Peace,
aaron

You might ask, "Why would they choose to run these tests in Africa?" "Why would they choose impoverished people?" I believe the answer is not merely that there are more people with HIV/AIDS in South Africa than any other country, but that they believe the desperation and fear in the lives of our friends here will cause them to try anything. They also feel that due to their lack of education and resources, they are "safe" for testing purposes. Who will they turn to, when these drugs fail? How will they know that they are being treated like guinea pigs?

Sometimes we wonder...what does this have to do with us? What should we do? Listen to God's instruction regarding our role with those who are in these situations:

Proverbs 31:9 (NLT)
Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.

Proverbs 14:31 (NIV)
He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.

Acts 20:35 (NIV)
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

Galatians 2:10 (NIV)
All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

Please consider how you can live out this passion of God's in your community and in the world. Feel free to share your thoughts with others this week in the BLOG.

Dennis Wadley
Bridges of Hope International

"Sooner or later, you are going to learn, just as I did, that there is a difference between KNOWING the path and WALKING the path."
~Morpheus, from The Matrix~

Feel free to contact me for further ideas on how to make a difference at:

Dennis@bridges-of-hope.org
www.bridges-of-hope.org
PO Box 7294
Stellenbosch, 7599
South Africa

This week has been packed with little pains. Most of them are not the kind that hit you over the head, but rather they are the annoying kind of struggles that take up your time and disturb the flow of life. Here’s a glimpse of what has been nagging us:

Cars: One of the Bridges of Hope vehicles blew its air conditioner (not a nice thing when the summer temps in South Africa are hitting the 90’s). We found out that it will cost over $1,000 to fix it, so at least for now, we are sweating it out. Another of the vehicles decided to quit working on the highway yesterday. That same vehicle just recovered from a major water leak and an exhaust pipe the fell off. Our personal car also visited the shop last week…what a pain.

Water heater(aka Geyser): ours blew this week and had to be replaced.

Any one of these would be a pain, but together, they have weighed heavy, especially as we have been working hard to prepare for the New Year and for the arrival of two teams: one from Rolling Hills Covenant and one from Steelhead Advertising.

We determined today with our staff to give thanks in all things. That means when the phone company sends us to four different people each stating that it isn’t their job but the next person can handle it, that we give thanks for phones. That means when the car breaks down again, we thank God that we have cars. That means that when we think of how much the repair bill was for the geyser, we thank God for hot water. It is a discipline, but one that changes perspective on life and even adds some laughter to things that otherwise could make you want to cry.

Here are a few prayer requests from some of the orphans we are working with in Philippi (a township just outside of Cape Town, South Africa). When I read these, I get a kick in the rear and a reminder that I can give thanks in my little pains:

“Dear God, It’s me again. Thank you for everything you have done for me. You gave me love and you lead me. Thank you God for everything. And keep on doing what you are doing to me. Amen!!”

“Dear God, help me rebuild my confidence. Let me be confident and stand up for myself against those trying to discriminate against me. Your child, --Nono”

“You Know? I don’t know what Jesus wants from me. He gives me hard things for my life that I don’t know what to do with. Sometimes I feel like he doesn’t love me or look after me or maybe he is playing with me. Does God love me or not. There are so many things that hold my wish. I do have dreams for the future but God is letting my dreams down. Amen From…Nomofili Patricia Bokwe”

Help me out here…how have you found it possible to practice the command to “Give thanks in everything?”

Dennis Wadley
Bridges of Hope International
Dennis@bridges-of-hope.org

While we could say this is what has caused the delay in the release of Covenantblogs 2, its more the result of the general busyness of this season. But never fear, we have made progress and those updates will be coming. Give us a couple more weeks...

Also, Dennis Wadley's second post is up today. I encourage you to read it and add your thoughts and comments.

James has some pretty intense things to say about prayer. Read James 4:1-3 over a couple of times:
“What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Isn't it the whole army of evil desires at war within you? You want what you don't have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous for what others have, and you can't possess it, so you fight and quarrel to take it away from them. And yet the reason you don't have what you want is that you don't ask God for it. And even when you do ask, you don't get it because your whole motive is wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.”

Please don’t rush through this…pause right now…really…slow down and read the last two sentences slowly and with strong emotion, that’s how they were written.

Are you not receiving what you are asking for? If not, why might that be?

I want to honestly admit to you that my family is desperate for prayer. It all started when we were robbed at gunpoint in the township that we work in South Africa a few years ago. We had just visited the house of a man who was dying of HIV/AIDS. He was skin and bones and the smell of death filled the room he was in. We walked out of that house and got into our VW van. As I slowed down to turn the corner a young guy, probably 18 years old, stepped out to cross the street. I stopped to let him pass, but instead of crossing the street, he pulled out a gun and pointed it at my head. I glanced to the left and to the right and saw guns coming out all around our vehicle, in the hands of other young men. We escaped the situation with only a few things having been stolen, but that day we were made desperately aware that our lives were completely resting in God’s hands.

