Merry Christmas!

My parents used to tell me that ever since I was a little kid I've always been enamored with lights. Well, true to form, this holiday season I hit up three different tree lightings! And another thing I love is the music! Even though it's not socially acceptable, I confess I've been listening to Christmas music since after Halloween. ;) So here's a little video of my fun, festive holiday season filled with lights and lots of Christmas music. I hope it helps everybody get in the holiday spirit! Merry Christmas!!

New York City

A friend of mine from Namibia has always wanted to visit the Big Apple, so he planned his trip to coincide with my drive south so that I could meet up with him there. I spent three days with him exploring the sights of the city. Since both of us are photographers, needless to say many photos were taken. Here are a few of my favorites, but you can see more on my Flickr page here. (Click on any photo to enlarge)

Lower Manhattan behind Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

Holiday Train Show at the NYC Botanical Gardens

Holiday Train Show at the NYC Botanical Gardens

St. John's Cathedral and the Peace Fountain

Waiting to cross 

New York Public Library

Bryant Park Tree Lighting SKATE-tacular 

Bryant Park Tree Lighting SKATE-tacular

Gutenberg Bible 

Grand Central Terminal

Panorama of Lower Manhattan at night

Personal Retreat

The words silence and solitude seem so quaint and antique in today's fast-paced, activity-driven, tech-saturated world. But for a small segment of spiritual seekers, silence and solitude have long been a centering discipline to quiet our own inner monologue and make ourselves available to hear from God. This past week, I set aside three days to do just that.

The Wixson Ministry Cabin at Camp Sentinel

I had heard about the Wixson Ministry Cabin at Camp Sentinel, a place for full-time Christian workers to get away for rest and refreshment, so I booked it out for 3 nights. I arrived Tuesday afternoon to find that I would be the only one there that week. No campers, no church groups, just me and the small camp staff on 600 acres of beautiful New Hampshire forest.

It's a small two-bedroom log cabin with a large kitchen-dining-living space. Out back is a lovely porch, lawn and fire pit with a view out over Dan Hole Pond (which is really more the size of a small lake). The trail down to the lake opens up to a beach which would have been great for a swim were it not late November. But it did make a lovely place to tie up my hammock and lounge for a while looking out over the lake with the mountains in the background.

The dining/living room area at the cabin

I left my computer at home and put my phone on airplane mode. I didn't even ask for the wifi password. There would be no contact with the outside world. I brought only my Bible and one book as my "guide" for the week. It was the book The Gift of Being Yourself by Dr. David Benner, recommended by one of my pastor friends. It's a short book, only 100 pages or so, perfect for a 3 day retreat. If it were any longer, I would've found myself spending more time reading and less time digesting, evaluating, and applying. His goal was to help the reader know himself better, and therefore know God better. It's a very helpful little book and I definitely recommend it.

Having no agenda or plan or activities to do, I found the hours crept by. I'm so used to being active, that it felt a little weird just sitting there. But just sitting on the couch, trying to quiet my mind, intentionally trying to recognize the presence of God already with me was incredibly helpful. You don't have to go away on a retreat to experience the presence of God. He's with you all the time. He's everywhere. And, as a Christian, He lives inside you. But sometimes we need to get away on a retreat to quiet ourselves enough to recognize that Presence that has been there all along.

Sun rising on the mountains across Dan Hole Pond at Camp Sentinel (click to enlarge)

Fall in New England

Anyone who lives in New England is no stranger to the tourist buses filled with leaf peepers that start showing up in late-September, early-October. Highways through the mountains are dotted with cars stopped along the side of the road and people generously snapping selfies with the gorgeous display of colors in the background. I think growing up in New England I never actually appreciated the brightly colored trees sweeping across the hillsides until I left. Like they say, "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone!" So it's no secret why I strategically planned my home assignment dates in New Hampshire to coincide with my favorite season here. I've made sure to take full advantage of opportunities to get out into the mountains on a free day, or meander down country roads through small New England towns. Maybe some of the pictures below will encourage you to start planning your vacation for next Fall!

