture of him in the car that I'll post here on the blog when I can. Needless to say, it was startling! Nobody had to tell me to get out of the car! We saw about 30 baboon on the side of the road. They have lost their fear of people and are very aggressive. I'll post pictures and details about other things we did after I get back home. (For instance, Trans World Radio gave us the gift of a safari, where we saw elephants, rhinos, giraffes,wildebeasts, etc.)

We flew back to Johannesburg yesterday (Friday) morning and traveled all night, making a connection in London and arriving here in Oslo this afternoon about four.
I will speak at Oslo Christian Center tomorrow night, Monday and Tuesday. Then we head on to London on Wednesday.

There is much to share, but since I'm using a computer in the hotel business center, there isn't time due to others waiting to use the computer too. Please pray for our time here in Oslo. The church here is well grounded in grace, so I'm sure I will have a great time preaching here.

Thanks again for your prayers. I'll update on the blog as I have the opportunity.

Leaving Swaziland For South Africa Today

Yesterday morning (Sunday) I spoke at a church where the congregation was very receptive to the grace walk message. They cheered, applauded and shouted "Amen!" and "Hallelujah!" as I shared how there is nothing we can ever do or not do that will change how our Father feels toward us.

Today we leave Swaziland with mixed emotions. I am eager to visit Cape Town, where I will speak to a group of pastors, but sad to say goodbye to the dear people we have met here. I know that God wants to use us to bless and express His love to these people and am praying for specific guidance as to how to best do that.

After church yesterday we visited with a bedridden man who is in the advanced stage of the AIDS virus. We sang the chorus "Allelujah" together as he lifted his hands in praise to God. As I prayed for him and his wife, the evident presence of God's love was felt strongly in the room.

Four out of ten people in the Kingdom of Swaziland are infected with the HIV-AIDS virus. The pastor at church yesterday said, "Those of us who aren't infected are directly affected." He asked for volunteers from the congregation to share their own story of how they have been affected. Person after person after person stood and told how they had lost family members to AIDS. They each expressed how they are trusting in the Lord to sustain them. Then we all sang together,

"Through it all, Through it all,
I've learned to trust in Jesus,
I've learned to trust in God.

Through it all, Through it all,
I've learned to depend upon His Word."

You can imagine.

We return to Johannesburg today (a 5 hour drive) and I will speak to the staff and leaders at a church there tonight. Then tomorrow we fly to Cape Town.

I'm not sure how readily Internet service will or won't be accessible, but will post another update as soon as it is possible.

Thank you so much for you prayers and particular thanks to those who gave to make this trip possible.

Update From Swaziland

Yesterday morning (Saturday) Melanie and I went to a nearby village to see first-hand what life in Swaziland is like for the average person. It was heartbreaking to see the many children who have been orphaned because both parents have died from AIDS. The pictures are a few of those children.

We met with the chief of the village and with his executive council to discuss the problems they face and to pray for them. The greatest problems in Swaziland are the HIV-AIDS pandemic, drought and unemployment. I am at a loss for words to adequately describe what we have seen. Nobody could witness it without shedding tears and being moved to action.

As I prayed for the chief and his council, I sensed our Father's presence in a strong way. Before we left, the chief thanked us for our encouragement and in particular for the time of prayer.

Later we met with many of the orphaned children and I spoke to them, telling them that they have a heavenly Father who knows them by name and loves them. I encouraged them to call out to him when they are hungry, afraid, hurting and to know that His arms are around them and that He is hugging and kissing them.

I assured the chief that we won't only preach the love of Christ to them, but will practice it too. I don't know at this point exactly what that will entail, but know that this is a time when the gospel must be proclaimed "in word and in deed." I will make you aware of how we might present God's love to these people in a tangible way as I get more details and His plan becomes clearer.

Thanks for your prayers. Today I speak in a church here in Manzini. Please pray.

Greetings From Africa

We arrived in Johannesburg on Tuesday morning around seven, having been in route from Florida since Sunday evening. Melanie and I were both exhausted and felt slightly sick from the jetlag. Thankfully, today I feel normal for the first time since arriving in Africa.

On Wednesday morning, I spoke to the staff at Trans World Radio in Johannesburg, then recorded a pilot program for a plan we are discussing together which would be translated into French and broadcast across Africa. I’ll give you more details on that possibility as things unfold. Please pray with me about it because this opportunity could open the door to reach literally millions with the grace walk message.

Yesterday we drove five hours to Swaziland, where we will be until Monday. This morning (Friday) I speak to a Pastor’s Conference here in the city of Manzini and will preach in a local church on Sunday. I will also be on the radio today through Voice Of The Church, a ministry started by Trans World Radio years ago.
As we arrived in Swaziland yesterday, one of the first things I saw was a newspaper box with the headline on the paper, “Life Expectancy 30 by 2010.” In a country of 1.2 million people, 20,000 die every year from the AIDS virus. The hospitals are only equipped to handle 2000 per year, so the overwhelming majority suffer greatly as they die at home. In fact, once an AIDS patient approaches death, they are sent home to die in order to make room in the bed for someone who will be able to receive a measure of physical comfort as they progress toward their own death.

