Halfway there

Greetings!

In my last post I talked about becoming a bit ill before my planned departure last Saturday and the events and reflections that ensued. I healed very promptly and have had no problems with the illness, but since I now find myself in London Heathrow Airport on Tuesday, clearly things did not go "to schedule."

After waiting in Chicago for a while, everyone on my flight found out that it was cancelled for the day, because of a mechanical failure. The best I could rebook was a Thursday departure. So, "Alas, five less days, this is almost what happened anyway," was what I thought. Then I called the airline on Sunday night, and they had a ticket leaving on Monday - so I took it.

This all took a good deal of figuring out schedules and organizing, but after taking care of my illness, I had settled a bit more into not worrying and simply letting myself arrive in Cape Town when God will have me arrive. Things do seem to go on his schedule. Not worrying doesn't mean that I forget what I'm trying to do and how to go about it, but it does mean that I do it by turning to God's strength.

For the Kingdom,

Carl

Which master am I serving, again?

Wow, the day is finally here. I'm mostly packed, looking forward to a good night's rest and a new day when I'll hop on the plane to Cape Town. Things have been a bit hectic in the last day, and so I don't have my email list put together (thus I'm writing here first). But it has been a blessing and I would like to share it with you.

Graduation and times since have been a blast: wonderful times with family, from going from this to that graduation activity with my parents and brother to spending time at the house that my dad's cousin built in the northern California redwoods. After that I spent some time hanging around the Stanford area while house-sitting, seeing friends that I might not have otherwise seen because of the rush of the end of the year. Now it's the end of two weeks back home in Wisconsin, where I've enjoyed the 4th of July festivities on our block, caught up with high school friends in Madison, and rested in the comfort of home.

That's all quite a mouthful, right? Lots of fun stuff - but the danger is that it can just be stuff, and the light of how God is active in it can become dim to my eyes.

Jesus was speaking about money when he told us that "No servant can serve two masters," but I've found in those words a lesson that includes a warning about becoming a slave to the pursuit of wealth, but goes a good deal farther. These words point to the continuous danger of neglecting our duty of singular dedication to God. Many masters in this world demand our dedication, and even those unambiguously good creations of God, human friendship, for example, can descend under the weight of sin to becoming masters to us, usurping the place of God. Then how much more can human creations become our masters!

This morning, I was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection. Enduring the symptoms was a concerning event, but it was certainly not painful or dramatic. However, it put these plans to do work in South Africa into question. For a while, it seemed that I should change my ticket; then not. Finally a rosy prognosis appeared, and I started packing for tomorrow's flight.

In the time when I thought that I would leave this Wednesday instead of tomorrow, I was thinking about what to do. "Wow, I won't be rushed to send out a first prayer email... I'll sit back and get some reading done... I can pray more deeply in preparation for my travels." Later, after reaching the conclusion that I should leave tomorrow, I was packing relatively hurriedly because of the lost time from the doctors appointments and extra tests. Back to the normal, faster pace. And then I realized that I have fallen into serving a poor master, the desire to fill my life with activities and live in terms of the interesting instead of the sacred. Don't get me wrong: my times relaxing in northern California or enjoying meals with friends weren't unworthy things to do with the life God has given me. But I saw a bit more clearly that the busyness of the last few months became in some ways a cruel master, and partially took the place of the joy that God gave me in doing all of those things.

And so I am ready - because I trust that God will make me ready - to step into what I have described to some, lately, as a bit of a void. I don't know what things will look like, except that some things aren't like here, and I don't know what precisely I will be doing day to day. But I trust that it is worthy. I recognize the need for God to grow me in his ways, and am blessed to have this time to directly serve the one master. I hope to gain eyes to see in South Africa the ways that God has blessed me in the past few weeks and in my time in South Africa, and to carry these things into the future.

Sounds a lot like it's all about me, eh? Well, there are two things that I ask God's blessing upon in this journey: me, and the world as I encounter it in South Africa. But now, one half of this is a void to me. I look forward to describing it to you! Because the Kingdom of God emerges out of the encounter between the gospel and the world.

Here's a quick list of stuff that you can pray for in light of all this:

• For consistent healing of my ailment;
• For the blessings in experiences of yet unknown culture to overcome the challenges in these experiences;
• For my heart to serve God and His Kingdom during this time;
• And for the Kingdom to remain within me after I return.