View from atop Mount Osceola

Lonesome Lake halfway up Mount Kinsman

Visiting the Summit

This past week was Homecoming Week at my alma mater. I have a number of college friends who still live in the area and I figured others would be in town for homecoming, so I thought it would be a good time to visit. Also one of my former RAs was speaking at the Bible Conference so I was excited to hear him preach! I love hearing people's stories of the journeys God's been taking them on over the years, seeing how people have grown in their understanding of Christ, and seeing what their kids are like! It was a short, sweet trip, but a reminder of God's faithfulness and how thankful I am for the people He's used in my life to shape me into the person I've become.

Always a privilege to have Doc Harris leading worship!

Home of some of the best calzones ever!
I always plan to stop in whenever I visit.

Finn and I enjoying the fruits of our labor
(granted it was mostly his enjoyment and my labor!)

Photo of the Day

View of Lake Winnipesaukee from Mount Major

(click photo to enlarge)

NETS Mission Trips

click to enlarge

Learning pastoral ministry can't happen by only sitting in a classroom. That's why the curriculum at NETS has so many practical elements! This past week the entire student body at NETS was split up into three teams and sent out across the country on mission trips. One group went all the way to the north to work with a NETS grad in Onekwaya West. Another group went to minister with a NETS Distance Coordinator in the town of Tsumeb. And the third group went to work with a children's ministry in neighboring Okahandja. Here are a few testimonies from the trips.

“I was not looking forward to the mission trip because I knew we would be working with kids. I thought it was not my calling or ministry. But God proved me wrong. One of the things I have learned is that kids are precious to God. I understood what Christ said that we should be like little kids. Kids are precious to God and they are created by him and Jesus Christ died for them, too. We as believers have a responsibility to show love to these kids because it was so obvious that this was what they needed: LOVE. I remember a saying that 'God qualifies the unqualified.' So for me that was one of the things that I learned from the mission trip: God is the one who qualifies us to do His work in this world.”
~Thomas (Okahandja)

"While we were worshipping God on Sunday morning we learnt that one of the homesteads in the bush had completely burnt down the previous day. We went to visit and it was a shock. The people had lost everything. It was such a privilege for us to go and comfort them by praying for them and giving them blankets and food. We had taken second hand clothing from Windhoek with us and so far did not have the chance to distribute it. This was a golden opportunity and the clothes greatly blessed the people. They were so encouraged, telling us that they had been advised to go to the witch doctor because of what had happened. But instead it was God who took the initiative by coming to them as He sent His people to help and encourage them."
~Russell (Onekwaya West)

Miles to go before I sleep

The open road

Many missionaries dread home assignment because it means they have to travel around the country visiting all their supporters and speaking at churches. Then they return to the field more tired than when they left! But I've realized what a joy and privilege it is to have most of my ministry partners be my friends. In other words, the people who regularly pray for and support me are people I want to see anyway! So that means coming back for home assignment isn't about "reporting" to random missions committees, but it's catching up on life and investing in relationships. Thus my cross-country road trip over the past month has been a great joy reconnecting with old friends. :)

My college buddy now teaching at Cedarville University

I drove over 3500 miles across 9 different states to visit friends and family who have spread out all over the place. One of the coolest things is seeing how God has sovereignly put each person in a completely different place to each do a small part of His greater work. Sometimes it's easy to have blinders on and not see beyond our own lives and troubles, but God is doing so many great things through people all over the world and, go figure, He's doing it without me! I just need to be faithful with the little part that He's given me. What a privilege it's been this past month to get little glimpses of God's greater work through all my friends.

Mini-reunion with some college friends

Sunset over Lake Michigan

Got to attend a friend's wedding. Congrats John & Molly!

Enjoying the sunset from a friend's boat

(Click on photos to enlarge)

Travel Adventures

Early Monday morning, when the sky was still dark and the city was still quiet, I began my long journey back to the States for my 6-month home assignment. My travels got off to a beautiful start with one last sunrise over the desert as I was walking across the tarmac to catch the plane for my 6:30am flight to Johannesburg. After 5 hours in Joburg, it was on to Doha. Most people were sleeping on that long flight, but I was trying to stay awake to help my body clock adjust to Eastern Standard Time. So I ended up chilling with a bunch of the flight attendants in the little area where they store all the food trays and drinks and stuff. I had some great spiritual talks especially with one young lady from India who professed Hinduism, although she was more generically pluralist than Hindu. She had lots of great questions about God and the Bible and things like how Jesus could be God and why God allowed evil in the world. After probably an hour's conversation, interrupted only by the occasional flight attendant rounds, she let me pray for her and I encouraged her to keep reading her Bible, especially the Gospels. Sometimes you never find out what happens with the seeds you plant, but I pray hers bears some fruit.

