"Go, Be A Missionary!"

Cadet Week 1

2007-07-28T21:25:00.001-05:00

After talking with several of the staff from Junior High Week 2 over the last day or so I have come to realize that that week was very spiritually demanding for everyone. We had a demonic attack on one of the girls' cabin that week as well as the shear spiritual drain on everyone that week. This past week though was much different. This was my last week to be cabin counselor and I had an awesome group of boys to end with. This past week was our largest camp yet with 71 campers going into 4th, 5th, and 6th grade! I had 7 guys, 6 of which had never been to camp before. This age group is the group that I like to call the "leg-hugers" because they follow you around like little ducklings and completely depend on you to tell them where to go and what to do. (I love this age group!) This week the Lord really used me to deliver a message of assurance to each of my campers as they all professed that they had received Christ as their Savior, but some of them had "accept Him" a couple of times. I told my guys several times about the endless love of Abba and how once He has a hold of you He will never let you go. I believe that this message really stuck with each of my boys and by the end of the week we had a really tight knit group that was really open and honest with each other.

One of the really great things about these last two weeks of camp is that they end on Friday instead of Saturday like the older camps, which gives us counselors an extra day of rest, or a day to go jump of cliffs. Yesterday several of the counselors and I went to a 40' cliff over the Buffalo River near Pruitt, AR and felt the pure rush of free falling into the river. This experience never ceases to amaze me because no matter how many times you jump off of the cliff each time you have to psyche yourself up to actually run off the edge of the cliff. Every fiber in you body is telling you not to go, and if you never take that step you never will go. But if you ever take that first step towards the edge, you can't stop running for it. It is the strangest and most terrifying experience I think I have ever known and is the closest thing to an out-of-body experience that I can think of. It literally feels like you are no longer in control of yourself and then you see the water rushing closer and closer until you feel the sudden cold splash as you crash into the deep blue below. Our relationship with Abba is similar in my mind. Once we take that first step towards Him we simply can't stop. I just finished C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity and in one of the final chapters he compare the saving work of Christ to going to the dentist. It is the tooth ache that drives you there because you want immediate relief from the pain, but once you are there the dentist examines all of your teeth in order to correct all of the problems. In the same way when we finally run to the Cross because of the particular sin we are convicted of we want immediate relief, but Christ works in us until we are perfect (though we will never be perfect this side of Heaven). In the same way, once I actually took that first step towards the edge of the cliff, I couldn't stop myself from going over the edge and the fall wasn't complete until I reached the water below. We can not stop moving forward towards the perfection of Christ. If we find ourselves stagnant and unchanging then we must be resisting the perfecting work of Christ, but why are we resisting the inevitable? It is like trying to stop falling halfway towards the water, or telling the dentist to remove the drill after the tooth is already numb and half drilled. We must continue to allow Christ to perfect us and grow us more into His image! After that thrilling experience I truly saw God in all of the nature the surrounded us on the ride back to camp that afternoon and it brought me to tears seeing all of His majesty.

I would ask for your continued prayers as we enter into this final week of camp. It has been a long summer and the Lord has used me in a mighty way already, but the journey is not over yet. Pray for strength, endurance, and wisdom for all of us staffers this week and for the workers still in Lusaka, Zambia. I can not thank you all enough for you love and support of my calling this summer and the work that has been done in Jesus' name in spite of me this summer. God bless y'all.

In Christ,

Miles

Junior High 2

2007-07-22T13:09:00.000-05:00

Four weeks down and two to go. This past week was a rough week for me physically. I got sick on Monday morning with a fever, chills, body aches, the whole gambit and I was pretty tired the rest of the week. Thank the Lord I had an awesome Junior Counselor in Michael Schultz which really helped take the load off of me quite a bit. I had four awesome boys from Inman, KS this past week all of which had received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. This week for me was very different from the past weeks because I really began to feel the drain of going basically non-stop for 7 weeks straight doing the work of the Lord in a camp ministry setting. I was definitely in a spiritual low this past week until Friday. On Friday I felt like I had hit rock bottom and the Lord in his kindness showed me some little blessings from the kids that I had been working with. As we were finishing up dinner I was taking my tray over to the dish washing room and two of the campers came up to me and said, "Miles, I love you." and my heart knew instantly that the Lord was speaking to me through these campers. I got several more uplifting comments like that throughout the rest of the evening and even yesterday and I am excited to get back to work this week.