Please feel free to write me at cwerickson@gmail.com ! I hope to be emailing this message soon.

For the Kingdom,

Carl

To the Deep South! (South Africa that is)

Hello friends,

Tomorrow morning, I will be boarding the plane to head back to South Africa! The last few days have gotten me excited for the trip as more of the final details have come together. We will be spending the first week in the township of Khayelitsha, working with African Leadership's sports leagues, Sunday schools, preschools, and high school ministry. Then on July 23, we will head 12+ hours away to Transkei, the rural Xhosa homeland in the Eastern Cape for a week of ministry there. Afterward we will be back for a few more days in Khayelitsha (although many of the others will be staying longer). In this time, we will also get to visit an AIDS clinic called Living Hope.

Even though we've been talking about it for months, it feels like the trip is suddenly here. I don't feel totally prepared - I'm not sure I ever really have - but I'm excited to see how God uses this trip to work both in and through our team. I was deeply encouraged by the sermon this past Sunday, looking at Ephesians 2-3 and all the reasons that Paul has to "kneel before the Father:" God's grace bringing us from death to life, our new purpose of doing the good works that God has prepared for us, being part of the Body with the saints, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, to name a few. I want these promises to sink in ever deeper so that I can pray for the South African church what Paul prays for the Ephesians:

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ."

As the team heads out, please pray:

• For safe travels as the team converges on South Africa from all over the country (and the world)
• For us to be a blessing and an encouragement to the people in Khayelitsha and Transkei, and to the missionaries with African Leadership
• For God to give us a deeper desire to live For The Kingdom as we experience his work in South Africa.
• For grace to lead the trip well, and for the words to faithfully give witness to the grace that I have received.
  

For those who want a glimpse of the places we'll be visiting, I have pictures up from last summer:

• Khayelitsha - http://picasaweb.google.com/scudderphotos/KhayelitshaPt3
• Transkei - http://picasaweb.google.com/scudderphotos/Transkei

New pictures will be up from this trip when I get back. I don't know if I will be able to send out e-mails during the trip, but I will certainly send out e-mails about it afterward. You are also welcome to check out our team blog: http:/sajourneys.blogspot.com.

For The Kingdom!
David

The prayer letter

Hey everyone,

Wow, only tomorrow I'm going to be flying to Cape Town. Things are in a bit more disarray than I would like (see next post), and it looks like I'm not going to be able to put together the email list before heading out. For the moment, here you can find the prayer letter that I sent out in May.

On to the next post!
Carl

-----------------------------

May 22, 2007

Dear Friends and Family,

This June, I’ll finally be graduating from Stanford. Or perhaps “finally” is a poor word to choose: time has flown by. One of the joys of my time at Stanford has been participation in Reformed University Fellowship (RUF). My friend through RUF and current roommate, David Scudder, is organizing a group of around six Stanford students to travel to South Africa. Last summer, David worked with Young Ohm, a Korean missionary working in Khayelitsha, near Cape Town, with the support of the missionary and pastor-training organization African Leadership. This summer, we will work with Pastor Ohm and minister to the people of Khayelitsha and the surrounding areas.

Khayelitsha, established during the days of apartheid as a black settlement, is now the largest township in the Cape Town area with a population of about half a million, primarily of the Xhosa people. Though apartheid is officially over, the township still faces serious residual issues resulting in poverty and crime. African Leadership has been working to make God’s love real to the people of these areas. Pastor Ohm has been in Khayelitsha since 1996, working for the Kingdom through all sorts of ministries: daycare, sports ministry, English school, business development, and a school of theology for training pastors.

With my fellow Stanford students, I will be spending around four weeks, beginning on July 14, living at the African Leadership mission house and working with Pastor Ohm in Khayelitsha. During my time there, I intend to learn what I can of the culture and the ministry going on there, and to serve the local church and Pastor Ohm with the hands and gifts that God has given me. It’s my hope that God will be just as active in me as through me. There are several ministries that I will be involved with. African Leadership runs a youth soccer ministry, in which several hundred teenagers play in a soccer league, conjoined with Bible lessons from their coaches. There are also Saturday schools where over 1000 children come to hear the gospel. Because Pastor Ohm prefers to expose short term missionaries like us to all of the things that African Leadership does, I will also work in rural areas of the Transkei region, where most of the residents of Khayelitsha came from. There are certainly many challenges present during this time in South Africa, a new language and culture among them. I hope that through these challenges I can see a way that God’s Kingdom is growing, both in me and in the people around me.