On my next flight I was seated next to an elderly, atheistic, South African man who was on his way to the States to visit his daughters. He kept going on about evolution and how everything is just random and the Bible is just stories. I asked him, "If somebody gave you indisputable evidence that God exists, would you even then be willing to change your mind?" And he said, "Yes, but no one can," which basically means "No." Interestingly, I later overheard him talking about spiritual things with the guy seated on the other side of him. But of course everything is just random, so that couldn't be Providential. ;)

I landed in Philadelphia with a 1:50hr layover. The immigration room had 56 counters but only 4 people working, though after a long wait I finally made it through. I collected and then re-checked my luggage, and proceeded to security for my next flight. On my first attempt, my boarding pass was denied. So the elderly gentleman at the desk, who also happens to be the slowest walker ever, walked over to his supervisor to ask what was up. I was told I needed to go downstairs to get my boarding pass reprinted. So having done that, on my second attempt going through security, they decided that they needed to search through my carry-on bag. By now my flight had already started boarding. Not finding anything even remotely dangerous, they finally let me through. But I had arrived into Terminal A and my flight out was from Terminal F, all the way on the other side of the airport. So I caught the slow-driving shuttle to Terminal F, convinced that I could've walked faster than that, and of course my gate was the very last gate in the farthest terminal in the whole airport. Naturally. Speed walking through the terminal I made it to the gate with 3 minutes to spare before they closed the doors. Not exactly the way I had hoped to be welcomed to the States.

All that to say, 35 hours, 4 flights and 3 continents later, I finally arrived safe & sound.

One Day

Every year in the middle of July my church organizes a youth event called One Day. This year was my first, and I was asked to play on the worship team. The theme of the day was #Relevant. We started with fun ice breakers and loud worship music. Throughout the day there were sessions with talks about how Christianity is relevant in our world today. Then the youth were divided up by age into small discussion groups led by our young adults.

According to the schedule, to close the day we would have an evening "Jam Out Session." But before we cranked the amps up to 11, our pastor sensed that people really needed an opportunity to respond to what they'd heard, so while the band played softly in the background, he gave an invitation for people to follow Jesus. Twenty-one people came forward that night, some to follow Jesus for the first time, others to recommit their lives to following Him, and others just for prayer. Those twenty-one lives ignited and motivated our worship celebration! After that the room was electric as we sang and shouted and danced and lost our voices worshipping our Savior.

Over 130 youth and young adults attending One Day 2016

Spitzkoppe

Spitzkoppe is a natural rock formation in the desert of Namibia and popular tourist destination for photographers, climbers and campers. My parents have never been, so we took along a few friends from Arandis to climb around the rocks for the day.

Ancient Bushman cave paintings

Bushman cave paintings of a hunt

Anistemi Training College

Children of Promise Ministries has been working with orphans and vulnerable children in Namibia since 2003. Through the years their children have grown into teenagers who need marketable skills to enter the workplace. Enter Anistemi College and Training Centre.

The vocational training school opened earlier this year offering programs in Information Technology (IT) and Tourism & Hospitality. As they continue to grow in the future they plan to add Office Management, Woodworking, Hair Design, Agriculture, and more.

Computer lab

Funded through generous donors from the Netherlands, the facility in Usakos is perfect for this project. They have multiple buildings to use for different skill shops, classrooms, kitchen & cafeteria, student & staff housing, offices, etc. There are gardens, fruit trees, and even an obstacle course waiting to be fixed up for fitness training. This will be a place where students who most of society has cast aside will receive training and skills to become financially-sufficient, independent adults.

My parents and I visited the school just before all the students left for their mid-year break.

My dad brought along some storage drives
for the IT students to take apart.

My mom sharing her testimony with the students