I was reminded this past week of something I forgot to mention in my post from Junior High week 1 about our Tuesday night chapel service of that week. It had been raining most of the day that Tuesday and had stopped shortly before we went up to chapel and during our opening worship session Pastor Dwight stepped out of the back of the chapel and prayed before he was to go up and present the message for that evening. As he was praying he asked Abba to show him His glory that He was going to save some souls that night. As Dwight turned back towards the chapel we were singing "Awesome God" and placed above the chapel in a perfect, vibrant arc of color was the most vivid rainbow Dwight had ever seen. That night I recall the Spirit of the Lord filling the chapel as two of my boys that night were saved. Our God truly is an awesome God!

These little (but not really that little) reminders help us to keep pressing on in our faith. That Lord is our best encourager and our best friend. He knows what His children need right in the moment that they need it. Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. This summer I have had to wait on the Lord so much and it has taught me a great deal about how to truly rely on Him for my strength and wisdom.

As we enter into this fifth week of camp here in Ponca, AR please continue to pray for renewed strength and wisdom for us long term staff as well as heaps of patience. Pray for healing for me as I am still recovering from being sick and I am not yet 100%. This week of camp will be our largest week with over 70 campers, and we are lower in staff numbers than we have been all summer. Strength, endurance, patience, wisdom, and rest are all things that we need to be lifted up in prayer for each day as we work through another week of camp. Thank you all so much for your continued support and love. Angel I am continuing to pray for you. Ich liebe dich. God bless you all.

In Christ,

~Miles

Junior High 1

2007-07-15T13:28:00.000-05:00

"Oh, we're halfway there. Oh, Oh living on a prayer!" Week three of six down and I finally got a weekend of rest. This past week has been a roller coaster for me, but in the end Jesus pulls through with a mighty victory (One would think by now that I would have learned that) and wins the day. Getting back into the swing of being a counselor was rough for me this past week especially since I had such a good cabin spiritually during Omega Week. For those of you who have counseled at week long camps before you know that Monday and Tuesday are the hardest days of the week for a counselor. It is during those days that you are assessing where your kids are spiritually, what they need to hear most about the Christian journey, and basically getting to know their personality and who they are as a person. While this isn't a horribly painful process to go through,it takes time and effort, and with only 5 days of camp time isn't exactly on your side, but by the grace of our LOVING Abba we make it through to the Thursdays and Fridays of camp.

This past week my Monday and Tuesday were very difficult for me. I had a cabin full of, well, Junior High boys and sometimes Junior High boys' attitudes and energy levels don't work well with a tired counselor's expectations and energy levels. I had two boys who did not know the Lord as their Savior and that made the first couple of days a real burden for me because I wasn't really sure how to do a cabin devotion to a mixed group of campers. Tuesday night everything changed though. Both of those boys received Christ on Tuesday night and then my Co-Counselor Cameron led an amazing devotion for our cabin about following after the example of Christ in all things. After that amazing night the Lord's presence really began to be shown in all the aspects of the camp and it really gave all of the staff, myself included, a huge moral boost. From that point on we was "ALL JACKED UP ON JESUS!"

Thursday night was another extremely emotional night as for a lot of the campers it finally hit them what Christ had done for them on Calvary. That night giants were turned into teddy bears and men wept openly and unashamedly. The Lord touched each and everyone of us that night and none of us will ever be the same. The Lord took us from the valley of discouragement onto the mountain top of his presence in less than a day and it came just in the nick of time for me. Just because we had made it to the summit it wasn't as if the Enemy didn't attack us and the spiritual warfare that was surrounding camp was extremely evident. Like I said earlier though, in the end the battle was won by our mighty Father.

As we enter into week 4 of camp please continue pray for us to not get discouraged during our Mondays and Tuesdays and to hold fast to the hope of the Thursdays and Fridays to come. Pray that as each of us struggles with our personal temptations that we would have the presence of mind to continue to focus on Jesus and to know that His all encompassing LOVE will never turn us away and that we don't have to get right to come before Him. Pray for energy and wisdom this week as we work with Junior High boys and girls that don't always display the attitudes and maturity that we get accustomed to as adults. I am extremely grateful for all of your love, prayers and support over the past 6 weeks. God Bless Y'all.