Our host here, Rev. Nelson Vilakati said that a little more than five years ago the life expectancy in Swaziland was over 60 years old. Today it is 32 and, as the headline said, in three years it will 30. He said the reason for this is because the problem was ignored early on due to the social stigma associated with HIV-AIDS. Consequently, the disease was allowed to spread like wildfire until now it is pandemic here. He said that, unless there is a miracle, the future of Swaziland looks bleak. He believes that apart from divine intervention, the nation may literally face ultimate extinction.

The Minister of Health for Swaziland recently said publically that the only hope for this country is “salvation by God.” Melanie and I already find our hearts being deeply stirred by what we are seeing and hearing. I have no doubt that the visit here will have a life-transforming effect on us. I already sense it happening.
Please pray that the ministry we do here will find supernatural response. I’ve never been anywhere in the world where I had such a sense that the message we share has such potential to make a difference in a nation. Check my blog here regularly. I’ll give updates as I am able. Thanks for praying!

Legalistic Christian Counseling

I think this is hilarious. It's not totally unlike the approach I took for many years, when my goal was to cause people to stop acting wrong and start acting right. I think "Reverend Bob" is much like the kind of pastoral counselor I was as a legalist. Does this look familiar to you? :)

Angry Responses To Happy News

It’s the strangest thing how good news causes some people to become angry. One would think that if they learned that God loves them with an absolute and unwavering commitment to them that has nothing to do with how they act, anybody would be thrilled. Not so. Some people actually become agitated at such news. “If you tell people that, you are teaching cheap grace!” I’ve been told. (I usually respond by telling them that it’s even worse than they think and that I don’t teach cheap grace. I teach free grace.)

I’m amazed at the reaction from some people when they hear me say that it isn’t possible to out-sin the grace of God. You’d think that would be the kind of good news that would cause anybody to at least sigh a sigh of great relief if not literally jump up and down with joy. But that often isn’t the case. To the contrary, I’ve been accused of “being soft on sin” and encouraging people to have a careless attitude toward sins in their own lives.

Tell Christians that they are free from religious rules and watch how some people will grimace in pain like they’ve suddenly been struck down with kidney stones. As long and as hard as most of us have tried and yet have failed miserably at living up to the demands of religious rules, you’d think we would all be thrilled to hear this news. To the contrary, some shriek in fear, “You’re giving people a license to sin!”

Grace – it’s scary to the religious mind set. The self-righteous religionist is always afraid of how teaching grace might have the wrong effect on somebody else. Jesus was “full of grace and truth” and He didn’t seem to worry about that sort of thing. In fact, He seemed to go out of His way to offend the hyper-sensitivities of the self righteous religious crowd.

It was Jesus who told the story of the prodigal son and had the Father smother the boy in hugs and kisses before the pig-manure-covered boy could utter a word about being sorry. Jesus didn’t seem concerned that He might give the idea that begging for forgiveness isn’t a prerequisite for actually getting that forgiveness. Couldn’t His story cause people to accuse Him of being soft on sin?

It was Jesus who told the story of the laborers who all received the same pay check at the end of the day, despite the fact that some had worked all day while others had shown up just before quitting time. Jesus didn’t seem to consider that His story might cause some to take the matter of acting responsibly too lightly.

It was Jesus who had it be the good Samaritan who helped the wounded man by the roadside when the churchmen wouldn’t give him a second glance. To cast the story that way was equivalent to a modern day parable where it would be an HIV positive gay man who was the hero while the Sunday School teacher is made to look bad. Jesus didn’t seem to be very concerned about reversing who came off looking like he had the sterling character while the likely candidate looked like a self-absorbed jerk.

Grace – it just doesn’t fit with what seems fair. It doesn’t seem fair because it isn’t fair. That’s why it’s called grace. Prodigals are thrown parties without a single promise from them that they intend to do better. Workers who straggle in at the last minute reap the same benefit as those who were faithful from the start. The social rejects of society get to play the role of the Christ-figure in the Jesus-stories while the religious are made to look bad.

Make no mistake about it – many in the modern church would have been angry with Jesus if they had been there and heard Him speak. He didn’t fit the religious mold then and neither does He fit it today. He doesn’t care what the self-righteous think about His bizarre expressions of grace. (Bizarre because grace doesn’t fit the expectations of the religious mind.)

Jesus cares about people. He cares enough that He came to break down the bars of religious oppression whether it is found in the brutal dungeons of the Muslim world or in the respectable “Club Fed Prisons” of Evangelical and Charismatic congregations. He has come to set the captives free, not only from sin but from ruthless religion too.

Grace is good news whether we like it or not. Grace embraces and includes us all – the unrighteous and the self-righteous. The sooner we accept that fact, the sooner we can become happy about grace.

Grace Is Divine Enablement