We had to come face to face with the reality that being missionaries didn’t mean God wouldn’t let us die. Through the generations, so many missionaries have been martyred! As a matter of fact, people all over the world die for their faith every day. Who were we to expect that our lives were not expendable in the Kingdom? We had bought into a lie that somehow we deserved life and liberty. The lesson reminded us that our days are numbered and that the number is only held by God. In one sense, we realized that we didn’t have anything to worry about, but in another, we understood that prayer is our best weapon against the incredible amount of evil that awaits us in the community we work in.

I sent out an email to everyone I could think of asking them to pray for us. The response was amazing. Hundreds of people signed up to pray DAILY for our family and for our friends in Philippi. Hundreds more signed up to pray WEEKLY for us and the ministry. As a result of that increased prayer, we immediately saw a huge difference in the things that were happening in Philippi. There was nothing we could attribute it to, other than prayer. Praying about something that touches God’s heart is incredibly powerful. We initially asked for prayer for our safety, but realized that this was also a golden opportunity to seek prayer for every aspect of the work we were doing in the community.

Your prayers make a difference. You can actively participate in ministries all over the world through your prayers. You can touch the life of a child who has been orphaned as a result of the AIDS pandemic. You can minister to a fellow Christian who is sitting in a cell in China as a result of sharing their faith (Hebrews 13:3 “Don't forget about those in prison. Suffer with them as though you were there yourself. Share the sorrow of those being mistreated, as though you feel their pain in your own bodies”). You can bring about change in your own government, community, family and your own life as you pray God’s will into those situations.

Don’t miss the opportunity you have to change the world. Don’t let it be said of you someday that you didn’t make a difference in the world because you didn’t ask! Include prayer in your daily routine. As you wake up, greet God and commit your day to Him. As you watch the news on t.v., turn your shock, thoughts and frustrations into prayers for your community, government and world. As you drive, pray for the things God brings to your mind. As you stand in a line at the grocery store, ask God, “What do you want me to pray about right now?” As you talk with a friend or family member and the share something important, immediately ask them, “Can I pray for you right now?”

PRAYER is powerful. It is crucial. It will change our world if we engage in it.

Now it is your turn to add to this BLOG stories about how God has worked through your prayers. Share ways that your prayer life has been sparked or jump started (if it was previously dead). If your prayer life isn’t alive…share that too and I will pray for you.

James 4:2b-3
“You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”

Please consider joining the Bridges of Hope International prayer team. Send me an email at: Dennis@bridges-of-hope.org
Dennis Wadley
Bridges of Hope International
www.bridges-of-hope.org

As a pastor in the U.S. I often struggled to reconcile my reformed roots, a gospel of faith alone, with passages such as Matthew 25 where Jesus boldly declares that if we don't feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give a cup of cold water to the thirsty and visit prisoners that we will be commanded to depart from His presence on Judgment Day. Also, when I studied the book of James, at times I resonated with Luther's opinion that it was a "might strawy epistle" and that maybe it shouldn't have been allowed in the canon. Consider these words from God written by James: "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, 'You have faith; I have deeds.' Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,' and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."

One day, two of our community health workers heard about a young widowed woman who was very sick with AIDS and had barricaded herself into her shack. Her neighbors had noticed her two young sons coming and going from the house and occasionally begging for food. When our health workers visited they found a frail, desperately ill woman sitting on a tattered sofa, the only piece of furniture in her shack made of wood and tin scraps, holding a two-week-old baby. The woman was taken to a local clinic where she died hours later, leaving behind three orphaned children.

Events such as this have deeply affected my understanding of God. Stories such as this play themselves out around the world over and over again every day: suffering people facing insurmountable challenges, desperately in need of practical care. The reality that I could have been born in a shack in Philippi has become a real part of the fabric of my soul. I didn't choose to be born into a wealthy suburban family in America. I didn't have anything to do with it thus, God must have known that I was destined for the life I had. At times I have felt twinges of guilt for all the blessings I received as an American, but I have discovered here that with blessing comes responsibility. My faith demands that I respond to the brokenness in the world with righteous deeds. These deeds have nothing to do with my salvation, but rather the actions that I participate in are the natural response of my faith to God's prompting. These actions don't save me, but if I am a believer, good deeds will accompany my faith.no, they become the biblical response of my faith in the situation at hand. Things such as these (that were topics for theological ping-pong in the past) have become the reality of my daily journey. The woman who died, leaving her three children behind, passed away during our first year living in South Africa. I am thrilled to announce that two years later, all three children are thriving. They are healthy, happy and fully loved by a woman who is raising seven orphans in a home sponsored by Bridges of Hope. We praise God for the faith of many around the world who have prayed for these children, supported their needs and allowed their faith to respond in good works.