I would love to have your support in prayer for my time in South Africa. You can pray that

• My friends and I would be safe in our travels to and time in South Africa;
• In foreign or challenging situations I would learn and have strength through God’s grace;
• The Kingdom would advance though this work;
• The work we do would be a blessing to the people we encounter and our church homes.

The entire Church participates in missions, whether it is by going, sending, or praying. I need your support in this endeavor, and I also want you to share in the blessing of the work.

• The wonders of email will be very helpful for this. Please let me know if you would like to receive email updates of my time in Africa. You can email me at cwerickson-at-gmail.com or write to me at the address at the top of the page.
• If you would like to support me in carrying the financial burden of this effort, which is approximately $3200 including airfare, you do this through a donation to African Leadership, a registered non-profit. Checks may be made payable to African Leadership and mailed to my parents, Brent and Jean Erickson, at 4876 N. Sheffield Ave., Whitefish Bay, WI 53217. Please put “Carl Erickson” in the memo line.
• Finally, while I am in South Africa, drop me an email with encouragement, response to my writings, or testimonies from your life or whatever you like. This is great way that we can be working for the Kingdom together.

If you are interested in learning more about these ministries you can check out the African Leadership website (www.africanleadership.org) and Pastor Ohm's website (www.africanleadership.org.za). I look forward to sharing stories of what God does.

Now, as they say at African Leadership:

For the Kingdom!

Carl Erickson

Panayiota's update

Hello Andrea, Beth, Carl, David, Eric-- (wow! consecutive letters of the alphabet! i'm the odd one out i guess)

Greetings from Downey, CA! I've been home now for 4 days, but feels like much longer--in a good way. Been getting enough rest but definitely keeping busy with preparing the house for my sister's graduation party this Saturday and trying to get various things for Africa ready (I haven't even started thinking about packing, won't that be fun.)

Praise God! I had my interview with three people from the missions team at my home church, and it went quite well. They're going to put my info and prayer requests on bookmarks and have them available in church for people to pick up. I'm pretty sure they will also support me financially though they didn't really specify how much. Also, the junior high pastor at my church with whom I'm pretty close to gave me a box full of books the church was giving away! They're mostly about missions, but I'm sure they'll be appreciated in Khayelitsha. Just have to make sure they're less than 50 pounds.

Another praise: I have 25 people on my prayer partners list! There are at least 25 people praying for us!!

Crafts: Can't say I've made much progress here. My church can't really donate supplies since VBS is coming up and they'll need all their resources for that. I asked people in my college group for craft donations so we'll see if they donate anything. I could go and buy stuff, or even buy things in Kenya where they might be cheaper, but if we can get supplies donated that would be great. I'll be leaving in a week for Kenya and Andrea's already in Europe I think (how fun!), so Beth, Carl, David, and Eric--do you think y'all could muster up some craft supply donations from your churches/friends? Let me know. Haven't really thought up any craft ideas either besides what we first brainstormed, so if you have any suggestions that would be great. By the end of the week I'll try to have 5 or so ideas and email those out to you.

David, could you email the rest of the training materials out?

I was reading a book by John Piper called Pleasures of God, and in one chapter he identifies divination as a sin of disobedience. He references Deuteronomy 18:10 and then says,

"Divination is seeking to know what to do in a way that ignores the Word and counsel of God. It discounts the guidance and revelation of God, or regards them as wrong or insufficient...God says one thing, and we say, 'I think I will consult another source of wisdom.'"

This made me think of our discussion about ancestor worship. I don't know if this perspective on ancestor worship and superstition could be useful in witnessing and talking with people, but it gave me a clear, biblical understanding of why those forms of worship are dishonoring to God.

I've also been thinking lately about the amount of trust and faith I put in my material security and not in God. I tend to limit his power and wonder how people in poverty will believe the gospel since there's no way their lot will improve. This is not a right attitude to have, duh :) I randomly turned to Luke 12, and in that chapter Jesus talks about how we should not be anxious. He talks about God clothing the grass in the field and then says, "How much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!" I've been convicted that I need to put more (or actually ALL) of my faith in God's power and his promises that he makes not to the upper middle class but to his sons and daughters. Anyway, that's what I've been thinking of lately, and since in my head I thought about it in the context of us going to South Africa and encountering different conditions there I thought I'd share it.