In Christ,

~Miles

Alpha Week

2007-07-11T14:59:00.000-05:00

Mr. Director. That is what some of the long time staff/volunteers here at Ponca jokingly called me the first two or three hours of last Sunday (1-July-2007). I was a little nervous at first, but as I closed my eyes to say a quick prayer before I grabbed the microphone in the dinning hall that first night I felt the Peace of God and He lead the show. It was a lot different for me being the director this week as I was responsible for everything that went on during camp both physically and spiritually, and that kind of responsibility is extremely draining. My staff that week was awesome and the campers that we served were really, really awesome young men and women. The week progressed very smooth and we really didn't have a major incident the whole week, which from my standpoint was very comforting. Pastor Arlen brought us the Word everyday and without fail I would pick up some very applicable points for my own life as he was preaching to the campers. His words were short and to the point and he really has a great way of taking issues that are (or seem so) very complex and boil them down to the bare essentials and drive a point home. Whether that point be salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ or how to take "The Next Step" in our Christian journey he brought forth God's word in a way that was easily understood and God really used those messages to work mighty changes in the camper's (and counselor's) lives.

One of the coolest things that the Lord showed me this week was His ability to provide the words to say at the exact right time. The one aspect of being the director that I was most afraid of was preparing a daily devotion for the staff. Each morning I would try to get up a little earlier than usual so that I could take some time and come before the Lord and seek out His will for the devotion each day, and each time I came before Him, He provided! Some mornings I would be going through my personal devotion and He would bring a passage out to me and it would flow so perfectly in the meeting that I was almost at a loss for words. Other mornings He gave me the words to say as the meeting went forward and I didn't even have anything prepared. Our Father in Heaven is so flippin' amazing that it rocks my socks off! "Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened." This passage is so true for those who have believed in the name of Jesus to save us from our sinful selves and the just punishment we so deserve in eternal separation from Abba.

As I'm typing this during my break during Junior High week 1 I'm extremely excited. Last night two of my campers received Jesus Christ as their Savior and will be joining us in His eternal paradise in Heaven. God is rocking my socks off and it was just in the nick of time. These past two days I have been very discouraged and extremely tired (not a lot of sleep this past weekend) and this mighty work of the Lord has got my spirits rolling. "I'm all jacked up on Jesus!" is the phrase we have been throwing around for the last day or so. I will elaborate more on this story this weekend.

Please continue to pray for us down here in the one of many battlegrounds where we are fighting for the souls of each of these campers. The enemy is working hard to break up the unity that the staff here is building and to get us focused on ourselves and each other and not our campers. Continue to lift of the staff of Family Legacy and the volunteers in Africa right now and those friends of mine that are about to depart tomorrow. The Lord is doing mighty, mighty things this summer and I am so very thankful that He has used me in spite of myself and allowed me to marvel in His glory. Thank y'all for your continued support both spiritually and financially you have blessed me more than you know.

God Bless,

~Miles

Omega Week

2007-07-01T22:49:00.000-05:00

So if you think the humidity is Missouri is high, try northern Arkansas during the summer. That being said the first week here at Ponca was really, really good. God brought the house down on Thursday and Friday night and brought sheep into the fold like only He can. My boys this week were comprised mostly of graduated seniors and going-to-be seniors from the Sedalia area. My goal this week was to try and impart some of my heart, that has been filled up from my trip to Africa, into these men who are going out and who are becoming leaders. I wanted my guys to have a passion for the Lord that will keep them solid in their faith and bold for Jesus Christ.

The week started out pretty slow as we all got adjusted to the camp life style of living that by the end of this summer will be second nature to me. By Tuesday night I hadn't had a real heart to heart cabin devotion with my guys and I felt that it was time to break out my secret weapon, Amish Friendship Bread (if you have never had it you are missing out). This sweet delicacy was homemade by my Mama and we ate with sugary smiles the whole night long. We sat around an imaginary camp fire (it had rained all day) on the porch of the dining hall and I began to open up to my boys and in return they began to open up to me. One of my guys told me about how his parents were getting ready to go through a divorce and it broke my heart, but because of my own family history I was able, through the Lord, to speak words of comfort and reassurance to him that the Lord has a plan for everything and that He will always take care of His own. We prayed that night for a mighty work from the Lord that He would intervene and prevent this tragedy from occurring and I really believe that this brought my group together as a whole.