What does this mean for others? Hopefully believers around the world who have been blessed by God with abundance, will in turn consider the reality that they could have been born into poverty. If you had been born into an urban slum, how would you want believers around the world to assist you? As you ponder this, imagine the lives of Nomafili (15 years), Thandiswa (13 years) and Onele (8 years). They lost both of their parents to HIV/AIDS and are now raising themselves in a crime-ridden neighborhood where they often hear gunshots as they lay in bed at night. They struggle to understand why God would allow both of their parents to die, but they have an unimaginable amount of hope in the midst of their tragic circumstances. The response of caring believers displaying their faith in action, has brought these girls hope. After receiving care from concerned Christians, they embraced the compelling love of Jesus at the Orphan Support Group that we lead in their neighborhood. Believers in America and South Africa are providing for their school fees, clothes, food and utilities. They have found strength through the faith of others that has caused them to begin dreaming of finishing school and becoming leaders in their country. This hope has challenged my faith to grow. The cycle completes itself: faith moves into action as works of service, works spark hope in the lives of those who are suffering, and hope in the midst of suffering builds the faith of those who are ministering. The great news of Jesus' love is recognized as love demonstrates the heart of God in practical ways.

Those who have been blessed with abundance are like puzzle pieces formed for a perfect fit with those who have great need in their lives. In the process, God makes Himself known and both pieces find their purpose being lived out in the process of transformation. I count it an honor to serve as a bridge between those in need and those who were created to meet those needs. Please pray with us that the millions of people suffering here and the millions of people called out by God to be the hands and feet and voice of Jesus to them would be connected.

Dennis Wadley
Director
Bridges of Hope International
Dennis@bridges-of-hope.org
www.bridges-of-hope.org

I hope you enjoy Dennis' posts and join in the discussion as we engage with and learn about the Wadley's ministry in South Africa.

In other news, over the next two weeks or so we are going to be making updates to the site and adding some new features. Stay tuned!

Happy New Year!

The Coming of Jesus into Our Midst

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. Revelation 3:20

When early Christianity spoke of the return of the Lord Jesus, they thought of a great day of judgment. Even though this thought may appear to us to be so unlike Christmas, it is original Christianity and to be taken extremely seriously. When we hear Jesus knocking, our conscience first of all pricks us: Are we rightly prepared? Is our heart capable of becoming God's dwelling place? Thus Advent becomes a time of self-examination. "Put the desires of your heart in order, O human beings!" (Valentin Thilo), as the old song sings.

It is very remarkable that we face the thought that God is coming so calmly, whereas previously peoples trembled at the day of God, whereas the world fell into trembling when Jesus Christ walked over the earth. That is why we find it so strange when we see the marks of God in the world so often together with the marks of human suffering, with the marks of the cross on Golgotha.

We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God's coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God's coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us. The coming of God is truly not only glad tidings, but first of all frightening news for everyone who has a conscience.

Only when we have felt the terror of the matter, can we recognize the incomparable kindness. God comes into the very midst of evil and of death, and judges the evil in us and in the world. And by judging us, God cleanses and sanctifies us, comes to us with grace and love. God makes us happy as only children can be happy.

God wants to always be with us, wherever we may be - in our sin, in our suffering and death. We are no longer alone; God is with us. We are no longer homeless; a bit of the eternal home itself has moved unto us. Therefore we adults can rejoice deeply within our hearts under the Christmas tree, perhaps much more than the children are able. We know that God's goodness will once again draw near. We think of all of God's goodness that came our way last year and sense something of this marvelous home. Jesus comes in judgment and grace: "Behold I stand at the door! Open wide the gates!" (Ps. 24:7)?

One day, at the last judgment, he will separate the sheep and the goats and will say to those on his right: "Come, you blessed?I was hungry and you fed me?" (Matt. 25:34). To the astonished question of when and where, he answered: "What you did to the least of these, you have done to me?" (Matt. 25:40).

With that we are faced with the shocking reality: Jesus stands at the door and knocks, in complete reality. He asks you for help in the form of a beggar, in the form of a ruined human being in torn clothing. He confronts you in every person that you meet. Christ walks on the earth as your neighbor as long as there are people. He walks on the earth as the one through whom God calls you, speaks to you and makes his demands. That is the greatest seriousness and the greatest blessedness of the Advent message. Christ stands at the door. He lives in the form of the person in our midst. Will you keep the door locked or open it to him?

Christ is still knocking. It is not yet Christmas. But it is also not the great final Advent, the final coming of Christ. Through all the Advents of our life that we celebrate goes the longing for the final Advent, where it says: "Behold, I make all things new" (Rev. 21:5).

Advent is a time of waiting. Our whole life, however, is Advent - that is, a time of waiting for the ultimate, for the time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth, when all people are brothers and sisters and one rejoices in the words of the angels: "On earth peace to those on whom God's favor rests." Learn to wait, because he has promised to come. "I stand at the door?" We however call to him: "Yes, come soon, Lord Jesus!" Amen.

This sermon is reprinted in "A Testament to Freedom: Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer" co-edited by Dr. F. Burton Nelson.

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