Prayer requests:

• God would draw me near to him through his Word and through prayer
• safe travel to Kenya and a safe time spent there
• wisdom in preparing my testimony
• God would continue to provide financially
  
• so this one is really personal, but not all my extended family knows I'm a Christian (or a Protestant one at least) nor do they know I'll be going on a mission trip this summer. Basically ALL my extended family will be at my sister's party this Saturday and they will undoubtedly ask me what my plans are for the summer. I'm not sure how nervous and/or scared I will be to tell them because of the questions and/or judgments that will arise...so please pray that God will give me confidence in Him and his truth and discernment and wisdom with my words.

That's about it for me. I would love to hear how you all are doing!

For the Kingdom,
Panayiota

Return to South Africa

Dear friends,

My time at Stanford is quickly coming to an end. For the past four years, God has blessed me with rich fellowship and has matured me as I have struggled to grow as a Christian in a secular environment. On June 17, I will graduate from Stanford and move on to the next chapter of life. That chapter will start in the fall, when I will begin a nine month fellowship with the Trinity Forum Academy in Maryland (www.trinityforumacademy.org), living and studying in a community as we wrestle with how our worldview impacts all aspects of life.

Before that adventure begins, I have the joy of returning to South Africa. Last summer, I spent five weeks in the township of Khayelitsha, South Africa (near Cape Town), working with Pastor Young Ohm and the ministries of African Leadership, a non-profit organization working throughout the continent of Africa. I was thrown into the midst of the various ministries there and challenged deeply to see all of life as living, as they say at African Leadership, "For the Kingdom!"

This summer, I have the opportunity to lead a team of five other students from Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) at Stanford back to Khayelitsha, so that they can enter into the work of God's kingdom in South Africa and see firsthand how in Christ, the old barriers of race, class, and nationality are overcome. My hope is that this experience will challenge them to live "For the Kingdom" in all areas of life.

Khayelitsha was established during the days of apartheid as a black settlement, and is now the largest township in the Cape Town area (~a million people) with a population that is primarily from the Xhosa people. Though apartheid is officially over, the township still faces serious issues with great poverty and crime. Pastor Ohm has been in Khayelitsha since 1996 working to share God's love through all sorts of ministries: preschools, sports ministry, high school ministry, Sunday schools, business development, and a school of theology for training pastors.

I will be with the team in South Africa for two and a half weeks (July 14-August 2), living at the African Leadership mission house and working with Pastor Ohm in Khayelitsha. We will be participating in an array of ministries in Khayelitsha: helping with the Sunday schools where over 1000 children come to hear the Gospel; working with sports leagues and high school ministries; encouraging the local churches and joining with them in evangelism; and serving the ministries through physical labor. We will also be traveling to the rural region of Transkei to take part in church-planting and evangelism.

Please keep me in your prayers as I travel to South Africa. Pray:

1. For God to prepare my heart for the trip and draw me closer to Him.
2. Especially for God to give me grace in leading the team. While I have been involved with many missions projects, this is my first time to lead a team, and it is a true learning experience for me.
3. That through us, God can bless Pastor Ohm and the ministries and churches in Khayelitsha.

Missions is never an individual activity – the whole body of Christ participates, whether by sending or going or praying. I need your support in this endeavor, and I want you to share in the blessing of the work. Here's how you can be a part of this:

1. If you are willing to pray for me during the trip, please let me know by e-mail. It is a great blessing for me to know that you are supporting me in prayer, and I want to be sure to let you know how those are prayers are answered.
2. If you would like to provide financial support to help cover the costs of the trip (~$3100 with airfare), donations can be made through African Leadership, a registered non-profit. Make checks payable to African Leadership and with my name in the memo line, and mail them to African Leadership, P.O. Box 682444, Franklin, TN 37068 (or just give them in person to me or my parents).

If you are interested in learning more about these ministries you can check out the African Leadership website (www.africanleadership.org) and Pastor Ohm's website (www.africanleadership.org.za). I look forward to sharing stories of what God does.

Now, as they say at African Leadership, For the Kingdom!
David Scudder

"You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." – Galatians 3:26-28

Welcome!

This is just a test post to the South Africa blog.