Friday was an amazing day. That morning the Lord really laid on Pastor Bob's heart that he should bring a message about the gospel and have an invitation for those in the group who had not yet received Christ to do so. That morning about 3 people of the 53 campers went forward and committed their lives to the Lord. It was one of those times when you really felt the presence of the Lord descend onto a place and He did a mighty work in those kid's lives. That night I thought that we wouldn't have another invitation, but the Lord was at work again and that night another 6 or 8 people came forward and gave their lives to Christ and I got to pray with one of the campers that night, Kyle. After that we had our time of sharing from what the campers had learned throughout the week and it was a very emotional time. Issac Pyle was the last camper to get up in front of the group and he told us the story about how the Lord had spared his life in a recent car wreck where one of his friends who was riding in the car with him had died. He told us how this really had awakened so many of his friends and family, including himself, really giving them a push to share the gospel with their lost friends. This message was hard for many of the kids to hear because many of them knew the boy who was killed, and he had come to Ponca in years past. As the night went on the presence of the Lord continued to dwell on the chapel and we prayed over each of the new believers and encouraged them to grow in their faith.

I had several of my boys figure out that they weren't putting Jesus as the Lord over their life and I believe that they really got a spiritual kick in the pants about how important it is to focus on the Lord and that the rest is just details that He so eloquently takes care of. I learned that since being back in the States I had regained by spirit of laziness when it comes to my spiritual walk and so I have made a renewed commitment to continue to press forward in my walk and to not become stagnant and stale.

Please be in prayer this week for my camper whose parents are going through a divorce. Please pray for me this week as I take on the role of camp director, already I know that Satan will attack me even more as I am the head of this camp this week. Please pray for renewed energy and compassion each day as we work with and love on these campers this week. Safety is always an important factor while here at camp, please keep our safety in your prayers. Please, please pray that I would continue to focus on God and seek him out for my comfort and counsel. Pray that I can focus on Him so that my feet will walk the path He has laid before me and that I will not worry about the things to my right or to my left. Lift up my boys from Zambia as well as there are still in horrible situations and need constant prayer. Thank you all so much for your support and prayer over the past 4 weeks that I've been at camps, and the countless other months before that. God Bless Y'all.

In Christ,

Miles

The Battle (part 2)

2007-06-24T12:17:00.000-05:00

I walked in the door of Villa 68 and heard the group singing being lead by Austin. I stopped in the first entrance to the living room and just listened for a moment and then went through the adjoining room, which served as a hallway to the kitchen, towards the other entrance of the living room. Halfway there, maybe 5 feet into the room, I broke down sobbing. I hit my knees and the tears began to flow and I was helpless to stop them. A wave of emotion came over me that lasted for over an hour. I made it into the living room wiping my eyes and sat on the floor and in between prayers and tears I heard myself singing praises to our Lord in heaven. I was broken. I prayed for my boys for an hour with tears streaming down my face as the group around me sang beautiful songs to Abba. He had brought me into his presence once again and in His holy presence I found again the joy, peace, and rest that can only be found in Him. My tears that night came from the grief in my heart that had been replaced with His heart for the orphans of Zambia. My tears came from a heart of compassion that can only come from having the heart of the Father. This was the turning point for week 2. During week 1 it was Thursday night when my chains were broken and I was set free to set my boys free. This week it was when I received the heart of the Father in his holy presence in a room full of believers in the middle of Africa. My tears that night broke chains that were being held tight over my boys and I knew that something powerful had happened that night.

To give you some more back story on my group from this week almost all of them told me that someone in their family was involved with witchcraft, or was a witchdoctor, or they had terrible nightmares where demons, or people, would come and attack them and try to make them do things that would be closely related to demonic activity. So, needless to say, there were a lot of chains that needed to be broken with these boys.

Thursday was shoe day again and if there is one thing that can lift a broken man's spirits it is putting shoes on over 850 orphans! Prince and I finished up our 1-on-1's very quickly because the Lord was working that day. We got the shoes on all of our boys and then it was time to go out into the communities. Here is were Jesus had the victory. As we made our way through the compound the boys were passing out their bookmarks left and right and praying over each person as we went along. They talked to people on the streets, people in taverns, we even made a trip to the witch-doctor's house that was only two blocks from the school. My boys were amazing. Again the most humbling thing you will ever see is a 8-10 year old child praying over a grown person as they receive truth about God. As we made our way towards the witch-doctor's house we heard someone hollering at us from down another street. We (all 17 of us) made our way down the street and found these 3 ladies sitting by a house and they wanted to hear about Jesus! One of my boys, Moses, presented the gospel to them using the Evangecube and then all 3 of them wanted to receive Christ. I got to lead them in a sinner's prayer and they all accepted the Lord as their Savior!! God not only used my boys in mighty ways, but He even used me that day to lead more people to Him!! Praise God! This was more than I ever imagined would come of my prayers from the night before, but God is so good.

Friday was a sad day for all of us because it was the last day we would spend with these kids and for most of us it was our last day in Zambia. Our group reviewed all of the weeks lessons and spent particular time on the final lesson that, IN CHRIST I AM VICTORIOUS! This went along so well with the name that we gave our boys, The Warriors, and they really took it to heart. During the final small group time the boys circled around me and the Spirit filled me up and I began to empower these boys to go and be warriors for Christ, taking up the sword that they had been given and to use it to defeat Satan wherever they came across him. I got to pray over my boys one last time and then proclaimed them all FREE in the NAME of JESUS! As the buses were being filled my eyes forgot what it meant to be dry and so did most of my boy's eyes. I told them all that we would sit together in heaven and swap war stories of how we beat Satan every time that he came against us and with that they were gone.

That night many of us were sad that we couldn't look after our kids anymore and that we wouldn't be there for them when the devil came to attack them, but we were given a huge amount of good news about how we can continue to help the children of Zambia and in particular our kids as we are back in the States. The details of these programs are not yet finalized, but please keep checking here as I will be posting information about how you can help some these kids in Africa, even if you can't come yourself.

God is so good and He has changed me through this amazing experience and I wanted to go back to Africa almost as soon as my feet hit the floor at DFW. I've learned so much about prayer, faith, love, and the all encompassing power that only comes from our Father in Heaven. I will continue to update from Ponca Bible Camp where I am now as the weeks go by and we serve kids here on an almost 24/7 basis. I'm so excited to see what the Lord has planned for Ponca this year and I will be keeping you up to date with all that is going on here in northern Arkansas.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support for my trip to Africa. Please continue to pray for the orphans of Zambia, the staff there, the children coming to Ponca, the staff here, and myself. This summer is not yet over and the Lord will continue to do great things as He always does. Please, please, please, pass this blog along to any of your friends and family members so that more people know about what the Lord is doing not only in my life but in the lives of so many others.

Zi Como (thank you) from the 1800+ orphans served in the first two weeks of CampLife, the over 7000 that will be served this summer, and from the bottom of my heart.

In Christ,

Miles

The Battle (part 1)

2007-06-24T11:32:00.000-05:00

Week 2 at CampLife really began on Sunday at a small church in a compound somewhere in Lusaka. The one room building was packed wall-to-wall with believers from all across the world and the praises that were issued up to the Lord that day were so beautiful and heartfelt that you didn't want to sing because your voice would ruin something so holy, only to find out you were already singing from the overflow of joy in your heart. That day a man named Greer Kendal got up from the second row of the church to preach a sermon on the heart of our Father in heaven. For those of you who don't know Greer is the man who started CampLife back in 2001 and has had Abba's vision for the orphans of Zambia imprinted on his heart for the last 6 years. Greer spoke about how the Father's heart was one of Love, Protection, Provision, Justice, Mercy, and finally Compassion. He spoke to all there and told us to pray that Abba would take our hearts away and replace them with His heart, His heart of compassion for the orphans of Zambia. He did.

On Monday morning we all arrived at camp and began the process of getting to know a new group of kids and for me a new Zambian partner, Prince Ndoyi. This week I had a group of 14 boys ages 8 to 13 (most of them were 11) all from the school called Bwafwano. This is the same school that Allan had last year when he came to Zambia (random FYI). We began to go through the motions of getting to know each other as we made name-bead necklaces for each of the boys in our group and as the day progressed I shared with the boys the same story that I had shared with my group last week on Friday and I noticed a much different response in this group compared to week one. These boys did break down sobbing as some of my boys did last week, but during our 1-on-1 session they all seemed to open up much easier than our boys did a week ago. This was a real blessing from the Lord and really goes to show that in order to have an open and honest relationship with someone, you first must be open and honest.

Tuesday progressed much in the same way as Tuesday of last week did. We colored, took pictures, and had some deliberate 1-on-1 time in the morning. We moved on to a large group in the early afternoon and then returned to our smaller groups after lunch. With a group of 14 boys trying to get 1-on-1's done in 3 days with all of them is a real challenge and it was becoming very difficult to believe that it was going to get done with the way Tuesday afternoon went. The boys were becoming more and more distracted as the day went on and we spent so much time in small group going over the lesson that Greer had preached on earlier that we only got 4 1-on-1's done that day, which was very discouraging. Prince was feeling sick all day and there was an air of heaviness over our group that was almost palatable.

Wednesday fared even worse for our group and for the camp as a whole. It turned out that almost every group was having a lot of difficulty in having their campers recall what they had learned in the first two days and there was a spiritual heaviness on all of us. Wednesday morning was review day for Monday and Tuesday and as Prince and I went through the two lessons the boys were very distracted and couldn't recall any of the main points from the first two days. As it got closer to lunch time we tried to get the boys to recite John 3:16 from memory, but they just couldn't do it. We spent probably close to 25 minutes working and reworking the verse until finally just as lunch was beginning they stumbled through the verse. It was after this that Prince and I gave our group a name, The Warriors. This came from Judges 6:12 where it says, "An Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, 'The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.'" We told the boys that they were all warriors for the Lord and that the word of God was their sword. With that sword, and only with that sword, could they beat down Satan and his lies and that is why learning those verses was so important.

The title of this post is "The Battle" and there is a really good reason for that. Week 2 at camp was a battle for each and every soul that walked through the doors of that auditorium each day. Campers, counselors, Zambians, everyone was being attacked and everyone was in a battle. It was during this week that I heard about and saw more demons manifest in the children than I can count or remember, and everyone of them was rebuked and cast out of the child that it was manifesting in. After our 25 minute endeavour to learn John 3:16 Prince and I both felt completely exhausted and we found it extremely difficult to continue on that day with a smile on our face or any energy to pour into these kids. The whole day we were being attacked with thoughts of giving up, or finding a quite place to sit and be alone away from these kids who just "didn't care" or were "a waste of time." All of these were lies and attacks that Satan was bringing against us.

That night when we got back to our Villas we had some paperwork and projects to work on and get ready for the next day and after all of that was done some of us were getting together to have a worship service in the Villa next to mine. The night before Allan had lead us in some worship and then this group that I'm talking about went over to a Villa to continue worshiping and it was one of the best experiences of my life. There have been a few time when I have been worshiping with such reckless abandon and passion and have felt the presence of God in the room and this was one of them. It was so good that you almost felt guilty for feeling that good when there was so much hurt all around you. That experience made the "failure" during the day on Wednesday so much worse because I went from extreme high, to rock bottom low. I didn't really want to go through that again so I was really torn with whether or not to go to the worship service on Wednesday night and Satan was really working on me not to go. He kept telling me that I was being selfish by wanting to go and that I should be doing so many other things. I went....

My Most Sencere Apology.

2007-06-24T11:17:00.000-05:00

So It's been almost a week sense I last wrote here and for that I apologize. No good excuses other than I've been trying to catch up with friends and family in Missouri and then I left for Ponca Bible Camp on Wednesday and have been doing work here for the past four days in preparation for Camp which starts later today. I'm going to do all of this in about 2 or 3 posts right now so that I don't make one EXTREMELY long post for everyone to read in one sitting. Y'all will get to see God's love in 3 parts instead of just one. Isn't that amazing!?! So with out further ado I will begin to tell the rest of my story with the very next post. I hope that y'all enjoy and that you are blessed and touched by Abba just as much as I have been over the past 4 weeks. Cheers.

Home?

2007-06-17T22:40:00.000-05:00

I'm back from Zambia and it is extremely late by my internal clock settings so I'm going to make this brief and write a much longer update sometime tomorrow. First, I am a changed person after spending two weeks in a country and culture so different than ours and from seeing how awesome Abba truly is to us. Second, I say "Home?" in the title because I'm not 100 percent convinced that this is my "home" anymore. I know that is a strange thought, but after spending two weeks holding children whose future seems as bright as a mud covered diamond you would be changed too. I say a mud covered diamond because truly, like the rest of us, the is a priceless and beautiful future through Jesus Christ and all we have to do is let him remove the mud from our lives. I wanted to go back almost the instance my feet hit the DFW airport floor, but I will have to WAIT on the Lord to lead me where HE will have me to GO. I promise to write more tomorrow because there is so much to tell, but for now good night friends and family here in the States and Mwacha Bwangji to my family in Zambia.

In Christ,

~Miles

Muli Bwangji!

2007-06-10T05:18:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone, I made it!! I'm sorry that I couldn't relay this information sooner, but internet access is few and far between for me here in Zambia. I've just completed my first week of CampLife and it was amazing! First, let me fill you in on my passport situation. It made it to Columbia Saturday morning and I picked it up from the distribution facility at 09:00 (miracle #1). Then my mom and I drove an hour and a half to St. Louis to catch a flight at 12:05 that I didn't have a ticket for and I made that flight (miracle #2). After catching my connecting flight in Dallas to London and then another connecting flight in London to Johannesburg, South Africa and then another flight from Joburg to Lusaka, Zambia I didn't have a ride here in Lusaka, but my luggage made it through completely ok (miracle #3). I made two phone calls from the airport in Zambia and two hours later I had a ride to the housing village where were are staying (miracle #4). Finally, after almost 2 days of travel and stress I finally got to take a much needed shower and a nap! (miracle #5). So I'm here and things have not quieted down at all.

CampLife here in Zambia is something that no one is completely prepared for, especially when it's your first day and you are already a day behind. I got assigned a group on Tuesday morning from a group that had too many kids in it already and jumped right in trying to get acquainted with the boys in my group (ages 6-12). This is not an easy task to begin with because here in Zambia you don't discuss your problems with other people and you absolutely do not cry. When children cry here they are usually beaten. Even women in childbirth are slapped if they cry. Add to this the fact that they have just been taken from a group they were getting to know and put in with this new Mazungoo (white boy) and I had a lot to trust the Lord with. The week passed on in my group without much incident except for this boy named Demaino (Dame-yan-oh). Demaino was very troublesome and would scream very loudly if ever my Zambian partner, Mwase (Mwah-say), would hold him. On Tuesday Mwase, another Zambian helper, and I prayed over Demaino for the Lord to bind any evil spirits that were tormenting him and to release him and the rest of the week went much better for us. Praise God! After that several of my boys opened up to me and told me how their parents (if they had them still, or if they still lived with them) would beat them, or how relatives like aunts or uncles would beat them, especially when they were drunk. There hasn't been a night where I haven't wept for these boys. I told my boys this on Friday along with a story of some of the struggles that I have been dealing with over the past 3 weeks and two of my boys, including the oldest one, broke down sobbing in front of the whole group. I pulled the oldest boy aside, Ndanji (N-don-jee), and he told me how his Grandma had died the day before on Thursday. Even now as I'm thinking about this my heart goes out to him and my eyes are not as dry as the were a moment ago. This was a HUGE break through for him because for one like I said before, you don't cry in Zambia, and secondly you don't talk about the dead, you simply move on and try to forget about them so that you won't be sad. I held Ndanji for a long time and simply cried with him and he will always have a special place in my heart.

There was a lot of happy news from this week too. Nine of my boys accepted Christ during the week and so I will get to see them again once we are with the Lord and that brings my heart joy and it will bring them an unimaginable amount of joy and peace in the years to come as they continue to face struggles in their lives.

The theme for this year's CampLife is, Freedom in Christ: Breaking the Chains of Bondage. Throughout the week we have been dispelling the lies that Satan has told these boys, that they are hated, rejected, unsafe, unimportant, and defeated with the truth of God. In Christ these boys are LOVED, ACCEPTED, SECURE, SIGNIFICANT, and VICTORIOUS! These lessons weren't just for the kids though. Throughout the week I have been dealing with lies that Satan had been telling me through a series of events and relationships that I have been struggling with. He was telling me that I wasn't capable of helping these children, that God couldn't use me because I couldn't meet expectations of Christian morals in certain areas, that I wasn't good enough for God. Satan told me that I wasn't a good leader, that if I wasn't a good leader by other peoples standards (who I had equated with being a litmus test of God) that I couldn't lead these boys. The truth is this, in Christ I am a good leader. In Christ I am loved by God and I don't need to be accepted and loved by anyone else. In Christ I am capable of leading a relationship well and if continue to focus on him that nothing can harm me. It took a trip half-way around the world and 11 little Zambian children and the shear NEED for God here to teach me that.

Please continue to pray for the health and safety of our group here along with energy and rest. Each day we go to bed exhausted physically, mentally, and spiritually and we need the rest that only God can give each night. Pray for wisdom and compassion for us for the orphans of Zambia and that we will have the words to say, or more appropriately, the hearts to listen when the walls come crashing done as the always do when the Lord moves. Please read Allan's post about Savannah and her little girl Grace. The link for his blog is at the bottom of this page. I will have photos as soon as I get back to the States that I will post. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart and again please continue to pray for us as we begin our second week of camp tomorrow. God Bless you all.

In Christ,

~Miles

Continued Prayer

2007-06-01T22:05:00.000-05:00

It's in the mail! The bad news is that it most likely won't be here in Columbia until Monday afternoon. There is, however, a very small chance that my passport will be here early tomorrow morning! If it is I MIGHT be able to make my flights that have been rescheduled to go to Zambia and arrive there on Monday. Please, Please, Please be in prayer for all of these things to line up so that I will be able to make those flights tomorrow. Thank you so much for your continued support and prayers and hopefully the next message will be good news either pre-flight or from Zambia. Grace to you.

-Miles

Prayers Please

2007-05-29T19:40:00.000-05:00

Sorry that I haven't updated this in a long time. I'm scheduled to leave for Zambia at 12noon on Thursday. As of 7:00 PM today I still have not yet received my passport. If everything goes as according to the Passport Agency and the Postal Service I will not receive it until 12noon on this Thursday. Please, Please, Please pray for God to work a miracle in this. If I don't receive my passport in time I won't be able to go to Zambia this summer. Thank you all for all of your support thus far and I pray that God will work his mighty hand into this.

2007-04-10T12:39:00.000-05:00

God has been good to me. No matter what I may be going through in life I can never say that God hasn't been good to me. He has provided for me over and over again and that is comforting. I have reached my goal of $4300 to go to Zambia and then some. I am still pressing on towards my goal of $1200 for Ponca Bible Camp. God is continuing to provide for me for His glory this summer and for that I am truly grateful. Thank you all for your support and prayers. Please continue to lift me up as I finish this semester and prepare to leave this country for my trip to Africa.

Getting Pumped

2007-03-09T17:14:00.000-06:00

I am so excited about my two trips this summer and I am really glad that you have taken the time to look at my blog. This will be the place to checkout information about my trip/support raising status, as well as find updates while I'm in Zambia and at Ponca Bible Camp. Look at the links below to find out more information about FLMI, PBC, and check out Allan's blog about his trip to Zambia as well. Check back here often as I will be keeping you up to date with any information as it becomes available. God Bless.

-Miles

BYX

2007-03-09T17:09:00.000-06:00

As most of you know I am a member of a new fraternity at the University of Missouri called Beta Upsilon Chi, Brothers Under Christ (BYX). This April we will be hosting an event called Island Party which is an evangelical outreach to the community and campus. We are in the process of raising money for that event ($4000) and currently have collected a little over $2000. If you would like to help us put on this event, or you would like more information about BYX, please get in touch with me. God Bless.